No better place than here to start a blog
I'm an Aussie games designer, or have become one after releasing Pocket Cricket. It's a cool little cricket game that uses dice to play a quick One Day cricket match. I'd never aspired to be in the boardgames business or thought I coul d be a games designer - that label just sort of comes if you publish something I guess.
It started a few years ago when some friends and I were talking about cricket and the game Owzthat. An old English cricket game with two hexagon rollers. I was determined to modernize it and put our spin on the game to introduce more aspects (fielding/choice of batting style) and off I started. It came together quite quickly and we had a working prototype (dice with stickers) that we showed around friends and then had some random playtesting.
Response was positive but we were unsure of where to go next. I read a bit about publishers and approached a few. Z-man games wasn't into sports dice games. A few publishers reps (Hasbro) in Australia didn't get back to me and one company in India had it on the playtesting table for a month or more, only to reject it.
Some BGG members were (and still are) quick to pounce on the 'dice fest - no skill / strategy required' elements of the game, but I always made it clear that it was just that. Feedback was mixed and didn't really help me. As with most games someone designs, there's an attachment that might cloud your judgement on how good/bad it really is.
The game then went quiet for more 2 years while I went overseas for work. I always took a mock up set as it was a fun game to play over beers or waiting in an airport etc. I still believed it was a good game and had potential. I had a group of expat friends in China that loved to play it and again the interest to produce the game was still in my mind.
I returned home and decided to self publish. Looked at costs for a small run and tried to find a factory to make them. After several attempts and contact with many a factory, I finally found one that would do a run of 1000 games. They delivered a quality sample and we placed an order for 1000. They arrived last year November..........and we just looked at them. What do we do next? I had no idea.
At that stage we had a website made. We'd plan to save on printing costs and put the rules on the site as a PDF download. We figured out this wouldn't work as people who buy the game from a shop, would want to know how to play right away. So we found bought laser printer and set to work printing, folding and stuffing in bags, 1000 rules sheets.
After that I hit the street door knocking on businesses to see if they would stock our game. Where I live is quite small and there are NO GAMES shops in the city. 9 out of 10 businesses said they had no interest and it would be too hard to sell, margins not good enough etc etc. It was very disheartening, to say the least.
Finally I found a shop and two coffee shops willing to stock us. Things were very slow until we had a story in the local paper about us. I approached them and liked the local aspect of the story, and ran a spread in the newspaper. This started the ball rolling for us. It was also in the middle of cricket season and right before Christmas. Our $10 price was just right to throw in the stocking.
Sales were going well and we then got a spot on the statewide news. This really helped our website traffic and sales. Christmas came and went and we'd almost sold our first run of 1000. We ordered another run and then things quietened down. The cricket season finished and sales dipped as we had expected.
Cricket is played all year round in other countries, but so far we had only penetrated locally and needed more exposure to the wider cricket community. We needed Cricket Australia to be a legitimate product with access to their logo and IP. In fact, we had always hoped we'd be popular enough that they'd want us........you have to dream about something!
I wrote to their contacts several times and spoke to a few different people but wasn't getting the info I needed. I did eventually get contacted by their Consumer Products Manager and I began to introduce our game. At first they weren't that interested, but after receiving some samples, we opened dialogue about what was involved in becoming a licensed product. A whole new can of worms.
Without going into too much detail, it meant a major commitment. Almost back to that moment of deciding to self publish again. Making a decision to try 1000 as an independent publisher seemed like a big deal then, but now increasing that 10 fold, contracts, lawyers, insurance, style guides......it seems like easier times.
We've decided to leap again and now we're re-branding to incorporate the required artwork and logo. This is really where are now........with lots more to do before the first Test Match in November.
Things I have learnt;
It's a tough industry as there are no set guidelines. I had no mentor to guide me through the steps and pitfalls. It's all up to you as a self publisher to do everything. I had read threads and comments on designers not being marketers/salespeople....and it's true in some ways. I'd love to be able just to come up with the games and have someone 'take care' of the business side......however, I think you need to go through it all to face the challenges. It will only make you wiser for the next attempt.....
HOWZAT!?
