Format for Small Game

[Bret Gillan]

Hey guys.

I'm considering putting my Pundits and Pollsters game on the market. It's real small, approximately 2500 words, and is a simple but fun game with simple mechanics. An equivalent game in terms of mechanical complexity would be The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Hogshead.

Now, my publishing questions:

What format would be best suited for such a tiny game - pdf? A slim booklet? I've even thought about a single piece of cardstock with the rules on it.
A better question would be - is selling such a small game even worth it? Or is it likely the investment that would go into it will outweigh the amount of money I could earn if I were to sell it at a reasonable price?

Thanks guys.

[Andrew Morris]

Bret, what is your goal in publishing a game? Is it to make money? Is it to have people play and enjoy your game? Is it something else?

Without knowing that, I don't know how much help you can get, since there is no one "best" format for games. It's either a matter of you just doing what you like best, or getting feedback from other publishers as to whether a specific format supports a particular goal.

[Bret Gillan]

My goals:

Sell my game at a reasonable price.
Make a profit, though this doesn't need to be substantial. I'm looking for a little extra cash, not a second job.

I also want people to play and enjoy my games, but that's a design concern, not a publishing one.

Hope that helps, Andrew.

[MatrixGamer]

Brent

From a practical point of view 2500 words wouldn't make for a booklet (it would only be two sheets of paper - roughly 450 words a page). PDF would be better.

The single sheet approach is an interested format. It certainly wouldn't be like products in stores but could be very interesting. From the point of view of "Presentation" what information does the game need to communicate to the players? How do they need to use the information? How can the format facilitate using this information? If the game is a single sheet you'd need to add value to it to make it different from what a person could do printing out the PDF. If it was printed in color and laminated that would be different for instance.

A very short set of rules does not mean something is not a game - Candyland has nearly no rules but is a game for instance. Boardgames work like this. I don't know if a RPG can work like this. Anyone else have ideas?

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Write three more games, put 'em all in a saddle-stitched book. Or just sell P&P as a PDF for a buck.*





- J

*Of which I claim a mere $.25 as a royalty for the name

[Andrew Morris]

Okay, Bret, now that I know your goals, I can't really offer any useful advice, since I haven't published my games yet. But I have to say that I really like Jared's PDF for a buck idea. I don't know why, but I'd ignore a free PDF, but one for a buck...I'd probably buy, just to check it out.

[Paul Czege]

Bacchanal is 5.5" x 8.5", 12 pages, saddle stitched, with a cardstock cover. It is 3480 words long. I sell it for $4.00. (I'd be selling it for $7 if it wasn't also available in the Game Chef archives as a free pdf download.) At around sixty units sold, it hasn't been a cash cow, but I've covered my art and printing costs.

Paul

[MatrixGamer]

12 pages - 3 sheets of paper is about as short as a booklet can be and not be mistaken for a brochure. You could increase font size and add in art to get that thrid sheet - But I like the $1 PDF better.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Bret Gillan]

I like the $1 PDF as well and I'm probably going to go that route.

But! I think I'd like something that maybe I could sell at cons. I'm thinking maybe a full-color, 1-page printout of the rules laminated and sold for, say, $3. Of course, I need to find out how much a full-color copy + lamination costs. Right now I'm clueless.

[MatrixGamer]

Well the paper would be .5 to 4 cents, the color copy costs the manufacturer between 4 to 10 cents, the lamination material would be maybe 5 cents. So say their costs are 20 cents, you pay say $1. Simple.

If you can't find someone else to do it for that price I'll do it.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Nathan P.]

Some thoughts: a full 8.5 x 11 sheet would be awkward to me as an indie games customer because of the (generally) less than full-size books that I'd be looking at. As in, if I buy Dogs, PtA and a 8.5x11 laminate, thats harder to hold and walk around with than if I could fold it and stick it in my copy of Dogs, or something.

How many people is the game designed for? Lay it out with a half-inch border on the left-hand side, laminate enough sheets to give everyone who could be playing one, punch holes in them and put them all in a slim binder with a nice graphic on the cover. Assuming I was interested in buying it (not that I'm not, I'm speaking as hypothetical customer) I would rather pay 5 or 7 bucks for that than 2 dollars for one piece of laminated paper. It's also much less likely to get lost.

Hope that helps.

[Josh Roby]

Also consider smaller size.  You can print them up on "quarter-page size" -- 4" x 5" -- and bind them into a little back-pocket sized booklet.  See Conquer the Horizon as an example.  I don't know what the word count is on that, but it's "32 pages long" at that miniscule trim size, which translates to four pieces of paper (and that's including the cover).  You could sell them for a couple bucks or give em away free (what I'm doing with CtH).

[Blankshield]

Brick Battles is about that length, and is available free as a pdf download from Blankshield Press, and I handmade a small run of ~3x4 inch cardstock cover saddlestitched booklets that I sell for $5 and offer as a prize at events.  I sold a few at Gencon, and a couple at a local game store.

It's put a couple bucks in my pocket, but they were super cheap to produce. 

The common theme in this thread is fairly clear: There ain't no one true way.  Pick a presentation you like, charge about what you feel is fair based on your costs, and you'll probably end up with a few bucks in your pocket.

James

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Make sure it's as good as you can make it.

Make them small, quarter-page size, so something like 16 pages.

Sell them in packs of five so everyone at the table gets one.

Have a good cover design, both front and back.

Sell them for $8.

Sez me.

[Josh Roby]

Ooo, bundling.  Good idea.