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BoardGamesMaker.com is Live!

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boardgamesmaker
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Joined: 03/31/2015

Hello all at BGDF!

We’re happy to announce that BoardGamesMaker.com(BGM) is now officially open for business! We’re aiming to provide another source for all game designers to fulfill all their custom board game needs.

We are owned and operated by QP Group with over 30 years of experience in the print and game publishing industry. This makes it possible for us to offer high quality customized tabletop gaming products to the community with no MOQ.

We offer a wide range of gaming components that could help compile your custom game. We are also working hard to add more customized products to our selection. Feel free to engage and follow us at our official Twitter account twitter.com/boardgamesmaker for future updates!

Happy to be part of the BGDF family!

Soulfinger
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You forgot a link to your

You forgot a link to your website for those of us who don't do ecommerce by tweet.

let-off studios
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I just copied

I just copied boardgamesmaker.com into a browser window, and it worked fine for me. :)

debiant
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Joined: 05/03/2015
It appears that Printer's

It appears that Printer's Studio has gotten hip to the fact that they can make more money in board games by marketing to board gamers directly.

The problem appears to be that there is a big markup for the cards (which just saw a hike at Printer Studio any way). Instead of being 8.99 for a 54 card deck, they are $12.00 a pack at boardgamesmaker.com.

It would be nice to be able to get everything for polished prototypes at one place, but as of now printandplaygames appears to be a much better option for that.

Also, both PrinterStudio and BoardGamesMaker appear to be on the high end of cost when compared to a company like drivethrucards where you can get 54 cards for somewhere in the sub $5.00 range or another competitor, printplaygames.com, who will do linen cards (something that you don't offer) for $8.55 for a 54 card deck. Granted, the quality will likely not be quite as high, but you begin to see my point.

I've always been happy with PrinterStudio quality and service and I think this is a great service. I would ask that they revisit their pricing scheme and put it more in line with the rest of the market.

richdurham
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other competitors

@debiant - in your competitor comparision I noticed you didn't mention The Game Crafter; do you not like them for "polished prototypes," have you not heard of them, or did they not enter into the same comparison?

debiant
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Wow, Rich... that's

Wow, Rich... that's definitely an omission. I've just never done business with them, so it didn't really occur to me. Looking at their pricing structure I notice that they also come in at the sub-five dollar range for a standard deck of cards.

I've heard their turnaround times can be long, that is the reason I've gone with printerstudio or printplaygames for prototypes. I've ordered a few games from other designers on drivethrucards as well.

What do you think of Game Crafter's quality vs production time?

richdurham
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plenty of opinions

Turnaround times can be a couple weeks, yes (or a month for me with shipping). You're basically asking for manufacturing and they have a HUGE queue these days, each one a completely different game.

If you're looking just to throw together a prototype, you should do it by hand. Get a bunch of bits together from EAI education or Amazon or wherever. Print on paper. Don't worry about making it cool.

Save The Game Crafter when you have a functional proto that has some art applied, and you want a single really nice copy. Either than, or you want to send out multiple copies to multiple people and want them to handle it.

Now that turn-around time is longer, and I have cheaper ways to prototype, I am only using TGC for full art preview copies of games for blind-testers or reviewers.

Here's a really old (2011) thread on TGC opinions, many of which don't apply anymore. http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/publication/game-crafter-0

questccg
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Joined: 04/16/2011
Care to share???

richdurham wrote:
...Now that turn-around time is longer, and I have cheaper ways to prototype, I am only using TGC for full art preview copies of games for blind-testers or reviewers...

@Richdurham: Care to share (or PM) about better alternatives to TGC???

I have a 100 card Deck-builder which requires some pieces/parts like dice and wooden cubes. I could maybe forgo the wooden cubes and the dice.

And so along with it, I need a box (100 cards + box).

Got anything that can do the trick? I too am looking for another source other than TGC because it costs me around $100.00 for four (4) game sets. That's my COST!!! I could never sell the game via TGC... The pricing is impossible to meet.

I can separately buy the dice and just get the 100 card deck made and use a small baggie for the dice + cubes. It's not very professional but who cares - I don't want it to cost $100.00 per reviewer for the game.

I just bought 400 acrylic cubes - and wanted to know what I was going to do with them?!?! Now I know - for Game Reviewers! Make a low alternative as possible (regarding the cards...)

If you are willing to share, I'd love to know your opinion (you can PM me if you prefer...)

Cheers!

questccg
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boardgamesmaker

boardgamesmaker wrote:
...We’re happy to announce that BoardGamesMaker.com(BGM) is now officially open for business! We’re aiming to provide another source for all game designers to fulfill all their custom board game needs...

Don't you think that $24.00 for 108 cards ONLY is EXPENSIVE?!

I can get 108 cards + 1 108 Tuck Box for $13.04 at The Game Crafter (TGC).

Are you people CRAZY?!?! That's almost HALF the price, where are the savings??? The BOX is another $8.64 for a 5.5" x 5.5" x 2.0"! It's going to cost $32.64 PER GAME SET!!! NUTS! Sorry I'm just being blunt...

richdurham
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Who's nuts? Deez nuts.

@Richdurham: Care to share (or PM) about better alternatives to TGC???

