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School Competition

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Tue, 01/05/2010 - 16:23
jessevans91
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Joined: 01/05/2010

Hi, I am currently studying at school for my A-levels in the UK. Me and a group of friends have entered a competition where you have to design a board game teaching finance to young people aged 14-16.

I am doing some research into board games and I was wondering if anyone knew about how much it costs to produce a game, what kind of profit margins can you get on a basic game? I know it is quite a general question as there are lots of different price ranges in board games but any help would be appreciated :).

Thanks a lot, Jess Evans

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Tue, 01/05/2010 - 17:17
#1
Dralius
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Joined: 07/26/2008
Hope this helps

Don't forget volume. A single deck of card might cost $5 to produce if you’re only making 500 but may cost a $1.25 if you’re making 20,000.

Here in the US when you’re looking at game on a store self you can expect that it cost the manufacturer 1/5 to 1/6 the SRP. There are allot of people getting their cut, distributors, retailers etc..

So let’s imagine that you have made a game that cost $5 to manufacture at 10,000 units. This is not including the artwork and development that got it ready to publish.

So you mark it up x5 to $25 the distributer buys it for 40% of that so you’re getting $10 each. If you were able to sell all 10,000 units you would make get back cool 100K – the 50K+ you already spent in which you would be paying the entire staff and all other bill from such as promotion & warehousing.

Oh ya and don’t forget the royalties for the designer, We need to eat too. That will cost you another 3-7% depending on the nature of the contract.

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Tue, 01/05/2010 - 17:20
#2
CloudBuster
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Joined: 04/14/2009
It depends

Hi Jess,

The costs for producing a game can vary a lot. Perhaps someone will tell me I'm way off base, but it seems to me there are too many factors to list to give you an idea for a general costs. How big is the board? How many pieces do you have? Is it a roll the dice and land on a space type game? Is it a card game? How many units do you want? Are you truly trying to market and sell your game? How much time do you have to do this?

I know that's a lot of questions, but answering them might give us a better idea of what you need. I asked about your time frame because I wanted to know if you've got time to read a book I enjoyed called "The Game Inventor's Handbook" by Steve Peek. This book is out of print now and many things are out of date (for instance...there's a LOT you can do on the Internet that you couldn't do before). Still...he goes into good detail about the BUSINESS of making a game and selling it. Those sections are still relevant today. (Caveat: I believe this is specifically for the United States. I don't know if things work the same way in the UK or not. I still believe his tips are good, though. You'll learn a lot.)

Check out the prototyping section of this board to get ideas on how to make cards and other useful tips.

Here are some websites that'll provide some good information, too:

www.thegamecrafter.com <--This is a pretty cool site. Looks like you can do everything in one place. They've got a little pricing calculator thingy so you can figure out how much it'll cost you to do everything through them. You can even sell your game through this site!

http://www.barebooks.com/gameboards.htm <--These guys sell game kits that come with blank boards, pawns, timers, money etc. They're very inexpensive and might work for prototyping and playtesting before you get serious about making things look the way you want.

http://www.plasticsforgames.com/ <--You can get all manner of game parts from here. Quite an extensive selection of various bits and parts.

I hope this has been helpful. Good luck!

-CB-

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Tue, 01/05/2010 - 17:23
#3
CloudBuster
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Joined: 04/14/2009
Dralius wrote:Don't forget

Dralius wrote:
Don't forget volume. A single deck of card might cost $5 to produce if you’re only making 500 but may cost a $1.25 if you’re making 20,000.

Here in the US when you’re looking at game on a store self you can expect that it cost the manufacturer 1/5 to 1/6 the SRP. There are allot of people getting their cut, distributors, retailers etc..

So let’s imagine that you have made a game that cost $5 to manufacture at 10,000 units. This is not including the artwork and development that got it ready to publish.

So you mark it up x5 to $25 the distributer buys it for 40% of that so you’re getting $10 each. If you were able to sell all 10,000 units you would make get back cool 100K – the 50K+ you already spent in which you would be paying the entire staff and all other bill from such as promotion & warehousing.

Oh ya and don’t forget the royalties for the designer, We need to eat too. That will cost you another 3-7% depending on the nature of the contract.

AH! See? He was able to provide you with some general information! He posted his before I got my response saved and posted.

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Wed, 01/06/2010 - 12:28
#4
jessevans91
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Joined: 01/05/2010
Thanks

Thank you so much that is so helpful. I'm so glad that I found this website... I have ordered the book to read. The game is going to be a flat board with a spiral on it, you progress through the spiral from child to old age and with each age you have to make financial decisions like which bank account to open and what type of loan to take out etc. The questions will be on cards- like chance cards in monopoly- for each age range. I don't think we will actully make it because it is a school competition and we all have exams to concentrate on :(. It would be a square that would fit onto a desk. Thank you so much again :)

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