Kickstarter Advice

How did you find us again out of interest?

Went to post on the old forum and after reading the post announcing it was shutting there was a link to here in the discussion underneath

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The first post of last week’s game news advertised here as well

Welcome to our new home mark. Put your feet up.

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Hi Mark!
Thank you for the very insightful and helpful reply.
Experience and community are definitely important. As for me,
I have designed several prototype board games before, done alot of play testing with this board game and have a decent version that I am polishing up for this campaign.

Money limitations is something we are definitely working around. I have a background in illustration and graphic design so I have already done all the artwork.
I have a question about prototypes: Do most reviewers accept unsolicitated prototypes to look at?
Marketing is something we will be spending the next few months developing a strong social media presence. Conventions are definitely important but the current fragility of the world might put them on hold for a while.

I guess a better question for you directly would be: how much of you board games to you worry about patenting/trademarking or copyrighting?

Thank you again for all your advice.

If you’ve done the art then you own the copyright. You can’t trademark mechanics, but no publisher will steal those off you anyway- much easier and more profitable to just offer to publish your game if they like it that much.

edit- a lot of places will say ‘consult a lawyer’ but that’s to cover their backs. I say don’t waste the money.

I wouldn’t send out anything unsolicited, ever. May as well through it in the bin. Big previewers will want rulebooks and possibly photos sent to them before agreeing to look at it (and payment). Big reviewers won’t look at something pre-kickstarter. Smaller previewers and reviewers will, but you ought to contact them first. If there’s any you have in mind email them first, otherwise they can be found on facebook in kickstarter groups.
Talking of which- Facebook (I hate it) and Twitter (I also strongly dislike it) are essential, and even if you feel the way I do you’ve got to get on there. I’ve met great people on those sites, I just distrust the companies with good reason and hate playing the social media game.

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If you want to send me details of your game I can take a look, but it might take a while. I assume you’ve got the game playtested to a point your happy with, because having a good game is absolutely number 1 here. What you need to do now really are:

Post art samples to people can tell you if your art really is good enough.
Check your rulebook using blind playtesting (might be impossible in current climate).
Contact possible manufacturers to get quotes for manufacturing. Use this to make sure it’s actually viable. Remember things such as CE testing and the like. If it’s too expensive think of ways to cut costs (this will depend upon the type of game).
Contact fulfillment companies to get quotes for shipping, remembering about taxes for Europe and the like.
Get a social media presence, a website, back some games on Kickstarter yourself, start a blog on BGG, get your game to have a page on BGG. Mostly free (except the backing games on KS, but that doesn’t have to be a full pledge, and your website should look good). But something that helps spread the word and gives you an air of responsibilty. If you’re going on KS people need to trust you will fulfill.
Get photos of people playing your game all out on social media. Again, impossible in the current climate, but also essential.

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