A lot goes into making a board game. From design to development, marketing and of course manufacture. In the past I wrote about the distribution pipeline (see our article: Supply Chain A-Z), and decided that it might be helpful to dig a little deeper into the actual process of manufacturing a board game.
It was a frustrating experience – not just because it was money out of our pocket, but also due to the uncertainty over how it would impact our timelines. My update to backers was a no-nonsense look at what was going on, and how it might (but ended up not) impact backers.
You can read the whole update here.
I pride our company on transparency and things like this blog as a behind the curtain look at publishing. And, that update did hit those marks in a pretty neutral tone.
Last week publisher Matthue Ryann had a similar problem with one of his shipments for his game Don’t Get Drunk, and I was impressed by the tack he took. Rather than be negative, or just neutral about the experience, he turned his misfortune into an upbeat and positive moment for his fans.
[image]
At the end of the day publishing board games is about fun. I think Matt’s response is an important lesson to keep in mind, to look to create fun in our communities even around the mundane or negative events for us as publishers.
Mythic Missteps
There are a whole lot of cans of worms to unpack from the disaster that is the 6: Siege post campaign management. Here are some recaps:
There’s a lot that could be said about Mythic’s communication – lack of transparency, apparent dishonestly about why they need more funds (hint: it’s development cost overruns not manufacture overruns), and a Bond villain-esque setting for delivering the bad news to backers.
But, Sigil didn’t start with me. It wasn’t my brain child, and while I helped tighten the game up around the edges, the design fully belongs to Andy Voellmer.
15 Years in the Making
If you were near Montreal’s Parc LaFontaine in summer 2009, you might have seen a couple of college aged kids playing a game with maple leaf pennies.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of those first plays – and I’m not sure that those first iterations would even be recognizable to someone introduced to the game as it stands today. The rules were a bit different, spells weren’t even modular, and that’s not even getting into how the game looks.
But, the spark of it was there.
That spark stayed with Andy through a PHD, from Canada to California, and to New York City where we met.
While I don’t have pictures of those first plays, I do have a picture of one of my early plays with Andy.
Go With the Flow
No two demos are going to be the same, so it’s important to make sure everyone knows your games inside and out, and to stay flexible in a teach.
Some gamers like to skip around and ask a bunch of questions, some gamers are hands on with components, some are content to let you monologue.
And all those approaches are ok.
Converting a Sale
The ultimate goal of demoing at a convention is to show off your games and get them into the hands of people who will love and play them.
This means that you need a call to action to convert those would be fans into consumers. At Gen Con we ran a special price on Nut Hunt (since we didn’t have to pay for shipping). This was a strong incentive to buy the game now, rather than wait and mull it over, and maybe let it slip their mind on their flight home.
Sigil was a harder sale since we don’t have physical copies to sell (we wrapped up the Kickstarter in June and were taking late pledges at the con).
What I found worked for Sigil was to be frank about where in the process we were, and to appeal to consumers who the game really clicked with.
This is roughly the closing script I settled on by the end of the weekend.
“Sigil is our second game. It’s not even out yet. For context, we Kickstarted Nut Hunt last June and delivered it over two months ahead of schedule in January. We Kickstarted Sigil this June, and like Nut Hunt are targeting a March delivery. We can’t promise it will be early because obviously some things are out of our hands, but from our perspective we are on schedule.
“So, what we’re asking people to do today is to go on our website and join the mailing list, and you’ll get notified when we open it up to late pledges next month.
“And, what’s been pretty incredible is that a lot of people know they want the game today. They either demo it or sit down and play it. And, this is one of those games where if this is in your genre – if you like GO, Hive, Onitama – if this is your kind of game, then once you play this you’ll love it.
“If you know already that you want the game, then what we can do today is ring you up and charge you for the base game, and we’ll get your email and when we open up the pledge manager next month you’ll already be in there with all of the Kickstarter backers and have access to the add-ons and all the Kickstarter components.
I think the script I settled on did a couple of things really well.
It gave context around where we are in the process and set expectations.
It didn’t pressure people to buy now – but gave them a few ways to engage with us.
It normalized late pledging in person at the convention.
People like being part of a crowd, and by highlighting that a lot of people were taking the late pledge in person option, I normalized for our con goers that it was a good route to go.
