Print It and Ship It- by Adam's Apple Games
Why it's unique:
Our credentials:
Swordcrafters (2018)
Swordcrafters: Expanded Edition (2018)
Truck Off: The Food Truck Frenzy (2017)
Brewin' USA (2015)
If you have any requests for episode topics, just let me know!
My wife had discussed starting a board game podcast where we interview people who are about to publish games. We just thought it'd be more prevalent if we successfully published first. Congrats on the publishing and we look forward to hearing your podcast.
One area I struggle with is how do I know when and where to spend the time and money when it becomes time to publish? I have 3 games in play test, one of which I think is close. But I still need to develop a plan to build a budget around and execute. A topic (or two) I'd like to hear: When you go to publish, what plans need to be in place and what are some unexpected costs that pop up?
Note: I am not a regular podcast listener (neither your nor anyone else's).
I flipped through the topics, and thought 106, Marketing, looked interesting, so I clicked it.
First, there was a full 30 seconds of theme music, which didn't even say the name of the podcast or anything.. just music. I thought I'd messed up at first.
Then, you guys start talking about some games. For 20 minutes.
Only at minute *22* does the topic of the show get mentioned.
So.. my comment is something like.. Either don't say "this is a podcast about X," when X starts over halfway through, or put up a table of contents for each episode, that says "2:30 Pandemic. 4:57 Game X. 10:30 Game Y. 22:00 Discussion about Marketing."
That way I can skip the talk about games I don't have and actually get to the topic I thought I was listening to...
Thx :)
Hmm... I think that's the point you kinda "missed"! That's their GOAL to talk about Games X, Y and Z... It's a way of marketing those games to other people (specifically the people listening to the Podcast).
By golly geez, you've figured out his Marketing Strategy!
The GOAL is NOT to skip Game X, Y, Z but to listen to what they discuss about those games... And lastly cover the Podcast's Topic LAST ... after all of the OTHER Game Marketing has been done...
No?! Maybe... Either way I think this "Advertising Ploy" got you to understand that Games X, Y, and Z are MORE IMPORTANT than the TOPIC. (Don't quote me on it... but that's the impression that I get...)
Cheers!
I'll give my reaction as I listen. I think it'd be more valuable as feedback to do it that way, and give my overall comments at the end.
-Music intro is too long
-Music changes up to a weird note, like maybe it was looped or edited and it made a weird transition.
-The host's voice is good. It's strong and pleasant to listen to. The audio is good.
-The talk about the weather went a bit long.
-You or the other guy started talking about an interesting digital boardgame, but I missed the name. The game was described for quite a while. but the name wasn't mentioned again. I think it would help to name drop more, in case people miss the start of your discussion.
-I think your podcast could benefit from a little more structure. You guys start discussing the games you played over the weekend, and essentially review already published games. That's cool, but since you promoted this podcast as a game designer podcast, I'm confused as to why published, non-indie games are being discussed.
If you're going to highlight things which are different from what is advertised (such as not being on topic with the podcast title or not being on topic with the podcast description) then you should forewarn your listeners. Have a review section, a pitch section, and a 'today's topic' section, so there is consistency. Sure, you may not want people to be able to skip ahead to certain parts of your podcast, but I think it will be more likely that people listen for 5 minutes and exit out of your podcast than stick around for 20 or 30 minutes to listen to the part that made them click in the first place.
-Back to the reviews, your discussion is a little exclusive. If I didn't know how to play Betrayal, I'd be really confused. About halfway through one of you finally gave an overview of the game, but mostly you discussed the game in terms that only people who've played it before would understand. And that defeats the purpose of a review, in my opinion.
-14 minutes in, you guys start discussing the pitching, which is where this podcast begins to shine. My interest is immediately captured, and you guys keep it there.
-I find it interesting that you guys stated you wanted to wrap up in 3 minutes to keep the podcast at a tight 30 minutes, when you spent 14 minutes talking about something which had nothing to do with the topic.
- I think your intro music should be as brief as your outro music.
Alright now that the podcast has ended, I can say that I think it's great. My earlier critique may seem harsh, but I wanted to give my honest reaction as I listened to the entire bit. I think that you guys can remove or eliminate game reviews, because that's not what drew me to your podcast. If your discussions only last 15 minutes, that's ok. I suspect once you actually start going over pitches, the length will be longer. I think that if you stick to game pitches and whatever topic you come up with that draws off of your experiences, you'll have a great podcast.
Thank you so much for thinking to do this and putting this content out there. I think it's great that you guys are helping the community like this, and I look forward to future content. (I'll also be sending you my own pitch in the future). :)
That's good feedback! We'll do better on all these points in the future.
