Making and Marketing Your Game

Part 3

by Steve Peek

Obviously you've a game designed or at least one in mind, so what's next? You have already found and categorized a number of markets, estimated the amount of necessary advertising space and how much it will cost. You've played the game so much the family hides on Saturday nights. You're ready to get the ball rolling. OK, fine, let's go!

First, make some preliminary phone calls to local printers, box and board makers- there's a host of them listed in the yellow pages. Be straightforward with them: they aren't sitting there waiting to steal your idea. Ask them the exact dimensions of the largest game board they can make or have made locally and the same for the game box. There's no sense designing a game which can't be produced. But remember: the bigger it is, the more it costs. Make sure to ask the printers the largest "image area" they can print. This is slightly smaller than the largest sheet they can run through their presses and represents the area where ink is placed. A good standard is 25" x 38". Most good printers can handle this size so design the components to a standard which will allow competitive bids. Once the sheet sizes are established, design everything to fit on as few sheets as possible. For example; if a game requires a deck of cards, change the size of the cards to get the deck on one press run. In printing the cardinal rule is the fewer press sheets, the less expensive the job.

If you are fortunate enough to live in an area near a printer who has a reputation for producing games, you'll probably discover two things: 1) you'll get a fair price and, 2) he'll save you time, mistakes, and money by handling the whole production. This makes it more than worth the little extra charged compared to your handling all the coordination, assembly, and storage. If you find someone like this, check him out to be sure he does in fact produce games on a regular basis. If so, be grateful for your luck.

Armed with this information, make a prototype, remake it if the original is too large, and list every item in the game, beginning with the box. What is most obvious may seem completely unimportant, but failure to communicate it to the artist who will produce the finished art may cost lots of extra money. Know how many of each denomination of game money is in the game, the size of the game money, the number and size of any game cards, how many tokens there are, how many colors are printed on the board, whether the money will be printed on both sides or only one. Decide if the box top will be a color photograph, an illustration, or a multi-colored design and, if the latter, how many colors. Itemize every aspect of every component before taking it to show anyone.

Graphic artists and printers are busy people. If you show up and say, "Well, look guys, I've got this game I want you to make. Its about so big, and the box has got to be real pretty, and it's just, geewhiz, a lot of fun to play," they are going to show you the door politely and give you the name of a competitor whom they would dearly love to see take on this job.

When you see the person who is going to do the final art, have a finished prototype of the right size and all the components done to the best of your ability The artist will need them for reference. But for initial discussions, have several copies of your itemized list, showing sizes, numbers, and colors.

At this point you should become a bit of a horse trader. If you're smart, you'll have found a commercial artist who doesn't have a big office (might even work out of his home) or a big ad in the yellow pages. You're not a big game company yet and there's no point in paying for extra overhead. Sit down with the artist and go over the entire list. Don't skip anything. Most artists tend to miss details until it comes time for them to make their invoice.

After every item has been discussed, including the methods of doing four color art for the board and box top, ask the artist to provide a quote for the whole job. if he refuses or says he'd rather charge by the hour, make excuses and find another designer you've come to the wrong place.

It will take several such interviews to obtain and determine the best price. Notice I didn't say the lowest price. Make sure when comparing the estimates, you're comparing apples with apples. Don't be misled just because one price is substantially lower than the others. Quite the contrary, be suspicious if it appears too much lower.

One thing to consider when picking an artist is for him to be someone with whom you are comfortable. You are going to be spending a lot of time around him and, God forbid but most likely, you're going to have to tell him about errors in production. Believe me, hell hath no fury like an artist erred.

One final hint on getting a good price. After settling on two or three fair quotes, go back to each artist and tell him this is a highly speculative venture. Point out there's not tons of money to shovel toward people, and ask if the price could be reduced if he had six months to finish the artwork so he could use it as a filler during slow times. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. But it's worth a shot, assuming you have the patience to wait six months!

Don't skimp on the box top, side panels, and back. These are the most important pieces of art in a game. The illustration and/or design of the box top and sides has got to be STRONG. Strong enough to make someone first see it, pick it out from all the other games around it on the stores' shelves, and then strong enough to make him pick it up to look at it. Once he picked it up, the hype on the back of the box absolutely has to have the strength to convince him that he has no choice but to buy it. It's got to make him not only want it, but make him think he can't live without it!

You and the artist, but especially you, should put a lot of thought into these areas. You should have already looked at hundreds of game boxes and decided on the basic approach before even meeting with a potential artist. Basic approach, however, means flexibility I've found it best, when dealing with a sensitive artist (and I haven't found one yet who wasn't sensitive), to tell him what you envision--colors, ideas, concepts, images--then let him go to work. A basic rule is artists are most happy when they are putting their creative input and details into a work. An unhappy artist will cause you to be unhappy with the results. Don't give him complete freedom, but enough to allow him to think of the work as his creation.

