| The Retailer Report |
So you've invented a game and want to have it published. Here's some
free advice from an opinionated old game store proprietor.
Spend for quality components and good artwork. Do not have a yellow
box. Do not package a lot of air in your box.
Pick up and handle Cranium and Apples to Apples, which are current and
all time best sellers, to see what kind of "heft" your box should have.
Play these games to see how easy they are to learn and how much fun they
are to play. These are your benchmarks.
Do not emphasize that your game is educational. You may as well brag
that it's boring.
Do submit your game for every kind of award offered.
Test, test and test. "Blind test" your rules three times or more. What
I mean is that you should have folks who are not your friends and
relatives go into a room with your game and one or two competing games.
They should open the games and read the rules and begin to play without
your being present. Listen (on the other side of a two-way mirror or to
a video tape of the session) for problems with understanding the
instructions; slow or frustrating phases of the game. Compare how
easily the group gets going with your game versus the other. See which
they re-play or talk about after. Too often inventors rely on praise
from friends and family. Friends and family are too nice to honestly
critique the game. Or they learned to play from you instead of having
to rely on written instructions. Many games get to market with poorly
written rules. (I will edit game rules for a reasonable fee)
Do not try to or expect to make money on the first print run, which will
cost you at least $20,000. Many, many more games are sold by "pull
through" than by push. Neither your advertising nor our telling people
to play your game will sell very many copies. Most games will be sold to
people who have already had fun playing it at someone else's house. So
you need to get a few thousand people to play and enjoy your game. You
will have to absorb some of these costs.
Do not expect anyone to lend you money to develop the game or to buy
your idea.
Do not price your game according to your expenses. Price it according
to the market. Find a successful game that weighs about the same as
your product. Take the retail (not discount) price of the successful
game, divide by two and make this the wholesale price. Do not have a
suggested retail price that is less than double your wholesale price.
Retailers are not interested in subsidizing your development costs by
cutting their margins, because the retailer's landlord, for example,
will not cut the rent in order to subsidize your development cost.
Do not quit your day job until the second print run.
There is a web site where game inventors share ideas. Observe and learn.
www.discovergames.com
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