Stay Hydrated
Cons are long, you’ll be talking a lot and your voice will start to go. So, stay hydrated. Take breaks when you need them. Treat yourself well and you’ll keep up that energy to have a successful con full of memorable demos with amazing people.
What are your favorite demo experiences?
You can read Jamie Stegmaier’s take in the comments section here.
The First Amendment & Terms of Service
Medium Brow contends that their use is clearly parody and so protected under the first amendment. While generally speaking parody products are protected there are a few wrinkles (from my non-lawyer perspective to Medium Brow’s argument.
Here is some good reading where I am pulling the following opinions from Lott Fischer – a law firm specializing in intellectual property law.
the creator of the derivative work, the parody, must take only so much of the original work as necessary to bring to mind the original host work…
Medium Brow used actual icons from Wingspan (which are copyright protected), rather than using original and reminiscent iconography without directly copying Stonemaier’s card symbols.
Humor at the expense of the trademark owner, that assaults the wholesome image of a product has, in most cases, been unsuccessful in court.
I’m not sure how strong an argument this is, but Wingspan has a wholesome family (non-dystopian) image. Medium Brow’s representation clearly deviates from that image.
One of the most significant changes to federal dilution law was the TDRA’s creation of an express exemption for parodies. Before the TDRA, parodies were protected by the FTDA’s “non-commercial use” defense, a catchall exclusion which courts interpreted to include a broad range of uses of another’s mark, “from negative commentary on a personal website, to use of trademarks in political campaigns, to parody and artistic expression.”
Parody defenses are stronger when they are not for commercial use. Clearly a for profit Kickstarter doesn’t have this same protection.
While interesting from a first amendment perspective, none of this actually matters. Stonemaier isn’t suing Medium Brow for trademark infringement, they simply reported Medium Brow to Kickstarter for a violation of their terms of use.
You won’t submit stuff you don’t hold the copyright for (unless you have permission). Your Content will not contain third-party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third-party proprietary rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material, or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material (and to grant Kickstarter all the license rights outlined here).
Even if the parody pack of cards would hold up in a first amendment lawsuit, Medium Brow clearly doesn’t own the copyright to at the very least Stonemaier’s card iconography – and therefore runs afoul of Kickstarter’s user rules.
Thoughts from an Indie Publisher
We’re too small for anyone to want to steal our IP for parody purposes, but this is my blog, so I have thoughts.
Owners of intellectual property 100% need to protect their IP. This isn’t a matter of Stonemaier stepping on a smaller creator, but failing to protect your IP can weaken your claim on it – or you can even lose your IP protections entirely. For a property like Wingspan this would be an absolute disaster.
This is probably a net positive for Medium Brow and Farms Race. While getting a successful (on track to be six-figure) Kickstarter pulled 3-days into the campaign sucks, my gut is that this will settle out to be a net positive for Medium Brow and Farms Race. They still have all their initial marketing contact lists (I assume), possibly their Kickstarter backer list, and they’ve gotten a fair bit of publicity out of the conflict.
What are your thoughts – should Medium Brow have made their parody packs in the first place, and should they be allowed to publish them as part of their campaign?
Initially, you’ll mostly use free or stock art in this stage, and although different implementations both prettier physical prototypes along with digital prototypes (I prefer Tabletop Simulator) will allow you to playtest more broadly with other gamers and designers.
This stage of prototype can cover a long period and involves most of the playtesting polishing your game system and mechanisms. This is when you’ll balance your game, make sure the complexity is right, trim the fat, and learn how to onboard players to a smooth experience.
Stage 3: Custom Components
The third stage of prototyping involves sourcing custom components for your game. For many designers this is the final stage before a crowdfunding event and includes assembling review copies. That said, we skipped this stage of prototyping on our most recent project (Sigil), and I expect us to skip this stage altogether going forward.
Since we know we are making manufacture prototypes for reviewers (see Stage 4), it’s more economical for us to source our custom components directly from our manufacturer.
There are a lot of great options for sourcing custom components including print on demand solutions if your goal is to have a modest print run and are willing to accept the high per unit cost.
Some that I’ve used in the past and have had a good experience with are:
Keep in mind that there are some limitations to sourcing custom components – for instance, I found it extremely difficult to source custom wooden meeples in the US.
