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Minimal Game Packaging?

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 17:11
Jay103
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You guys know about a lot of games..

I'm thinking about a small expansion for my Heroes & Treasure game. By "small", I mean like 8" x 10" x 5mm thick. A 32-page booklet and two punchout sheets.

That whole thing would fit in an envelope. Maybe that means it's not something I can sell in retail stores, only online.

Does anyone know of a game that did that? An envelope would be a lot cheaper than a box, and really it's just too small for a box. I dislike boxes with a lot of empty space in them.

(another option is to add more content, to the point where's it's like a half an inch thick, but that seems silly and the COGS would be notably higher doing that.

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 19:56
#1
questccg
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Can it fit in the "existing" box?

Is the goal to keep this "expansion" with the assets from the "core" game?? If the answer is YES, well then I understand why you would want to use an envelope instead of another game box.

Here's the thing: envelopes are very THIN and flimsy. The are a risk when mailing out your "expansions". The good news is that the envelope can be placed within a "cardboard sleeve" must like old Vinyl Records and still have the envelope to "group" everything.

It's just "throw-away" packaging ... but it means that during SHIPPING to the backers, it will remain in good condition.

FedEx and our Government ran Post Offices have those "cardboard sleeves". They are perfect for shipping "larger" documents in envelopes with that ADDED protection.

So I would look into those "cardboard sleeves":

I pulled this from the FedEx website. I'm sure you can get something similar at Kinkos or your local Post Office.

ULine has them ... they call them "stayflats" mailers:

ULine Self-Seal White Stayflats Mailers

Best.

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 20:13
#2
Jay103
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questccg wrote:Is the goal to

questccg wrote:
Is the goal to keep this "expansion" with the assets from the "core" game?? If the answer is YES, well then I understand why you would want to use an envelope instead of *another* game box.

Here's the thing: envelopes are very THIN and flimsy. The are a risk when mailing out your "expansions". The good news is that the envelope can be placed within a "cardboard sleeve" must like old Vinyl Records and still have the envelope to "group" everything.


Sure, for mailing, the post office has stuff or whatever. I'm thinking more about the "game box". It doesn't have to be flimsy, of course! I would assume it's possible to manufacture just about anything, and I could make the thing out of a heavyweight paper in the first place.

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 21:12
#3
questccg
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Best bet IMHO

Is to have the "extra" content FITS in the "core" box. If that's not possible...

Hmm... You're in a bit of a predicament. See an envelope just doesn't scream "professionalism". If the content was okay to be shipped in an envelope and a sleeve ... that's all good for shipping.

But for the CONTENT... You need something for it.

Here is a bit of my "suggestion" to you:

  • If you are going to KS an "expansion/extra" ... offer a PREMIUM BOX if the current "core" box cannot hold both expansion content and "core" content.

  • Make it big enough to hold a FEW expansions not just one. Make it like a MEGA box. And see if you can get a relatively inexpensive cost for it. Yes shipping might be a bit of a mess...

These are my thoughts. What we have done is BUNDLED a 4-in-1 "expansion" into a second (2nd) box. So you get the "core" and later you can buy the "expansion".

Maybe that's something you should consider INSTEAD of the MEGA box. Make your second box BIG for more than ONE (1) expansion. IDK — This is what I can suggest off the top of my head.

Let me see if anything else pops up concerning this situation.

Cheers!

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 21:21
#4
questccg
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Selling in STORES

The only problem I see with the "more compact" design... Is HOW it is going to LOOK like on a STORE SHELF.

A 2nd box would be okay... But all your future expansions coming in some kind of "fancy" envelope ... will not look professional.

I'm not sure what to say.

Maybe only sell ONLINE the "expansions" at a RETAIL price??? That solves the store problem that I can foresee.

Again let me think about it some more... I'm sure some other designers may chime in and let you know their opinion...

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 22:42
#5
Jay103
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questccg wrote:The only

questccg wrote:
The only problem I see with the "more compact" design... Is HOW it is going to LOOK like on a STORE SHELF.

Yeah, I'm considering abandoning "small module" altogether.. or it'll be a cheap online-only thing.

Won't really fit in the current box. The box has no extra space.. I mean, it'll just be punchout tokens, i guess, so maybe it'll sort of fit, but probably not.

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 22:56
#6
questccg
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What we decided...

