SITE INDEX
On my site, you’ll find many posts about the tabletop hobby game industry. From how to run a Kickstarter campaign to things to avoid when designing a board game to where to find manufacturers for your game. My blogs tend… Read more ›
How to BGG
BGG (BoardGameGeek.com) may be intimidating for new designers and publishers, but the parts you actually NEED to use are pretty straightforward once you learn where to look and how they work. Navigation is a bit of a nightmare on BGG… Read more ›
Hitchhiker’s Guide to Business Consultants
People are regularly wanting to hire me to do consulting work for them… But, I’m semi-retired now and don’t really enjoy that kind of work. When told that, most ask who I’d recommend to help them out. While I don’t… Read more ›
Story of The 3 Little Pledge Managers
A pledge manager (PM) is a type of shopping cart and survey website that will help you manage your backer’s rewards after your crowdfunding campaign has completed. Not only will it help you deal with the logistics, tracking orders,… Read more ›
Interview with a Vampire
Ok, so I’m not a Vampire and I’m not as good looking as Brad Pitt… But apparently some people felt it worth their while to interview me over the last few years – and hey, I needed a catchy title. This… Read more ›
Don’t Panic! Know you’re ready to launch.
Recently a friend of mine said he had the pre-launch jitters and while confident with the product, was unsure if he did everything he could to make sure the launch was a success. Given that the first 2 days of… Read more ›
How to get into Distribution?
I have not written on this specific topic before because I use a consolidator which in turn gets me into distribution. They charge extra, but the warehousing, shipping, accounting, and regular contacts they provide with dozens of distributors around the… Read more ›
So you want to be a Game Store owner? PART 3
HOW TO SHOUT IT OUT? Advertising – Yes, you need to do it. Budget a particular amount and spend it every month (1-3% of your Gross is reasonable). When business is slow, it is more important to spend time and… Read more ›
So you want to be a Game Store owner? PART 2
HOW TO DO IT? Timeline – Create a timeline to open. Use it to setup deliveries, promotions, advertising, website & social media pages, events, etc. Start to get the word out and build buzz before you open. Do not run… Read more ›
So you want to be a Game Store owner? PART 1
I own 3 game stores in the Milwaukee (Game Universe) area and with some help from my previous General Manager of the past 5 years: Matthew Vercant who opened up a new store this year in New York called Just… Read more ›
Hitchhiker’s guide to Video Talent
I’m found myself asking for a videographer, audio, and voice over talent again. I also see others ask these questions from time to time. I wasn’t really wanting to take on this task of assembling a list of talent as… Read more ›
Success or Failure – Timing is Everything
“Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” – Henry Ford I recently had the chance to churn through some data of recently Tabletop Game Kickstarter Campaigns thanks to Roger Hicks – though I worked with my own dataset, he… Read more ›
Publishing & Kickstarter Checklist
I have half a dozen Kickstarters to work on this year and I need to keep things on track and straight in my head… so I have this checklist worksheet for tracking all my project milestones. If I need something… Read more ›
Survey Says… KS Usage
Kickstarter has made several great improvements to their systems over the last year. From being able to ask for a shipping amount to a specific country, to providing more useful survey options, to a new post-campaign landing page, to being able to… Read more ›
The Art of the RFQ
This blog is my attempt to help shed some light on all the options (typical thicknesses and paper grades, pantone, etc.) and terms (GSM, Grey-core, 4/4c, etc.) you’ll need to know to talk the business of tabletop game manufacturing with… Read more ›
So you want to be a tabletop game designer…
While many of my blogs go into the details of how to do things right once you have a clue or you already have a start on your game, they fail to answer a common question I’m asked: “Where do… Read more ›
PnP Pingpong: A lesson in freebies?
Recently we created a couple surveys (see data below) to help us understand the value of a print and play version of our games with regard to how people back and purchase our games. But first let’s cover a few basic things:… Read more ›
Games Designers Play
When I’m explaining a new game to someone, many times I find myself saying things like: “It’s simultaneous role selection that you can share, like Race for the Galaxy” or “This part of the game is much like the auction… Read more ›
Dammit Jim, I’m a Publisher, Not a Lawyer
The topic of law, contract, liability, and protection comes up over and over. So I’m writing this blog to point people to when they ask in the future. If this is you: “Wow, I’ve got a great idea! I wonder if… Read more ›
Dead Men Tell No Tales
Well I’m not dead yet, so I have a tale to tell… We recently completed our 14th Kickstarter campaign for Dead Men Tell No Tales (DMTNT) and we did some things differently this time. Our campaign was a huge… Read more ›
To CCG or not to CCG? That is the question.
Every month or so I run across another miss-guided designer making a CCG (Collectible Card Game or Trading Card Game). So again, I’m writing a blog so I don’t have to repeat myself all the time. Let’s be clear,… Read more ›
Post Mortem – I’m not dead yet!
This post is going to be part documentary, part educational, part advice, and part apology to our Kickstarter backers. Minion Games was utterly unprepared to fulfill the logistics and customer service needs of the numerous Kickstarters we successfully funded… Read more ›
Alien – First Contract
First let’s get this right out in the open… No one is going to “buy” your game or pay you a lump sum of money for what you’ve done so far. If you wish your game to see the… Read more ›
Hitchhiker’s guide to Game Distributors
This list is regularly updated. My post about Manufacturers was very well received and I got a request to do one about distributors. I do get asked from time to time to provide this info anyway, so I might as well make… Read more ›
Hitchhiker’s guide to Game Manufacturers
Tabletop Game Manufacturing Companies I’ve personally used half a dozen card and board game Manufacturers over the last few years making our dozen or so games. I will share my personal thoughts / opinions below on these companies. But I… Read more ›
Now what the hell am I to do?
