Skip to Content
 

ideas for publishing card game

9 replies [Last post]
alfinator
Offline
Joined: 08/22/2008

Hello,
Myself and a couple of friends have been designing a light card game and are now interested in getting an idea of what it would cost to produce this for publication. We have done our own prototyping, but need some help in producing this. Basically, we need the following:

* 80 cards
* 80 tokens (prefer plastic tokens, but can be wooden cubes or chits if cost is too high)
* 40 similarly shaped tokens, just in a different color
* 8 animal figures of the same type, about 1 inch tall
* 8 small pouches to hold the tokens for each player
* A relatively small rulebook (about 8 pages on a 5 inch by 5 inch page)
* A small box to hold all of the contents

We really have no idea who to ask about this and would love some recommendations of companies you think might be able to help us. Thanks.

Katherine
Offline
Joined: 07/24/2008
ideas for publishing card game

You could try searching the BGFG archive for resources or publishers.

good luck!

guildofblades
Offline
Joined: 07/28/2008
We could easily do the

We could easily do the playing cards with our POD Card printing service. We can likely help with the tokens and the box as well.

http://www.guildofblades.com/podcards.php

As for the animals, you might try dollar store online distribution sites. Or maybe Rolco Inc might have something that fits your needs.

No clue on the little bags though.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.guildofblades.com/retailgroup.php
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com

gameprinter
gameprinter's picture
Offline
Joined: 08/06/2008
Production

The animal figures are going to be a sticking point in a production situation. It's hard to source custom parts. Still, Lorenz-Cotimba has a good selection of 2D wood and you can get a variety of stock plastic pieces out of China. Rolco and Plastics for Games won't have much in the way of animal figs, unfortunately.

As to the tokens, plastic is usually cheaper than wood or paper, so you're fine with plastic.

For short runs (< 500) POD or digital is the way to go on this. If Guild of Blades can do the full game or you can source the non-printed parts, then definitely look into it. For larger runs, digital doesn't scale as well (GoB - not sure where it gets cheaper to do offset than digital, it used to be at about 500 pieces, but that might have risen). We do turnkey game production on runs of 500 and up.

I'd say to drop me a PM, but I'm not sure the new site has that feature, so feel free to stop by the web site: http://www.delanoservice.com or call 800-748-0318. Ask for Ben. If I'm not available though, any or our other Project Managers can help.

There are several companies in the US that can do full games and several US-based ones that have the games manufactured in China. After checking them all out, you should end up with two pricing bands - US made games will come in clustered around one price point, with China-made games clustering around another (lower) price point.

Good luck!

Dralius
Dralius's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/26/2008
gameprinter wrote:The animal

gameprinter wrote:
The animal figures are going to be a sticking point in a production situation. It's hard to source custom parts. Still, Lorenz-Cotimba has a good selection of 2D wood and you can get a variety of stock plastic pieces out of China. Rolco and Plastics for Games won't have much in the way of animal figs, unfortunately.

Does Lorenz-Cotimba have a website? I would like to get an idea what wood is available.

gameprinter
gameprinter's picture
Offline
Joined: 08/06/2008
Lorenz web site is no more

Dralius wrote:
Does Lorenz-Cotimba have a website? I would like to get an idea what wood is available.

They DID have a web site! The book mark I have for it comes up with a place holder URL at this time, however. Lorenz got bought last year by the other German wood parts mfr and so it's possible that they dropped the domain name. Of course, I can't remember the other manufacturer's name off the top of my head. I'll have to try and find it again and see if they have a web site.

guildofblades
Offline
Joined: 07/28/2008
If I recall correctly, I

If I recall correctly, I think Rolco could run "flat" type pieces on custom mold jobs in reasonably low volumes (low for plastics anyways). So maybe you could have animals in semi flat-like pawns.

>>For larger runs, digital doesn't scale as well (GoB - not sure where it gets cheaper to do offset than digital, it used to be at about 500 pieces, but that might have risen).<<

On cards we stay competitive with Chinese and Indian printing up to about 1500 decks or so. Once you factor in the cost of shipping and clearing customs anyways. After that folks can likely get a better deal overseas. And beyond a certain point beyond that, offset printers domestically begin to become more cost effective as well. POD simply doesn't scale well into larger quantities.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Retail Group - http://www.guildofblades.com/retailgroup.php
Guild of Blades Publishing Group - http://www.guildofblades.com
1483 Online - http://www.1483online.com

gameprinter
gameprinter's picture
Offline
Joined: 08/06/2008
Digital Printing

Ryan-
Thanks for the update on the cost effectiveness. I'll use that when speaking with customers.

coco
Offline
Joined: 07/27/2008
POD vs minimum print runs

Hi all.

I've been doing some numbers lately, so maybe this helps. This is just an opinion.

First I must say Ryan is a very nice guy and very helpfull. He's answered me almost a hundred questions about their service and I apreciate it A LOT.

If you plan to publish a card game (even with a few counters and dice) and you don´t want to take a lot of risks and you want sell it through you own website or at conventions, I think POD is the best way to go. The quality is quite good and Guild of Blades also has a Dropship program so they can ship the games directly to costumers.

But if you decide to work with a distributor or a consolidator, you'll need a minimum small run to begin with (around 250) and your margin will drop drastically. In this case you should go for a printer like Delano and make a 500 print run. This is a risky move, however.

Please forgive my english.

Néstor.

traffic101
Offline
Joined: 11/26/2008
You will be needing pouches

You will be needing pouches for the cards also,aside from the other one holding the tokens.Nice game though!

drawstring velvet pouch

Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut