First, here are some videos I made for students at the school where I work.
Virtual Club Resources
These videos are from a virtual game design club I started earlier in 2016. They will give you a general idea of what it takes to get started making your own games.Part 1: Introduction to Game Design
Part 2: How to Get Ideas for Games
Part 3: Developing Your Ideas
That post refers to a Game Design Template. If you're interested in seeing the template, it's here. I wrote this post about it a couple years ago.
Part 4: Making Prototypes and Testing Them
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| One of my games published through The Game Crafter |
Taking your game to the world
Once you’ve completed a game, you probably want to get it out to your target audience. This involves publishing and promotion. I'll try to be brief about suggestions here, but all the options could turn into a book!I’ll offer only two suggestions for getting games to the masses. Neither of these will make you rich, but they will certainly get you important experience and increase your opportunities.
Both options would be considered self-publishing. It means you're doing it rather than getting someone else (probably a publishing company) to do it for you.
Self-publishing will require you to take on many jobs such as graphic design, writer, PR manager and webmaster. In other words, you’ll learn a lot more than just how to design a game.
Besides these general directions, I’ll also list some resources at the end if you want to do more research.
Print and Play
With this publishing method you’d make a PDF of your rules and components.
The good thing about making your games as Google Slides presentations or Google Drawings is that you can easily download those components as PDF files. The option is found in the File menu. So in just a few clicks, you can have a PDF version of your game.
You’d post that file on your own blog or website or maybe you’d upload it to a game site like Boardgamegeek.com. There, people could download it and decide if they wanted to print it to make their own copy.
If you want to explore print-and-play games and how people make quality copies of them, see this wiki on the Boardgame Geek website. At the bottom of that page you'll see many links to great examples of print-and-play games.
But just making an attractive game and an attractive website or blog to post it on will not get your game played. Plan to promote it.
Look for other people who might play the game and who will write reviews or comments about it online. Most games take some effort to learn and even to play. In the case of print and play, players also have to through the process of actually making or finding all the components. If a reputable gamer with a following gives your game a positive review it’s more likely others will take the time to do all that.
One last tip--When you ask people to review your game, don’t just send them your link and expect to see a review. Contact them and if they agree to take a look, make a copy for them yourself. Mail it to them and give it some time.
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Don’t be a pest, but if you don’t hear anything from them in a couple weeks, it’s fine to politely ask if they have any feedback or plans to post something online.
And the second option for publishing is...
Print On Demand services
Years ago it cost so much to set up the printing for a game that it wasn’t worth it to churn out just a few copies. Designers had to pay for at least 1,000 or more copies if they wanted to see a quality, physical version of it. Way too many hopeful designers ended up with a big bill and stacks of unsold games in their garages.
Now that printing processes have improved, there are companies that will print just a single copy of your game and it won’t cost a fortune. So imagine buying a nice copy of your design for yourself and a few for family and friends. If you think others might pay for it, you can even post a link to the print service from your blog or website. People (probably aunts, uncles and maybe your neighbor) could pay for the game that way and you might even make a little money from it.
This process of printing games only as often as they’re ordered is called print on demand and it offers some great benefits. Just be aware that when you order small numbers of games, each one will still be relatively expensive. And don't forget that shipping will be added to the cost too.
My recommended service for publishing this way is The Game Crafter. I have used their services for several years now and their site and work have greatly improved over time.
It will take several more hours to turn your graphics into something that works at their site. For example, when I print my prototypes I usually have 9 - 12 cards on a single page of paper. To make my game at the Game Crafter, though, every one of the cards has to be on a separate high resolution graphic. Imagine how much work it takes to make individual graphics for a deck of 100 cards!
And as I said, it will cost more than if you bought a game with the same number and type of components from a game store. And though the quality is good, it's not quite as good as a professionally published game.
I’m happy to pay the price to get an edition of the game myself or to give as gifts.
If you want to sell your for a profit to others, though, remember you have to put an even higher price on it than you paid. That likely will be more than most people will want to pay.
That is, unless you have a great game and you do some excellent promotion.
Just like the print and play process above, promotion is necessary. The Game Crafter even has a page of suggested reviewers you can contact. Here's an example of a review one of them wrote for me a few years ago.
If a reviewer agrees to look at your game, you’ll have to order one from the site and ship it to them. Yes, it's one more expense and there's no guarantee they'll even like the game.
Wrapping Up
I hope this short summary of game development and publishing makes it clear how much work goes into a good game. I also hope it helps you bring your game to others. Finding that something you made can bring joy to people is a satisfying reward worth the effort.
And here are links to other resources I've found or that I created for my blog:
- Two of my very helpful game designer friends created these great videos answering questions from students.
- How to Make Games - I made a video about getting started with game design and one about making prototypes and playtesting. They are similar to the virtual club ideas.
- Many designers contributed this enlightening and encouraging post about What I Learned from Designing Games.How to Make Games - Playtesting - I created this video a few years ago. You'll see similarities to what I wrote above.
- Interview with Scott Almes - Here's a great interview with practical advice from a very successful up and coming game designer.
- Protospiel - Many years ago I helped start this gathering of game designers. It has grown to a larger network around the U.S., so see if anyone is meeting near you.
- UnPub - This is another convention for game designers.
- 10,000 Feet to Publishing a Game - Here's a hard look at what one successful publisher says it takes to make your game. He knows what he's talking about, but he's describing a very professional production.
- An Overview of the Game Design Process - This is an older and more in depth article I wrote about taking a game from concept to reality. A lot has changed when it comes to game publishing since then, but the development ideas still apply.
- Making What's It to Ya? - This is my story, starting with an idea to making a $10 printing investment to ending up in GAMES Magazine's Games 100 to seeing the game go around the world.
