Indie Boards and Cards, a Non-Publisher

4 Comments

1. Travis Worthington on 10.08.2009 at 22:18

   Frankly there are many venues for designers to find assistance on the design, playtesting, rule writing and even production of board games. I would point to the design and DIY forums on BGG or the entire BGDF website. I am an active participate on those forums.

   Indie Boards and Cards is serving a market that many self publishers ignore until its too late – they order 3000 copies of their games from China without getting external playtesters or building up the market demand.

   If people are going to be succesful in their attempt to self publish (ie getting close to breaking even) they will be capable of getting through the process with the resources that are already available to them (and ones that might not be my area of expertise).

   Look for a number of known industry people to be announced as behind the concept, as well as games from other self publishers to be added.

2. shadejon on 10.08.2009 at 23:18

   Travis, I figured I would annoy you with my post. Thanks for commenting.

   What you’re doing, and what your website appears to be doing, are at odd with each other. You are functioning as a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. You look like some kind of publisher, marketer, developer, or distributor. I had to navigate the tangle of text to figure that out.

   Take a look at the site from the perspective of someone who may actually need the service: the clueless I’ve got a Monopoly clone developer, or I think my new abstract is going to beat Chess creator. Are they going to understand the site? If they’re already Geek savvy, do they really need your site?

   My two cents: majorly rework the site to the kind of clueless market that needs it, and lose the Geek association.

   Yehuda

3. Travis Worthington on 11.08.2009 at 00:15

   I think you are missing the point entirely – Indie Boards and Cards is not aiming to be the first point on path of discovery for a clueless game designer, but the last.

   Its a marketing co-op for self publishers (ie, pool resources across a number of small publishers) in order to sell games, while building an engine to make that process easier over time. The same concept as what makes a traditional publisher succesful but spread across (hopefully) many different smaller companies.

   For the consumer the idea is to provide some level of quality control on games from self publishers.

   The concepts are based on a number of discussions with some very succesful self publishers, and many more with others that weren’t (or aren’t going to be) so succesful.

   I lead with my own game, because 1) I think it is a godd game, 2) I needed to build crebility in my my name and the site so I am willing to forge the path with my own money, 3) I think I have a lot of good ideas on how to make this owrk but I’d rather try them first before I ask others to do the same. Take a look at the triumvirate page on BGG – its been posted there for less than a week, 4 reviews have been posted already that will help make an informed decision on the game and merits of leading this concept with that as the first offering.

   Ultimately this is a not-for-profit and on a shoe string concept, all moneys either cover costs (and not even that) or are donated to charity. If I wanted to make money i would be helping the monopoly clone guy try to patent their ideas.

4. Chris Ferejohn on 12.08.2009 at 16:17

   While the original posts tone is perhaps a bit strident, I think Yehuda is right that the intent of the website is pretty confusing from the text. When I read that these small print game have “poor playtesting, have confusing & incomplete rules or just aren’t that good,” I think “oh, so they are offering rule proofreading/editing and playtesting services.”

   Not that what you are offering isn’t worthwhile. It is true that I (and presumably many other game-buyers) will buy a game from FFG, DoW, or Z-Man (among others) with a lot of confidence that a fair amount of effort will have gone into playtesting, rules, and general quality control, wheras it is sometimes difficult to know that with a self-publisher.

   That said, given the nature of the Internet (and BGG specifically), it really isn’t too hard to find some information about self-published games. I know that, say, Timber Tom has terrific components despite being self-published because of hearing about it on BGG and other places.

   I guess what I’m saying is, if I’m a self-publisher, I feel like my time would be much better spent trying to get Tom Vasel or Scott Nicholson to review my game than getting this particular stamp. Now if you were offering (and could demonstrate expertise in) help with playtesting and rules refining, I could see the value add, but I’m not quite seeing it.

   And either way, the website text is a bit confusing.

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