My husband invented a GREAT game when he was 12. His dad and him worked on it play-tested more then 150,000 times refined and came up with a self made dummy prototype copyrighted and then shopped around. The distribution companies all shot them down for really dumb reasons i.e material. Then they made cheep rip off games loosely based on his game. It has been years and years since then. Friends and family still enjoy his game and make there own versions to play with to this day. I have always LOVED the game. It is my favorite board game to this day. There is no doubt in my mind that this game will be very popular. Its a kin to chess but with 2-4 players and "safe" spaces you may land on and draw a card.
A little more info on us... He and I are sales marketing and packaging guru team.
Okay so now from my questions. How hard is it to take a new game to the market on your own? And is it possible to gain success without a distributor? I tend to think that you can. But how hard is it to gain game store and the likes trust about the saleability of your product?
We are going to be in the funds raising phase soon. After that we plan to go to con's, cold call, send data sheets out, viral market on youtube twitter and facebook. My hope is that if we create enough BUZZ that the stores will take inventory.
Am I going about this the right way? are we missing a step? I also have mock up digital pics of what the game is to look like in its "professional" and "finished" look on my profile. Please take a look and let me know what you think.
Thank you so much!!!
Thank you for your response! :)
I totally understand where you are coming from. lol I should have been more specific and went into some more detail. These Days saying that you did "play tests" could mean ... "we got a bunch of friends together to play". The 150,000 play tests were mostly blind with 200-500 being from friends/ family at the time. That all happened years and years ago. They had a guy that worked in the toy industry helping them through all it. Including the copyright. Of course since then it has been played thousands more times (if no tens of thousands). But I don't include that in the actual "play tests" because well... playing and play tests are two different things. Hell I was introduced to the game when my husband and I did not even know each other. And LOVED it immediately. It seriously has a cult following that branches out from friend to friend to people we do not know. The playability is there. Right now people are being introduced to it and making there own board and pieces... I have seen some of these very crude designs... uhg. The final design (did you take a look?) is very streamlined. The box will even have that "WOW" factor. We want people to want to by it just by looking at the box, not even knowing what comes inside.
I guess taking a game to the market is almost like any other product then. That is what I am getting from you answers. Taking a new product to the market is old hat to us. You know those helmets that attach to paintball face masks? That was mostly me. When It came time to expand for the growing demand my husbands partner flipped his lid. I guess he was afraid of success or something. After all the hard work I put into cold calling thousands of stores and fields... getting them to TRY one or two, arguing (well you get the point, blood sweat and tears right) they were finally taking large orders and we were read to mass produce. Then the company folded. And 5 years latter JT has our very same design EVERYWHERE, including Wallmart *sigh*.. Accept these days with the ability to have viral videos and a free way to mass market you product to hundreds of thousands... I think it will be a lot easier. I am already working on creating a buzz. Your right... if the snuggie can make it... sheesh.
I would really like to know what you all think of the "look" of it. Again the pic is on my profile. Its a 2-4 player strategy game that is much like chess but updated and new. For 1 you have 2-4 player instead of only 2. There are "safe" spaces you can move onto and draw a card. The card allow you to recover pieces, loose pieces, move pieces and move pieces onto more "safe" Recon pack spaces. It has a very classic timeless feel to the game. And just from a marketing standpoint its a game that can easily make it into the chess, checkers, Chinese checkers category if not just as classic as battleship.
I guess I was really just looking to be reassured about the Game industry. But From the research that I have been doing after asking my question... it looks like this industry is going strong. We will eventually want a distributor I think. But we will want a BIG name distributor. Can you tell that I am in it for the long run? I am a very hard nosed selling machine. lol If I say this game will be successful I mean it! lol