How Do You Get a Board Game Published?

cyclomedia asks: "I've been dedicating a little of my time to devising a strategy board game, pitched somewhere between Checkers and Chess but probably not as deceptively complex as Go. Without giving too much away I can tell you that there's a nerd factor within the game itself, possibly leaning the possibility of marketing towards the Games Workshop end of the spectrum, but without the 80-sided dice and Orcs. The next step in my plan is to see if I can actually create a prototype made of coins, stickers and cardboard, and then to attempt to teach the rules to my wife (she's a Trek fan, hence the marriage). If I get past that stage, presumably I can't just show up at Hasbro with my jerry rigged setup and expect an enthusiastic response. So, what do I do?"

Do it, but be persistent

The game publishing business seems very conservative. Many of the games that became classics over the last few decades were initially rejected by all of the major publishers: Mastermind, Monopoly, you name it. Even Sudoku took more than twenty years until it finally hit home.

A friend of mine developed the board game Friedrich [wikipedia.org], a strategy game about the Seven Years' War. It took him fifteen years to arrive at the final version, building very elaborate prototypes, and playing hundreds of games with friends who were acting as beta testers. The game was rejected by all major publishers he showed it to, mostly on the grounds that "it takes too long to play" (3-5 hours at least). After he'd mentioned that, every discussion was immediately over. My friend finally decided to publish the game himself, founding his own game publishing company. The game quickly achieved almost a cult following, both in Germany, where it was initially published, and in the US. I think some 4000 copies have been sold so far. It won the prize for the Best Historical Simulation by the American Games magazine in 2006.

So I'd say: Be prepared to go a long way, but it may well be worth it.

Re:Do it, but be persistent

Depending on how complex your game is I would suggest tlakign to some of the indy publishers.

There are companies like Cheapass Games [cheapass.com], Loony Labs [looneylabs.com](thoguh I think they do all their stuff in house), Playroom Entertainment [playrooment.com] to name a few off the top of my head.

Also, the simpeler you can make the physical pieces of the game the better off you are I think. Can the "board" be cloth or some such? Will the pieces idealy be simple or complex (checkers, WH40K pieces, or soem where inbetween)?

The other thing to do is to go to Cons (SF/F and gaming). So long as they have a gaming room (for board/card games) you can find a good number of people who are in the field. Most of them will be Reps, but even they are good to talk to, and some times you will run into the actualy developers (or other people more closely tied to the company), especialy at larger cons. Just make sure you have a working copy of your game (I would suggest tryign to make it look good, over trying to emulate a proffessional distribution).

Good luck!

Re:Do it, but be persistent

Oh, and when you type up your rule book, make sure you don't have as many typos as I do in my posts.

Other way...

You can try different approach. Try publishing your game on Net. Something like printable table (in pdf for example) and some cutout pieces. Let people play. If it's good enough, and people like it you can approach some game publishers. Not to mention that this approach will give you loads of beta testers, for free. So you will be able to improve a game in a process. Use Slashvertisement.
And as everybody knows, it's better to have a game you like in nice box with good quality pieces, so they will buy it afterwards, thus guaranteeing some sales.

And be patient, very patient... I wish you luck!!!

The looks, the looks, the looks!

I know nothing about the board game business... ...but team up with someone who can draw and/or design well. Scanners and inkjets are dirt cheap these days. If your prototype looks like a product instead of a school project your chances of getting published should be orders of magnitude better.

Playability is important, but without looks you can't appeal to Joe Sixpack.

Have you tried?

presumably I can't just show up at Hasbro with my jerry rigged setup and expect an enthusiastic response.

Stop being so presumptious. Write to Hasbro with a brief concept of your game and see what they say. Get the game finished and balanced first. No publisher is interested in a half designed game. But don't worry about production values. Graphic designers can be hired by the publisher. And find some other people to help playtest the game. You might want to try a few other publishers as well [boardgamegeek.com].

Come back when you have something

1) You haven't made a prototype
2) You haven't taught it to anyone else, meaning
3) You haven't even played the "game"
4) You're already comparing it to chess

How about seeing if it's any good before you start thinking about selling it?

