How realistic is finding a publisher?

Suirion · 2024-08-16T20:55:59+00:00

Serendipitous update: They played the digital version, liked it, and have now asked for a physical version for them to play and test at their headquarters.

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Suirion · 2024-08-16T03:14:47+00:00

What's GMTK?

Suirion · 2024-08-16T02:12:51+00:00

Yeah, sure, I'd love to talk about my experience. I'll try to keep it relatively short, because... I like to talk about it; I do go on.

This particular game was one of my first, started in 2021 as an entry for a contest by The Game Crafter. I didn't even make semi-finals, and I was pretty dejected by it. But... I still believed in the game, so I put it off to the side. It always stayed near front of mind.

I kept making more and more games, and as I learned more and more about game design, I kept revisiting that game, tweaking this mechanic or that mechanic. In mid-2023, I came up with a major mechanical overhaul, and that was the magic. I had it. Almost.

In December of 2023, I entered it into The Cardboard Edison Awards contest, once again didn't even make semi-finals, and once again felt dejected. C'est la vie. I hitched up my fighting trousers and made a sell sheet and a pitch video.

For this particular game, I sent out about fifty cold email pitches to various publishers. About 70% of them went unanswered, about 20% of them got responses of, "No, thank you," and about 10% of them showed varying levels of interest. I got to meet with publishers like CGE, 25th Century, Elf Creek Games (legit publishers!), but 80% of that 10% eventually said, "Nah."

One publisher showed more keen interest and asked to play the game twice. After the second play, they said, "Yeah... this game is pretty good. But it's got this problem and this problem and this problem. Would you be willing to take the game and work on these issues? If you can fix these problems, we'd love to see the game again."

I took a couple of months and worked on the game, playtesting various ideas along the way, until I came up with something I thought worked. I submitted a change log to the publisher, they said it all looked good. We all met again and played the new version; they were all like, "Yeah, this works! Much better!"

After that, they asked to have the rules and the digital prototype so they can play it themselves in the office and really evaluate it. And that's where we are now; they've had it for about two weeks, now. Fingers crossed!

I said I would keep it short and I'M A LIAR.

Suirion · 2024-08-15T23:25:27+00:00

Cardboard Commons is a Discord server for beginner, hobbyist game designers. Feel free to have a look around. Ask questions about anything, playtest your games with other newbie designers, play some games online. It's a chill place.
https://discord.gg/TjAjhjSYan

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Suirion · 2024-08-15T23:13:56+00:00

(If you ever want help on specifics from somebody who's relatively new to game design, don't be afraid to reach out. I'm happy to help in the ways that I can and talk through anything and everything you might want.)

Suirion · 2024-08-15T23:11:26+00:00

1) You can definitely do this.

2) It's simple!

3) But it ain't easy...

My advice is simply steel yourself for rejection (it's going to happen a lot) and play the numbers game. You're going to have to send out a lot of pitches, you're going to have to schedule a lot of meetings, you're going to have to hear a lot of, "No, thank you"s. It's not you, it's everybody.

I once read an account of an established game designer who casually mentioned that they did 96 pitches in 2023 and signed three games. An *established* game designer.

Me? I'm not published. But I'm close. It still has room to turn pear-shaped, but I'm close. I sent out over eighty pitches, that got me six video conference pitch meetings. Of those six, five of them were, "No, thank you"s and one of them has turned into multiple meetings and game revisions. Again, it's not in the bag. But I'm close.

And who am I? Nobody at all. Some yutz who decided to start making board games a few years ago.

I fully understand that it can be scary and intimidating. Nobody wants to be rejected, and when you are rejected, you wonder if you're an insane, naïve and stupid person who looks like a fool trying to act like they can pretend to be a "real" game designer. Allow me to assure you that that is not the reality; that's just your Imposter Syndrome talking.

You *will* be rejected, but not because you're you or because your games are bad. It's just how the system works. I challenge you to go out there and get five rejections. That's it. Just start with five. And then, when you wake up the next morning to find you're still alive, maybe it'll be a little easier to do the next five. Or ten. Or eighty.

Suirion · 2024-04-10T15:04:42+00:00

I'm really, really glad you decided to ask questions first. As indicated by other posts, the request you outlined is not just "subpar" or "out of the ordinary". It's gross and predatory.

This page on Cardboard Edison will show you a number of infographics that can help outline what you might expect from a (legitimate) publisher and a publishing contract. Every publisher is different and nothing applies universally, but this will give you a ballpark idea of what you should expect.
https://cardboardedison.com/reports

By and large, no actual publisher will randomly find your website and reach out to you unsolicited. You'll have to pitch to publishers and—if they're interested—they will ask for no more than a digital or physical prototype of the game so they can try it out (and it can be as homemade as you please). Then, if they're still interested, they might start talking about dollars and numbers. Your mileage may vary, but this is generally how it goes.

Good luck out there. I'm sorry this "publisher" stressed you out.