So your Kickstarter is over and it was successful… now what? DO IMMEDIATELY Hopefully right before your campaign ended you remembered to update the story page with your home page URL and last minute info on how to order your product… Read more ›
Facebook Pages & Groups
There are other places to get help on the internet like the BGG design forums or the BGDF, but I’ve found this year that Facebook has served me well. I personally run 3 or 4 groups/pages but there are… Read more ›
In The Face of Reality
There comes a time when you realize your Kickstarter campaign isn’t going to make it… realizing that point and dealing with it is what this article is about. I have studied and talk to many campaigns that had failure in… Read more ›
Trimming the Fat: Board Game on a Diet
A common problem in board game production is how can you control product production costs. One of the most critical things you can do to have a successful reboot of a failed Kickstarer is to bring the overall goal down.… Read more ›
Game Design for Dummies
So, last weekend I drove to Ann Arbor, MI with Matt Loomis and Dustin Oakley where we attended Protospiel.org. We helped a lot of designers with their games. On the way home we complained a bit about how at this and… Read more ›
O Reviewer, Reviewer wherefore art thou!
I have the ears of many up and coming game designers and publishers. I’m constantly asked about board game reviewers and who accepts what. So I thought I’d create a list of game reviewers for all to reference. This survey… Read more ›
Indie No Go
IndieGoGo.com versus Kickstarter.com UPDATE: At bit under half way we are treading toward $60k and have earned over $26k with over 700 backers so far – how can anyone dispute the power of Kickstarter over any other site? There are… Read more ›
Please Don’t Pee in the Sandbox!
Don’t Pee in the Sandbox… I have worn many hats in my days, from retailer to publisher, from designer to project manager, from e-book distributor to Kickstarter fulfillment, from trainee to consultant. I decided I’d share some of the knowledge… Read more ›
The Enlightened Path to Virtual Popularity
The Enlightened Path to Virtual Popularity I’ve seen many great looking games or great ideas just languish on Kickstarter and they really did a good job with their campaign page. So what went wrong? In almost all these… Read more ›
Myth Busters – Kickstarter Referrer Page?
Myth Busters – Kickstarter Referrer Page? UPDATE: Kickstarter added google analytics at the end of April 2015 which really help track referrals. A good primer was posted here: http://www.spellforgegames.com/kickstarter-and-google-analytics-a-guide-for-kickstarter-campaigns/ REFERRALS I am in the unique position of having run many… Read more ›
Exclusive Interview With Minion Games Owner James Mathe
(Copied from the Arcive.org entry as this page on CrowdFundingRoadmap.com is dead now): We recently had the privilege of interviewing James Mathe, one of Kickstarter’s most successful crowdfunders. He shares a lot of useful insight on crowdfunding campaign best practices… Read more ›
Courting a Game Publisher – DO’s and DON’Ts
Courting a Game Publisher – DO’s and DON’Ts Believe it or not, there is an etiquette when submitting (pitching) your game to Publishers. Publishers receive many submissions and just like submitting a resume for a job, the simplest things… Read more ›
Kicking & Screaming
Kickstarter Advice Guide This checklist was created to help people avoid the pitfalls of, and run, a successful campaign for a card or board game through Kickstarter. Kickstarter is like a mall, the worlds biggest, they bring the customers… Read more ›
Myth Busters – Board Game Designers episode
I get asked the same questions a lot and I see post after post resurface on forums about some common topics. So I thought I’d get on the pedestal again and preach. In many cases the answer is specific to… Read more ›
10,000 Feet to Publishing a Board Game
So you want to start a board game company? I could go into a page of details of each of these bullet points below (and maybe I will in the future), but for now I wanted to just take the… Read more ›
Exclusive Deals Suck!
So in 2012 hobby game stores saw a lot of growth in the board game realm. MTG is also up. We saw a new show hosted by Wil Wheaton bring some people into our hobby world. Things should be going… Read more ›
Some Useful Kickstarter Links
Kickstarter Best Practices group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/138469072961355/ Card & Board Game Designers Guild https://www.facebook.com/groups/320445024722916 Eduardo Baraf – Kickstarter Basics http://www.baraf.com/league-of-gamemakers-videos/ Crowdfunding Google+ Group https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/118380390691616458392 BoardGameGeek Kickstarter Forums: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/forum/915012/kickstarter/general http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/746926/kickstarter-announcements-thread Quora kickstarter category http://www.quora.com/Kickstarter Funding the Dream podcast: http://www.buzzsprout.com/4646 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epvJtKthsCo&feature=youtu.be KickstarterHQ… Read more ›
Kickstarter Conversations – Hegemonic Interview
UPDATE: I was also featured on Funding the Dream podcast ep 247 & 251 here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/4646/268446-ep-247-kickstarter-vs-board-game-stores-with-james-mathe https://www.buzzsprout.com/4646/268448-ep-251-james-mathe-kickstarter-survey-results As well as a video interview with Meeple Syrup Show: Below is a copy of an interview I did with Kickstarter Conversations:… Read more ›
Board games by the numbers: what it costs to Kickstart, produce, and ship a new game
(REPOSTED FROM PENNY ARCADE) Minion Games has just launched a new Kickstarter campaign for their upcoming board game Hegemonic. That’s not very newsworthy. What is impressive is the fact that this is the company’s sixth Kickstarter campaign, and they’ve finished and shipped a board… Read more ›