5) You don't want to give any details, because
6) You're worried about people stealing your idea
7) Which you haven't even shown to anyone else, which means
8) You haven't even done any basic steps towards finding out if it's worth stealing

How about embracing open development? Or at least a little less closed than "I need to do everything myself. If I ask the opinion of others, they might steal my idea! Which is definitely on par with chess! But not go, because I read that was awesome"

Do I sound hostile? That's because I am giving you advice and you don't want to hear it. Why did you ask for it?

Re:Come back when you have something

I see a lot of people faulting this person over his comparison to chess.

"pitched somewhere between Checkers and Chess but probably not as deceptively complex as Go"

He (she?) obviously meant it in terms of the simplicity of the rules, and perhaps the amount of thought required for each turn. He doesn't expect it to become the next chess.

That said, if he hasn't even played the game, the whole discussion is pointless.

He should also try to explain the game to somebody with less patience than a wife. Some critical friends, for example.

Re:Come back when you have something

He should also try to explain the game to somebody with less patience than a wife.

You must not be married.

Just for the record

I'm pretty sure every game system currently published by Games Workshop uses only regular six sided dice. I think the last game using anyhting else was second edition 40K, but that went all-D6 with third edition.

Oh, and Blood Bowl uses some custom dice, but they're just D6s with pictures instead of numbers.

A better place...

...to ask the question would be the Board Game Designers' Forum - http://www.bgdf.com/ [bgdf.com]

You're almost certainly not going to be talking to Hasbro or GW - you're going to be talking (if you're lucky!) to people like Rio Grande, Uberplay, Kosmos, Mayfair, JKLM... If those names don't mean anything to you, get yourself over to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ [boardgamegeek.com] and start reading :)

Rule #2142 of start-up business...

If the only thing you have is an idea you're afraid someone might steal, then you don't have anything of value.

Re:Rule #2142 of start-up business...

I once developed a game that had 4-8 kingdoms each handled by 10 lords that were in charge of the armies that could go from hex to hex and discover what was there and use it to raise armies or hold land or even go on singular quests to gain powers which were rated from 1 to 10 in 7 different categories for each lord and when players' armies met they could use their different army races in varying strategies to combat the aggressor using dice and the controlling lord's powers which didn't need to be activated but would just work and the combats would go for two turns then the rest of the board could move so reinforcements might arrive and eventually the goal isn't to destroy your opponent but to claim the Evil Tower Hex where you have to battle the army there to save the land and proclaim yourself King.

It's sort of like checkers.

Go to some Gaming Cons

I would recomend that once you have a playable prototype, look into some local (or non-local if you're serious) gaming conventions. A lot of these have events for YOU. Everyone brings in a game they have designed, it is play tested, and voted on. Winner gets the game developed or something. Well the details can vary but look into it. Not to mention you could just set up your own, independent game and get lots of feedback from people. It might help smooth out some rough spots. Plus there may be booths set up where you could talk to some reps from publishing companies. At least as much as 'hey, who should I write to in your company about a new game'.

I know there is a big gaming Con in Denver Colorado, and Columbus Ohio. But there are undoubtedly more.

One guy's self-publishing story

Check out The Making of VIKTORY II [viktorygame.com], one guy's tale of creating and self-publishing his strategic board game. He is crazy persistent (and has some past experience) and manages to knock out a pretty professional final game.

Publish it yourself, online

Publish it yourself, selling it through a website. Offer a downloadable demo of some sort, e.g. a PDF of a board and some of the pieces. You can start doing both of these things for a very small investment, and you can scale up your publishing infrastructure according to demand.

A friend of mine [randomviolence.net] is doing this at the moment. You can try out his board game by printing some levels and some of the pieces, and then, if you like it, you can buy the actual thing by cheque or Paypal. Seems to be doing well, he's making an expansion set at the moment.

Another thing you could do would be a computerised version of your game, offered for free online. That could be an excellent advert for the board version, but it would take a bit more investment...