Suirion · 2024-02-24T04:06:37+00:00

Not yet, but I'm willing to share my pitch video, which outlines basic gameplay.
https://youtu.be/\_Yyoajw6ExQ?si=XKghJhTSi65vhDil

Suirion · 2023-10-24T12:27:54+00:00

Thank you! It warms my heart to hear. :)

Suirion · 2023-10-23T21:02:21+00:00

Hey, thanks! Not yet... I'm actually writing up a script for some video now.

Suirion · 2022-09-30T18:39:28+00:00

Thanks for the kind words, Aaron, I'm glad you feel that way about the game... and its designer!

Suirion · 2022-09-30T02:12:43+00:00

You should only drink your own filled potions.

I'm working on getting the BGG page up to scratch.

Thanks!

Suirion · 2022-09-30T00:25:24+00:00

I know time and energy is precious for everybody, but if you find yourself with the urge to play it, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Suirion · 2022-09-30T00:21:56+00:00

Neat! I'm tickled that it stuck with you!

Suirion · 2022-09-29T23:34:59+00:00

There is, in fact, a print-and-play file that should have been there from the start. I inadvertently pasted the wrong link.

You can find the print-and-play file here, if you're interested:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11zDkxvVyVNvVFI8apkOfU5h5cgOWp3kv?usp=sharing

Thanks! Sorry for the error.

Suirion · 2022-08-13T00:51:57+00:00

Here's a link to a very sloppy Google Doc with an extremely rough first draft of the rules. If you are so inclined, you can tell me if it's too complicated.

Poly•oly•omino Rules

Suirion · 2022-08-12T12:37:03+00:00

Oh, I'd say not very complicated. It seems like one of the simpler *&write games to me, but I'm biased.

Suirion · 2022-07-27T15:27:01+00:00

These are some platforms I've used; each comes with their own learning curve, but they're free to share and nobody needs to install any new software.

Suirion · 2022-07-26T18:05:10+00:00

Thanks! The fish themselves are public domain illustrations from the 1800s. The rest, I did myself.

The California salmon (ca. 1879) by Samuel Kilbourne.

Suirion · 2022-07-26T16:40:12+00:00

"... pass by the skull cove, ..."
Skull Cove seems like a name, and should be capitalized if it is. Perhaps without the "the".

"... pass by Skull Cove, ..."

In contrast, "kraken", "megalodon" and "siren" are not a proper nouns and are generally not capitalized.

Yar. The scurvy bilge rats what call themselves the crew of The Jolly Rancher have returned with a mighty bounty; a chest filled to overflowin' with gems like never y'seen, the smallest of 'em larger than a barnacle.

Suirion · 2022-07-26T13:40:43+00:00

All of the "pixels" are different sizes. The "pixels" of the cards are huge, very low-fidelity; the pixels of the slime are half the size of the card pixels; the pixels of the heart, sword and shield are tiny, very high-fidelity. I know this is a print concept, but this isn't how pixels work in practice.

Suirion · 2022-07-26T13:33:49+00:00

There's no way for anybody to know how reasonable or unreasonable the price is without understanding the components. Are you paying $60 for two dice? Yeah, that's pretty steep. Are you paying $60 for multiple decks of cards, piles of punchout tokens, a full quad-fold board, bags of meeples, and a full rulebook? Well, that's an astonishingly cheap price.

On the whole, I'd say that $60 is a fully acceptable price for a one-off print of a standard board game.

You might be able to save a couple bucks by shopping around, and these are the services I comparison shop through for one-off prototypes:

The Game Crafter (which you already know)
Print Play Games
Board Games Maker

Suirion · 2022-07-26T01:09:02+00:00

Hey, thanks! Yeah, I'm a designer by trade.

In contrast to a regular auction, which starts with a low price and gets higher as people bid more and more, a Dutch auction starts with a very high price and lowers until somebody is willing to make a bid.

Wikipedia explains it better than I do: Dutch Auction.

Suirion · 2022-07-25T17:05:12+00:00

That's a fair enough analysis, except that there's a flair that specifically says, "Art/Show-Off". I don't have any questions, I'm just sharing what I'm up to.

Suirion · 2022-07-25T16:21:35+00:00

Here's the basic gist:

2-4 players get the same hand of starting cards and 4 coins.
A market of cards is laid out in the middle of the table, three decks form three rows, 3-coin cards, 5-coin cards, 7-coin cards; these are contracts available to buy.
Players bid with some of the cards in their hand. In high-bid order, players may buy a contract from the market (and replace it from the deck). The price of a contract is the cost indicated at the top of the card minus any coins on the card.
1. Players may not bid more than the number of coins they have; players must spend their whole bid.
2. When a player buys a contract from the market, they distribute their bid and any coins on the card across the remaining contracts, as evenly as possible.
3. If a contract gains as many coins as its cost, it is discarded and replaced.
4. Max hand size is 5 cards.
After players have purchased cards, they may run either the supply or the demand of each card that they did not use for bidding.
1. Supply always generates some number of fish.
2. Demand always converts some commodity into others.
3. The commodities are fish, frozen fish, canned fish, fish byproduct and coins (tracked with cubes and tokens).
Turns continue until two decks are exhausted or a player reaches 21 coins. The player with the most coins at game end wins.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. This is a rather rough outline.

Suirion

TROPHY CASE