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Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

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Anonymous

Hi:

I am new to posting but have been reading posts for some time now.

We have a prototype for an educational board game for kids, 7-14. The board game is based on a group/classroom version of a game that we have been using for several years in the kids' camps that we operate.

We have pitched the group/classroom version to several potential sponsors who are considering the idea of sponsoring it as a school assembly program.

I am in charge of taking the board game side of the concept to the next level.

We have considered self-publishing and then selling the board game to schools/educational supply houses and/or government agencies instead of retail toy stores. Any thought on whether this would be a possible route to take? A better route to take? More profitable? More bureacracy? Looking for opinions here.

I have also considered going to a publisher like Out of the Box, but am concerned about confidentiality (especially since we have already had sincere interest from some major companies (not game-related) to potentially sponsor the group/classroom version). I truly believe it is a winner and would not want our game "snatched".

Out of the Box states that they will not sign non-disclosures. Why do you think that is? Would you still trust presenting an idea to them or others like them? How do you balance the fear of someone snatching your idea with the need to get the idea out?

Also, any opinion on Out of the Box? Do you think Out of the Box would be open to/able to help us funnel the product through school/government agency channels as well as more tradtional ones?

Sorry for so many questions - I feel like we have one chance to do this the right way.

I think your organzation is such a blessing - especially to people in our situation. Thank you for providing this website and for sharing your ideas.

Sincerely, Lisa

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

I am not aware of any publisher that will sign a non-disclosure agreement, and there is one very, very good reason for it: publishers receive hundreds and thousands of submissions each year, and develop games in-house as well. If a publisher like Out of the Box was working on a game that was very similar to yours, or had recently reviewed a submission that was very similar to yours, and decided to go ahead with publishing it, then read your submission under non-disclosure, they'd have a very hard time proving the game they were about to release wasn't invented by you. You'd have a non-disclosure in hand, signed by them, and they'd be stuck not being able to discuss it, publish it, or anything, for concern that you'd sue them, even though they hadn't stolen your idea at all. It's very, very risky for them to sign one, and they receive plenty of submissions all the time without one, so there's simply no percentage in it for them.

As far as Out of the Box the company, I have only heard extremely positive things. They have a great reputation in the industry, that I've ever heard.

On the educational sales channel in general: in one company of mine we attempted to work the educational channel and found one major barrier: they have almost no discretionary money to spend. Money is very, very tight, and in general if what you're proposing isn't taking the place of something they're doing now, you'll have a hard time making a sale.

That said, there are certainly distributors who service the education market, from direct sales to schools to education stores to teachers' conferences. I have no idea if Out of the Box is in this market, but if the education market is who you're looking to target, I certainly suggest that you ask them about it, and look into education supply distributors in general.

-- Matthew

Anonymous
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

Matthew:

Thank you so much for your very detailed response. I appreciate your comments about Out of the Box. If we decide to go that route, you definitely made me feel a bit more secure about it.

As for your attempts in the education market, may I ask, did you approach schools individually? At the school district level? Or at a state level, i.e., Dept. of Education, etc.

Thanks, Lisa

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

We approached on the state and district level. Attempts to approach schools were pushed back to the district every time (though of course my sample size is maybe 10-12 schools before we just stopped trying that route, and we may have just hit the "wrong" ones).

I read in a couple of places -- though I'm sorry that I can't find references right now, it's been about 5 or 6 years now -- that things like games are often purchased by teachers themselves, and not out of some kind of budget but rather out of their own pockets, and this despite the fact that they're generally not well paid. They commonly have no budget at all, and often even have to buy regular classroom supplies out of their own pockets.

That doesn't mean, of course, that school systems have no money, necessarily. And I'm sure that's not true of all teachers.

-- Matthew

CDRodeffer
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Joined: 08/04/2008
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

However you get your educational games printed, whether self-published, contracted through someone, or picked up by a regular game publisher, it would be a good idea to try to advertise in places like edplay, who reach all kinds of educational and toy stores. Nasco may also be a good place to sell through.

Clark Rodeffer

Chip
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

Stores like Lakeshore Learning, www.lakeshorelearning.com, target educators. This is the type of store that teachers will frequent to purchase extra little things for their classrooms, such as gomes that don't get supplied by the school. Sometimes, as Matthew suggested, they'll pay out of their own pocket. Other times they have a budget. And in some cases, they'll use gift cards provided by parents to purchase stuff for the classroom. In any of these cases, what gets purchased is typically at the discretion of the individual teacher.

Chip

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

A very large and burgeoning educational market is homeschooling, where parents are buying their own supplies (at the education supply stores I previously mentioned, like Chip's Lakeshore Learning example). The market has been growing very rapidly, and could be ideal. Such homeschoolers tend to share resources with each other, so there's a pretty big word-of-mouth network that you can tap, too.

-- Matthew

Anonymous
Educational Game Market

Hi -

My company GameStar Designs Inc has been manufacturing games for the last 10 years and some of them have been educational games. We have learned that it is way to time consuming and expensive to try to land a public school contract, so we mostly attend industry tradeshows.

There's a few big ones (educational tradeshows) in the USA. One in Dallas, One in CA and a couple in New York. Thousands of buyers nationwide attend these shows to find and buy new products for their schools and classrooms.

With a well developed marketing plan vendors can make highly profitable sales at these shows. The show vendor fees will vary to rent booths, but if your serious about going into this business, then you need to attend at least a couple of them. Plus, this will save your company a whole lot of leg work and travel.

Visit ASTRA.org or tmi.org , because these two organizations are well oiled industry networking machines. Also, checkout toydirectory.com and look into marketing on this site (you'll understand why I recommend this site after you have visited it).

Good Luck - Nventit

Anonymous
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

Thank you all for your excellent suggestions and insight.

I will keep you posted on what I may learn as we begin this process.

Lisa

ensor
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Joined: 08/23/2008
Educational game - opinion on trying to sell to schools? Gov

Re: Out of the Box and educational games, their website lists them as attending the NSSEA Ed Expo 2005:

http://www.nssea.org/events/edexpo/EdExpo.cfm

So they might be willing to work with games that have an educational bent; a few of their reviews of Apples to Apples are from speech therapists and teachers.

Good luck with your game, however you decide to pursue the process.

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