Hasbro usually does not publish a single game

They will ask you what other games you created.
They will want to see your prototype, docs, etc.
They will ask you for feedback from betaplayers.
They will want you to give up your rights on marchandising material.
They will ask you to pay to get published in gaming magazines under Hasbro's influence.
If you fit in their marketing scheme, then they will offer you a contract where you have to create games on a regular basis.
Maybe up to 1 to 3 games a year.

Choose a smaller game publisher or you will regret you ever released your game.
After creating several games that went well,go see a lawyer then go see a major game publisher.

Talking to game designers at GenCon...

...might be a good idea.

Admittedly, I have only met one game designer, but his strategy was to produce the game himself, and sell it at Cons and Comic Shops.

His key piece of advice: When you sell a copy, document it! Give the buyer a receipt and keep a copy. I believe he said (though please forgive me if I am remembering wrong) that no one really got interested until he had 100+ receipts in hand...demonstrating that the game was already starting to be a success.

Talk to others who have done this

You could always talk to the people behind War on Terror - the Board Game [waronterro...rdgame.com]. It sounds like they started from much the same position as you are in.

cheapass games

If the major board game publishers jilt you, consider selling your idea to Cheapass Games [cheapass.com], the creators of such works of subgenius like Kill Doctor Lucky and Give Me The Brain.

It's a difficult and closed industry!

This article caught my interest because I've been in a somewhat similar situation, though I've been pursuing it for the past six years. Here is my story, if anyone is interested or might have further suggestions.

I spent considerable time writing a two-player strategy board game. In fact, I've spent over five years play testing it with different people and refining the rules until it became quite fun and playable. I've developed notation for it as well, so games can be played by correspondence. It would appeal to any chess freak (of which I consider myself one) though aside from requiring two players there is no similarity. It has a beautiful and unique board that a friend and I designed. My goal in creating the game was to introduce a game that could trigger new and different ways of thinking in a collaborative strategy process toward central transcendence goals as opposed to one of conquest (such as chess or go).

Yeah yeah, it may sound complex, but no more so than chess, in fact it has fewer rules and as any serious strategy game enthusiast understands, it's not so much the rules as the intricacies of play that inspire.

I've researched many board game companies in earnest. I looked for those that produced quality designer games (Gigamic, for example) to large multinationals (Megabloks). I wrote nice introductory letters to them. I included overview teasers of the game concept without revealing too much (just to get their interest but protect my idea), and I included my own game NDA from a lawyer.

The responses I got were typically that the companies wanted me to send the rules but would not sign an NDA (in other words, once receiving the rules, they'd potentially be able to develop it and never give credit where credit was due). That is a reality, an experienced, professional game designer warned me about it.

From the game company's perspective of course, they've got to be careful too. They live in fear that if they see something submitted from outside their company, and just happen to be developing something similar on their own, that they'll wind up getting sued. One company persistantly asked me to send them my prototype (of which I made several) but refused to sign the NDA for this very reason. Some companies have their own NDAs, and I've found that sometimes these are sufficient because they seem to have wording that protects both parties (but not always!). At one point, Megabloks signed an NDA with me and they play-tested my prototype but unfortunately my game was just totally out of the realm of the sort they publish. That's to say that even though game companies may like to get good ideas, most are really closed to anyone that is not already in their industry or better, employed by them.

So I'm still looking, considering saving my money to self-publish it, but it's not cheap and I'm not wealthy. My other dream objective for the game, which I have yet to fully lay out in detail would be to form some sort of co-op that involved a few free and open source developers, which would be interested in making a networked electronic (client/server) version of the game (like all those FICS/chess servers) that exist. I would love to see it spread all over and feel like having an electronic FOSS version would really help popularize it in terms of getting a company interested in distributing a physical version of the game. I've always felt that it would be incredibly appealing to sell a physical board game with an online subscription included and a FOSS version makes sense if not for the philosophy for the simple fact that it would be the most efficient way to jumpstart its spread. I dunno, maybe someone is interested in collaborating on that. :-)

You could try SJ Games..

