Should a feasibility plan be created before the game

Should a feasibility plan be created before the game?

If you are serious about selling your pride and joy, then yes, and no. It depends but in all cases, a feasibility plan will be needed if you plan to produce the product.

Let me explain:

Let's say you have plans to create a deck building game. You have a great idea and you're really excited about it. Okay, now what?

People invent so many things and then they never get it to market. They spend hundreds of thousands on prototyping and development and learn that they should never have started the project in the first place.

This isn't just about game designers, it's about all businesses. A good example is the mom and pop owned restaurant.

They love the idea of owning their own business and they find the perfect place they want. They build it, decorate it, staff it, have the best food and then open the doors and six months later, they're out of business.

So why?

The should have researched their idea before they spent one cent. If they had created a simple feasibility plan, they would have learned that previous owners failed because the customers in the city don't go to that area of town at night. There's a history of crime. There's a lot of car break ins and people just won't go there. A second problem is the previous restaurant there had an issue with cleanliness and people getting sick. The property has a bad reputation.

Third, the new restaurant is priced to high for the locals in the area. The restaurant is charging upscale rates for cuisine but the demographics clearly show the locals live at the barely above poverty level. In short, they didn't do their homework and they don't understand their customers. = EPIC FAILURE

So should you do a feasibility plan? Yes. Visit the age group you think would like your game and ask questions about what they think. Now, not just friends or on a forum like this, but go to conventions and comic book stores. Ask your questions and collect data.

If you think people will like the game, then create a prototype and play test it with several focus groups. Go back to your feasibility plan and update it with the new info, but don't delete your old info. That's financially valuable to you.

Continue this methodology until you feel comfortable that you have exactly what your customer wants. Sit down and have a reality check with yourself and your significant other. Pitch him or her on the business of your game just like you'd pitch it to a game company. Show stats, the demographics, what your idea customer's demographics and income are, how you plan to market it to those potential customers, the cost of production versus the cost of retail.

This is called ROI or Return On Investment. Simply put, you should get ten times what it costs to produce your product. Now that's a rule and a flexible one at that but if you shoot for that and say you're getting five times instead, you're going to determine if that's enough to earn a profit.

A more realistic ROI is two to three hundred percent, You have to take into account all the things that go with running a business - I mean everything. Gas and electric, phones, staples, note pads, computer equipment, marketing, advertising (The BIGGEST EXPENSE) and having enough to launch your new business and live. Are you planning to keep your job or work full time? How about liability insurance? Property rental, maybe a printing press to print your game in-house, box creation, promotion... and these are just the big things.

Are you prepared to pay for a thousand games to be made so you get quantity pricing? If your game takes off and you get ten thousand orders, could you handle that? Cost of production is going to be in the mega bucks range and you better have a way to get those nearly overnight or you'll lose the sales and your customers. Ever get "We regret that this product is on back order and it will be two moths before it will be ready to ship" messages from an online store? My first response is "F... it! I want it now! WTF type of company is this that they don't have their own product in stock? What happens when you order too many of your product and suddenly the orders drop off? You eat those. Bye bye profit, these are your losses. How will you liquidate them and make more than break even?

Now that two hundred to three hundred percent mark up doesn't look so good and if you raise it to five hundred percent, will your customers still want to buy it?

So the real question is:

Are you creating this game for you or your potential customers. You must accept that it's a product and you'll have to change it even if you don't want to, to please those customers. Otherwise, you are creating a vanity product. It's only for you because it's a dream, much like a writer creates a memoir. It's not meant for distribution but for family and friends.

Dislike me if you wish but if I save you a lot of money and frustration by putting this out there for you, eventually you'll appreciate me.

And I'm all for vanity games. Most of AD&D was created by the players themselves and though they used Gary Gygax rules and accessories, they made the game their own. Those were opportunities Gary missed.

I'm sure people will differ on this with me, and that's fine. I never claimed to be the messiah of business. I'm not. There is so much to learn that no one has the answers to everything.

There are a lot of people here that have gone through this to get their product to market. I'm sure they would happily share their experiences with you if you ask. I'm always learning new stuff, I love to learn because knowledge is power. So I hope I've helped someone here. Starting a business and producing a product (your game(s)) should be fun and understanding the business side is going to make it successful and profitable.

"Yesterday's idea, is today's dream and tomorrow's reality"

My quote.