When to mention expansion packs?

I can’t really respond from the point of view of a publisher, because I’m not one. However, I can give a general business response in relation to the offering of additional content within a commercial context.

Expansions that open up additional revenue streams or offer opportunities to extend the life cycle of a product are positive inclusions, but only if they actually exist. To say, “I have this in mind for a product’ is wishful thinking. It’s akin to pitching an idea instead of a finished product.

The value of the future content is indeterminate. The person making the pitch could fail to deliver for any number of reasons – what they might have in mind could turn out to be unfeasible, the initial product might fail to secure good initial sales (making any additional content irrelevant), the creative (in this case a games designer) might be hit by a bus - leaving the idea stuck forever in their head, or the designer might take their product somewhere else before the opportunity to develop and release the additional content arrives. In short, anything could happen.

In essence, when you are making a pitch to an investor you can either pitch a physical product (or one that is close to being finished) or you can pitch a ‘pie in the sky’ idea.

Unfortunately, good ideas aren’t worth an awful lot in these scenarios.

Pitching a physical product is a good thing, because the recipient of the pitch can evaluate its potential return.

Pitching an idea puts the recipient in the position of trying to guesstimate an unknown return from ethereal information – and why should they put their neck on the line and do that?

So, offering a game with expansions that already exist in a relatively finished state (and offer potential positives for future commercial gain) can be a good thing. It’s better to have them than not to have them. Offerings with a nature that purports ‘I have an idea that this could be done’ have little real world value and they will have little value in the decision making process.

Which brings up a secondary question, should a designer offer an initial game as is, or should they keep hold of it until they have all the projected expansion in mind developed to a state where they can be judged on their merits.

I think the answer to this one depends on the designer and the game design in question (their level of confidence in respect to completing the work in a reasonable time frame to make the inclusion of the additional content worth the delay).

So my overall thoughts, if it exists in a verifiable way then offer it, if it doesn’t then don’t.

I think there are many good reasons to save expansions for a future release:

1) as mentioned by BubbleChucks, the core game may feel more solid.
2) also, the core game will be easier to teach!
3) also, the core game will be less expansive! (if your expansion has, say, 100 more cards and 5 tokens, this affects the price of the box).
4) also, you can tweak the expansion after hearing the initial feedback from players around the world.

So, if you already have the prototype of an expansion, I think the best thing you can do is pitch the core game to the publisher, and in the end add "I also have this expansion almost ready; I think this works best as a future release, but you can add this to the core game if you like".

If you only have a little idea for the expansion, just say something like "of course you can add more Amazing Danger Cards in a expansion...".

Good luck!

I'm not certain to agree with the previous posts. For example, if you are pitching a *single game* that has no opportunity for expansions that is very different from a game that DOES allow expansion. Why does it matter, you ask? Well it matters in terms of continuance, getting repeat buyers interested in purchasing *more of the game*.

In my latest endeavor, I am creating a core set to play (one to six players). However in my game we have sketched out 6 expansions relating to the story of the game. Aside from those expansions, there are four additional *Player Sets* (another form of expansion) which allows players to play other Classes. What does this all mean? Well it means that my product is not some unary game which the bulk of the risk to invest lies within it. Instead it is a complete product set (with expansions) that will give new life to the core game as EACH "expansion" is released.

That put together says that the investment in the core set (to produce) entails a possible following in the game resulting in more repeat sales in the expansion products... I think this sort of *pitch* has more weight in determining if a possible publisher should invest in it. In other words, if the core set is something the publisher believes he can make popular through advertising or other means, he is setting himself up to produce a SERIES of products NOT JUST ONE (unary).

In the end, I think this can make a HUGE difference... Like I said it's not a unary endeavor, it is a product suite. Note that the core set is not affected if expansions are not created.

So my advice would be, focus on the core set however envision how your expansion will affect your core game and make sure you keep the possibility to create an expansion. Note that it is very easy to say "my product is expandable", lots of CCG are exactly that. You want to steer clear of that market and focus on Expansion and so your product is more like a LCG (Living Card Game) that has expansions to the core. But I think you should articulate HOW the expansions will affect the game's core...

P.S.: When I say "HOW the expansions will affect the game's core", I am talking about what is DIFFERENT in the Expansions than let's say your core game. If it's just NEW cards, well then I would balance out the core and then have more INTERESTING cards in an expansion (something to draw players into buying into the expansion). Or perhaps they alter the theme of the game (by opening up new possibilities in the game). Another possibility is when you offer a DIFFERENT type of card you reserve for an expansion, etc.

I will give an example of what I have planned (still early but it won't hurt): in a Kickstarter campaign we will be pitching pre-orders of the Fighter Character Set. It has 3 different types of character cards: Warrior, Fighter and Swordsman. But I also have the idea of adding treasure/reward booster packs to the game. One of the Ultra Rare Cards (Chase) would be the Beserker. This is a 4th type of character card... We are doing this with all 6 of our classes. So for a certain amount, when you pre-order you can get this Ultra Rare card. What does it change? Well it allows you to take on another type of character in the Fighter class...

P.P.S: I am still far away from having a working prototype. I still need to invest in the dynamic story-mode which is an Event driven system that is used with our game. Basically you will be able to create your own story akin to a Dungeon Master in our game... This will allow our game to be played with the story, a random mode and any scenario you build into the game itself...