SJ Games may publish your game - if you have a good concept.. :)
Read the guidelines for submitting card- and boardgames [sjgames.com]..
Also check out the Author Guidelines [sjgames.com] for submitting other types of content.

(Unfortunately, they seem to be rather busy at the moment..)
Good luck!

Friend Experience

A friend of mine also creates board and card games. As mentioned before, the first thing you do is test the hell out of it. Have friends over constantly, and play the game. Then make a pretty good prototype.
Post at sites like http://www.iwanttomakeit.com/ [iwanttomakeit.com] that you are looking for piece/board/instructions makers. Once you have some prototypes, go by your local game stores and see if they will sell it in their stores. Leave a copy of the prototype if you want (make them sign a DBA if you haven't done any copyrights and such), and let them play it, or sell it. There are also companies for $500 or so that will evaluate your game. They are mostly bull, but they give their viewpoint in terms of how major publishers see it, so you can make changes before pitching your game. Finally go to the major publishers. Tell them about all the positive experiences you had. Most important: Don't give up!

GAMA or Germany

You could look at joining GAMA (Games Manufacturers Association (of America)) http://www.gama.org/ [gama.org] or Move to Germany ;)

advice from actual designers & publishers

I sat in on several forums at gencon last year, which of course does not make me an expert of any sort, but I can pass along what actual game designers and publishers were willing to tell a bunch of nerds at 9am on a saturday -

The concensus was that getting your game published is generally an inside job. This is not to say that outsiders have no hope; rather, it is to say that the path to enlightenment (getting published) lies through opening dialogue with designers & publishers through established means - online forums, attending trade shows, etc. It's much more a face-to-face industry - people like to know who they're working with.

The single key element that was reinforced over and over was PLAYABLE PROTOTYPE. Common advice was not to spend money on production values for said prototype, but rather to spend that time and effort making the game playable and enjoyable, and to put tremendous effort into making the rules comprehensive and readily understandable. Apparently nothing irks publishers more than getting a gaudy prototype with an incomprehensible rules sheet and unexplained/missing parts, unless it's some guy waving his hands and insisting his game is 'so awesome' without producing a prototype of any sort at all.

From someone with a published game

First off, these are not my comments, so don't ask any more than this. But I know someone with a published game and someone else who has a game to publish. I sent this e-mail to the former and forwarded the response to the latter. That's about all of my involvement in the process of getting a game published. But since it is on topic, I thought I'd include the response here for you.

I'm in Austin, so the reference to Steve Jackson Game might not be as convenient for you as it is for me, but the concept of getting with people who actually make/sell games isn't a bad thought. Also, an earlier response talked about making it "printer-ware", which my published friend indicates that she and her husband do....in fact, she indicates that she might be open to putting it on her site (instant traffic, just not sure of how much).

Good luck on your efforts, but don't hope for anything quick. Unless it's an awesome game, expect years of effort.

Layne

GAMA (http://www.gama.org/) is the Game Manufacturers Association, and they have some worthwhile resources. We went to two of their tradeshows in Las Vegas; met folks, learned some things. I think Jon also hangs out with RPGnet (http://www.rpg.net/), which is more than just role-playing games, and the Game Publishers Association (http://www.thegpa.org).

It's not too difficult to get yourself an invite to a Steve Jackson Games playtesting session, which is certainly... illuminating. (Heh. That's a pun. Uh, anyway.) Playtesting, however, is kind of gruelling, and there's not much glamour to it. But you can see his shop and talk to his people and get some insight into how it goes.

And, of course, there's us: http://www.invisible-city.com/play/ [invisible-city.com] We put our games up for free on the web. They're print-and-play, or composed of household parts like poker cards and checker boards. We host games by guest designers, too.

Trade shows?

I believe they hold board game trade shows. A friend managed to get his published by taking a prototype to the show and renting a booth.

First hit on google...

