42 thoughts on “Hitchhiker’s guide to Game Manufacturers”

1. 

   Matthew Austin on November 14, 2013

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   Great list! We’re getting ready to pick a manufacturer for our Chaosmos Kickstarter, so this is an amazing help!

   (A small typo on the list – “NFS Games” should actually be “NSF Games”)

2. 

   Mike D on November 19, 2013

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   James,

   What a great post! I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!

   \I am thinking of doing a small(er) run of custom coins, and was wondering what manufacturer listed above did you use for your coins? It looks like they do great work, I’ll have to wait for my Dragon Coins to arrive to be sure though! 🙂

   Thanks again James!

3. 

   Joe Morrissey on November 20, 2013

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   Thanks for the list James. This is a great breakdown. Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.

4. 

   Waning Gibbous Games LLC on June 28, 2014

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   Excellent list!

   I’ll second the comments on Cartamundi: I used them for my first game and the final quality of the product was excellent. Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick (I was offered space on the US or China production lines), and their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility. (our minimum order was different between the US and China lines too)

   Hope that helps!

5. 

   Niketa on July 21, 2014

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   For the first time publisher, how many quantities do you guys recommend? 500 OR 1000?

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     James Mathe on July 21, 2014

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     Printing under 1000 is not possible at a reasonable price without going to POD services. The manufacturers who are willing to do only 1000 copies tend to be those that are more desperate for work (thus, maybe they don’t do as good of a job so they don’t get repeat business). So I tend to avoid them. So the answer is typically 1500 as that’s a reasonable price point and quantity to sell. I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.

     • 

       Niketa on July 22, 2014

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       Thank you for your answer. It just seems daunting to print 1000 games (for now) without any pre-orders. What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment? Talk to retailers? Talk to distributor?

       • 

         James Mathe on July 23, 2014

         That is what you use Kickstarter for. Set your goal to what it costs to make 1000 and it either funds from support for the idea or it doesn’t. Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it. If you’re having issues with all this – then maybe you’re better off shopping the game around to publishers. And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you. Most won’t even support you directly if your game does get printed. It’s a crowded market. That’s why fulfillment companies like Impressions exist.

   • 

     James Mathe on July 21, 2014

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     If however you’re ONLY doing a card game, then services like http://www.DriveThruCards.com and http://www.TheGameCrafter.com and http://www.PrinterStudio.com can do decent POD cards in any quantity.

6. 

   C on July 25, 2014

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   Add Reaper Miniatures. I don’t know how they can help creators, but they bailed out Torn Armor when Defiance Games refused to return the money given to them, citing miniature renders that they could not use. Likewise, I’d remove or wholly not recommend Defiance Games. Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.

   Thanks for the info, tho. I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned. IMO, Who the manufacturer is is *very* important in my backing decision.

7. 

   Rich Garza on November 29, 2014

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   I recently contacted Paragon Packing based on your recommendations. Just thought you may want to be aware of the following MOQ:

   “We manufacture domestically. Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games. We have a $100 charge per quotation.

   Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.”

   Yikes!!

   • 

     James Mathe on November 29, 2014

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     Yeah, they seemed overly smooth talking when I spoke with them. They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams. Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no. Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true. USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.

8. 

   Linton Hughes on April 20, 2015

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   MPC seem to be getting into fulfillment services too now.

   I used them to POD a couple of sets of cards for play-testing, and haven’t spoken to them directly about what they offer in terms of fulfillment – but from their website they certain talk as if they can do it. Will let you know when I actually contact them what they say they can do.

9. 

   boardgamesmaker on May 5, 2015

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   Hi,

   Just want to introduce a new website http://www.boardgamesmaker.com, for supplying all kinds of board game component without MOQ. Please feel free to visit. 🙂

   boardgamesmaker.com

10. 

    Alfred V. on May 12, 2015

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    Very helpful James, thank you for the list.

    I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production (in my case).

    First order: quality was good with some minor problems – box top/bottom did not have enough difference in size so box was a sort of hard to open; in some sets pawns were of the same type, but different plastic (while most were from normal in some sets blue pawns were translucent); prints were very good
    Second Order: quality has dropped (but this could be due to very short deadline we had); specially in cards, board game was still very good, but again punched card stands were in wrong color (all blue stands came orange …)

    accept their sales guy who does speak good english their language skills were quite poor
    they do tend to achieve the deadline with minimum delays (few days)
    they are trying hard to get every customer demand done

    you can check some of their products (images) on our website: http://www.valueadgames.com

11. 

    Tony on June 30, 2015

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    You were right – go read your blogs! Very informative list! Thanks!

12. 

    Andrew on July 15, 2015

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    Is the MOQ for Paragon supposed to be 500 instead of 5,000? You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.

    • 

      James Mathe on July 15, 2015

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      Thanks originally they told me they did… but they were just yanking my chain as when people they were not excited about working with asked, they set the high amount. So they can do small but only if they want to. Irritating.

13. 

    Donald Long on August 19, 2015

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    When I looked at your list, I couldn’t believe that someone would go at that lenght to help others in the business. Thank you very very much for being so helpful.

    • 

      James Mathe on August 19, 2015

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      You’re welcome. All we ask is you pay-it-forward and help others (and/or back some of our games!)

14. 

    Catarina Jervell on September 10, 2015

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    Hello, this list is very helpful and it’s a crowd world… I also recommend Reading:

    http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/3878/choosing-manufacturer-learn-my-expensive-mistake

    Thank you so much James for helping us out!

    C.

15. 

    Jason on October 17, 2015

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    This is an awesome list, I have used several of these manufacturers.
    James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders (7-10,000)?

