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Phil Harding
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Hi everyone, I thought I'd share the story of self-publishing my third game, Cannonball Colony. I hope you find it an interesting read!


Designing the game

Cannonball Colony was one of the first ideas that came to me when I decided to jump into hobby game design in 2006. It began simply with an idea for a modular board. The idea was an island made up of square tiles, on which was a grid of different terrain types. The first theme that came to mind was pirates hunting down treasure on the island, but this didn't last long. Pirates seem much more home at sea - wandering around an island and building stuff just didn't seem right! As the game developed towards the road and fort building mechanics of the final game, the colonisation theme jumped right out at me. Most of the game was developed with this theme firmly in mind.

If you'd like to read more about my design process, check out my Designer's Notes for the game at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/318888


Prototyping

Once I had a basic ruleset, I set to work on the first prototype. The very first version was pretty flimsy. The board tiles foamboard, and everything else was just thick paper. This allowed me to play the game through, but was too annoying to use for proper playtests, so it didn't survive long.

The nest prototype was more successful. I printed some basic tile graphics out on inkjet labels and stuck these onto thick cardboard. I then cut out each island tile, and there was my board. The road and fort tiles were much more of a pain to cut out, but I made them in the same way. My first ships and cannons were not very ambitious, and were simply cardboard too.

From very early on I knew I wanted the mountain pieces to be 3D. I thought this would look cool when the game was set up, but my main concern was that spatially, it is so much easier to see where your cannons can fire if the mountains are actually raised from the rest of the board. So I made some small mountain pieces out of FIMO clay. Here's how the this prototype ended up looking:




Early playtesting

I set to work playtesting, and played a few times with different groups of gamer friends. The game worked, and I thought the flow of play turn to turn went nicely. However, I knew there was something a bit off structurally with the game as a whole. This was especially highlighted when one early game clocked in at well over two hours!


Putting it on the shelf

While all this was going on, I had been pricing the production of the game. At that stage the game required 16 different board tiles, 100 road tiles, as well as all the other pieces which just added up to a ridiculous amount. I was resigned to the fact that if the game was ever to be produced, it would have to be by an established publisher. My plan was always to try my hand at self-publication to begin with, and this game just didn't fit the bill for a first effort. Plus, I knew more work was required to finish off the game design anyway, so Cannonball Colony ended up on the shelf.

I decided to turn my attention to games that would be simpler to produce, and so I spent 2007 making Archaeology and then Archaeology: The Card Game.


Finishing off the game

In early 2008 I began thinking about my next game. My intention was to do another card game, to keep production simple. Archaeology: The Card Game had worked out pretty well, and I really enjoyed the design challenge of keeping everything to a deck of cards.

Still, one day I got out the old Cannonball Colony prototype and played around with it. Perhaps it was taking a year off the project that did it, but suddenly I found my self with plenty of ideas for fixing up the game’s structural issues. It became clear to me that the problem was the scoring mechanism. From quite early on, the players scored 1 victory point for every complete round of the game in which they had the most forts built on the island. This created great tension because each player was always trying to keep up with the leader turn to turn. However, this was also what was dragging the game down. It tied players too much to the actions of others, and didn't give them any freedom on the board. It meant games could become bogged down, low scoring affairs. But I also knew the game needed this feeling of a constant race to be fun! I wrote down a list of other scoring mechanisms that might be able to provide this same level of tension. I tested a few out in solo play, and found the solution: players only gain access to their cannons and blockades when they build a certain number of forts. So there is a race element, but it is not directly tied to acquiring victory points.

And so for a few months I did more playtesting, and got the game to a point where I felt it was a tight system. But there was still the problem of production costs.


Finding cheaper production methods

Three breakthroughs in my thinking about production made me realise I could actually get this game made. The first was finding out that http://www.plasticsforgames.co.uk stocked square plastic tiles. They were much cheaper than wooden tiles, or getting cardboard die-cut. Conveniently this same site sold ships, and pyramid pieces (mountains!) which would work perfectly with the road tiles. The size of these pieces meant the game would be a bit smaller than I'd imagined, but this was a small price to pay (and in the end solved my box problem too, as you'll see below!).



It also dawned on me that there was no reason for the board to be made up of 16 pieces. 4 would do the job just as well. If I removed the coastline from the board design (which had been pretty redundant in the prototypes anyway), then each of these 4 tiles could be placed in any orientation on the table. This effectively allowed for as many random set-ups as using the 16 tiles anyway. Getting 4 tiles cut up per game is far less daunting than 16, so I felt far better about this side of production too.