...for a search of "board game publishing" comes up with:

Board Game Invention & Self-Publishing Resources [spotlightongames.com]

cheap ass games

Some old friends of mine in Seattle went through this a number of times, until they just decided to start their own "label" of board games. Their gimmick was to produce great new games that used pieces you probably already have from other board games. They don't ship dice, don't ship tokens, don't ship player pawns, don't need much in the way of special cards. They ship a board and an instruction sheet. (I think you CAN buy a higher-priced complete set from them, if you're expecting to play on a mountaintop in Timbuktu or some parts of Arkansas.)

The point here isn't to give them a free ad, they might not even be around anymore, though they were making an okay business of it last I heard. The point is that they tried a number of approaches and found one that worked for them: self-publishing. Stick to it, get the game out in the hands of a lot of players, and if it's worth anything, it will catch on. Then you can aim to get bought out by the likes of Milton Bradley in a few years.

Keep at it...

There are lots of complex and long games out there, quite a few games in the 18xx railroading series are complex and take a few hours to play. Settlers of Catan. Risk 2011. The Warcraft and World of WarCraft boardgames. Star Fleet Battles. The board game industry has it's share of "easy" or "quick" games, but it also needs the complex games...

Don't get discouraged, keep playtesting and refining the game and your prototypes, make sure you keep ahold of any patents/copyrights/trademarks that result from the game's creation, and keep pitching it at board game companies til it sticks... baring all that, if you get to a point where you cannot do any more refining or playtesting, and no other company has taken it on, go ahead and found your own company.

http://www.deepthoughtgames.com/ [deepthoughtgames.com] is a low volume board game publisher. They might be able to help you out in getting your game looking "professional", and perhaps using eBay, or another "storefront" website, you can start selling your game, the costs would be relatively low.

Here is a book...

The Toy & Game Inventor's Handbook [amazon.com]. I don't yet know how useful it really is, since I have yet to try and pitch any of my ideas, but it seems pretty good in my totally unqualified opinion.

There's also The Toy & Game Inventor's Guide [amazon.com], but it's rather old. It's pre-internet, which means the whole world has changed. However, it still has some really good stuff on the legal side of things, so you might see if a local library has it anyhow.

If you haven't already, I would definitely say make a few prototypes and get people to play them. Get honest comments, don't be offended by constructive criticism, and improve it based on the comments.

Do it yourself gaming

I recommend looking into the Game Publishers Association [thegpa.org] (GPA). They have several sources to help small publishers get on their feet to do it themselves. In my opinion, do not worry about trying to get another company to publish it for you. If you have the means, you really can do it yourself. You can find artists and distributors and all sorts of friendly people to help you at the GPA. If you do not have much means, you might consider a PDF release on the web. Sites, like RPG-Now [rpgnow.com], distribute PDF versions of games. Good luck!

Catan on Xbox Live

This is slightly OT, but for fans of Catan its big news:

Apparently Xbox Live will be selling an online multiplayer version of the boardgame
this Spring. 'Pretty sweet.

@ college?

When my father was in getting his masters (many years ago) his friend created a board game. (it was called Class Struggle and was like Monopoly but with a Socialist mind frame rather than Capitalist) With the help of the College they got it produced and stocked by some local stores. Perhaps this type of thing still happens... I'm not really sure.

Zillions of Games

If you game fits in the general category of 2 player, no hidden information games, then you might want to try having a prototype made using Zillions of Games [zillions-of-games.com]. This program allows you to define the board and movement rules for just about any combiniation you can think of. The basic game plays most of the classics and you can download thousands of versions from their website or Chess Variants [chessvariants.org]

If your game has hidden information which is only know to one player, then Zillions can't handle that, but if your pure strategy, you should be fine. Programming a Zillions requires learning a lisp-like language, it's pretty easy but has its quirks. One nice thing about Zillions is you can create your own new game and have the computer kick your ass at it, that way you can expose flaws and exploits you might have missed. Plus, it would be easy to distibute to your playtesters.

Self-Publishing.

Publishing a board game is a fairly trivial exercise. All you need is a good graphic designer and a good printer. Use the Internet to market your product. Take it on the road to gaming conventions.