I did say that we take designer pitches on the show and provide feedback on air, and this occurred between 12:00-22:00 on that episode. I can see why you may not see this as any different from the first 12 minutes, but it's one of our differentiating factors to give face time to designers and also an inside look into what we think about when evaluating a pitch.
I hope the subject matter was interesting once we got there.
Thanks for the feedback and cheers!
To QuestCCG's point, if that's the purpose of the podcast, then AT LEAST start off your podcast with a summary of what's going on.
"Hi, welcome to the podcast! Today we'll be talking with Person X about topic Y. But first, we'll go through some games we think are interesting, and then hear some pitches. Let's get started!"
"Hi, welcome to the podcast! Today we'll be talking with Person X about topic Y. But first, we'll go through some games we think are interesting, and then hear some pitches. Let's get started!"
Yes... I agree this sounds reasonable: warn the listener first. They may not mind listening to the various "game pitches" (as you propose), if they are sufficiently warned ahead of time.
And then it's a Win-Win for everyone: the podcast, the listener and the various Game Designer (or Publishers in the case of Published games)...
Decided to listen to the latest episode just to see if the format changed. I see the music intro is shorter, which is great.
Already, your review section is better, because it breaks down what the game is and how to play.
You mentioned the game was Grand Austria Hotel at the beginning and at the very end, but I would make sure to mention what the game is a few times in-between, rather than referring to the game as 'it'.
It seems like you tie in a mechanic from one of the games you're discussing into game design practices, and I find this more interesting. If you do discuss/review published games, I think you should focus moreso on inspiration for game design, rather than reviewing the game itself.
At 18 minutes, this game review seems like it's really dragging out, but that could be because I have no interest in it.
Overall, I think this episode was tighter, and you guys cleaned up quite a few issues. For me, I still think the game review in the beginning is unnecessary, and that if you keep it, it should be much shorter. Other than that, I thought the information was fantastic, the dialogue felt natural, and that your Q&A was both personable and helpful.
This is great feedback for us to hear. We're going to continue to do our best to provide relevant content for designers / self-publishers / publishers and yet stay very personable and available. This includes keeping our initial banter and review section below 10 minutes for future episodes - about one game each to stay personable. Good call on the quick game overview and multiple title callouts. Great call about focusing on inspiration from the game for game designers.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and provide feedback. A few upcoming episodes topics are listed below:
Essen 2018
How to make a board game video (How 2 play, Kickstarter, other)
Why you should learn how to use a 3d printer
That's awesome! I look forward to listening to those topics. Wish you guys had put it out a month ago, as I just had to submit a Hot-to-play video for a design contest yesterday, and it was a struggle. Lol Again, I think it's great what you guys are doing. I'll definitely be sending in a pitch soon, before you guys are flooded with them.
Don't have much to add, but I enjoy the podcast. Keep it up!
Thank you for playing my pitch and giving me such great notes to consider for my game! (And it seems I forgot to add my name to my email, but it's Fertessa. Google just shows me as Tessa)
Also, to answer your question about player expansion, yes it can easily be expanded to 5 or 6 players. I just haven't playtested that yet, as I wanted to make sure the base 2 to 4 player game is solid first. A 2 player game is played on a 3x3 grid, and a 3 to 4 player game is on a 4x4 grid, so ideally a 5 to 6 player game would be on a 5x5 grid.
Thank you for the idea on providing multiple tiles anyway so players could have more flexibility with set up! Also thank you for your thoughts on what to emphasize when pitching the game. It was very helpful and I very much appreciate it. :)
A link so you know what I'm referring to:
http://adamsapplegames.com/print-it-and-ship-it-podcast/?name=2018-12-13...
Thank you! I'll definitely take you up on that once I finish the newest round of revisions! :) And should you ever need a second pair of eyes, I offer the same!
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This is a great suggestion! Adding it to the short queue of episode topics :).
I'll can expand a lot on this as a topic on the podcast. However here's a quick reply. From my experience, I generally bucket costs into artwork, prototypes, and marketing. I feel like I have a few good tips and tricks to keep costs low. My pre-kickstarter budget is usually less than $2-3k per game which I'm pretty proud of keeping costs low and still having stellar artwork. Sourcing artwork with a small budget is generally the most challenging and where extra costs can crop up when your backers start pushing for stretch goals. Also gaining enough marketing push on a shoe-string budget is another trick worth talking about. It's extremely tempting to chase marketing with new budget once the kickstarter is live, and even more important to have high confidence in your pre-marketing spend and plan.