Stage 4: Manufacturer Prototype
More indie designers should be taking advantage of this option for prototyping. Once your print files are done, you can send them to your manufacturer (see How to Find a Manufacturer) and commission them to print some copies offline (they won’t shut down a full inline printing press).
You can have copies of your game made to your actual specifications – with all of your custom components, and all of the finishes you can expect in your final production run.
I think an approach that is more useful to most designers is to get pen to paper as soon as possible and start playing, and tweaking, and iterating.
Either way, eventually I get my components out in front of me and I get to ask myself the most important question: is it fun?
And, if you haven’t realized it by the fact that I am writing an entire series on publishing this game, Froggy Bazaar is fun, it is a lot of fun.
It also works, right out of the bat the gameplay was smooth. There is still a lot of work to do, but I’m already confident that we have something on our hands that people like (although we’ll eventually need blind playtesting to really solidify that assumption).
Quick Overview
Within the next few weeks I’ll have a Tabletop Simulator version of Froggy Bazaar up for general playtesting, but for now I think it’s worth giving a brief overview of what this game is mechanically.
Froggy Bazaar is a tableau building and movement game, where you play a frog hopping from lily pad to lily pad collecting bugs (dice) to add to your rucksack. End of game scoring is based on secret and public bugjectives based on the pattern of dice (numbers and color) in your rucksack.
On a player’s turn they have three optional actions
Hop to an adjacent lily pad – collect the die on the tile to add to the top row of your tableau. Then replace the die with a random die from the bag.
BIG hop – re-roll all dice on the top row of your tableau and re-distribute them (get one bonus froggy buck).
Go to market – trade dice the top row of your tableau with the communal market.
The game ends at the end of the round when a player fills their rucksack (12 slots). Whoever has the most points wins.
Early Playtesting
In early playtesting with my closest circle, I’ve answered two of the most important questions about Froggy Bazaar – 1. is it fun? and 2. does it work?
I am in the process of making a basic Tabletop Simulator version so that I can test the game with a broader group of people – like our Pine Island community, and a broader group of friends and colleagues.
Here at The Treehouse we’re lucky enough to have staff who enjoy what they do. Our front-of-house team all share a love for games and a desire to share this with the world, not to mention a massive amount of expert knowledge on the subject, which is only building and developing as time goes on.
As we approach our first birthday, some of our staff have decided that recommending and teaching games to customers in the cafe just isn’t enough of an outlet for their enthusiasm. So, they’ve decided to create both a brand new blog and a Treehouse podcast to share their thoughts on all things games-related with the world.
Introducing Patrick Lickman and Matt Turner, the instigators behind what you’re about to read/ hear. They’ll no doubt be familiar to many of you who’ve visited the cafe, as they’ve been with us from the start and are here rather a lot! Patrick is the main author behind the blog, while they’re very much co-conspirators on the podcast.
If you find the results suspiciously professional for a first-time effort, that’s because Matt is something of a podcast veteran, with 185+ episodes of his excellent Life’s a Pitch podcast already under his belt. The Treehouse podcast will also be featuring other members of our team, starting with lovely games guru Jenny episode one.
We hope you enjoy their efforts! If you like what you hear, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. If you have any feedback for us on the content, we’d love to hear from you via Facebook or Twitter, or by email at contact@treehousesheffield.com.
Happy reading and listening!
The Treehouse xx
After an emergency call from the leaders of the world, the team discuss the adorable area control game Bunny Kingdom, give some tips on teaching games to the uninitiated, and guest game guru Jenny Garner brings in Patchwork.
Illusions of Glory: The Great War on the Eastern Front (“IoG”) is a card-driven game simulating the First World War in eastern Europe. Its first edition was published by GMT Games in 2017 after the award-winning Paths of Glory, which simulated the entire war in Europe and the Near East in army/corps scale. IoG also came after the popular Pursuit of Glory, which focused on the war in the Near East and the Eastern Balkans in corps/division scale. IoG’s corps/division focus displays the relative strengths and weaknesses of the opposing armies in greater detail than an army/corps treatment does.
For those of you planning to attend this year’s ConsimWorld Expo in Tempe this July, you can attend a “Learn the Rules/Play the Game” Session and experience the upcoming Second Edition of IoG.
