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Rejected

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onew0rd
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Joined: 12/31/1969

I was just rejected and I'm not bummed like I usually get. The reason? I submitted in Abstract summary form. It was rather painless actually. To me, rejection is not the problem, it's the waiting game and the work which might be good work for a good game, but just wasn't what they were looking for. We cut out that big, inefficient step and simply said "Hi, I'm Eugene, this is my game? What do you think? and they said, "Hey Eugene, thanks but we're not interested for reason X, good luck. And we're done. I can move on and knock on the door of the next publisher, possibly send the first one a different game...etc.

I was thinking that sending in a full prototype to a company is a huge investment and not a very good one. I wish more companies would accept abstracts instead. The way I see it is that an astract really sums up the game and lets them screen the ones that they are not interested in faster than reading a rulebook, playing the game,etc. Plus it's easier on the Designers and design process as you don't need to make prototypes for games that will never be tested or played anyhow. This eased pressure on both sides has further advantages. IF as a publisher, I only accept abstracts, I can really pore over many in a given review period and basically cherry pick from hundreds. Imagine the time it would take to read 100 summary/abstracts as compared to look over 100 prototypes. Plus I can lead the abstract process in any manner I like. I can ask loaded questions, and basically limit my scope of entries based on the responses. For the designer the process allows for you to spend less time replicating prototypes and more time creating and selling your game ideas.

Let's be honest, the odds of a game getting published are nowhere near even 1 in a 100. I would even say that more than half are probably poorly designed, quasi-plagiarized, not the type of game the company is looking to invest in, etc. So why spend an 8 hour day reviewing 10-20 prototypes at most when you probably wouldn't even like or be able to work with 1 of them. In the same time you could review 100 or more game summaries, cherry pick your favorite 5-10 and send emails requesting proper submissions with prototypes. It makes so much sense for the publishers and we all know it would work for us. If you all agree, I am thinking we should send this to all game companies we can get off our contact list as an open letter from the design community. Thoughts?

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Rejected

The companies I have dealt with all require an abstract, or summary of the game before requesting a prototype. That seems to be the standard procedure in game publishing land...

Dralius
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Joined: 07/26/2008
Rejected

The only company that I can think of who wants a prototype before even hearing what it is about is Fantasy Flight. Every other one I have been able to get submission policies on first want a summery of some sort then and only if they are interested will they ask for a proto type often asking to see the rules even before you send that.

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Rejected

I don't know where you submitted, but in the hobby game market, anyway, as Zaiga and Dralius point out, they never want a proto first (fyi, FFG is not accepting submissions right now, apparently, so I can rule them out of the sentence).

They're much better protected by receiving an abstract/description first, too, so you're less likely to scream "You copied my game" if it turns out they've already got something in the pipeline that is similar.

It's not uncommmon for the company to next request only the rules, if the abstract is interesting, and only then have you send off a carefully-crafted prototype. But at that point you're past at least one, posssibly two hurdles, so the proto is well worth it.

-- Matthew

Anonymous
Rejected

Patch games is one that takes a prototype with first contact (though part of your submission packet is an abstract). I must say the hardest no to take is the one that takes 6-12 months to get back to you after the company liked your abstract.
But rejection is just a part of life. Could you imagine what the industry would be like if they never said no?

Anonymous
Rejected

It's odd, but some of my best experiences have been through rejection -- either by setting a point of contact that I could use in the future, or furthering discussion and gaining some real insights into the feedback/critique of my original submission.

Looking to get a game publishes is not unlike trying to land a high level programming job -- there are far more applicants than positions. You may be able to pare down the resumes quickly, but eventually you have to make tough decisions and even reject some of the highly qualified candidates that just don't quite match perfectly with what you're looking for.

My success rate has been much better in the RPG field, which created a false perception of what to expect when submitting boardgame material. My first dozen or so rejections was a real eye opener.

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