[CtH] Microgame Marketing Thingy!

[Josh Roby]

So, experimenting with microgame publishing, I've put Conquer the Horizon into a tiny (5.5" x 4" profile) format that can probably fit into your back jeans pocket.  The registration of the upper and lower pages is still pissing me off, and will be fixed as soon as I get around to it, but that may be weeks.  So here's the file now:

Download Conquer the Horizon!
(Some assembly required)

The format is specifically not geared for retail sale, but instead as a give-away advertisement deal.  You'll notice my soon-to-be website is plastered on every spread, on the back cover, and in the inside cover.  The last spread is blank -- that will be adspace for other products, mine or other folks'.  I figure I will publish a new version for each con I attend / have a booth at, giving a booth number for where I (and my actual retail products) are at, and advertising whatever I or other folks have for sale at the Con.

I'll be able to turn out a ton of these for cheap, and make a good effort to saturate the con with little CtH books.  Obviously specific Cons may have different regulations on what you can hand out where, but at those who allow it I expect to hand these out at 'choke points' of traffic like doors into the show floor.  I can leave a basket labelled 'free' at booths run by friends and acquaintances.  If I feel like spending money, I can probably get these into the schwag bags handed out to attendees as they enter the Con itself. They can then come to the booth or go home and go to the website -- either way it should increase exposure.

Admittedly, this thread isn't so much about asking for specific feedback as sharing what I'm doing.  If any of y'all have questions, comments, warnings, or whatever, though, feel free to comment!

[MatrixGamer]

The question that occurred to me is "Is this game/marketing campaign part of a larger project?"

Putting out any game is a lot of work. If you only want to do one game then that doesn't matter but if you want to do more than one game it is useful to plot a strategy that links the two. three or how ever many games made, together so you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time.

This will involve stopping and reflecting on your long term goal - but I think the time would be well spent.

I've got a lot of games in the can that I plan on rolling out over the next three years that build on one another. By the end of that time I'd like "Engle Matrix Games" and "Hamster Press" to have some brand recognition.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Josh Roby]

I've only got one RPG project, Full Light Full Steam, which I'm shooting to release at GenCon SoCal 2006.  I also have a card game, Dynasty, that I may or may not self-publish.  Good cards require a much larger outlay of cash to start up, so I may find it more cost-effective to just sell or license the rights to somebody who already has that infrastructure.  While I've registered kallistipress.com and all that jazz, I have no specific long-term plans; I want to see if FLFS flies or not first.  If I only ever publish the one title and decide it's not worth my time to pursue more titles, I'll still be quite happy with the one.

That said, there's no reason why I can't use CtH to promote FLFS sales, not to mention other Indie RPGs.  I can easily see putting the Forge Booth number on these, for instance -- especially if I'm at the Forge booth, but even if I'm not.  Hell, if this thing works I can put together the file for cons I'm not even going to if somebody else who is going wants to use it to advertise their booth and game.  On a more basic level, CtH can also serve as a sort of proof-of-concept thing to demonstrate that a RPG doesn't need to come in two dozen supplements to be any fun, which may help shift focus from the "Industry" leaders and put the one-book Forge games in a better light.

So this little booklet isn't the centerpiece of my attempt to build a publishing powerhouse, no.  It's more of a test balloon, to see if this could even be used as a building block for something greater.

[MatrixGamer]

Good, you have a big picture plan. This perspective will help you gage how much effort to put in it.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

So, experimenting with microgame publishing, I've put Conquer the Horizon into a tiny (5.5" x 4" profile) format that can probably fit into your back jeans pocket. 

Hey, Joshua, how are you printing this? I've had exactly this as a design goal for quite some time but haven't been able to figure out a practical printing technique.

[Josh Roby]

Local print shop (not Kinkos) should be able to do it real easy.  There's always a few somewhere around your local soulless business district.  The better ones can do simple bindery as well.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Yeah, that's what I came up with, too. And that means carrying stock. Thanks!

[Josh Roby]

Dude, stock of this stuff is like, a box.  I can fit very literally thousands in one paper box.  No big deal there.  Not to mention, I'll only be making these for Cons and printing a run specifically for the Con, and not bringing them back afterwards.

[MatrixGamer]

I've found that printing ten or no more than twenty games this way works. More than that and you end up with extras at the end of the con. I've stored far too many unsold game under the dinning room table over the years.

Print shops can at best do coil or comb binding. This is fine for a game you sell at your table but not much more. And of course no one has to use Kinkos. I live near a college town so there are lots of copy shops I've used over the years.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Josh Roby]

Print shops can at best do coil or comb binding.

Chris, you might want to take a better look at your local shops.  There is a pretty wide range available, from places that basically just have a bunch of xerox machines to places that run full offset presses and have complete bindery departments.  The bigger places will be in those industrial and commercial parks that I mentioned, servicing local business needs for pamphlets and instruction booklets.  Given, building hardcover books in industrial numbers is beyond the range of everyone but the few book builders on the continent, but I'd hazard that those services aren't really necessary for our purposes 90% of the time.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

I've never found a local place that will do perfect binding in number of less than ~500.

Lulu, of course, will, but then you have to go with their sizes.

It all has to do with volume.

Oh: tape binding. Lots of places to tape binding. It's kinda like perfect binding, but it's much cheaper. It uses a piece of fabric tape on the spine. It looks nice, but disintegrates really easily. Just a warning from one who knows.

Joshua, what kind of binding are you using?

[Josh Roby]

These little things are just a folio, so they get a pair of staples.

I'll probably do perfect binding on FLFS (and yeah, order a run of 500), although I haven't yet determined format.  I may go with a smaller profile and do something else.  Tangentially, it's so strange to go from my workplace, where we make textbooks like bricks with wire stitching, tough paper, and solid covers, and then go home to my own publishing where durability isn't of such prime concern.

[MatrixGamer]

Given, building hardcover books in industrial numbers is beyond the range of everyone but the few book builders on the continent, but I'd hazard that those services aren't really necessary for our purposes 90% of the time.

"In industrial numbers" is key here. If a hit game at Gen Con sells say a 100 copies. Then printing many over than lands the game maker with unsold merchandise and money tied up in stock.

I've been working on the problem of doing shrot run smyth sewn hardcover books. I have a way to go before the process is perfected but right now I can produce decent quality books in digest size. All I need is a 11x17 color copier and I'll be able to make larger books. To be fair I'm already beyond amatuer book making. I have a separate building for my shop and an ever growing number of machines. In the future I'd like to provide this book making service for gamers and other fringe groups (puppeteers!) I'm already doing outside work for some science fiction writers. Given a steady cash flow and I can hire an employee.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Josh Roby]

Sounds fascinating, Chris.  I used to do book repair, so I can imagine what large chunks of your process must look like.

I'm curious what your per-page costs are if you're using a color copier to produce pages.  I'm guessing a press is far more efficient (potentially by an order of magnitude), but requires a larger run to acheive that efficiency.

[MatrixGamer]

Guild of Blades clued me in to Digital Duplicators which drop black white print costs to 1/3rd of a cent per side for print runs of 100. Lazer printer costs about 3 cents a side. Color lazer 10 cents a side. I can't say what a color copier will be but possibly less because it might allow for refilling the dry ink by hand (rather than sticking a cartridge in like you do with computer pirnters.

For black white interiors on 28lb paper it is affordable to make books this way. I can't do glossy interiors. That will take more planning. It might only be doable with an offset press - something I'm not ready to get into yet.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engel Matrix Games