Physical games
After a break of a couple of months, I have started working on games again, but I am working on physical games at this point. Card, board, card, and hybrids thereof.
I've thought a lot about distribution of said games.
The default for selling physical games is to produce the product and sell copies of it, at retailers, online, at shows, etc. There are also increasingly common print on demand options for all sorts of games. I don't know of anyone who sells .PDF files for people to print their own copies for play.
Produced copies of a game have the biggest up-front costs. You have to design, develop, print, warehouse, and ship product to customers, distributors, etc. There is also little room for error. If there's a misprint, or an imbalance issue which needs replacement objects to be created, it's hard and expensive to produce & difficult to get out to existing customers (often impossible). Profit is relatively high on a per-item basis, but it may take a long time to recoup the costs of production before becoming profitable. Any sales after breaking even are profit less the costs for warehousing and sundry.
POD copies have lowered up-front costs, including design & development. The POD company is likely to eat the costs of printing and there is no warehousing costs as items are only produced as they are sold. There may be costs for corrections to materials and it is unlikely to be possible to get updated objects to your previous customers. Profit is low on a per-item basis and it may take some time to recoup expenses, but after recouping of losses all sales should be essentially pure profit.
Print It Yourself copies have similar up-front costs to POD, including the design and development. You need not pay any costs of printing, shipping, warehousing, and so forth. Files can be updated immediately and be available to customers to create their own updated versions of the games (for instance, have "update only" files for people to update from previous versions as well as having updated versions immediately available for existing customers. If a customer's copy gets damaged or destroyed, they can replace parts as-needed. Profit is high on a per-item basis and after recouping costs all sales should be pure profit.
An added benefit of PIY is that multiple versions can be made available, colour vs. grayscale, basic vs. advanced game, etc. A problem with PIY is that it puts a lot of effort onto the customer. They need to purchase appropriate paper and perhaps cut up paper or fold things appropriately, or they need to go to a Kinko's (I know, it's FedEx Whatever now) and convince them that it's legal to make copies of this stuff then pay the costs for whatever amount of printing, cutting, folding, spindling, and mutilating they want or need Kinko's to do.
As a consumer, if there were PIY copies of games available I would gladly pay a few bucks for a .PDF to make my own copies of games (especially card games) and have the option to buy 'deluxe' copies of the games which the producer has had made and available for purchase.
As a producer, I would love to be able to have several games available for PIY and produce physical copies (probably with discounts for PIY customers) of the best sellers. This would free me to spend more time and money on producing more games.
One huge problem with both PIY & POD is that you can't have them take up shelf space at physical stores (well, not in any practical way). I haven't seen the numbers, but the impression I've gotten from people in the industry is that the vast majority of sales of physical games are made in brick & mortar shops. It's very difficult to grab eyeballs in general and without shelf space, it seems like it would be an uphill battle.
An hybrid PIY/ Produced system feels an awful lot to me like Cheap Ass Games. He had to turn out a new game every month to keep money coming in, which meant that they weren't necessarily the best games in every case, but they were good enough that you didn't mind paying $5-$10 on them. The best games eventually would be reprinted and eventually have deluxe versions released. Let's say I spend 100 hours on designing and developing a game, pay an artist for layout design and artwork, then put it online for $5 as PIY. How many copies would I need to sell to turn a profit? Say I pay my artist $500 and myself $10/hr, I'd need to sell 300 copies to break even. Say I sell 25 copies a month, it would take a year to break even. Not bad.
On a practical note, I'm trying to get a game to a playable quality each month. I have 3 games which I feel I could get there with a couple of weeks of work. If I can get 3-6 months of buffer I'd consider doing a PIY system. We'll see if I can get things together while being a fulltime+ stay at home dad.
I've thought a lot about distribution of said games.
The default for selling physical games is to produce the product and sell copies of it, at retailers, online, at shows, etc. There are also increasingly common print on demand options for all sorts of games. I don't know of anyone who sells .PDF files for people to print their own copies for play.
Produced copies of a game have the biggest up-front costs. You have to design, develop, print, warehouse, and ship product to customers, distributors, etc. There is also little room for error. If there's a misprint, or an imbalance issue which needs replacement objects to be created, it's hard and expensive to produce & difficult to get out to existing customers (often impossible). Profit is relatively high on a per-item basis, but it may take a long time to recoup the costs of production before becoming profitable. Any sales after breaking even are profit less the costs for warehousing and sundry.
POD copies have lowered up-front costs, including design & development. The POD company is likely to eat the costs of printing and there is no warehousing costs as items are only produced as they are sold. There may be costs for corrections to materials and it is unlikely to be possible to get updated objects to your previous customers. Profit is low on a per-item basis and it may take some time to recoup expenses, but after recouping of losses all sales should be essentially pure profit.
Print It Yourself copies have similar up-front costs to POD, including the design and development. You need not pay any costs of printing, shipping, warehousing, and so forth. Files can be updated immediately and be available to customers to create their own updated versions of the games (for instance, have "update only" files for people to update from previous versions as well as having updated versions immediately available for existing customers. If a customer's copy gets damaged or destroyed, they can replace parts as-needed. Profit is high on a per-item basis and after recouping costs all sales should be pure profit.
An added benefit of PIY is that multiple versions can be made available, colour vs. grayscale, basic vs. advanced game, etc. A problem with PIY is that it puts a lot of effort onto the customer. They need to purchase appropriate paper and perhaps cut up paper or fold things appropriately, or they need to go to a Kinko's (I know, it's FedEx Whatever now) and convince them that it's legal to make copies of this stuff then pay the costs for whatever amount of printing, cutting, folding, spindling, and mutilating they want or need Kinko's to do.
As a consumer, if there were PIY copies of games available I would gladly pay a few bucks for a .PDF to make my own copies of games (especially card games) and have the option to buy 'deluxe' copies of the games which the producer has had made and available for purchase.
As a producer, I would love to be able to have several games available for PIY and produce physical copies (probably with discounts for PIY customers) of the best sellers. This would free me to spend more time and money on producing more games.
One huge problem with both PIY & POD is that you can't have them take up shelf space at physical stores (well, not in any practical way). I haven't seen the numbers, but the impression I've gotten from people in the industry is that the vast majority of sales of physical games are made in brick & mortar shops. It's very difficult to grab eyeballs in general and without shelf space, it seems like it would be an uphill battle.
An hybrid PIY/ Produced system feels an awful lot to me like Cheap Ass Games. He had to turn out a new game every month to keep money coming in, which meant that they weren't necessarily the best games in every case, but they were good enough that you didn't mind paying $5-$10 on them. The best games eventually would be reprinted and eventually have deluxe versions released. Let's say I spend 100 hours on designing and developing a game, pay an artist for layout design and artwork, then put it online for $5 as PIY. How many copies would I need to sell to turn a profit? Say I pay my artist $500 and myself $10/hr, I'd need to sell 300 copies to break even. Say I sell 25 copies a month, it would take a year to break even. Not bad.
On a practical note, I'm trying to get a game to a playable quality each month. I have 3 games which I feel I could get there with a couple of weeks of work. If I can get 3-6 months of buffer I'd consider doing a PIY system. We'll see if I can get things together while being a fulltime+ stay at home dad.