Making and Marketing Your Game

Part 1

by Steve Peek

You have this game design. It will sell and make you a fortune; if only you knew what to do about getting it published. Steve Peek, president of Yaquinto Publications, offers you practical suggestions in a series of articles on Making and Marketing Your Game that will help you get that dream game into the hands of other gamers.

I have this theory. It is 1454, Mainz, Germany. Johannes Gutenberg has just finished binding his first Bible. Hurrying through the streets he comes to the local Baron~ looming estate. Gaining entry and audience, he proudly hands the fruits of a lifetime to the bored, elegantly dressed man behind a heavily ornamented desk. The Baron opens the book, a look of discovery flicking across his face as he thumbs through the beautifully printed pages. He closes it, places it on the desk before him and, with his right index finger, gently taps the massive volume. "Herr Gutenberg, this is marvelous! Truly a wonder--but," he pauses as a glow of pride changes his expression, "I've got this game and..."

I'm sure this happened. I'm sure the Baron talked poor, trusting Johannes into becoming a partner in a boardgame venture. And I'm pretty sure they must have gone to work immediately printing the Baron's newly invented game. The reason I believe all this is because Herr Gutenberg went bust the next year and was forced to sell his press. He should have stuck to Bibles.

Not a cheery note to start a book which is going to tell you how to get into the game business. But it is painfully truthful. Out of an estimated three tofour thousand games which enter the market every year, a scant handful will still be on retailers' shelves two years later The rest gather dust in warehouses, basements, and garages. in some cases, it's a shame because the game was not out long enough to tell if it could have made money.

Selling games is different from selling books or movies; in fact, it is exactly the opposite. When a new book or movie is released, there's lots of hype; advertisements appear in newspapers, magazines and/or television. Six to eight weeks later the publisher or studio not only knows if it has a winner, it can also gauge how big it is going to be and act accordingly Games, on the other hand, don't follow the usual laws of hype and advertising. Virtually every major game was on the market for at least four years before anybody bad an inkling it was a bit. A game's popularity builds (or loses) momentum by word of mouth; someone plays the game at a friend's place, then goes out and buys the game to play it with someone else. It's the slowest type of advertising but, if it's a good game, it's the best way-and it can't be bucked.

Several major companies have tried to speed up this tedious process by spending huge amounts of money promoting a game they felt was a winner. One company spent nearly twenty-five million dollars advertising a new game in its first year. All the advertising bought them was a lot of shelf space in stores (more about this later), but the game's first year gross sales were less than eighteen million dollars. The game is still on the market; but it's not one you hear people talking about.

This all sounds very negative and it is. If you are serious about getting a game in print, be aware of the pitfalls most people tend to skim over in the excitement of getting a game on the market. Why do people make games anyway? Game companies, those engaged in the regular design, manufacturing, and distribution of games, do it for one reason: money. Most individuals who invent a game think they are having it made so they too can make money. But for most individuals, this simply isn't the case. They do it to massage their egos. This is not to say an individual can't make money by doing games; after nearly fourteen years in the game business, I have met, corresponded with, spoken to or heard of thousands of people who had invented a game they wanted to get published. Of those, there are at least three who have gotten wealthy from the effort.

The fact is, everyone wants to be a big fish. By getting a game published, you join a small, elite group of people who have braved the anxiety of personal failure and financial loss, an~ who have thrown caution to the winds in an effort to stake a claim in the waters of a smallish, murky lake.

One more negative word and we'll get on with what this book is really about getting your game in print. Because I am a medium-sized fish in the modest lake of gaming, I have a constant stream of people coming to me for help in getting their games published. It's a little like being a doctor. As soon as someone discovers your profession, he begins talking about pains.

It seems nearly everyone I meet has designed a really great game, and if they could only get it published, it would make a fortune. After most of these people listen to my very negative lecture, they drift away. But a few die-hards remain, stubbornly insisting they are going to get their game in print. Sometimes I help them; sometimes I don't.

In 1980, a newly widowed lady in her sixties came to me. She and her husband had bred dogs all their lives and she had devised a game based on dog shows. She was prepared to spend nearly all of her meager inheritance, money which she would need to live a decent life for her remaining years. She proudly showed me her prototype.

I suppose other breeders and dog show attendees might have found the game interesting, but I felt the game would have such a limited market there would be little point in producing it for profit. I tried to convince the lady not to do it at all. Failing, I tried to talk her into only making a thousand copies as a test run. I reasoned her cost per unit would be astronomical but it would be a way she could test the product without gambling her future security. She refused to listen to me. She wanted 10,000 copies finished and delivered in three months; and she was going to get them whether I participated or not. I told her I didn't think she should do the game and I would not help her. I then gave her the names of some printers and fabricators I knew to be honest and wished her luck.

She had her ten thousand games made and hit the dog show circuit to sell them. Four years later, as far as I know, she still has 8,000 games filling the garage and two bedrooms of her home. The point of this story is not really to heap another negative on a growing pile. It is to say if you are serious about doing a game, You absolutely must share a trait with the lady dog breeder: determination. If you don't have it, forget the whole thing because you'll be wasting time and money.

O.K., let's assume you are serious. Before beginning, take the little test below. Be honest in answering.

    1. Assume no game publisher will buy your game and you publish it yourself. Regardless of how you go about it, your game is going to cost between six and ten thousand dollars for a limited test run. Can you afford to lose that much money?

    2. Are you prepared to work at marketing the game for a minimum of four years, incurring substantial expenses in addition to the cost of the game, to determine if it will become a successful money maker?

    3. Are you willing to work nights and weekends, in addition to a regular occupation, filling orders, invoicing accounts, setting up and keeping a set of books, planning and executing advertisements, going to expensive trade shows and long frustrating consumer shows-are you willing to do all this, and much more, in addition to laying awake at night worrying about your investment?

    4. Are you willing to do all of these things, knowing the odds are heavily against you and at best you'll probably break even?

    5. Are you willing to endure these trials, frustrations and disappointments just to move to a smaller lake?

If you answered no to any of these questions, forget publishing your game. If you answered yes to all of these questions, bless your heart, you may be ready to embark into the game world. So gird your loins, make stout your heart and get ready for the wildest ride of your life. Because there is just a chance, a slim one, but a chance, you may be about to start the most rewarding adventure of your life. if you answered "no" to any of them; but you still feel like taking a chance anyway, my advice is go to Las Vegas, put ten thousand dollars on red at the roulette table and take your chances there. It'll be quicker and a lot less painful.

If you decide to get a game published, the odds are you'll be doing it yourself and not selling it to an existing game company. There's a section in the book telling how to go about trying to sell your game to another company, but because the chances of this are so slim, the bulk of this book deals with the assumption you are SO bullheaded and so stubborn that you are going to get this game published yourself, come hell or high water.

Steve Peek is president of Yaquinto Publications, Dallas, Texas. He has designed, developed orproduced over 100 games.

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© Copyright 2000 by Dana Lombardy.
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