Advice Requested: Publishing a Game

[Shatner]

I design board games as a hobby but I have never actually taken one of them beyond "play with a couple of friends". I'd like to at least dip my toe in the board game industry but I have no idea how one goes about getting a game published, nor do I have an idea of what pitfalls there are to avoid. If anyone has experiences they'd like to share, or resources they'd like to point out, I'd very much appreciate it.

I mean, do I contact some game publisher, like Fantasy Flight Games or Z-Man Games, and set up a demo with someone? Do I self-publish and then try to use an intermediary for distribution? Is there cause for concern about intellectual theft of an as-yet unpublished game? I really have no idea about any of this.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any info you all have.

[Meikle641]

Well, we're in somewhat of the same boat. I ended up contacting Chaosium about licensing and such when I began my ongoing project, and they sent an example contract as well.

No idea how other companies do it, though.

[Shatner]

Were you wanting to license Chaosium I.P. for use in the thing (game? story?) you're creating or do you mean something else?

[Meikle641]

Basically, I'm revising BRP (their d100 system used in their products) and making a campaign setting to go with it. So, basically I asked permission to do so. Once my material is complete and playtested I'll sign the publishing contract, I suppose.

[Manxome]

Well, I wouldn't bother contacting Fantasy Flight, specifically, because they have in-house designers and don't accept unsolicited game submissions.

There was an article about this in the Penny Arcade Report that might interest you. Short version: the guy in the article made prototypes of his games and set up appointments with publishers at a giant board-gaming conference.

(You've probably heard this before, but having a playable prototype is really important. Game concepts are a dime a dozen; 99% of the work is the implementation.)

I've got a few board games released through a small publisher (Victory Point Games), which I basically lucked into because my boss is friends with the guy who runs VPG. That said, they do accept submissions and can do very small print runs, so you could likely get them to publish your game if you want. However, it might take quite a while (I understand they've got a backlog) and they don't have a lot of marketing muscle (their top games have lifetime sales in the single-thousands). Though you sign a non-exclusive contract and get to keep your IP, so at least if something better comes along you can still do it.

I once pitched some games to Cryptozoic. They said they liked one of them, borrowed the prototype, dodged my emails for 3 months, and eventually decided they weren't interested.

I heard one story from a guy who said that you should never agree to stop showing your game to other publishers while one particular publisher considers it.

I don't think intellectual theft should be much of a worry; it's not like you can just look at a game and tell whether it's going to be a big hit, so there's little incentive to steal a game from Joe No-Name Designer. People like to copy games that are already proven successes. At least, that's what I hear.

[Zinegata]

Manxome-> Which games did you design for VPG? Depending on the answer I might set up a small shrine in your honor .

Also, I'll echo your comment about "intellectual theft". In my discussions with members of the Canadian Game Artisans group they've actually established rules for sharing ideas (and it boils down to "Don't sweat over it")

[Manxome]

Manxome-> Which games did you design for VPG?

Darkest Night, a fantasy co-op where the players resist a conquering necromancer; reminiscent of Arkham Horror

For the Crown, a cross between Chess and Dominion where you can use cards to make special moves on the chessboard or exchange them for new pieces

Destined Hero, a strategy game where you play as competing forces of destiny and seed a fantasy world with monsters, treasures, traps, allies, etc. and then a hero tries to fight his way through them

Currently working on expansions for Darkest Night and For the Crown; at some point when one of their artists has the time we should get to Gem Rush, a light strategy game about building a magical gem mine, and Hunt, a deduction/combat game where the players are bounty hunters after a supernatural monster but one of the players secretly is the monster (both are fully designed but waiting in the production pipeline).

If anyone happens to be going to Orccon in a couple weeks, I'm on their event schedule hosting each of my published games.

[Zinegata]

Cool, our group actually had Darkest Night until the owner moved to Australia. Awesome! *builds shrine*

[Shatner]

Manxome, thanks for the info. I'm still sussing out the design of the game, but I have every intention of building a playable demo and playtesting the hell out of it within my gaming group before going on the demo tour.

If you know of any other publishers, or of any other publisher hubs (such as the aforementioned conference), or just good sources that have this sort of info, I'd very much appreciate it. I plan to watch that PA video ASAP.

[Avoraciopoctules]

An expansion for Darkest Night? Hell yeah! My group's copy is really fun when nobody feels like running a game or there's a party and we want something accessible to new players.

What's going to be in the expansion?

[Manxome]

What's going to be in the expansion?

At minimum, new playable characters, events, and artifacts. I'm currently testing a new "quests" mechanic.