Many of you may have already seen some of my posts for Indie Boards and Cards, a different type of publisher that I am trying to get off the ground ( www.indieboardsandcards.com). Indie Boards and Cards is different in that the intent is to be a marketing collective for several independent small/self publishers that over time builds both a brand and has enough members to afford a consistent level of advertising. To date I have used my game (Triumvirate) as a test bed for my marketing concepts and to build out a subscriber list comprised of gamers that like to play (and buy) indie games. I sold out of my first 70 copies of Triumvirate very quickly and as of this minute have sold almost half of the second run that I announced this morning, making it more than 100 copies sold.
I’d like to expand the number of games that are using the site, so I thought I would run a simple contest.
The prizes:
Hundreds of geekgold. I have been providing copies of Triumvirate in each of the Geekgold lotterys - they are a great way to spend some of that geekgold you’ve earned from contributing to the site. I will give away all the geekgold from the next copy of Triumvirate to be added to this lottery, the current copy has over 440 GG as current bid amount with nearly 2 weeks to go, so hoping to get somewhere near that amount for this contest. GG prize will be split 60, 30, 10 across top three winners.
Option to use Indie Boards and Cards to help launch your self published game. I’ll work with you to help launch your game including placement on my website site, inclusion in my newsletter, all to help sell your game. I will also donate $1 for the first 100 copies that you sell via this channel. You of course retain all rights (and obligations), and will be responsible to make and deliver all the games that you sell. Indie Boards and Cards and my involvement will only be to help test, promote and sell your game.
Option for me to publish your game. This will require us to reach an agreement on rights ownership, etc - but I would then work with you in a more traditional designer/publisher relationship to make available 50-100 copies of your games for sale via Indie Boards and Cards. Given the response to both the sales and customer feedback/reviews/ratings I would make additional printings via POD methods or potentially print a run commercially. I will set the minimum designer commission for any game I publish from this contest at $100 - which I assure is more than most self published games probably make. In short your game would be published, you would get paid at $100 even if its not entirely in a traditional manner.
To follow a very good example I will try to split responses to this into two threads
Entry Thread: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/449234
Discussion Thread: this thread - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/449232
The Rules:
1. Make a self publishing friendly game.
2. Open only to games that have not already been "published", even if they were "only" self published. If it’s for sale it’s not eligible for this contest.
3. I prefer games that haven’t been entered into the BGG database - this is not a hard rule.
4. Game should take no more than 45 minutes to play with experienced players.
5. The game should be playable by 2 players, but is not limited to 2 player games. In fact I highly encourage multi player games.
6. No wargames, abstracts, perfect information, kids games, heavy dice fest, etc. I am looking for the type of games that could find a place on the shelves of Bruno Faidutti’s ideal game library. Overall it should be a game that is approachable, understandable on first play yet offer a great amount of replability.
7. Components of the game should be doable via POD methods - 54 cards( or less), all chipboard pieces be rectilinear (ie, no hexes, circles, etc) and generally able to fit within a 4"x6"x2" box. Estimated production and shipping costs will be a significant factor in deciding between two equally good games.
8. Playtested - you should be in a position to document playtesting. Ideally you will have conducted blind playtesting and have good feedback that you can forward.
9. The contest is open now, and will close November 15th. I’d like to use BGG as an opportunity to playtest some of these games and will ask that if you are attending that we plan on doing so.
10. I of course have the right to change anything I want in the contest - including not publishing any games and/or offering to help publish more than the winner. This is supposed to be a fun hobby, if you aren’t approaching it in that manner than this contest may not be for you.
11. Finally - I like interesting and innovate mechanics, as long as they are easy to understand.
To enter simply go to the entry thread ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/449234) provide your game’s name, a 3-4 sentence overview of the game (ie, the objective section of your rules). And then provide key details such as players, length and core mechanics (ie, area control, trick taking, role selection). I will follow up with you over email and geekmail to get further details.
Finalists and winners will be announced in a highy publicized geeklist.