In IoG, the Allied Powers (“AP”) player brings massive forces to bear against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their allies in the east while trying to avoid a game changing revolution in Russia. The Central Powers (“CP”) player must defeat Russia, hold off Italy, and win the upper hand in the Balkans or face demoralization and rebellion at home.
Battlefield losses detrimentally affect the Troop Quality of major AP and CP combatants. Excessive troop losses and reinforcement call-ups will degrade their manpower pools and impair military capabilities. Territory losses may drain their National Will and cause domestic uprisings— which includes revolution in Russia’s case.
Strategy Cards give a player the choice of several actions—move units, make attacks, strategically redeploy, or rebuild damaged units. Each card also gives the player a choice between these actions and an historical event that provides a powerful and specific action (or combat advantage).
Cards give the player Operations (OPS) Points to use in activating spaces containing his units for movement or attack. OPS Points can also be used to strategically redeploy units. OPS Points appear in the upper left-hand corner of the card. If they appear in a yellow square, the Event is played also. If they appear in a red square, the card is a Combat Card whose capability can be used in attack or defense.
Separate sets of cards are provided to the AP and CP players. Each player increases his deck by elevating his War Status from Mobilization to Limited War, and then from Limited War to Total War. Since quite a few cards are discarded once their events are played, the momentum towards Total War builds as the game proceeds.
There are Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring Turns representing 3 months apiece. However, this is where the similarity to Paths of Glory and Pursuit of Glory ends.
IoG can be played by more than two players. With team play, the dynamics of player decision-making and interaction add an enjoyable social element to the game. While this might lengthen the game, the fun of negotiations between players is worth it!
IoG simulates the drain casualties have on available manpower and a nation’s officer corps. As Russian (“RU”), German (“GE”), Austro-Hungarian (“AH”), and Italian (“IT”) casualties mount, the drain on their national manpower reserves and officer corps is reflected by a Troop Quality Index.
Each of these Nations have a Troop Quality Marker that starts at a maximum value. When a GE, AH, RU, or IT corps is destroyed, the Troop Quality marker of that Nation moves –1 on the General Records Track (but the destroyed LCU can be rebuilt). When a GE, AH, RU, or IT corps is permanently eliminated, the Troop Quality marker of that Nation moves –1 on the General Records Track (and the eliminated LCU cannot be rebuilt). If a Strategy Card is played to bring GE, AH, RU, or IT reinforcements onto the mapboard, the Troop Quality marker of that Nation moves –2 on the General Records Track. These reductions will soon vex the affected player.
When the RU, IT, GE, or AH Troop Quality marker reaches “Poor Troop Quality”, reinforcements of that Nation are placed on the mapboard with a step reduction for each unit. Things do not get better—they can only get worse!
IoG simulates political upheaval in Germany and Austria-Hungary, in addition to Russia. The loss of home Victory Point spaces and Events may cause Rebellion to break out in Russia, Germany, or Austria-Hungary. These are represented by a National Will Index.
Each of these Nations has a National Will Marker that starts at a set value, moves -1 on the General Records Track for each home Victory Point space that it loses, and moves +1 for every home Victory Point space recaptured from enemy control. The National Will Level for each of those Nations is also affected by Events.
If downward movement of a National Will Marker reaches the “National Demoralization Level”, rebellion may break out in the that Nation. Rebellion is represented by placing two Uprising Units in that Nation during the Rebellion/Revolution Phase. Uprising Units can cut off supply to combat units, cause CP governments to collapse, and trigger the Russian Revolution.
If all VP spaces in Austria-Hungary are occupied by Uprising Units in the War Status Phase, Austria-Hungary collapses and is out of the war. (Germany does not collapse.) If there is an Uprising Unit in Russia after the RUSSIAN FOOD RIOTS card is played, then comes the Russian Revolution . . . or does it? The RUSSIAN REVOLUTION card must still be played.
IoG does not make success of the Russian Revolution inevitable. The game represents the revolution with a Russian Revolution Track having four Stages. During each of the following Rebellion/Revolution Phases, the Revolution Marker moves ahead one Stage on the Russian Revolution Track.
