I am Social Media Adverse - how can I publish games?

1> If you Kickstart the game without any social media. If your game is very appealing and you have a graphic artist to handle all there is to make the page very presentable, you should expect to get 1% of backers. What that translates to is 100-250 backers.

Because this is a First Created project, your odds of success must be realistic. If you expect to make $1,000,000 dollars well then you will probably be very disappointed.

However if you plan for 100-250 backers ... and you deliver the project, what happens next is that you have an AUDIENCE of people to whom you can market your 2nd Game...

That's right, things are incremental and since you're pretty much on the bottom of the ladder (100 - 250 backers), if your first game was GOOD, the odds are people might back the 2nd game.

And then it goes the same for your 3rd or 4th games. By the 4th game you might have over 1,000 backers (or more).

2> Self-funding limits the audience of the game. You can't just MAKE a game and expect it to sell -- because you made it. Believe me, I know this is the exact mistake I made with "Quest Adventure Cards(tm)"... I made 100,000 cards and 10,000 boosters, only to realize that the way business is conducted in my local area ... doesn't leave much room for independent game design.

You'll be wanting to either sell via a website (again nobody know where?) and have a BGG page about your product to LINK to your online presence.

If not, you'll have to see if you can make a deal with a distributor. But the problem is that you have 0 sales. How do you convince a distributor to resell your game ... if you have no sales. If you had a KS and made $50,000, that's a start ... you can be truthful and say: "We had a KS and made $50k. While that isn't too high, we got over 1,000 backers..." and then you see the importance of having a successful KS campaign: it paves the way for the rest.

3> For publishers, they prefer games that are pretty much "unknown". No BGG page and as little of marketing as possible. Why? Because the odds are that they will change the game, use their own artists, etc. and bring the game to life in their image.

So not having any Social Media for Publishers is a positive. You can even say: "I have yet to discuss this game online -- since I wanted to keep the surprise nature of the game..." Or something like that.

Best of luck(?!) with your game.

1. Very
2. Somewhat, depending on you
3. A bit

Ultimately, most publishers, in most industries, expect you to do a portion of the marketing yourself.

When you self-publish, you are the publisher.
Obviously you need a company then.

What he is talking about is that not everyone needs to self-publish. In fact, for most people it would be better to go through a publisher.

Especially if it's your first game.

I would like to comment on this.
It is true to a point. The industry really matters, as does how much you are buying vs making. Board games is a growing industry, and I can see it going the way that Invention industry went a number of years ago, at least here in the US. There was a 'glut' of invention companies and the IRS stepped in and made it very clear that if you were not producing and selling within a few years, your 'business' got legally downgraded to a 'hobby'. There needs to be money flowing in in order to keep a business a business. If money only flows out to buy stuff, then you are seen as having fun, at the expense of the government (buying wholesale, etc) instead of contributing to the economy.
My suggestion for any business is to not form one until you are near to putting something out.

thunder_monkey,

You do not "need" a social media presence and I can understand not wanting to jump into that world. But as to how "important" they are...

Any tool is only as good as your skill at using it. But "networking" in a more general sense is very important to any endeavor into the marketplace.

However, you should "want" to have a presence, even if it is just for basic news & announcements about your games. It gives people who use those networks a place to check on what you are doing without leaving their comfort zones and it can be a great way to just point people to your website or Kickstarter pages.

It does not need to be a lot of work and you don't need to be more involved on each of the networks than you are comfortable with. Most of the time the same update can just be posted quickly to each one and just forget about it.

I would say that a simple Facebook page/group that is mostly for your playtesters and customers is enough for a start. Then maybe a twitter account that just points people to the facebook group or your own site. Think of the social media networks as pages that act like "website forwarders".

This, like many other things, relates to the question of "How do you eat an elephant?" and the answer is "One bite at a time."

Best of luck with your game and I hope you can successfully launch out onto social media!

@BHFuturist

I sometimes disagree with Tom, but not in this case. I discussed this more briefly a few years ago: Are you a game designer or a game publisher? https://youtu.be/qG6dKzvj3Hw

@thunder_monkey: What are your expectations???

Will you be happy with 100-250 KS Backers? OR about $12,500 USD monetary total?? If so well then by all means KS your game, learn from the experience, get a list of e-mails of people who chose to back your game... and come back with ANOTHER game to sell on KS... Do this 2-3 times and you may end up with about 1,000 backers (or more)!

If you can't find a Graphic Artist for your KS ... don't worry you can always submit your design (via a Sell Sheet) to several Publishers. Be honest and tell them that you are shopping your design to MULTIPLE Publishers... This might force them to make a quicker decision as to the status of your game: do we publish or not.

If you have no money to invest in Artwork... Well then I suggest you go with Plan B (Find a Publisher).

If you have some slush funds left over somewhere, you could try to go a slower route like "The Game Crafter" (TGC) "Crowd Sales" which is a process in and of it's own. I did it and made $1,000 in sales... But you grow recognition of your game. As I mentioned you can KS with TGC too. Work out a deal with JT and sign a contract to have your game made by TGC. Hardly any concerns since manufacturing, quotes, logistics (shipping) will all be handled by TGC.

I feel like I am repeating myself ... I find myself giving this advice to NEW designers (or Hobby Designers) on a regular basis.

It all depends on what your expectations are -- and how MUCH you are willing to INVEST/RISK in the endeavor. Remember if you KS you will need nice "artwork" and someone to handle DAILY updates to the KS campaign. Plus you'll need REVIEWS and people talking about your game on BGG.

That's another thing -- if you self-publish get your game on www.boardgamegeek.com. If you want to submit your game to Publishers DO NOT submit your game to BGG... That's a big no-no. Let the Publisher handle those details when the time is right.

If you have other questions, please ask and I will try to do my best to answer them as soon as possible.

Cheers!