How-To Publish Games, The Tasty Minstrel Way

Love Homesteaders, love Eminent Domain, like Terra Prime.

TP wasn't a total flop but I do agree with Michaels assessment that it suffered a lot due to the issues he stated. It would be hard to rebuild a buzz for a game that had such a tough start out of the gates. The big issue is whether or not its worth the risk to invest more money into a second print run, which would be necessary, if the buzz about the game was killed by the first production issues. If I recall TMG was even on the fence about a second edition of Homesteaders for awhile and that game's buzz was much bigger than TP's.

I constantly hear that manufacturing in China is cheaper than anywhere else (and I don't doubt it). However, I would be interested in seeing some hard numbers comparing the manufacturing, shipping, cost of a liason and loss of damaged product to the cost of doing the same business either in the States or Germany.

What things occured that took away your confidence in American printers?

Terra Prime deserves a second chance. I have wanted to do a review of it for awhile but my components are so hashed up that I always thought it would be a disservice to the game instead of helping it.

I haven't played it in a bit, but when we did we did a lot of substitution for the stuff I had to throw away.

Please reprint! I would buy it in a heartbeat.

I agree. It's a shame about the components and Terra Prime decent game that didn't get a fair chance. Instead of just a reprint though, I'd like to see a "second edition" with more upgrades and stuff. Also, the pink energy cubes have to go. I remember the prototype had some red, translucent cubes that were really cool. When I played Terra Prime recently I raided my copy of Dungeon Lords and used the red cubes from that for the energy cubes.

Sounds like the most important thing is not the quality of his printing work, but what his website looks like.

Sounds like the most important thing is not the quality of his printing work, but what his website looks like.

He didn't miss any boat. The Printer would have missed the boat by not having a reasonable website.

This is potentially less important for a local contractor or restaurant.

http://www.adsrepro.com/

Michael,

This is a broader manufacturing question that you may or may not have investigated: are you aware of any independent third parties that can verify that a given Chinese manufacturer (or in your case, the manufacturers utilized by a manufacturing liaison) is, to put it bluntly, not running a sweat-shop? ie, the workers have safe working conditions, are being paid an acceptable wage for their work, etc? As a consumer, I'd be extremely uncomfortable knowing my games (or any Chinese-manufactured merchandise that I buy) is being made by workers who are being abused or exploited. As a publisher, I feel that it's my obligation to ensure I'm not working with manufacturers that exploit their workers. Have you come across any ways to obtain this information, short of taking a trip to China to see for yourself?

What things occured that took away your confidence in American printers?

Chad, Michael's "bad websites" comments notwithstanding, I think most publishers would love to do business with US printers if possible (including Michael, I'm sure). But are there actually any printers in the US who are capable of doing game production to European quality standards, and who have a demonstrated reputation for having repeatedly done so? If you know of any, it would be a great topic for a thread separate from Michael's post. My hunch is that US printers would cost more, even with the shipping costs from China factored in, BUT the decrease in lead time and customs delays associated with shipping across the Pacific could provide a significant advantage, which, though difficult to quantify, would certainly result in goodwill from buyers. (This would be especially true for publishers that sell via pre-order campaigns; being able to provide timely and predictable delivery will make people more likely to support such a campaign, and the 'Made in the USA' label might provide an intangible selling point as well).

one thing that I'm willing to die on my sword for is that it is printed in the US.

I've been mulling around a game design in my head (who isn't nowadays?), but one thing that I'm willing to die on my sword for is that it is printed in the US. Granted, in it's current incarnation, it's only a card game

Can I just say, er, write something?

Tasty Minstrel has not much to gain and a whole lot to lose by airing these kinds of details on the "trials and tribulations" of modern boardgame publishing. It would seem that they are quite willing to risk a fair amount public humiliation (and potential competitive edge) in order to educate other "budding entrepreneurs." Am I the only one that finds that attitude just too cool for words?

Anyhow, thanks guys.

Tim

P.S. Of course, the cynic in me understands that the blog is also a marketing tool, but it's the "good" kind of marketing: the kind that focuses on building bridges between producers and consumers, rather than the kind that simply panders to consumer buying habits.

No, just that if I find a bad website. Something that looks like it is 15 years out of date at least, then why should I have any confidence in the product?

This is the year 2011. I fully expect that I lost sales initially because the old TMG website was atrocious. That is one of the reasons that it got updated early in this year.

Not to mention at the time, many of the "hey we manufacture this game" examples looked like crap on the site and were for games I never heard of. In the end, I found good manufacturers that I am comfortable working with, and that is hat is important to me.

Good advice on the Chinese manufacturing, but as to local printers, if you were going to them for web design I could see your concern. But what if their printing is high quality? I work with several suppliers who are not even sure what a web site is, let alone know how to build a good one, but they are at the top of their game in the particular service they provide (and at a very reasonable cost).