Hello again!
With this year coming to a close, my mind has been racing all over about future plans with my game. My goal as of right now is to complete the final version of the prototype, which basically has just been cleaning up the artwork and tweaking the mechanics/rules.
Now, I have a few (amateur) questions about a wide variety of things. I'm sure they've been answered several times before, but I'd like to get some general info on these subjects.
1. With the size of my game, I understand that self publication/manufacturing is out of the window. While I wish I had the time, money, resources and connections to fly solo, it's nearly impossible. So I'm looking into submitting to a publisher. With that, my biggest fear is not that my game will be rejected, but it'll be accepted, and as the designer I'll be left in the dust with nothing. (A friend of mine had this problem a long time ago). What types of publishers are willing to take on novice designers, but also leave the doors open for future content? I'm planning on expansions along side the core game.
2. I've heard and read great reviews about the Origins convention. I feel like I'm at a crossroads where, should I seek a publisher within the next few months and get this process started sooner? Or hold out until next summer and hope to meet publishers in person?
3. I've seen the word "niche" thrown around the board game designer world quite a few times lately. Thinking about it long and hard, I find my niche is doing exactly what I'm doing with The 12 Towers, and continuously expanding on this concept, much like the D&D universe. While I may have my head in the clouds in this one, can a single game launch a career in the board game industry? Career has been a big scary word for me lately. While I'm hoping that my game succeeds, it would be a dream come true to hear "Your game is doing great, we'd like to see some expansions and additional content from you". Does this sort of thing happen?
My apologies in advance, I know this post seems disorganized and all over the place. I've been working night and day trying to sort out all of this nonsense in my brain and get back to being focused.
My apologies for the delayed response, but thank you both for all of this! It definitely puts a lot of heavy stuff in a much better perspective.