Making and Marketing Your Game

Part 6: Pawn Sense

by Steve Peek

Manufactured Components and Financing

While the artist is busy finishing the art and in between losing battles with proofreading, try to find sources for other components. Dice, playing pieces or pawns, colored chips, marbles and miniature silver camel eggs are some of the most common pieces which are readily available from firms which stock them. (Just joking about the camel eggs.) You'd be surprised what some of these manufacturers stock as standard items. If you're looking for something standard, the prices are reasonable and shipping dates are good.

To save you time and frustration, several trade magazines publish annual directories of toy and game manufacturers. By obtaining one or more of these directories, you'll find yourself with a "who's who" of firms providing the industry with a full range of services and products. Though none of them list every manufacturer in the world, I'd recommend contacting Playthings magazine at Geyer -McAllister Company, 51 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10010, as theirs seems the most thorough. Even if armed with every directory available, it's still a good idea to check local sources through the Yellow Pages and to ask printers.

One thing to avoid is customized pieces. Trying to produce a customized plastic piece will bankrupt you. Injection plastic molds are not cheap. The lowest price I've ever gotten was four thousand dollars which was for a very simple piece way back in 1981. Metal pieces tend to have less expensive mold cost, but the per unit cost for producing them will make you sweat blood. Besides, you need to be very careful about lead content in the pieces or you are going to get sued, be in trouble with about eleven hundred government agencies, and have the game yanked right off the market. If a game requires a special piece which can't be bought or a standard item can not be substituted for it, go back to the drawing board and re-think a way around it. If the piece is absolutely essential, figure a way to do it through printing. Ask artists, printers, and your minister. It's quite likely that by printing the necessary image on a sheet which is laminated to a piece of cardboard and then die- cut into whatever shape, you'll wind up with the same effect for less money; and if the game does become a million seller, you can always go back to the original idea in a reprint.

There are some genuine horror stories involving inexperienced people who decided to have custom made pieces produced for games and handled it themselves. One of the worst, is about a fellow who wanted two simple vacuumformed trays to fit in the game box. When delivered, they not only didn't fit but they cost twice as much as he was led to believe. He was to receive 25,000 sets of these trays, but instead got only 23,000. When he questioned the manufacturer, he was told they worked on a plus or minus ten percent margin and they would not run their machines to produce the difference.

This meant the poor fellow could only assemble and sell twenty-three thousand games, even though he'd paid for components for twenty-five thousand, causing him to lose over $36,000 in sales all the potential profits of the venture.

Since I have no idea what nonprinted components are going into this project other than those I've mentioned, you'll have to obtain a directory. They're usually organized by items manufactured and there shouldn't be any trouble finding the names and addresses of needed companies.

Well, let's see, where are we? Oh yes, I've been dreading this but the artwork is done, you're shopping for playing pieces, dice and such, and it's time to go to the bank before a quick trip to the friendly printer. Let's talk about the banker first, since it's a leverage tactic for dealing with the printer who finally does your job.

We're not doing anything dirty or underhanded; we're simply going to allow you to be up front with everyone and protect yourself at the same time. To do this, I am assuming you have enough cash, or access to enough cash, to print a game. If not ... well, I'm just glad you bought this book anyway.

At the bank, open up either an interest bearing savings account or a short term certificate of deposit with onlyslight penalties for early withdrawal. Talk to a bank officer and tell him the account has been opened to provide funds for the game project. He might raise an eyebrow, but he'll be happy to have the money and even happier you didn't come to see him to borrow money for this harebrained scheme. Anyway, tell him you'll be calling in the near future for a letter of credit payable to a local printer upon your authorization.

The reason for doing this is twofold. Unless you own a local company which is going to stake the game project and has AAAAA credit good enough to convince the printer to stick his neck out and invoice the work, the printer is going to want a good portion, if not all, of the money when he starts work. I'm not saying he's wrong. I've seen many printers who didn't cover themselves financially get burned and wind up writing the whole thing off as a loss. Remember, it may be your first encounter producing a game, but it's almost certain the printer has had a number of under capitalized people come in to show him a game about so big, and geewhiz, just a lot of fun to play.

In short, a printer who is worth his salt and doesn't know you from Adam is simply not going to get involved in a project without financial security. And why should he--after all he's taking almost all the risks. The other reason for opening the account is to offer some protection. By using the letter of credit form of payment, the printer is guaranteed his money when the job is delivered, and you're guaranteed the printer is not going to take half of the money in advance and then proceed to produce the game at his own "whenever I can work it in" pace. Another important feature accomplished by a letter of credit is that it establishes instant credibility with the printer. He'll know you're serious, estimate the cost of the job faster, and be more willing to work with you to get the best job at the best price.

Now we're ready to go see some printers. Since a number of printers have already been contacted and the art has been produced to fit their standard sizes, the list shouldn't take too long to complete.

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

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© Copyright 1985 by Dana Lombardy.
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