So Ive hit a brick wall on a game I'm making.
> Had concept
> Playtested the mechanics like crazy with prototype sets I made myself
> She's ready to be sold
> Realize I have no idea how to manufacture, advertise, distribute, and sell my game
>Realize I have only 5k saved up and either would need to get a job and save for a few years to produce a first shipment or need a publisher
Do any of you have experience with actually producing a finished game? Where do I go from here?
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So you fucked up. You should have been advertising the entire time. Your game is now essentially doomed to fail because you have built no ground swell.
Try steam green light and pray.
You should have had a tumblr showing assets, a twitter, possibly twitch for when you do art, and been posting in game dev communities.
Kikestater it.
>Try steam green light and pray.
Whoops, thought I was on /v/.
My point still stands that you are very late in the game.
Also is this even play tested by people other than you and close friends?
It's not a video game, it's a card game for 4-8 players.
Would that be a good idea if people aren't aware of it yet?
I also playtested it with extended family and several people who don't like me very much, they seem to have enjoyed it a lot and had good things to say. It's gone through way too many iterations.
I'm no expert on kickstarter I'm afraid. I think some people certainly start their but you may want to drum up interest on here, tumblr and some appropriate sub Reddits first.
Bumping with my shitty prototype art for a few cards from the game
I plan to hire an artist once I figure out production details. I don't think I'm capable of arting for myself.
You should go to conventions and get people to play your prototype. Find someone who knows how the industry works and other people, publishers, artists, whatever.
>advertise on Veeky Forums
Hiroshima, please
Kickstarter user. Make sure you send out copies to youtubers and bloggers and reviews for the word to get out.
I tried that, but unless you specifically pay for a time slot people seemingly won't give you the time of day.
Also convention people are super-duper flaky and the game takes about 30 minutes to play.
Kickstarter only pushes the problem backwards though. I'd have money and attention, but if I don't know what to do with that money and attention, I feel I wouldn't accomplish much.
There's a company called Panda that are a Chinese manufacturer who seem to specialize in producing games for small companies who have kickstarted their game. You might want to give them a look.
Continuing to bump for help. It seems the preferred way to advertise a board game is kickstarter, but I'm still looking for advice and knowledge about manufacturing and distribution.
Do you have to self publish nowadays? Does that mean I can't be in stores, and if so, can someone with experience talk about how they did it?
I've looked into it but I'm somewhat skeeved out by the inability to find stories about the experiences, publicly listed prices, or quotes other similar games in market have received.
I'm also sketched out by their seeming lack of storage for finished games, because doing something like renting a warehouse to store 4000+ boxes feels like a very big move to make, and one I'd probably need to take if they tell me "You have one week to get it out of ours".
Is it that 12 towers game?
You could start by calling up a publisher.
>Would that be a good idea if people aren't aware of it yet?
Absolutely. It is, in fact, a good tool to make people aware of it.
Generally, (successful) Kickstarters have nearly finished products to show off.
You seem a bit farther along than that, which hurts you marketing options.
Still a great route though.
>Is it that 12 towers game?
It's not as far as it ought to be. Mechanically, it's a worked out game right now, but I've never, EVER seen someone market based on the rules; no one seems to care. It seems marketing is based on a combination of concept/feel + design, which mostly gets started when art begins being made, correct?
Having been in your position before, just use The Gamecrafter. (Website specifically for self-publishing print on demand tabletop stuff).
Is it theoretically possible to do better? Yes.
Will you? No.
They have a few orders of magnitude more experience and contacts in who to see to get shit printed, running your kickstarter, etc. Just go with them. Your situation is *exactly* what they are built around.
I've seen successful Kickstarters asking for an art budget while promising on mechanics.
In all fairness, it was mostly vidya. It definitely happens though.
Maybe gets some mock-up formatting done first?
And get quotes from several artists/manufactures/distributors, so you know how much money to ask for.
Build ground swell and then kickstarter is the way to go.
Before you do anything else, patience is key.
Fools rush in, idiots (read: you, and most people alive in general) make mistakes if they don't think about things beforehand.
Do NOT sign your name, do NOT agree to do anything, do NOT publicly announce this shit including promises and development / release assumptions until you've thought every single detail out in it's full.
You could try The Game Crafter, you'd just have to do a bit of work to port what you have to what they're capable of making, though if it's a card game that shouldn't be too hard. A friend of mine used them to make an accessory deck for an RPG he self-published, and then made (IIRC) 2 more standalone games with them.
They can also handle the actual selling and distribution of the game, sort of like what Lulu does with self-published books.
Link for you
>>thegamecrafter.com
Kickstarter is not a way to advertise, but a way to raise funds. Though it can amplify your advertising efforts. Get an artist, get on social media, start bulding up a presence, then release a kickstarter.
>publicly listed prices, or quotes other similar games in market have received.
As far as I'm aware, this is just how wholesale operates, they don't like to have published price lists and negotiate on a deal by deal basis.
I'd say he should find an artist he likes who could conceivably take on the project, pay out of pocket for some example cards, then use those to market the kickstarter. Also, have a Print & play available and as an user suggested earlier, get Youtubers to preview the game.
The problem with these sites is initial capital. I have enough for a few months rent, but don't have enough to necessarily pay for all the parts to make and deliver the games on demand.
How much money do I need to begin?