The final breakthrough had to do with the game box. After making my own rigid boxes for Archaeology, I had vowed never again! Tuckboxes for card games are of course much easier. I discovered a small packaging company here in Australia that happened to make really nice white rigid boxes up to a size of 15cm x 15cm x 3.3cm. I had discovered these when hunting for boxes before, but always thought they were way to small to work for a boardgame. However, I realised that because of the smaller pieces I was using, my board tiles would be around 12cm square, and everything could fit snuggly into these boxes.

I considered gluing artwork on to each box, but in the end opted for simple tuck-box style slipcases for each game.

I decided to make 100 copies of Cannonball Colony. This made sense when I looked at the pricing of all my components, but was also basically my limit in terms of how much cash I had. I figured that 100 copies was enough to get the game "out there" for people to play, and that was my main concern.


Artwork

Realising the game was actually going ahead, I got to work on the art. I didn't have enough money left to hire a pro artist, plus I needed to act quickly as I wanted to launch the game at the Australian Games Expo in June. So I decided to again do the art myself. I wish I had ended up with more time to re-work a few aspects of the visual design, and I would have loved to have commissioned painted art for the board. But, I feel the art, while simple, is functional for the game.





Rules

I took the rules through a few drafts and posted them here on BGG for proof-reading. I got some amazingly generous responses from people, who really took the time to carefully go through everything and offer suggestions. I only had time for one totally blind rules test, using some college friends, but this also picked up a few wording issues.


A mountain of plastic

When the plastic pieces arrived from the UK, my floorspace was cut in half, there were bags of pieces everywhere! I had great service from Plastics For Games, but had no idea that Australian customs charges all sorts of crazy taxes for any incoming goods valued over $1000. I think my order was thirty dollars over, and this ended up costing me an extra $250. Learn from my mistake and find out about import taxes!

I spent a couple of days sorting the pieces into baggies and compiling each game. This is a very repetitive and mechanical task, but if you put music on, it is amazing how quickly the time can pass. It is like you go into a trance or something...




Debuting the game

I took the game to my booth at the Australian Games Expo where I demoed and sold it. Cannonball Colony is a much harder game to demo than my previous games I soon realised. This is basically because it is longer to play, and also harder to teach. Archaeology: The Card Game ended up being the bigger focus of my booth. But still, I was happy with the response the game got.



Unlike Archaeology: The Card Game, I felt this print run was small enough to just sell through my website: http://www.adventurelandgames.com
It has been selling well so far, and it really exciting to post copies off to countries all around the world!


The launch party

After the dust had settled from getting the game made and taking it to the expo, I wanted to run a more casual launch of the game for friends. It was a great night! My friend Kirsty baked another awesome cake, and I put on a tournament of the game.



Check out Scott's Geeklist about the night:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/32678/item/688003
And also Simon's session report:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/323083


What next

I am happy that copies of Cannonball Colony are out there around the world, and that the game has found a small audience. I would love to see it published fully one day. It is currently being looked at by a couple of publishers, so we will see.

I am also planning an online version of the game, as I think it would work really well in this format. This would also allow Cannonball Colony to "live on" to a degree if the boardgame itself does sink into obscurity! Another great BGGer, Gregory, made an excellent VASSAL module of the game, whivh is a great starting point in this direction.




Thanks for reading!
I'd be happy to answer any questions that anyone may have too.


Nick Badoux
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Awesome story, thanks for sharing!
Jon Theys
United States
Oklahoma City
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How is Cannonball Colony doing? Have you sold all of your initial run?
Andrew Tullsen
United States
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How many copies do you have left? How much is it costing you in shipping to get this sent around the globe? If you shipped out some copies to the US and had someone here ship them to people from the US, would that save you money?
Brandon Pennington
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If it does get picked up I hope they keep the plastic bits and keep the art the same as I think it looks really cool right now. It definitely has its own style and stands out in a world of wooden pieces.
Jon Yonce
United States
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Virginia
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Just wanted to say I've been following your games and company's progress and that you're a great inspiration to the indie game designer! AND the indie game publisher! :laugh:

I *love* seeing designers/publishers write up their insight!

EDIT: oh, and any kind of guess as far as a breakdown of manhours it took for development, playtesting, production, shipping, etc?
Last edited on 2008-09-04 12:15:47 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Byron Collins
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Great Job and nice story Phil! I can sympathize with the loss of floor space- dealing with the same thing right now- but it's also pretty cool to walk in and see your game everywhere. The kitting "party" we had was GREAT! And, you've inspired me to host a 'post-launch party'--- that's a great idea.
J C Lawrence
United States
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Well done! I've enjoyed the game (and more than I expected to), and am impressed with how densely you've packed your box.
Christopher Taylor
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Neat article. It's always interesting to see more about the production of independent games.

