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Getting your game into retail

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Fri, 02/10/2017 - 02:46
eejits
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Morning guys & gals,

I was wondering if any of you guys had any tips, resources or articles that would help a fledgling game maker get his product into retail.

I wil be able to get my card game BAHOOCHIE into local shops but thinking further afield, is there anything to look out for, ask or know about? Any tips on dealing with shop owners/retail will be gratefully received.

Cheers,

George

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Fri, 02/10/2017 - 03:57
#1
BHFuturist
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I have not done that yet but...

From what I understand it is 40% who you know, 40% brilliant sales pitch, 10% Timing, and 10% Luck (if you believe in such things). I for one don't really believe in luck.

Haveing a great Sell Sheet and Knowing who to send it to is a big part of this.

There are loads of game designers and small game publishing companies that have websites with "contact info". I would start by formatting a short paragraph much like your question above and spam that out to all of them and see what shakes loose.

I would not send the "sell sheet" or link to your Kickstarter in that first email. Save that for any that reply and ask for more info. Asking a question gets more responses than sales pitches do.

You can say "recently fully funded Kickstarter" just no links in the email. Higher chance of making it through a spam filter with no links.

Just my two cents having never done any such thing...

@BHFuturist

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Fri, 02/10/2017 - 05:31
#2
I Will Never Gr...
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Distribution or Consolidators

eejits wrote:

I was wondering if any of you guys had any tips, resources or articles that would help a fledgling game maker get his product into retail.

I wil be able to get my card game BAHOOCHIE into local shops but thinking further afield, is there anything to look out for, ask or know about? Any tips on dealing with shop owners/retail will be gratefully received.

First off, Congratulations on the successful funding of Bahoochie!

Now the hard truth; To get into retail is extremely difficult without being published by a well known, major publisher.

Most retailers will only deal with a distributor (GTS, Alliance, Universal, Everest, ACD, etc), and most distributors will only deal with a publisher who has several (4+) games that they can sell.

If you only have 1 (or 2, 3 even 4) game(s) under your belt, you will want to consider talking to a Consolidator (Impressions, PSI) who can bundle your game(s) in with other games going to distribution/retail.

In either of these cases, you need a good sell sheet and a fair bit of luck to get in as most of them are not looking to take on new publishers/designers with the glut of games available now.

That being said, some retailers openly and wholeheartedly back games via Kickstarter (specifically when there is a Retail pledge level and good incentive for them to do so) but beyond that, you're mostly going to be stuck with Distribution/Consolidation and/or local shops that know you.

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Fri, 02/10/2017 - 10:50
#3
Gabe
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Here's everything I've been

Here's everything I've been able to find about getting a game into distribution:

http://www.boardgamedesignlab.com/business/#distribution

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