برچسب: Games

  • Pine Island Playtesters – Game Submission Review Process — Pine Island Games

    Pine Island Playtesters – Game Submission Review Process — Pine Island Games



    We reach out to those games’ designers and arrange a playtest. These playtests are usually with the designer on TTS, although I have been sent physical prototypes to test on our own.

    Pine Island Playtesters

    A relatively new addition to our community is our Pine Island Playtesters. These are insiders from the mailing list, discord, or Kickstarter who’ve expressed an interest in being more involved with the company.

    We loop in our playtesters for the handful of games that we are seriously considering signing.

    We usually have specific questions for our playtesters about game mechanisms, and how they view the game versus other games in the genre.

    There is still room for improvement in our process. But, it’s come a long way, and it couldn’t be what it is, and we wouldn’t have the opportunities we have, without this amazing community.

     

    If you’d like to be Pine Island Playtester and get a front row seat as we look at games to license, shoot me an email at jasper@pineislandgames.com.





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  • Ludology 341 Accesorize Your Games

    Ludology 341 Accesorize Your Games


    Welcome!

    Welcome to Ludology, an analytical discussion of the hows and whys of the world of board games. Rather than news and reviews, Ludology explores a variety of topics about games from a wider lens, as well as discuss game history, game design and game players.

    We post a new Ludology episode every other week. In these episodes, hosts Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim deep-dive into a single topic within game design, often with a well-regarded guest from the game industry. We generally focus on tabletop game design (mainly board games and RPGs), but we often pull in experts from all forms of games, from video games to escape rooms to slot machines.

    On weeks where there is no flagship Ludology episode, we will alternate between two smaller mini-sodes. Erica and Sen are happy to announce that Sarah Shipp of Shippboard Games and Stephanie Campbell of TTRPGKids will be joining us for the next year, providing additional content between our longer episodes.

    Sarah’s segment, Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, is a monthly feature that dives deeper into the other aspects of games beyond the dice and cards we’re all familiar with.

    Stephanie’s segment, TTRPGKids, explores how parents and teachers can use role playing games with children in the home and in the classroom.

    We hope you enjoy the additional content!

    Our History

    We aim for most Ludology episodes to be timeless, so you are welcome to explore our entire catalog. Most of it should age quite well. The podcast was started in 2011 by Geoff Engelstein and Ryan Sturm, with Mike Fitzgerald taking over for Ryan in 2015. Gil and Scott joined the show in 2017 when Mike stepped aside, and Emma joined in 2019 when Geoff ended his tenure as host. Emma left in 2021, and Erica and Sen joined us. Since then, Scott stepped down in 2022 and Gil will be hanging up his mic in 2023, leaving Erica and Sen to carry on this amazing legacy.

    Erica and Sen are working to bring new voices to Ludology and have some great things to announce as gaming expands to include even more people!

    Contact Us 

    Have your own thoughts about our topics? We encourage you to visit us at our guild on Boardgamegeek to get involved in a continuing discussion.

    You can also email us at hello@ludology.net.

    Ludology is part of The Dice Tower Network, the premier board game media network.

    If you have questions that you’d like answered on Ludology, let us know by filling out this Google Form; you can also leave an audio question that we can use on the show, if you wish! 

    Burning Questions for Ludology

    Burning Question

    Support the Show

    Ludology is made possible through the support and donations of listeners like you.

    We currently have 3 “First Listen” series that will go out to Patrons well in advance of the audio being released to the wider audience.

    • The Memories that Made Us (monthly) – memories about gaming experiences that helped shape the people that bring modern games to life
    • Tales from the Designer Toolbox (monthly) – tips and tricks from industry pros learned from both success and failure
    • Ludology Live – recordings from conventions around the world

    Patrons will also get extra consideration for any giveaways that we might have!

    Become a Ludology Patron

    Become a patron

    You can also make a one-time or monthly donation here. The link will take you to Erica’s account. People who donate in this way will not have access to the Patreon page – sorry!





