Self Publishing?

Yes you can have printing services handle the production end of it for you. I guess the question you’re asking is why can’t you start a game business.

You’re the only one that can answer that question. If you have never run a business get a few books on how to do it and read them cover to cover several times. This will include writing a business plan which will help you determine if it’s feasible. For game company specific business information read http://www.starfleetgames.com/book/

As far as doing your own art, if you’re not a professional artist get one. Art sells games.

Oh and I almost forgot FLAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the advice I always give (I run my own micro-business). Sometimes I've given it to people who, if they followed it, would become my competitors. I don't mind though, because for some reason no one ever seems to follow it!

I'd actually say do a course - technical colleges in Australia run one, there are likely to be equivalents in your country.

I have set up my own small publishing business. It's a lot of hard work and yes the retailers want at least 3 games to make it worth while to take you on as a supplier.

Sorry to digress, but it amuses me a lot.

Its totally possible to self publish. But if you want to start wjth productions of the kind of bog box board games that Fantasy Flight does, it certainly won't be cheap. You'll be talking about production runs of 10,000+ units that might end up costing as much as $10 per game, all costs told. And as other have said, you might need 2 to 3 of these before retailers and distributors start taking you seriously.

So if you have $350,000 to $1 mil laying around, you can jump right in and start that kind of company.

Realistically though, even if you have that capital, without the right experience you'll likely burn through it trying to establish yourself and be bankrupt within 2 years.

I always advise people who want to start on the road of becoming a self publisher to start smaller. Pick products that are smaller and easier to manage, possibly those that can be produced via POD, be it through a provider or in parts and manufacturered at home. It lets you get a feel for the market, get a feel for what customers will react too, get some business experience under your belt and get connections enough so that later, when you are ready to plunk down some serious money, you'll be far better prepared to manage it all.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.guildofblades.com/retailgroup.php
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com

Excellent advice from everyone!

We print for a lot of start up game companies. Many of them underestimate the difficulties in marketing/selling their game. Design, artwork, and even production issues are all things that you can control. Sales and marketing you only have limited control over - it's hard to make the phone ring!

The answer is that even a small business is still a business.

I run www.pyromythgames.com and we do small runs and pdf products. I still must maintain the website, licensing, accounting, advertising & promotion, development of new products, production, warehousing etc..

To do all that you will need to be willing to give up some of your free time, likely allot of it.

Hi Everyone,

I'm brand new to making Board Games... I'll quickly explain, I direct a Health Education Resource Company, and own a small Interactive CD ROM Health Education Business. CD's are not selling that well at the moment... and as an ex-teacher I love using board games with young people... I am therefore venturing into the production of some Health Education Board Games... a very Niche market here in the UK, but I have the knowldge as a Public Health Specialist and some Graphic Artist knowledge and therefore thought I'd bring it all together to make some Health Education Board games. Knowing the market quite well I suspect I would be selling only between 100 - 300 a year of each board games (say one on the Dangers of Smoking).

Can anyone tell me a reliable printer who prints Board Games in the UK... and what kind of cost per board game it would cost to make say 300 units? Just a rough estimate would be a great help!!

Any other tips and advice would be greatly appreciated :-)

Yours sincerely,

JP

I'm teaching a University course about game design where groups of students are asked to design a board game as part of the assessment. I'd be interested in 'publishing' the best board game from each year group to a run of about 50-80 (so that we could sell the polished game to students). Last year's best was called 'Trophy Wife' - great fun and it deserved more exposure than sitting on a shelf forever.

Can anyone out there recommend a printing company who could handle this kind of order at a reasonable cost. We're certainly willing to do some of the assembly, collation, boxing, but would need board printing, instruction printing and pieces at the least. Also, any idea how long an order takes to be filled?

I'm in Australia (Perth) so I guess printing companies around these parts would be preferred! If anyone has any other ideas about how to publish such a small run (cheaply, so students can afford them!) please let me know.

cheers!

Cheap manufacturing is mutually exclusive with small print runs.

POD services are good for paper and card stock, but that's about the end of it. Individual components should be bought and you should assemble the games yourself, otherwise it will be financially unfeasible... and totally forget the idea if you need custom parts as it will be out of any price range you could find reasonable.

My advice is to order what you cannot make yourself and assemble it yourself. There is no "cheap".

Go for it!! I have no idea how much money you could make back but I would think it would be a good experience for you. If I didn't have other responsibilities (wife, kids, home) I would probably do the same. Even if I only made back half of all my expenses I think it would be good. Besides that the contacts and friendships you make doing it would be priceless.

I think we are all basically in the same boat and unfortunately there is no easy answer, just hard work, lots of time, money and more time and hard work!! But it provides its own intrinsic rewards which is why we all enjoy doing it.

In Aus?

The minute you get a business registation ...Bas activity statements... GST ....etc etc etc.

A hobby costs you nothing.

First of all, to self-publish a board games or line of games it takes a lot of money and there is a lot more investment of time involved than you may think. If you intend to make a profit and actually enjoy being the designer of a successful board game, I recommend you read some books, do some research and most of all find yourself a broker.

Toy and game brokers work with inventors to help them take their creations to a level that makes them suitable for mass distribution. Hasbro and Mattel both have brokers who they prefer to work with. So find out who they are and contact those brokers to get an idea of what the requirements are for submission.

Publishing a game yourself need not be "very expensive". With the right game design and the rise of Print-on-Demand options, it can be dirt cheap to begin publishing a game these days. I have a large number of card game publishers who print between 10 and 100 decks to start and have out the door costs of $40 to $500 or so, depending on the size of their initial printing (not counting art costs and such anyways).

So its possible to start small and build from there.

It seems to me that most folks seem to be chasing "instant success". Ala, design one board game and somehow have it instantly be as successful as Monopoly. Everyone wants to shy away from self publishing because its next to impossible to achieve instant success that way.

But...its also next to impossible to achieve instant success licensing or selling your game design coming from a place of having zero prior experience in the field and zero reputation. Your chances are only slightly better than winning the lottery.

Let's face it. Success comes from hard work and from putting in your knocks. It requires time and persistence.

I will say that, in my opinion, it takes a talented designer to be a successful small game publisher. Especially a micro board or card game publisher. Because its oen thing to design a game while working on the premise that you may have any type of board, pieces or components because Hasbro or Mattel can work out all that stuff easily enough on the production end. But as a small publisher you have to work with a much more limited set of options and often have to get creative on the use and sourcing of components and designing successful games under such conditions adds more layers of difficulty to the process.

Design good games. Then either shop them around, self publish them, or both. The big publishers have recently showh themselves to be more willing to buy up games from small publishers with an already established track record than they have to license new ones. So both publishing and shopping it around might yield more market opportunities than simply shopping it around by itself. And if, for some reason, publishing a game makes it hard to sell to one of the big guys, so what. You can always design new games. And any reputation you build by marketing and selling your previous designs will give you a better chance a broadening your options for your new designs.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.guildofblades.com/retailgroup.php
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com