    We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing (long shipping times) going over 5,000 units

    Any recommendations for us? We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.

    Thanks!!

    • 

      James Mathe on October 17, 2015

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      If you’re doing enough volume then Grand Prix International (GPI) is a great company that Steve Jackson and others use regularly. I wouldn’t order that much unless you have a Kickstarter that did 75% of that number or an existing hot selling game – else you’re throwing money away. Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man. If found the company that Admagic uses to make CAH and when I got a quote from both parties I saw the same typos and all Admagic did was add $1 to everything (which doesn’t even make much sense as it’s not a %).

16. 

    Jason on October 21, 2015

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    Great points James, I will definitely speak to GPI and I believe Weijei is admagics manufacturer.

    My thoughts were using the US based company like admagic because we would have more recourse if something happened to production (large amount of games we’re damaged, etc.)

    Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China. However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy. I think GPI is a great option though.

    I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game. Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!! We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI. Thanks for your help!

17. 

    Joe Pilkus on January 30, 2016

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    James,

    I’ve read your articles and pages and pages from your website over the last year. As always, it’s organized exceptionally well and easily accessible to designers and developers alike. I’m excited as a game developer for several games, including one, TAU CETI, which was ranked as the #9 Most Anticipated Game of 2016! This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.

    Cheers,
    Joe

18. 

    Chris Amburn on February 5, 2016

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    I don’t know if this is updated regularly, but I recently got my card game printed through PrintNinja and their MOQ was 500. Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.

    • 

      James Mathe on February 5, 2016

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      Yeah if you do cards only PrintNinja is competitive and has small MOQ. But add anything else and they are expensive.

      • 

        Steve Poole on March 25, 2016

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        Hi James,

        We’re considering using PrintNinja for our game cards. Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?

        • 

          James Mathe on March 25, 2016

          100% no way. Get all your game made in one place and don’t self-assemble. That’s a very bad idea.

19. 

    Dorothy on February 14, 2016

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    James:
    Thanks for the invaluable help provided by all of your posts.

    Recent experience with Pandagm:
    Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many (arbitrary) important deviations from specs I submitted. I’m still waiting for corrected quote 10 weeks after initial submission of specs. The question on their website, “Does-panda-have-a-queue-of-projects-waiting-to-be-manufactured?” remains unanswered by the company after 9 months and 348 views.

    Questions:
    Any recent experience as to whether the quality of Panda production remains “excellent”?
    Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?

    • 

      James Mathe on February 14, 2016

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      They as well as many other printers are swamped with all the Kickstarter games. Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them. There are other great printers out there, if you’re not happy with them choose another. They are slow with quotes, but I wouldn’t wait more than 1 month. As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard – much in line with POD companies like TGC. So I would never print my game with them.

20. 

    Jody Pike Mendez on March 15, 2016

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    Extremely helpful list. Looks like we’ll burning more midnight oil as we devour these!

21. 

    Matthew on April 24, 2016

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    I posted a comment noting something that needs to be updated but I forgot to mention: THANK YOU so much for this list! I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together. It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches (which can be bought and bargained for).

    Anywho, wish there were an easy way for me to send you a crisp $5 bill as a Thanks!

22. 

    Loren Cunningham on May 4, 2016

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    Thank you so much for posting this and everything else you do!

    We used Whatz Games to manufacture Transylvania: Curses & Traitors. I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category. They were great to work with.

23. 

    Maher Sagrillo on May 24, 2016

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    I’ve been referencing this list for years and for many reasons. Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.

24. 

    David Zuckman on June 30, 2016

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    Thank you so much for providing this list!

25. 

    Karsten Keese on July 8, 2016

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    I would also strongly recommend Germania Figuren in Duisburg, Germany (http://Germania-Figuren.com/gx2/index.php?language=en). Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality. The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.

    Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr. Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.

    Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

26. 

    Wayan Vota on August 6, 2016

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    I’d like to put in a plug for Liberty Playing Cards if you’re doing a card game. They specialize in 54 card decks (and multiples of that), but I’ve had great success with them doing printing and domestic US fulfillment of 200 card games, so they are flexible. And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days. Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment. I’ve done two card game Kickstarters with them as my printer, delivering to backers lightning fast after the Kickstarter closes.

    Their website: http://www.libertyplayingcards.com/

27. 

    Steve Peaslee on August 12, 2016

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    James, thank you for assembling this awesome list. I have 4 games in different phases of development, and have used TGC for the first one, just to give test-players a “real” game to work with. The box design is a little odd, but looks good. The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over – definitely not good. I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost. Any chance that you’ll be updating this list in the near future?

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      James Mathe on August 12, 2016

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      The list is kept current as I find more information. But not many people send me any updates.

28. 

    Kay Heaton on August 26, 2016

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    Hi James,

    This list invaluable. Let me add my thanks. What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity. ie: 275 poker side cards in a box that holds 500. Some of the card printers don’t have the boxes and the plain insert to hold the cards in place costs a fortune. Also it’s pretty clear that who will do the prototype & samples for the Kickstarter will not be the same people who do the long run. If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long? Also the shipping seems horrendous $1.60 US per game. Clearly I am naive.
    Any advice would be super appreciated.

    • 

      James Mathe on August 26, 2016

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      My advice is to join our Facebook group and learn. In short, though the world doesn’t need another CAH game. If you’re doing just cards you can get things done in the USA at a reasonable cost but if you need boxes or bits, you have to do the whole thing in China. DriveThurCards.com, TheGameCrafter.com, and Print & Play Productions are a good place to get prototypes made depending on what you need. https://www.facebook.com/groups/TabletopKickstarters/

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