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  • Prescriptive Tasks & Workflows – Board Game Publishing — Pine Island Games

    Prescriptive Tasks & Workflows – Board Game Publishing — Pine Island Games



    A task becoming more prescriptive doesn’t mean that it’s less creative. Even though I now have more frameworks around sourcing illustration or graphic design – they are still creative processes. It’s just that I now know how to approach those tasks.

    By the same token, a lot of tasks are iterative. But having a framework for how to approach tasks helps us iterate more efficiently and come up with better products.

    I like this way of thinking about and framing the business. It makes it easier to approach less-well-defined problems, knowing that working through them will help me learn and level up my games publishing craft.

    The next time they crop up they won’t be nearly as scary.

     

    Passing it On

    My hope is that Pine Island Games will grow as a company, and that some day we’ll have in house partners who benefit from the experience I’m building now.

    It’s also why I write this blog.

    I want to help other indie publishers learn processes and methods that help them on their journeys. It’s my way of giving back to this community, which I owe so much to.

    A lot of articles are like this, a little more philosophical and less full of specific device, but I also try and provide some real concrete advice.

    Our Nuts & Bolts series is for instance bite sized prescriptive advice on tackling specific publishing problems. I recommend checking them out:

    Game & Product Design

    Publishing

    Marketing

    Graphic Design, Illustration, Packaging & Iconography

     

    What’s is a complicated problem that you’ve developed a prescriptive method to tackle?





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  • Tools & Models for Indie Kickstarter Creators — Pine Island Games

    Tools & Models for Indie Kickstarter Creators — Pine Island Games



    I wanted to re-share it here along with some linked resources in the model.

    The basic idea is that you can input your development costs (to market costs), along with unit economics (manufacture cost per game, freight, shipping, etc), and see how many games you need to sell to break even, along with your P&L for any given number of games sold.

    Tool 2 – ROAS Calculator (for Ad Campaigns & Review Campaigns)

    This tool is inspired by Crowdfunding Nerd’s e-mail list tool “Kickstarter Success Calculator”, but it has some material differences. It also goes farther with a section to calculate your return on ad spend (ROAS) not just for a paid advertising campaign, but also for a review & preview campaign.





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  • How to Find & Hire a Fulfillment Provider for your Board Game Kickstarter or Gamefound — Pine Island Games

    How to Find & Hire a Fulfillment Provider for your Board Game Kickstarter or Gamefound — Pine Island Games



    They will be able to provide shipping rates by geography – like this shipping estimate for Sigil from Fulfillrite. Most will break down their picking fees, the cost of packaging, and postage costs.

     

    Key Considerations

    Price isn’t the most important consideration when finding your fulfillment partner.

    Reputation: Reputation and surety that they will get the job done smoothly, and without undue product damage, is far more important than a dollar or two savings on picking and packing. I recommend asking around in game design and publishing forums for peoples’ experiences with your with your most competitive.

    Ease of Communication: You’ll need a good relationship with your sales rep to smooth the freight delivery process, and address any hiccups that come up during fulfillment. Make sure your sales rep is responsive and can help you workshop your fulfillment options.

    Technology: My favorite thing about Fulfillrite is their tech platform. They have a dashboard where I can manage inventory, upload shipping details, and best of all, it automatically ties into our Shopify storefront.





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  • Kickstarter Tips & Tricks — Pine Island Games

    Kickstarter Tips & Tricks — Pine Island Games



    A couple of months ago I wrote up a pretty comprehensive guide on How to Structure a Kickstarter page. We’re still deep in the weeds putting together our Kickstarter for Sigil (launching 05/16!!), and I wanted to share some more tips and tricks that for taking your page to the next level.

    Dead Space & Boarders

    Kickstarter automatically inserts line spacing between images (the cannot abut against eachother). This means that when create assets for the page you need to take into account that there will be dead white space between them. There are a few ways to deal with this.