However, the Russian Revolution cannot advance Stages if all Uprising Units on the mapboard have been destroyed. This places Russia in a dilemma—either divert decreasingly effective combat units from facing the Central Powers or leave revolution back home unchecked.
As the Russian Revolution enters each Stage, the following occurs:
The AP player can suppress the Russian Revolution entirely by playing a LONG LIVE THE TSAR! card when all Uprising Units are destroyed. After it is played, Russian reinforcement cards can again be played, and Russian combat units can again receive Replacement Points.
The revolution remains suppressed until the CP plays a FALL OF THE TSAR card when Uprising Units are again placed in Russia. The Russian Revolution restarts, but still cannot advance Stages if the AP player destroys all the RU Uprising Units on the mapboard before the next Rebellion/Revolution Phase.
The Central Powers must still fight Italian, British, French, and Serbian units capable of capturing Victory Point spaces. If the CP player presses his advantage against Russia too far by triggering a revolution, the AP can play the TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK card to end the Russian Campaign, send German units to the Western Front, and weaken the Central Powers’ ability to fight other AP armies in the East. The decision to play TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK as an Event is momentous because the AP player loses the use a card worth 5 OPS Points or, alternatively, 10 Replacement Points!
Although TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK takes Russia out of the war, it has another role to play against a CP victory. When the CP plays RUSSIAN WAR WEARINESS, the game comes closer to Armistice—and perhaps a CP victory-point win—at the end of each Turn. This effect is canceled by playing TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK.
(1) The mapboard has been revised to show terrain effects on combat and place names more accurately. There are also more Victory Point spaces.
(2) Casualty and reinforcement card effects on Troop Quality have been moderated so that reinforcement step reductions do not occur until 1916, as is historically accurate.
(3) The player taking fire must apply as much of it as possible to his units using adaptable guidelines instead of clunky scripted procedures.
(4) A unit that is Out-Of-Supply can still move or attack, but its movement and attack strength are minimized.
(5) A unit that can only trace a supply line to Supply Sources of other friendly nations can still activate for movement or attack, but at a cost of one additional OPS Point.
(6) Only German, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, and Serbian units may attempt to build a Trench in a Mountain space, only one trench building attempt may be made per space in an Action Round, and entrenching is attempted by rolling a die. A unit can move or entrench in the same Action Round, but not both.
(7) A defending unit forced to end its retreat in an overstacked friendly space is not destroyed, but is reduced by one step and continues retreating to the nearest friendly-controlled space or region where it will not overstack.
(8) Defending units in Forest, Mountain, or Swamp spaces can reduce a two-space retreat by one space by taking a step loss from any of those units, but a one-space retreat from those spaces cannot be stopped except by Combat Card.
(9) Defending units in Trenches do not have to retreat, and a retreating unit taking a two-space retreat can stop if its first retreat space is a Trench.
(10) Reduced-strength units that take another step loss are destroyed and go into the Replaceable Units Box. Units destroyed by combat when Out-Of-Supply are permanently eliminated. Reduced-strength units that are Out-Of-Supply during the Attrition Phase are permanently eliminated. Reduced-strength units that are forced to retreat into or through a space that contains enemy units, an unbesieged enemy Fort, or an Uprising Unit are permanently eliminated.
(11) A unit can move or assemble/disassemble in the same Action Round, but not both.
(12) Division-sized units in the Replaceable Units Box that are rebuilt go immediately into the Reserve Box. They can use Strategic Redeployment to go from the Reserve Box onto the mapboard or they can use Strategic Redeployment to go from the mapboard into the Reserve Box.
(13) Units that move or retreat into neutral nations are immediately interned to the Replaceable Units Box, but Serbian and Montenegran units entering neutral Albania are not interned until the end of the Action Phase and may use Strategic Redeployment to leave neutral Albanian ports.
(14) If a nation’s National Will reaches the National Demoralization Level before the Rebellion/Revolution Phase, the opposing player can immediately place two Uprising Units in separate spaces and/or regions of that Nation.
(15) If a Strategy Card cannot be played for its Event, it can still be played for its War Status Points.
These features create a play-balanced game that is relevant, fun, exciting, challenging, and tense. You will enjoy playing the Second Edition of Illusions of Glory: The Great War on the Eastern Front.