New Contest?

For whatever reason, the link won't work for me.. I'm sure its right, but I get a blank screen and an "Unknown Zone" error.

XXOOCC

The one on the far right is a dead ringer for a Sathar fighter from TSR's Star Frontiers.

here, we designate them as "the warbird type" and "the space shuttle type"... here's hoping that everyone here can tell which is which (the swept wing ship is the warbird).

I think you're looking to use the "shuttle-type" (the one that looks just a bit like a space shuttle).

XXOOCC

"reverse Blocks" as we call them, are actually a bad idea... The printer we use is an offset duplicator, sheet fed, and the printed copy rolls off of a drum. Once you pass about 50% coverage on a page, the page will stick to the drum (we can't print it).

In addition, it uses ink... real live (dead?) ink... and so the more ink you have, the more it spreads... and you'll wind up losing definition on your type, planets, etc, before you're done as well.

A "pattern" background is ok, so long as you don't go hog wild on it... if you're worried that a star pattern will make it difficult to read text on your board, surround any text with a 6-12 pixel white line (that won't print) and it should pop nicely for you.

...having a rough week. Gary Gygax ( a personal friend and something of a mentor to me) had a minor stroke on April 1st, I just discovered today. He sent a message saying he wasn't feeling well... and then followed it up today with the note that he'd had a stroke. He is under a doctor's care and on the road to recovery.

For those unfamiliar with Mr.Gygax's work, he is the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, and my partner in Hekaforge Productions. He is also currently working quite closely with Troll Lord Games.

I hope you'll all join me in wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.

XXOOCC

On the topic of pawns — What do the pawns look like?

Well, I finally got off my lazy duff and did it. I put together a spreadsheet based on the costs Chris gave in this very thread and uploaded it (with the very gracious assistance of darke). For those who would prefer to let the silicon do the math, here it is (assuming I got my http tags right...).

Are you sure that calculator is wroking correctly?

Just to check it out, I punched in 0.10 for pawns, and the Retail cost Factor jumped to $70.00!?

I mean, I don't know about you, but $70 for a bag of ten one cent pawns seems a little steep. :)

I realised after i posted it said factor. Figures I would make a mess of my first post here.

Here’s an odd production question. Would it be possible to have a round or square paper piece with a hole in it (a bit like the shock troops in the Hope’s End expansion to Twilight Imperium) which can be placed on a pawn?

First- I've been away for a while, for which I apologize. Big show coming up in about a week for which I am preparing.

Snu asks, and its a good question:

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I’ve also got a question on the Marketability aspect of the contest.

Where is the game likely to be sold? And what can you tell us about our potential audience? I’ve got one idea based on fashion trends — But if the games are sold in a wargame shop, that’ll go over like a lead brick.

P.S. In other words, what are Inner City Games Designs’ usual sales locations?
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We don't sell directly to anyone - we sell to distributors that sell to game stores. These stores are generally NOT of the chain variety, but are stores that carry games, comics, and what have you of that nature. The last report was that there were approximately 5000 of these stores here in the US, and an additional 1000 in the foreign countries in which we are distributed: Canada, England, Belguim, Netherlands (Holland), Italy, France, Germany, and Australia.

We have 9 distributors currently, and our average sales on "first pass" for a new micro-game run between 250 and 500 units, depending on the game. Our yearly sales average about 750-1000 units (per title). Only games that are well-received tend to have marked sales beyond the one-year point... and those generally sell an additional 300-500 units per year.

Our best seller has sold more than 7000 units over a 5-year span.

Our worst seller has sold a mere 712 units over a 4-year span.

"Lemmings In Space!" with which some here might be familiar, has sold a bit over 2000 copies in about 2 and a half years.

""Who's Your Daddy?" has sold about 1700 copies in just under 2 years.

...that, hopefully, will give you some perspective on our market. I wish the numbers were bigger, but we are small press....

...and without fail, ALL of our micro-games make some profit.
XXOOCC

Super asks:
"I have a question. What kind of things can we leave out of the package? Like could I require players to provide their own deck of standard playing cards? Or perhaps game stones?"

I think a deck of playing cards is pushing it, but ok... "gamestones" are not an item commonly found in a household, so I'd say no... but with a caveat - If you put it like this:

"You'll need something to keep track of these points as they fluctuate. We use gamestones because, frankly, they look really cool, but you could use marbles, pennies and nickels, or any other small object for this purpose."

That type of suggestion within your rules for 'items left out' is perfectly in tune with the way we work.
XXOOCC

one more question
lets say my game needs one 8x11.5 cardstock sheet cut into 8 cards or 6 cards. how many cuts would i add. the cards are not ment to be suffled just sit there and provide info. my guess is four cuts for 8 cards and three cuts for 6 cards. and how would this effect the packing costs?

Fos asked another couple of good questions:

"How durable are your game boards, if they need to be folded up into a little baggie? Is lamination out, or is that not a concern? Also, how well does card stock hold up to a modular board design? "

I'm not sure what's meant here by a modular design, although tile games are pretty tough to do. Lamination is, for the most part, out of the question. Its pretty expensive in smaller quantities. Its also very finicky when folded, opened, and refolded frequently. Tends not to lay flat (at all).

We have used the 'folded twice gameboards' in Abdul's Adventure, Lemmings In Space!, and more recently in Brunch at the Coliseum, and while they don't last forever, they do stand up pretty well. Bear in mind that we chose extra-durable stock for double-folded gameboards to boot - usually something with a little grain to the paper (as this resists tearing via repeated folding/unfolding).
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Fos added:
"I don't mean to offend, ..."

Not possible. If I was going to be sensitive about any of this, I chose the wrong industry. There are no stupid questions other than those not asked, and I promise not to take offense, even should those questions relate to my parentage.

...in the meantime, give me a better mental image of what you mean by modular and I'll tell you if its 'do-able'.

XXOOCC

For sake of a quick answer, I'll post what I know (or what I think I know). For sake of an accurate answer, I leave that to Chris.

In Processes the Set-up (per 8 1/2x 11 image) $0.0025

Is it .0025 per page with images?

I just don’t want to miss calculate and be disqualified for missing the cost restriction by $.11
In conversations I've had with Chris, I think the term "image" as it is used in the Processes section is a little misleading. I think it is referring to a page image...as in, the image of an entire page. So, in your case, I believe it would be one (1) full-page image which just happens to be comprised of 10 smaller "sub-images".

That's my impression, but I could be way off base in a football game.