    1. Combine Assets into Large Images

    This is a trick we are doing for our Sigil Kickstarter. Instead of having a headline image, quote, and then what’s in the box image each separately, we are combining them into one master image. We have more control over the flow of the page, and can seamlessly have assets flow into each other without dead space.

    You do need to break images (and have dead space) when you want to insert a link, a button or a video. So, eventually you’ll need to plan for the image to end, and how it will transition to dead space or your next graphic.

    2. Fade Images into the Negative Space

    A good example of this approach is the Elden Ring board game campaign. The IP includes a lot of mist effects which the creators incorporated to allow their images to blead into the negative space that Kickstarter forces between images.





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  • The Board Game Content Ecosystem — Pine Island Games

    The Board Game Content Ecosystem — Pine Island Games



     Paid Versus Unpaid

    It’s important to note the difference between paid and unpaid content. Most review content and round ups is unpaid, while a lot of preview content is paid. Whether content is paid or unpaid will also depend on the individual creator, and the size of the channel’s audience.

    For instance, a smaller channel will likely create preview content for free (to help build its audience and have novel content), while larger established channels will charge a fee for content.

    Not all paid content is created equal, and it’s important to partner with creators whose tastes and audiences align with your design. Even when content is paid, you can tell how enthusiastic content creators are about the game they are covering.

    Getting Coverage

    There are two main kinds of coverage – coverage before your game is released or crowdfunded, and coverage after your game is published.

    I wrote up an article on how to reach out to content creators: How to Query Content Creators.

    It’s worth noting that the process of reaching out to content creators is relatively similar in each case. However, once your game is published you will get a higher proportion of inquiries for coverage, as well as unprompted coverage.

    Once a game is published, unless you are paying for specific content (like a how to play video), the vast majority of coverage will be unpaid (although you may send a review copy of your game).

    Where to Find Content Creators

    Most readers will have their own favorite board game content creators. Those are a great place to start when looking for reviewers and previewers for your game. But, it’s always worth expanding your playlists. Here are a few places to look for content creators for your game:

    Who are your favorite under the radar board game content creators?





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  • Stretch Goals & Startfalls — Pine Island Games

    Stretch Goals & Startfalls — Pine Island Games



    I like to think of stretch goals in a couple of categories:

    1. Component upgrades (ex: black core card stock)

    2. Additional game content (ex: playable character unlocks)

    3. Non-game content add-ons (ex: sticker sheets included with the game)

    4. Out of game content (ex: phone wallpapers)

    While I understand game content as a stretch goal for content heavy games that are still in development (writing quests costs money), I prefer games that have a strong baseline of component quality and include stretch goals that take a game beyond what would be expected in a retail edition – add-ons like sticker sheets, super-premium stock & finishes, or even a box insert (an expensive component for the publisher).

    Are Stretch Goals Powerful?

    Qualitatively stretch goals seem to have at least some impact on campaign success – I noticed more activity on our Nut Hunt campaign when we were approaching stretch goals (which increases visibility). However, it is hard to really know how much of an impact stretch goals have.

    My gut is that monetary stretch goals are more meaningful for smaller and moderate sized campaigns where backers understand that stretch goals are more of a sharing of economics – and the publisher doesn’t necessarily expect all goals to be hit. In this sense, I expect some backers of big (multi-hundred-thousand dollar) campaigns go into backing with the expectation that all stretch goals will be unlocked (as evidenced by big box publisher behavior of unlocking all goals after the campaign even if they weren’t hit).

    In this sense, the power of stretch goals for bigger campaigns is more in the excitement they provide for the community, and the interaction they drive, rather than as an mechanism for component upgrades or additional game content.

    Which brings us full circle to Fractured Sky

    Starfalls

    In forgoing traditional monetary (content & component upgrade) stretch goals, IV Studios has what they call “Starfall Rewards”.





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  • How Board Games are Made — Pine Island Games

    How Board Games are Made — Pine Island Games



    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.





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  • Lessons in Communication – Tone Matters — Pine Island Games

    Lessons in Communication – Tone Matters — Pine Island Games



    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.





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