We had FOUR (4) "expansions" plus miniatures and so we figured ONE (1) "expansion" box for all of that content. It's worth the price, the value is good since you'll be getting so much in the box. It's not like it's ONE (1) expansion per box...

But OLG decided that they will only be selling ONLINE via their own "storefront". This decision was made because generally speaking the margins for Distribution are way too low (low profitability unless you get HUGE orders), currently OLG will only have 2 SKUs and I'm not even sure they have much Tau Ceti inventory left over and we don't want to sell to "deep-discount" businesses.

OLG will honor a reasonable MSRP of $45 USD per box ("core" or "expansion") plus shipping globally (I believe).

As of "today", only the "core" will be in stores and the "expansion" will be only available ONLINE. (We'll see how sales go and what our "partner" businesses want...)

So you can maybe go the "less-expensive" road and offer something ONLINE only. Then the format is 100% yours. You can for example DECIDE to sell the "core" to stores (Heroes & Treasure box) and offer expansions in "fancy" envelopes... That works DIRECT and ONLINE.

Or you WAIT for something more substantial to put out another product...

Again another OPTION is a MEGA-box for BOTH the "core" and the "small modules". The shipping will be more expensive (at the backers cost) ... but at least you can offer the something to HOLD all of your expansion content.

That's another viable avenue... That's what I got for now...

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Tue, 10/16/2018 - 23:49
#7
questccg
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About the MEGA box...

Just on the "creative" side of things... The "MEGA" Box could be the characters as in your current box but instead of a table, have the older character holding up a MAP and the other characters amazed much like on the original box. Then in the background have a brown-ish MAP with locations and forest as the "backdrop".

This would be a real "cool" image because it's like ALL of the adventures packed into one (1) box and the adventures all come from a map... Could be real "nice" looking and very appropriate/thematic.

If you don't like the idea... Feel free to disregard it. Just something I thought up when pondering about your "MEGA" Box.

Cheers!

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Wed, 10/17/2018 - 05:07
#8
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Terraformming mars expansion

When I bought the expansion board for terraformming mars it was a four fold board wrapped in a sheet of paper and then shrink wrapped. The paper had the rules for the expansion on it.

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Wed, 10/17/2018 - 07:41
#9
wob
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hi. if cheapass can sell

hi.
if cheapass can sell stand alone games in an envelope i don't see a reason you cant sell an expansion the same way, even in a retail store. if you are going to do that make sure the expansion can fit in the old box.
you can always make a collectors edition later (with the expansion)
another option would be to hold off the expansion for now until you have enough to fill a bigger box.

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Wed, 10/17/2018 - 09:27
#10
Jay103
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wob wrote:hi. if cheapass can

wob wrote:
hi.
if cheapass can sell stand alone games in an envelope i don't see a reason you cant sell an expansion the same way, even in a retail store. if you are going to do that make sure the expansion can fit in the old box.
you can always make a collectors edition later (with the expansion)
another option would be to hold off the expansion for now until you have enough to fill a bigger box.

Well, for Cheapass, that's sort of their brand, and they have a larger channel than I do (mine being roughly zero at the moment).

My original plan was to do a lightweight expansion now, and then a heavyweight expansion in the summer, and the heavyweight one would have the "mega box" option. Though maybe not a literal box.. more of a bundle. Would depend on how my MOQ would work. At that point maybe I could negotiate having "a big box that contains all the same stuff" as NOT resetting my MOQ.

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Wed, 10/17/2018 - 09:51
#11
wob
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i dont really have any

i dont really have any experience on the selling side of things but i understand the box tends to be the single biggest expense of a game. so it would come down to weather that cost out weighs the price of the game. i think if you are going to need to double your game price (ie the box costs the same as the other components combined) i wouldn't proceed as is.
either add more into the expansion box, offer a PnP expansion (you could do some clever stuff with links and codes to include it in the base game at no extra cost to you) or go with the envelope and make it a feature (like cheapass-low cost/ high value)
looking at your component list i cant see anything that would need special protection so an envelop should be fine for shipping, it really comes down to price vs percieved value.

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Wed, 10/17/2018 - 10:30
#12
Jay103
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wob wrote:it really comes

wob wrote:
it really comes down to price vs percieved value.

Yeah, it would be sturdy and thin and have no plastic parts.

The thinness is the other issue, though.. it would have to be a pretty thin box :) Though I guess it could be larger than needed and have room for future expansions.

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