Printing your own CCG Cards Howto, Where, & Prices

[Veritas Games]

Lee, I'd be very interested in that.  Make sure you let folks know if you ever make such a website happen.

I'm working on it right now.  But I have terrible vision, so I can't edit for spit (I can produce text, 'cause I can touch type).  I may notify you guys and shanghai some of you into editing if I can get this project moving.  I'm working on the printing industry and prototyping supplies glossary.  So often you'll see me or Nate say something like "14 point C2S stock with a UV coating on it" and not everyone knows what that means.  So I think the first thing is to get people minimally up to speed on the lingo, so that if they are doing research on the net they at least have some clue how to interpret the information they are reading.

[Nathan P.]

Lee,

Drop me an email about what you'd need. I may be able to help, depending on what you need (text editing, no prob. HTML, no prob. Any of this new-fangled CSS, etc, that's where my knowledge stops).

Also, IIRC Under The Bed uses a small amount of custom cards, you may want to check with Joshua Newman (glyphmonkey) and see if he did anything strange or wonderful for those.

[Veritas Games]

Lee,

Drop me an email about what you'd need. I may be able to help, depending on what you need (text editing, no prob. HTML, no prob. Any of this new-fangled CSS, etc, that's where my knowledge stops).

Also, IIRC Under The Bed uses a small amount of custom cards, you may want to check with Joshua Newman (glyphmonkey) and see if he did anything strange or wonderful for those.

Forge-friends, this is another wonder Forge designer who is also named Nate (no relationship).

Thanks for the hint and the offer.  I'm putting together a research glossary and some production and prototyping articles and links, right now.  When I have it further along, I'll let you take a look at it.  I just think that this is useful information to share, and people seem interested.

[daMoose_Neo]

I'm game- site like that would let me put my notes together in smaller, more self-contained articles as opposed to the 'manual'-esque monster I've been working on ^_^
Really is amazing how little information there is out there...

[Veritas Games]

Groovy.  Let me get the skeleton together, and then I'll let you review everything and contribute some articles, links, and glossary entries.  Maybe we can dig up some other people who want to contribute to.  The BGDF has a great forum section, but it's a lot to sift through.  They keep talking about putting together a wiki, but haven't.

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

I find this thread very encouraging. Thanks, everyone. This is why we have community: after hours upon hours of searching, I came up with dip squat and ran a print run, with predictably uneven results, with a local printer.

[joepub]

One thing I really want to see in this site:
A walk through process. Well, several.

If there was a page that said: "Walk me through domestic printing" "Walk me through basement printing"

and then i could click on it, find my first steps, my design steps, my production steps, my distribution steps...



I'm not saying it'd have to cover all possibilities, because that's ridiulous. Just something I can read to understand the whole process.

[daMoose_Neo]

What I'll be doing is segmenting my notes, from an earlier promised compilation.
Whatever I do won't be a step by step per design way, but handle the options at each step: design, collecting artwork, printing, assembly, etc. Theres way too many ways to go, and no clear path for any one of them. You can do top notch printing that rivals Wizards in your basement for a little or mass produce black & white cardstock cards through a local press and spend a lot.

So yea, I'll just ramble about what I've done, what worked and what bit me in the butt, and what it costs overall ^_^

[Veritas Games]

For better or worse, http://www.veritasgames.net/ now has a Game Design Glossary and Articles section.  Lots of the best links are in the Glossary section.  Anyone who wants to submit corrections or submit an article, let me know.  I'll be happy to consider any thoughtful emails.  I just found that I was sharing some of the same information over and over again, so I figured I'd put it up on the web.  Now, I'm visually impaired and I did this by touch typing with only what limited edits my vision allows, so goodness knows if the links even work.  So email me with all complaints (via my website).  If it's good, email me with kudos too.

If people this something deserves an article, email me with an article idea, and if I know the answer or can find it out, I'll post it.

I'm hoping that Neo Production and Guild of Blades, in particular, will contribute some articles.

[daMoose_Neo]

Gimme a day or two to pull together a small article on designing specifically for small/self publication.
Aside from that, you might want to relist a couple of those "Articles" under glossary/link collections.

[guildofblades]

>>I'm hoping that Neo Production and Guild of Blades, in particular, will contribute some articles.<<

Well, actually, for the last couple of months in my spare time I have been writing a book that will be titled the "Small Publishers' Guide to Alternative Production" that will be presenting, in detail, all of my experiences with, well, alternative production options for books and games. Eventually I will be marketing it for sale through a partner publisher who has a better reach into the RPG segment of the industry than I do.

But until then, naturally, I have always been free with my advice and my experiences and will tackle any questions I think I can help with. Anything I write on these forums, you can certainly feel free to archive if you think it has any value.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com

[Veritas Games]

Thanks, Ryan.  Give us a heads up when you publish, 'cause I'd like to see what you come up with in your book.  Any idea when it's due out?

[guildofblades]

Not really sure. Its a side project of my own, not an official publication of the Guild of Blades. So it gets written in my own personal spare time only, which right now is pretty limited because I am shoulder deep in work trying to get our interactive computer game ready for beta in one month.

My best guess is 4 to 6 weeks to finish the writing and layout. Layouts won't be anything fancy, as its a business text. Though it will likely be clocking in at over 100 to 150 pages when completed.

Basically it goes over the various avenues I have used, or looked into and opted not to use for alternate production and/or cost saving tactics when producing RPGs, board games, card games and other types of production. So it will include production benefits/trade offs, lists of equipment and machinery for potential use, accounting issues impacted by this alternate business model, etc. Basically everything I can think of with regards how using in house production will impact your business. Though I also write about some interesting cost saving options when outsourcing your printed good to offset printers as well.

Ryan S. Johnson
Guild of Blades Publishing Group
http://www.guildofblades.com