The Production Process: Prototype is complete: Now what?

This is a pretty broad question, and one could write a book as an answer (actually many have - check them out if you haven't yet). In fact, after reviewing my response, this almost is a book itself. Gah! But sticking mainly to your steps:

1) Be sure "finishing prototype" includes lots and lots of testing with people you barely know (or better yet, don't know at all). Then when you think you're done play testing, test a bunch more.

2) If you have no artistic skill yourself, you are smart to seek it elsewhere rather than trying to fake it. There really isn't a "right" way to locate an artist, just as you might find a realtor, accountant, or babysitter by referral, advertisement, chance encounter at a party, etc. You're probably more likely to find just a "graphic artist" as opposed to a "graphic artist that specializes in games". As such, you should expect to provide the requirements such as size, color vs B&W, bleed, resolution and format of digital files, etc. If you want to keep costs low, seek out talented high school or college students. There have also been people who post to this site on occasion seeking graphic design work, so search for those. Look at other online forums geared toward illustrators and graphic artists and you may find some folks that way too. Depending on where you live, you might ask local newspapers or other publications who they work with for illustrations. The other route would be to work with an actual game designer (many game manufacturers provide graphic art services in house too) and they can basically design your game for you, if you have deep enough pockets.

3) I assume by "publisher" you mean "manufacturer" since you are also talking about price quotes. A publisher would (ideally) be paying you (via licencing and royalty) rather than you paying them. :-) So, when you are ready to locate a manufacturer, be sure to write up a detailed request for quotation (RFQ) with itemized components and get as specific about sizes, numbers, paper stocks, etc. as you can possibly be. Many manufacturers have their own forms that you fill out to receive a quote. What I did was to write my RFQ and post it on a website and then send an email to about a dozen companies with a link to my RFQ to save myself from filling out their forms. About nine responded with bids of varying quality. I narrowed those down to three and called them each and talked with the president or project manager. Some questions you ask is what they have done in the past and are doing now, how long they've been in the business, etc. They also usually have this stuff on their website. Some will send you packets in the mail with samples. The Web Resources of this site, discovergames.com and several other sites that you find when Googling keywords like game manufacturing, boardgame printing, etc. have references to firms you should consider requesting bids from.

4) Some game manufacturers will also either be able to make or will procure and assemble specialty components like dice, pencils, timers, vacuum trays, etc. Include these in your RFQ and some firms will say they can take care of it, others won't. I chose the ones that could do everything since I didn't want to be bothered having to hunt down various things myself. It's a time/cost tradeoff, but IMO the little extra cost is worth not having to deal with the extra logistics hassle of multiple vendors.

5) Indeed, the least expensive quotes you will get back from manufacturers will be from those manufacturers who either have manufacturing in Asia, or outsource manufacturing to an Asian company. For the most part, the fact that the manufacturing is done in China will be transparent to you. The company headquartered here in the US or Canada or wherever that you will be writing a check out to will deal with the folks in the Chinese factory to ensure your requirements are met and quality is good. You will review proofs and provide your approval. Other than that, you don't really care too much about where the stuff is made other than you need to factor in the few thousand dollars you'll have to spend on shipping by sea and the time that your inventory will take to make the journey (6-10 weeks). Actually going to China is definitely not necessary unless you wish to be far more involved in the details than I would want to be.

6) Distribution is big and complex. If you have no connections or experience in the game industry, try to find people who do and let them get you started. Some of the game manufacturers also handle order fulfillment and warehousing for you if you want. Fewer even offer some level of sales representation on a commission basis. Otherwise, going it your own requires going to the major game conventions, contacting retailers on your own (not likely to be very effective on anything other than a very small scale), and contacting distributors on your own. Look up the dimensions of 20' and 40' seatainers (cargo shipping containers), and figure out how many units can fit in those (add a bit of extra space for master shipping boxes that hold your game boxes in sets of 6 or 12 or whatever). Each 20' seatainer from China to US coast is ~$3000, 40' is maybe $5000 ballpark.

All that said, I am still just in the process of manufacturing my first batch of games (in China) and have not yet gotten as far as distribution and retail, so take that in to account when deciding how much credibility to give my ramblings.

Fun stuff.

I totally agree with Darkehorse in this.
When you are ready with the prototype, have the prototyped reviewed and tested (and blind tested). When you are satisfied with the game and know that all possible flaws are removed, then you still have test to do and should plan for them.
After the game has the new graphics and the right components you should do a new test of the game. When you now test the game (try to use a blind test group and play it yourself), you will check that:
- The look and feel is what you expected.
- No parts are misunderstood because of the new graphics.
- You still have a good overview of the game.
It is better to change the coloring, fonts and sizes now then after the game is printed and distributed.

// Johan

Sorry, I hope I didn't jump the gun. I should have recognized the Gamefest avatar immediately. My apologies.

-Darke

This is a good topic, Ryan ... thanks for starting it, and I can see why/where you want to track it -- I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on it. BrainCog's post was very good info for me to put into the back of my head for a later date.

One question I have for you, Ryan ... what took you to want to start up your own game publishing company instead of just pitch your game to an existing publisher?

-Bryk

Assuming you're looking at the hobby market (or other small retail market, as opposed to the mass market), I highly recommend the Game Manufacturers Association, aka GAMA, at http://www.gama.org

If you join as a publisher, they've got all kinds of excellent info for you: who the big distributors are, what kinds of terms to expect, how to find the right manufacturer, what to know from a tax standpoint, etc. IIRC they have a whole packet like that, which you receive when joining. Also IIRC, it wasn't very expensive or anything.

And then at the GAMA Trade Show -- GTS -- you can show your finished game or solid prototype to retailers (to get them interested) and have a great chance to talk with those distributors face-to-face, even work out terms right there (a lot of business gets done at GTS).

To sum, you're probably aware of GAMA and the GTS, but perhaps not the plethora of information that they can provide to you.

-- Matthew

Maybe you can become a publisher rather than a game designer. There are lots of people in the forum who will love to have someone taking care of the business and pay royalties to them for publishing their games. Maybe something like Z-man's monster game contest can suit your interests. You can have a clear idea of what kind of game you want to publish, and set a contest based on that. I bet you'll get lots of proposals, many of them from very good game designers. You'll just have to playtest, decide and make business.

That would cost you nothing (just the proposal reviewing and game playtesting) and would free you from the burden of designing the game(s).

Just a thought.

Seo