Game with lots of dice: can it be reasonably priced?

If you want to self-publish a 200% markup might work.

If you want to get into distribution, you'll be selling at 60% off list to your distributor. On a $30 game, that means you'll get around $12.

SJ

You should be able to do much better purchasing from a dice manufacturer as long as you are buying in bulk.

My Koplow catalog is a little out of date but the prices for their 12MM D6 blow that out of the water.

e-mail info@koplowgames.com and let them know you are looking to publish a game that uses allot of dice and need bulk prices. If you buy in bulk they will be happy to deal with you. They don't sell direct to the public so at the very minimum plan on buying several hundred of each color. If you buy by the thousand you might get a real good deal.

Admittedly, I'm a novice to the business, but I was recently able to get 2000 red and black 16mm d6 from Chessex for 11 cents each. I found one supplier who would go to 9 cents a die but he only had red and I needed both red and black.

So, at 11 cents each and with 48 dice per game that would put your component cost at $5.28 for the dice. A little lower than your initial $8 estimate, at least. :-)

I believe here is how it works (roughly).

Suppose you create a game that costs you $5 in materials per unit. You sell it for $10 to a distributor. The distributor sells it to shops for $20 per unit. The shop sells it for $40 to the public.

Typically, a game will sell in shops for six to ten times of the manufacturing cost per unit.

Of course, if you do direct selling, through a website or on game fairs, you make more money as any profit goes directly into your pocket and you can set the price yourself.

I must agree. I would worry about a game with 48 dice. Could a player possibly make a decision that would be meaningful in a game with that much randomness? Every single one of the 48 is absolutely mandatory?

In the interest of full disclosure, dice and I do not have a very good relationship. If you need proof, check out our website: http://nodice.net :D

If it's score keeping or life counters, couldn't pen & paper do?
Who has the energy to throw 48 dice? :D

I didn't mean to judge... but rather ponder why is it really mandatory to have 48 dice? I think drewdane was also trying to help. I've yet to see a game that would need so many dice. :)

You could also potentially reduce the maximum number of soldiers per army, for example dropping from 12 to 10 or 8 would be a cost reduction of 17% or 33% on dice (e.g., have you tested with smaller army sizes? Perhaps it would make decision-making more tense because players have fewer soldiers available to cover their territory). Just a thought.

Do larger dice cost the same as d6, in small or in bulk orders? Going with the thought above, if d8 or d10 cost the same, would the game still work the same with 10d8 or 8d10 per army rather than 12d6?

Hm, is it safe to assume you only have 1 unit type since they are all d6s? Now I'm wondering if players would like to have 10d6, 1d8 and 1d10 units available rather than 12d6 units, hehe.... Might throw a little wrinkle in there having a few units that are potentially able to get stronger than the others (elite units). Maybe the d8 is a cavalry unit that is allowed (at any time) to reduce its strength by 1 point to move 1 extra space.

Haha, okay, sorry to go off on a tangent...

I can think of two games off the top of my head that have had a ton of dice:

Diceland: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2937

Stack: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5271

So, obviously it can be done. I remember talking to the guys who did Stack at GenCon, and asked,"What's to prevent me from just buying my own dice to play your game?"

His response was,"Well, we have a massive discount on the dice because of the sheer quantity we buy." And it was basically true. I think 52 dice come in a bag of Stack, and buying that amount of dice on my own was probably 180% than just buying the Stack bag (with nifty dice bag!).