It was enough to push me over the edge and order a copy.
Harald Enoksson
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Nice story :)

I am myself sitting on my floor, trying to find out all about this printing monster I just bought to spit out the next game ...

Do you still have Cannonball Copies left?

And could you elaborate a bit on:
Quote:
I considered gluing artwork on to each box, but in the end opted for simple tuck-box style slipcases for each game.

That cannonball flew over my English vocabulary. What's a tuck-box style slipcase and how do you print it and why is it better (and what might be the disadvantage)?

Thanks again mate
Phil Harding
Australia
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Thanks for the kind comments guys!

I have around 30 copies left of the game. I considered shipping some over to the states, but it turned out the difference in price was tiny for the buyer. Plus with a small run, it seemed to make sense to have them all in one place.

As for a breakdown of hours, it is so hard to say when you do these things in your spare time. But I would say that designing the game was the most time consuming, especially as it happened over a two year period. I probably spent something like 30 hours on the art, 10 on the rules and maybe another 30 putting it all together. But these are pretty vague guesses!

To elaborate on the packaging: The game's plain rigid box is packaged inside a thinner box, which is similar to a large box for a card game (it closes with a flap). So in a sense, this acts as a cover or slipcase for the actual rigid box which stores the game. This was a cheaper and easier solution, because getting artwork onto the actual rigid box either meant paying for custom printed rigid boxes, or gluing the art on myself (both of which are expensive and time consuming options).
Harald Enoksson
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Alright, I get it!

But how did you manage to get the hard box and the slip cover to be of the same size? Was it luck, is it a standard size, or did you custom order one or both of them?

And how did you print the slip covers; by feeding them unfolded into your own printer, or did you order them as well? If so, would it be rude to ask what you paid for printing 100 slip covers, and if you had to do the folding of these yourself?

I was set to hand-glue art to my 100 boxes, I never got this slip-cover idea before ...

Sorry for the many questions ;)
Phil Harding
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I had the boxes printed professionally, but they came flat, and I constructed them. Yes, they were a custom size (I designed them to fit around the rigid boxes). While art on the rigid boxes would have looked more professional, this idea still looks pretty good - and was easier to do.

All the best with your project!
J C Lawrence
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The Cannonball Colony box is very nice.

I also like the (surprisingly low-cost) approach taken by Hangman games for Tahuantinsuyu. It is a standard off-the-shelf single-piece shipping box (ie not telescoping) with glued lables applied to all sides:

Bryan Maxwell
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This was a very interesting read. It's always refreshing to see someone chasing their dreams. I don't know you and you don't know me, but I'm proud of you.
Todd Lang
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Copy #77 of Cannonball Colony has found a loving home in Wellesley, Ontario, Canada. :) Another copy (#13 I believe) is resting comfortably not too far away in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Just to let you know that your game is appreciated on the other side of the world! :D
Thomas Taylor
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Kiyote wrote:
Copy #77 of Cannonball Colony has found a loving home in Wellesley, Ontario, Canada. :) Another copy (#13 I believe) is resting comfortably not too far away in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Just to let you know that your game is appreciated on the other side of the world! :D


#41 has found a good home in Birmingham, AL and I've had many friends try this game and they all love it. (Except my fiancee, she finds it a bit too hard...mwahaha)

Great game Phil, your hard work shows!
tony dowler
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Thanks for this post! I'm currently making plans for my first boxed game, and it's encouraging to hear someone else's story.
I'm not a bloody Cylon!!!!!!
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Tygo wrote:
Kiyote wrote:
Copy #77 of Cannonball Colony has found a loving home in Wellesley, Ontario, Canada. :) Another copy (#13 I believe) is resting comfortably not too far away in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Just to let you know that your game is appreciated on the other side of the world! :D


#41 has found a good home in Birmingham, AL and I've had many friends try this game and they all love it. (Except my fiancee, she finds it a bit too hard...mwahaha)

Great game Phil, your hard work shows!


#95 made it's way safely to the UK this morning

Thanks Phil.
Peter Struijf
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Hi Phil,

congratulations on making your dream into reality and sharing the story with all of us!

I was "lucky" to have the family savings to play with in self-publishing Kraków 1325 AD, so I never had to glue, pack or collate a game myself (but of course took a much bigger financial risk as a result, in a print run of 2,000)....

Wishing you all the best,

Peter
Jackson Pope
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Hiya Phil,

Glad to hear Adventureland Games is still doing well - you'll have to make the jump like I have soon :)

Cheers,

Jack
Phil Harding
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Ah Jack, I really doubt I'll have the time or money to make this more than a hobby any time soon - but that'll always be the dream...

Oh and for those interested, there are only around 10 copies of the game left. They can still be ordered at www.adventurelandgames.com

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