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How to propose my game

5 replies [Last post]
Anonymous

Hello...

How im gonna start this.I ve seen a lots of cool and creative game design here and it s make me so excited to be part of this group.I have this game that i ve been working on for 5 years.Its a Board/Card genre and its a tactical war type of game.The reason this game is still in making for after 5 years is because there were lots of rules changed base on the game's physical limitation and i work on it whenever i m free or when my ideas started to kick in.Anyway now its a physical process where my game rules are been well re written,and looking for the best way to make a presentable playing board and cards.
My real problem is i dont have any friends or connection who into board/card game designing and the hardest part is i live in the small country where board/card games fans are rare to find.For your information i live in Malaysia on the main town called Kuala Lumpur...not because they dont know about the existence of the manual games but they all just prefer
digital game stuff....
I dont want that to stop my passion in makin games and i want to do something about it...so i found this great forum.As my prototype game is still in process,i would like some information about how to make it happen...

- How to propose a board/card game to a game company?
- Which company accept a board/card game ideas?
- Is it possible to propose the game through internet?and how if it does?

This are the basic question for now and im also looking for any person here who interested to share ideas and trade information with me in making manual games.Who knows ,we might do a co-op kinda thing on making games...

Hope to hear from you guys soon...
Peace!

Hegemon
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Joined: 12/31/1969
How to propose my game

Hi There,

Good luck with your tactical wargame. In order to find out which wargame publishering companies are most likely to want to see your game, you probably should go to each wargame company's website and look for a "submissions" policy and/or contact information. For example, here's a page from the One Small Step website telling you who to write to talk about a submission.
http://www.ossgames.com/theteam/contact.html

For a list of wargame companies to start with, go here:
http://www.consimworld.com/index.html
and scroll down to look at the publisher list in the lower right hand corner of the page.

Many games are submitted, developed and playtested remotedly over the internet nowadays so your location shouldn't be a problem. I am not familiar with international contract language however, and any small company based here in the US will probably want to pay you in dollars if that works for you.

Anonymous
How to propose my game

Thanx Hegemon

i ll surely will check on it....anyone here interested to trade knowledge about making manual games here,please do message me through my yahoo messenger.Theres a lot i would like to know and learn from you all here....jojo_taro_2000...catch you all later...

Peace!

Anonymous
how is the looks of an example of the prototype

Before i forgot....i would like to know what is the requirement to submit a game proposal to the game company....is it enough if i just submit the rules or they re prefering a complete prototype of the game.Please show me a good example of a good board game prototype suitable for the proposal.
Thank you...

Peace!

zaiga
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
How to propose my game

Hello Darkwood_Elf and welcome to the forum!

How you should approach a game company depends on the company. Some companies would like you to fill in a form on their website first, while others want you to send a prototype right away. The latter is not very common though! Usually they want to have a look at the rules of the game before requesting a prototype. In case the company doesn't specifically say anything about how you should approach them, you might follow the common procedure. The common procedure for submitting games to a game publishing company is as follows:

- Write an email to the company saying that you made a game that you think is worthy of publication. Most publishers get dozens of such emails every week, so explain what makes the game original/unique/different/fun, why you think they should publish it and that you would happily provide them a prototype of the game if they are interested.

- If you are lucky they are interested in the game and want to playtest it. Send them a prototype of the game. It would be nice if your prototype looks good, but you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars making it. Just make sure that the prototype is complete and playable right out of the box. Also, don't forget to include the rules, and make sure the rules are easy to understand. The main reason why publishers reject most prototypes is because of poorly written rulebooks.

Before contacting any game company, though, make sure you did your research properly. Are there existing games that are perhaps too similar to yours? Is the game up to par with the standard of modern gaming? The http://www.boardgamegeek.com website is a great resource to get an indication of what's hot and not in the current world of boardgames, although you have to take that with a grain of salt as well. Did you playtest the game with different groups of people? Did you playtest the rules? Did you have several successful consecutive plays of the game without any significant rules changes? Does your game fit into the product line of the publisher (ie. don't submit a wargame to a publishers who does children's games, etc)?

Most people tend to send a game to a publisher too early, meaning that the game is a bit too rough and that it should have gone through a bit more development. On the other hand, some designers just keep working endlessly on a prototype, tweaking small things without actually making the game better, but never ever really being satisfied enough with it to send it to a publisher for review. It's a balancing act. If you aren't sure, my advice would be to just go for it and approach a publisher. The worst thing that can happen is getting a "no", which won't do much more than bruise your ego...

Anyway, good luck!

onew0rd
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Joined: 12/31/1969
How to propose my game

WARNING: onew0rd has never had a game published, submitted a game to a game company or done anything more than create some suspect prototype games and dreamed like nobody’s business about one day being published.

That aside, I really feel a nice way to get your game out there would be to make about 20 VERY NICE prototypes and spend some money on getting some space at a large convention. Bring a friend and play the game there. As people pass by ask them if they want to play or learn. You could probably find people who would sit there for a couple of hours and hang out/play for a free copy if they show some interest initially. This type of thing grows exponentially. If you get a crowd you will sell probably sell 3-5 copies. For a surefire crowd go the “sex appeal” route and get 2 good looking girls to sit down and play. Low cut shirts that show some skin can’t hurt either. There’s nothing unethical about playing to your target demographic’s sensibilities. If I am random young guy hanging out at a con and a nice looking girl asked me to sit down and play a game, it could be Candyland for all I care. If the game is actually good, I will probably have a good time and want to buy it. It doesn't take an expert or a marketing genius to figure this one out.

Also, make some time to travel to some of the larger game company areas and submit the game personally. This way you could discuss it and they could possibly see it bring played. I know this may be more difficult for you because of your geographic location, but it would probably be a fun trip anyhow, plus a more direct way to build some nice relationships with publishers.

The idea is to have a very nice prototype with some eye candy and such. It doesn’t have to be production perfect, but it has to be something someone would pay for and enjoy.

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