My alternative for prototyping is doing it myself:

  • a Brother MFC-6920DW (Here's a british guy talking very excitedly about it.)
  • A paper cutter
  • Thousands of blank cards, or standard playing cards from the dollar store. They're just going to be backing anyway. Available all over the internet.
  • card sleeves of various colours. Lots of them. They'll be reused, of course.
  • Cubes from EAI education or Meeplesource. Also available on Amazon.
  • Once you've got that, and whatever other variety of doo-dads you want to play around with (meeples, castles, go on), you're set.

And I'm not even doing a good job at my prototypes. Pieces of paper taped together for a board. Why need more until it's going "out" to blind tests?

I have a 100 card Deck-builder which requires some pieces/parts like dice and wooden cubes. I could maybe forgo the wooden cubes and the dice.

You're looking to get nice-colour print on a box? Wrapped? Basically assembled with all the bits and cards printed by someone else?

...because it costs me around $100.00 for four (4) game sets. That's my COST!!! I could never sell the game via TGC... The pricing is impossible to meet.

$100 for FOUR game sets? So four complete games at $100? Unless you're doing it yourself, you're not going to find a better place than what you already know of. You're asking for what is essentially fully printed and packaged game copy. And you're not buying 1000, so no bulk pricing there. It's POD after-all. I don't see how you could expect to pay less?

I can separately buy the dice and just get the 100 card deck made and use a small baggie for the dice + cubes. It's not very professional but who cares - I don't want it to cost $100.00 per reviewer for the game.

I thought you said it was $100 for 4 game sets? Or is it $100 per game? Last I checked, 100 cards, standard dice and wooden cubes with a box didn't come close to $100.

questccg
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More competitive pricing

richdurham wrote:
...
>I can separately buy the dice and just get the 100 card deck made and use a small baggie for the dice + cubes. It's not very professional but who cares - I don't want it to cost $100.00 per reviewer for the game.

I thought you said it was $100 for 4 game sets? Or is it $100 per game? Last I checked, 100 cards, standard dice and wooden cubes with a box didn't come close to $100.

Yeah, it's $100 for 4 game sets. But this uses a medium game box and have all the parts included. So 100 cards x 4 (=400 cards) + shipping comes out to $100. I am trying to lower the cost and have managed to get it down to $13.04 per game set (for 4 = $52.16). So about half price (+ Shipping).

So my idea is to send 10 reviewers only 2 Game sets so they can DUEL. It's going to cost $250+ to do this. But hopefully it may generate a little bit of a "buzz" about the game. I can't wait until each reviewer returns the prototypes because then it might take 6 months to review the game... :(

Anyhow - I was still hoping for more competitive pricing from a NEW site.

Update: Know that at $13.04 for the tuck box, there is no dice, no cubes, no rulebook and no game mat. This is a strip-down (as cheap as possible) solution. It's far from the end-product we aim to give the consumer...

Orangebeard
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Joined: 10/13/2011
congrats!

boardgamesmaker wrote:
We’re happy to announce that BoardGamesMaker.com(BGM) is now officially open for business! We’re aiming to provide another source for all game designers to fulfill all their custom board game needs.

Congratulations on the launch of your new site and business!

richdurham wrote:
If you're looking just to throw together a prototype, you should do it by hand. Get a bunch of bits together from EAI education or Amazon or wherever. Print on paper. Don't worry about making it cool.

I've got to agree with richdurham on this issue. Prototypes should be made as cheaply as possible while still being functional.

To me, copies for reviewing is a problem for the publisher to address; not the designer.

Considering there is no MOQ, I wasn't shocked by the Board Games Maker pricing.

If anyone uses Board Games Maker, please post your experience!

questccg
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Publishers ... bah humbug.

Orangebeard wrote:
To me, copies for reviewing is a problem for the publisher to address; not the designer.

That's the assumption IF you have a publisher... Looks like I might go for a crowdfunding campaign to get my game out there. And maybe use Amazon fulfillment as an option to mail and deliver my game sets to actual backers.

Then depending on what is left-over, I may sell the remainder via Amazon.

One thing is certain, no publishers are beating down my door to publish my game, regretfully. :( I have tried with three (3) already and so far it has just been a waste of time. Communication has been crappy at best. It takes big amounts of time to get response - sometimes months other times nothing (Not you Winston... others).

I want someone who is engaging and WANTS to publish my game. As such I want a modest amount of communication (like an e-mail every couple weeks). Something to tell me if we are advancing or not.

Anyhow I think crowdfunding is a better alternative because it just seems like the only way to get the product out there...

boardgamesmaker
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Joined: 03/31/2015
Thanks everyone comments!

Thanks everyone for your comments! We take it sincerely.

BGM is backed up by a experienced printing company with over 30 years in board game printing and production. The purpose of BGM is to support board game designers who place us order for prototype (1pcs) or for mass production (>1pcs to 1000pcs+). The quality of any qty is the same and will be made by our advanced technology machinery.

If you have query about our product / price / quality, please come to visit us and feel free to leave us message. We are happy to send you samples to review!

BTW, more and more components will be added in coming weeks! Stay tuned!

www.boardgamesmaker.com

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