Under no circumstances should you consider talking to a large existing corporation. If they decide to steal your idea for themselves, you will likely not be able to mount enough of a legal challenge to stop them.

The thing about games is that the game itself has to be compelling in the long term in order for it to survive. If the game is good enough to do that, why would you want to involve anyone else? If the game is good enough to survive on its own merits, eventually, the world will beat a path to your door.

Days of Wonder

Check out Days Of Wonder; some of their games were originally user-inspired ideas, so perhaps they are more accustomed to taking an idea and running with it.

One thing you should definitely not do....

...is tell anyone any of the slightest details, such as what your game is actually about, because then someone will Steal Your Idea and Make It To Market Before You.

@@

Producing Your Game

In my own case I got an artist/friend to do the artwork for a share of profits and published the game myself. I used Paragon Packaging, because most other companies just deal with paper and cardboard. I needed tiles. Min run: 5,000 Cost:$50,000 I would warn you this should be a labor of love. Be sure to factor into your spreadsheet damaged games, dealers that don't pay, etc. etc. In my own case I have lost about 25K on the first 3K games though some of that might be because I choose to compete with a classic Scrabble. This is a tough slog. Peter http://www.wildwords.us/ [wildwords.us]

GenCon Indy

Just FYI: I am NOT affiliated with GenCon in any way shape or form beyond the fact that I attend every year to play games and take some time off work.

I see a few people have said it but I'm amazingly surprised at how FEW people have said it! Take your game to GenCon Indy. It's the biggest gaming convention in the world. Buy a 4 day badge and go sit in the board game room and put your game out there. Set up near the end of a table that is near a doorway into the room. Stand by your game and ask people as they enter the room and inevtiably walk past your table if they're interested in playing a game with you. You'd be surprised at just how many people WANT to play random games with random people. I have played random games with random people every year I have gone all because they came up to me and asked, except last year because no one asked. It will give you a lot of exposure to people, free playtesting, and you'll have a good idea of how many people find your game interesting. About twenty six thousand people attend GenCon Indy so you're bound to find people who will be more than willing to play your game.

Tell the people who play that it is a new game that is still being designed. A lot of people will jump at the opportunity. I constantly hear people trying to pull bragging rights with something like this: "Yeah, that brand new game that just came out, I played it years ago with the guy who made it. I even gave inspired rule X when I did Y." There is an entire species of gamer looking for opportunities to jump on situations like this.

You can even go so far as to print out small feedback cards and ask the people who have just played your game if they would be willing to fill it out. Some will fill it out and some will not. But, any gaming company will probably already understand the basic percentages about quantity of feedback and be able to determine how many people actually played the game. Additionally, you can keep your own tally of how many people played.

You can also try registering it as an official GenCon event. You can setup a one hour game event that just repeats all day and costs people one ticket ($1.50) to play for an hour. You just setup on a table assigned to you by GenCon and people don't register for the time slots, but they stop by with generic tickets to play your game. I and everyone I know always buy about $20 - $30 in generic tickets in case we see something we want to play that we didn't know existed. This will help give you a real tally of the number of people who played your games and GenCon staff should be able to give you an official tally of the number of tickets you collected. This can be used when you approach a game manufacturer to give them an idea of the game's potential for success. Do this for a few years and see how it goes. Don't be dismayed at low numbers the first time around as it may take a few years to build up awareness. Also, don't be afraid to get on the online forums (including GenCon's forum) and start advertising your game. Let people know it will be at GenCon and let people know what to look for and where to find you.

ProtoSpiel

You should take your game/idea to ProtoSpeil :
http://www.protospielwest.com/ [protospielwest.com]

The hosts and speakers will discuss how the process of publishing a game works.
Joseph Elwell.

Re:#1: Do your research

You can make any dice with an even number of sides using the same type of shape as a d10 (a trapezohedron [wikipedia.org]). For example: the d34 [dicecollector.com]. You'd have to make it pretty big to work well with 80 sides, however.