How do you market your Board Game?
So this is kind of a discussion that was raised by @dislekcia in this thread, but I don't want to derail that thread ... I know it is my thread but it is asking a whole different question.
Anyway, back to the point ... how would you go about marketing your board game both locally and internationally. I have done the normal stuff, Facebook, Twitter, Website, Forums, Board Game Geek and here ... but am I missing something here.
I know that The Game Crafter is a U.S. company and the exchange rate is a killer, I am trying to address that by finding local printers who would be keen to partner with me, but for now I have to make do with The Game Crafter.
Is there a trick, maybe some advice ... I know there is no silver bullet and every board game is different ... but if I can just increase awareness on not only the game but my company as well, that would really awesome.
Anyway, back to the point ... how would you go about marketing your board game both locally and internationally. I have done the normal stuff, Facebook, Twitter, Website, Forums, Board Game Geek and here ... but am I missing something here.
I know that The Game Crafter is a U.S. company and the exchange rate is a killer, I am trying to address that by finding local printers who would be keen to partner with me, but for now I have to make do with The Game Crafter.
Is there a trick, maybe some advice ... I know there is no silver bullet and every board game is different ... but if I can just increase awareness on not only the game but my company as well, that would really awesome.
Comments
EDIT: I found this article - Board Game Publishers are Doing it Wrong - by Nick Bentley (September 30, 2013), which has some good points and information in it.
But the other day my brother bought an Afrikaans version of Settlers of Catan.
It was much cheaper than the english version, and I would assume that it was printed and produced locally.
Would it maybe be interesting to find out where it was printed and see if it's a viable option to have a few copies made locally and send it so shops to try.
The quality was on par with any other international board game I've seen.
But, yeah I just thought I'd share.
http://www.takealot.com/ontdekkers-van-catan/PLID32704997
I'll have a look on his box next time and see I i can find any info about who made it.
A local printer/publisher would always be preferable for me ... right now I am looking at almost $300.00 to bring in a couple of versions of my game for Icon by the Sea ... I am waiting for my copy to arrive (currently landed in JHB) before I make the final call.
I recall a while ago that there was a post about possibly sharing the cost for a die for box ... for the life of me I can't actually find that post.
I guess until then, I will Network, Market, Network, Market and do some more Marketing ... oh and create a two player POD version of the game. 8-}
I don't think there's really any substitute for the usual "do a huge amount of work and be really friendly" approach, so festivals and conventions are how you build awareness. Unfortunately there's very little publisher support at local festivals, so that does mean going overseas to really punt your wares. The two biggest places are Spiel and, oddly enough, Lucca (I say odd because we apparently just missed it on a holiday to Italy one year and I've been super curious to go back since).
Kickstarter campaigns are also a good way to get people to pay attention to your game if you can produce a good campaign and the game has a super solid hook. KS has the added benefit of theoretically getting you your production budget, which means you really shouldn't think about doing anything funding related until the game is done-done-done. Extra done. I've got boardgames that I wouldn't consider doing a KS for at all because they simply don't have a good enough hook.
I honestly don't think there's anything like the low/no-cost marketing options that PC games have in the boardgame sense, unless you go hugely viral with awesome videos you produce yourself or a massively popular print and play or something equally innovative... And, as always, enter the game into competitions. Marketing your boardgame is going to take money - printing costs, flight and expo costs, etc. It's an investment, so standard rules of "do you believe you'll earn this back + more" apply. It's just that the investment is different to how you'd usually invest time/effort into a video game.
At the moment my plan is: Learn as much as possible at GDC, see how players react and if good, hunt for press awareness; Polish game, enter it into Indiecade to see what the response is like, maybe go if that's an option; Polish game more, take versions to Spiel and Lucca when solid enough, hunt for more press; Literally chase the Shut Up & Sit Down humans; See where that goes and try to land a publishing deal.
If yes, I would need to figure out what the rewards would be for the various funders ... that is a challenge on its own.
Well actually, it depends on your target. If your target is pure exposure, being on KS is one way to go. Expect to fail, but get some attention. If you don't fail and hit target, HEY BONUS! But don't expect it, when you have very little fanbase.
If your target is definitely get funded or else, then no KS is not going to work now. You need to network a hell of a lot more before you can get there. Look at Todd Sanders on BGG who has an entire 200+ page thread who just launched and canceled a KS on one of his earliest projects because it wasn't good enough. Look up jamey Stegmaier and all he's written about Kickstarters. Look up Daniel Solis and how he designs his games with the strictest of limitations so that he can get them produced on POD at a reasonable cost. Look up a ton of stuff, absorb, learn.
Don't rush.
I'm not trying to say bad things about the game, or your skills*, it's just obviously not a thing I would even think about putting on KS yet. The simplest way to explain why would be to ask what people would tell each other about the game? What would someone shout to their friends about this awesome campaign that they need to back right now? That's the hook, and right now, I feel very much like your game is missing a strong hook.
The mechanics might be solid, the deckbuilding might be great (disclaimer, I haven't played it yet, so I'm not analysing based on design - and I have to say that the dice roll + odd/even event structure is really interesting to me), but if you don't have a hook then it's impossible to get people to care without investing loads of time and effort into explaining why they should.
I'm not sure how to get a hook going for this, maybe you need to expand on the peril the players are facing so that it's about overcoming something scary. Maybe you can try reskinning the theme so that people go "What? A game about being <insert something surprising here>, I gotta try that!" or it just leaps out at people. Right now you've got where you are based off of first impressions on your art, not the name or the setting (those are, no offense, pretty standard things - space colony with mining) and the art's good, but I worry that it might be nailing you to a theme that's not working to make your marketing life easier.
... I have no idea if that makes sense or not, but that's why I wouldn't put this on KS as it is.
* NB NB NB! Please, this isn't an attack. Okay? I'm just trying to explain stuff that I wish people would say to me about my projects when I can't see them.