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Byron Collins
United States
Suffolk
Virginia
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Publishers do not simply take a design and push it out to the public- it’s much more complex and involved. Several roles of a publisher may be obvious to you while others may not be so apparent. With this post I want to begin discussing these roles, how I’ve approached them, and why they are important. Several roles overlap into good business practice. After a bit of brainstorming and critical thinking about what I actually do as a publisher, I felt it best to break this up into several discrete jobs or roles and apply those roles to an example game that I’ve taken from start to production and beyond.
The basic roles I came up with are as follows- this is not a comprehensive list of everything I or another publisher may do- but is more general to focus on just the publishing aspects (not the additional things I do like design, accounting, other business functions, some artwork, etc.):
* Evaluate / Choose Games
* Set and Manage Prices (MSRPs)
* Manage Financial Risk
* Manage Game Development
* Manage Game Production
* Protect Intellectual Property (IP)
* Manage Inventory
* Maintain a Web Presence
* Establish and Maintain Effective Communications
* Market, Advertise, and Promote Games
* Sales and Shipping / Logistics
* Support Gamers, Retailers, and Distributors after Sales
I’ll discuss each general role in additional detail with Evaluate / Choose Games discussed below based on my personal experiences and some discussions with other publishers. Since this section has grown pretty long, I’ll split up the other detailed discussions into separate blog posts.
* Evaluate / Choose Games
Publishers may or may not also design the games they publish. If you are a designer publishing your own games, I would call that self-publishing. If you are self-publishing your own designs, that’s fine, just know that you’re bypassing a traditional check-and-balance provided by the evaluation of a game submission by a publisher. Traditionally, a Game Designer will submit their final, hopefully well-tested prototype to the publisher who will accept it, come to terms with the designer, and take the game further, or reject the submission and not pursue that design for whatever reason.
Evaluation Factors and a word on self-publishing
Evaluating a game submission takes time. This not only includes playtesting the game, but also an evaluation of what it would take to print/manufacture such a game, what IP protection will be required, how hard it will be to support, whether or not there is a series potential or if it is a single, standalone game, and other factors such as art requirements, whether or not something similar already exists, whether the game fits the publisher’s line, whether it violates the protected IP of another company or person, and the subjective factor of whether or not the game will sell and how hard it will be to do so. Once the evaluation is complete, the publisher should have an indication one way or the other about the design and should clearly communicate a positive decision via contractual proposal to the designer. In my opinion, a negative decision should be sent by formal letter along with reasons.
Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 is my own design, but despite that, I 'submitted it to myself' to make sure that I formally thought through all of the above considerations. With one previous game under my belt I knew what mistakes to avoid (and I’ll talk about that in another post). To have a bit of ‘check-and-balance’ for the game, I also had two other publishers, friends of mine, play the game and evaluate it for feedback. This feedback proved invaluable and no doubt contributed to the game’s success.
It’s sometimes hard for a designer to face the reality that not everything he creates is great. If you’re going to self-publish, think outside of your own creation for a moment, and make sure you’re honest with yourself regarding your own design’s potential for success. Also, as a designer it takes a thick skin to submit something for honest feedback. A publisher should provide that honest feedback- and you should expect that, as well as a formal response, from the company you submit your game to.
Active Search for Designs
The role of Evaluating / Choosing Games may not even be accomplished in the way described above with publishers ‘waiting’ on design submissions from Game Designers. Some publishers actively seek out games to publish and may approach the designer directly. If this is the case, the designer can assume the publisher has already done some homework about the designer and the game- for example, if someone designs a print-and-play game and releases it on BGG, a publisher may approach that designer if the game fits in the publisher’s line. The publisher may have already printed out the game and played it as an initial evaluation of interest. If you are a designer contacted by a publisher, that’s a good thing- my advice would be to carefully consider what the publisher has to offer.
Commissioning Designs
Another way a game design may see the light of day is by commissioning the design. Just like art may be commissioned for a game design, the entire game design may be commissioned by a publisher to an established designer. Sometimes this may be done as part of a license agreement with a parent company that owns the IP which is the subject of the game. For example, The Lord of The Rings, Battlestar Gallactica, Star Wars, etc. In this case, the owner of the license to create the game is protected from claims of copyright infringement by the licensor, with a contract in place allowing use of the IP for royalties. The IP alone may sell the game, but it’s up to the publisher to make sure the design is as strong as the IP. I believe Fantasy Flight Games does a good job with this. While I can’t speak to this specifically, I assume that the parent company IP holder has some final approval over the resultant game product.
To Publish or not To Publish
Choice of whether or not to publish a game is the most important decision a publisher makes. That decision is really what it all boils down to and it can make or break a publisher. Sometimes the decision is very subjective but often the decision is based on experience with what trends are going on in the hobby gaming industry (what’s hot) as well as personal experience with what type of game will be successful and what type will not. The decision may also come down to one of brand management- i.e. what type of game does the publisher want to focus on and what type of game will be rejected no matter what? For example, I’m not a CCG publisher and I don’t publish Abstracts. I have nothing against those types of games and do enjoy a few of each type, but my company is focused on publishing wargames, so I won’t accept submissions of CCGs or Abstracts. In the end, to stay in business, the choice to publish a game must be one that financially benefits everyone involved with that game- the publisher, distributors, retailers, printers, designers, artists, etc.- and benefits gamers by providing great gaming value / entertainment for their money.
This concludes a high level look at what publishers may consider when evaluating / choosing games. In the next post, I’ll talk about pricing models, how a game’s MSRP is divided among those who take a cut, Managing Financial Risk, and some creative financial sources for game production.
As always, comments are welcome!
Best,
Byron
Check out Part 2
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