All of this reminds me of my first experience with an artist. I was living outside Atlanta, Georgia and it was the first game I'd ever done. A couple of days before, I'd gone in to see one of the biggest printers in Atlanta. They had an impressive, five-story building near downtown. I was taken to one of the most posh conference rooms imaginable and waited for my agent. They didn't call them salesmen in this place.) He came in wearing a very expensive suit, a perfect hair cut, and manicured nails. He ask if I wanted a drink and pulled a hidden bar from inside one of the walls. When he sat down I began to talk. "I've got this game," I said. "It's about this big and geewhiz, is it ever a lot of fun to play" He listened to me for a few minutes, nodding his head, and looking at his watch. When I'd finished, he told me he'd be right back, left the room, and returned with a sheet of paper from a memo pad on which he had written two names and phone numbers. The first was the name of an artist and the second was a smaller print company which, according to him, would suit me better.

Because he was generous enough to tell me I should see the artist before seeing the print company I was spared making a complete fool of myself a second time.

I called the artist that afternoon and it sounded as if I had woken him from a nap. I told him why I was calling and asked if and when I could see him. He told me to hold on then covered the phone, but not well enough. in muffled tones I could hear him calling to his receptionist, who was also his wife, "There's another looney-tune on the phone. Can you get the place cleaned up by noon tomorrow?" I didn't hear her answer but it must have been affirmative because he came back on the line and told me the only time he could spare would be during his lunch hour tomorrow We made an appointment and I showed up, eager to get my game in the works.

When I arrived it the one room office which was partitioned into a receptionist/secretary area and a two drawing board work area, I was shown past the partition to a man a little older than myself who was frantically cutting and pasting columns of galley to art boards. (I later learned, after we'd become friends, it was all faked, designed to impress would-be clients.) He asked to see my game and, because of the fiasco I'd had the day before, I had made what I considered to be a complete list of components. I laid everything out before him, afraid to speak for making a fool of myself again. He looked everything over, shaking his head from side to side, letting out a solemn "Hmmm" every now and then. When I'd finished, he looked at me and said, 'Are you sure you want to do this crap?" I only nodded, grinning stupidly "Who do you think will buy it?" he asked as if to make absolutely sure I knew what I was saying.

I explained my marketing strategy ; such as it was, and made an effort to onvince him I was not only serious about doing it, but I knew more than he could tell. I must not have been too convincing because the next words out of his mouth were, "Do you have any money?"

Now we were into an area I could handle. His last question had been asked with the look of a hawk spying a field mouse in the open. I had been in the service, in Viet Nam, and I'd seen that look on more than one bar girls face as she asked the same question. "A little," I said, "How much is all of this going to cost?"

Understand, back then, things were cheaper. "A thousand dollars," said the man at the drawing board, turning away to hide an irrepressible grin.

It was just like I was hack in the lobby of the Nha Trang Hotel. "Gee, I don't have anywhere near that." Pause for a reaction, then, getting none, "Gosh, I'm sorry I bothered you. I had no idea it would cost so much. I'm really embarrassed and sorry I wasted so much time," I got up and started gathering my game.

"How much do you have?" He wasn't about to let this fish off the hook.

"Well, let's see, after printing and die cutting and, oh yeah, making the boxes, I've only got about ... Oh forget it, I'm ashamed to tell you." I continued to bundle up my items, but slowly.

"I might be able to do it for less if you give me time to work it in between jobs, but you'll have to leave me alone, don't be calling me every other day bugging me. How much do you have?" he said, showing more submissiveness than I hoped for.

I gave my most sheepish look. "Well, gee, this is embarrassing, I've only got about two hundred and fifty dollars."

He looked astonished, hurt, insulted. I shrugged my shoulders and turned to leave. "I'll do it for five hundred but you've got to give me four months; no ifs, ands, or buts," he said, glaring through thick glasses at my back.

That moment was, as Bogart once said, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. He turned out to be a hell of an artist. He was fast, dependable, and reasonably priced. He helped produce and contributed significantly to the first thirteen games I did. And for those who are interested, he's still in the Atlanta area, working out of his home, and giving professional skills and service to his clients.

Of course there were drawbacks. He'd work all night to meet a deadline, but he wanted to he sure you were working all night yourself. He could be crabhv and cantankerous, or gentle and generous, you just never knew until you spoke with him. He had the character of an artist, moody, unpredictable, sometimes sullen; but the genetic structure of the artist in him had somehow crossed care about his work with dependability we became great friends through the years and to this day, he is one of the few things I miss about Atlanta.

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

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© Copyright 2000 by Dana Lombardy.
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