Hi,
My son and I are in the process of developing a ccg that he created and I just recently learned about your site. I've gained some valuable info here (had never heard of Delano, for instance) and hope to learn more, but I also think I have some things to share, so here's our story.
My son created a ccg called "Mage Warfare" and asked me for some feedback and help and before we knew it, we had 500 cards. We put the card stats into a database, used Word's Mail Merge to slap them into tables with card-sized cells, had them printed and cut at our local Kinko's (because they're open when I get out of work), put them in card holders with other ccg cards for backing :) and asked the owner of our local card shop if we could playtest there. She was happy to let us try it out.
We play tested for months and got so many good responses that we decided to move forward with a website (http://www.magewarfare.com) and to start soliciting artwork as well as set up a business.
Play testing has continued as we've gotten about 40 artists contributing pics and a card design from a graphics designer I used to work with. In the meantime, I've been pursuing the business end.
I'm a member of a loan group of Micro Credit NH (http://www.microcreditnh.org), a non-profit agency that provides loans for small businesses. I've also been meeting with a representative from SCORE (http://www.score.org), a network of retired businessfolk who advise people starting a business, for free.
We have a genral business plan, but the specifics have been difficult because I was finding it hard to nail down the cost of production. Until recently. I got a quote from a printer broker, and it was quite an eye-opener. Much more money than we have available to us. This estimate, however, included tuck boxes and finseal packs, cellowrap, diecut POP display boxes... the works. I just needed to know what it would take to put us on shelves next to the big boys. Well, now I know... 8O
So, we've revised the plan. Instead of going for all the fancy packaging, we're going for a subset of the full compliment of cards, a much more modest print run and little to no packaging. We will market it as a home-grown game and this print run will never be reproduced (and it won't). The store owner has agreed to sell them on consigment as well, so that we can raise the capital we need to do the full production. We've been playing regular games there for about a year, so we're building a fan base. Plus we've been bringing in samples of our art in form of nice, big posters, which has been making quite an impression. And we just got local press coverage, too. :D
One of the business decisions we made is that we are NOT going to sell this ourselves. It will be our job to promote the game primarily by putting on demos and regular games at stores and let them sell the product. If we go to cons, we'd like to do it in conjunction with retailers; share a booth with them.
Assuming we can get the art done, and that's moving along steadily, we are looking towards spring of 2004 for our first release.
Any thoughts, questions, reactions, feedback, advice, whatever? I'm here to learn and to share what I've learned! :)
Thanks to both of you!
Don't worry about discouraging us; it can't be done! :D We'll find a way to make this work.
I know what you mean, hpox, about the number of ccg's, but so far the response to ours has been very positive and players keep asking when it will be available. We are sensitive to the "money extortion" aspect. My son's frustration with other ccg's is the main reason he came up with his own.
The "game in a box" idea is a good one, but is it really easier to sell that than a deck and packs? I don't know. Would the advantage be that it wouldn't be "just another" ccg? As for production costs, from what little I know, it would be more expensive to produce, since it would require a box and at least two decks. A two-deck starter kit is something we're definitely looking into, though, but not instead of individual decks and packs. Thoughts?
As for "hiring" artists, Deviant, it would be very expensive to hire that many artists, if we were paying them up front. :) The agreement we have with all the artists is that we will pay them out of potential profits. We're still amazed at how many good artists we've gotten to take that gamble. Most are young and trying to break into the business and just want to get their name out. Others are doing it just for fun.
Deck size for playing is a minimum of 40 cards; decks for sale will likely be 50 cards. The 500 cards listed on our site are the full compliment (well, almost; we're already working on cards for future release :D ) of cards. However, the initial release, to keep down production costs, will be 280 cards.
And I agree about the Starcraft quote. That won't be on the final card. :D
Thanks again and please keep the feedback coming!