Hey, thanks for taking the time to look it over! We actually have received very similar feedback and have streamlined the rules considerably. They should be posted next week.
Thanks again!
This is a great discussion and very timely for me! I'm working on getting a ccg published independently. I've already gotten lots of good info. Check the website: http://www.magewarfare.com. Here's the story so far:
My son (who's almost 17) created his own ccg after getting bored with the existing ones. He came up with all the rules and the gameplay and I helped with some cards. When we had 500, we figured it was time to try it out.
Our first step was to playtest. We put the cards in a database and used Word's mail merge to produce a whole lotta pages neatly arranged in tables with card-sized cells. We had that printed and cut at Kinko's (more on them below), put them in card holders (using cards from those other games for backing:-) ) and took them to our local comics/card shop and with the owner's support, enlisted some local gamers. We've been taking feedback and streamlining the rules (it was pretty complicated at first), while at the same time enlisting artists through word-of-mouth, our website and artist forums.
It's been about a year and we know have about 40 artists, 80+ pics (more coming in all the time) and a growing number of players eager for the first release. Thanks to a state-funded non-profit agency (http://www.microcreditnh.org), we also have access to some funding. We're still using "homemade" cards - though they look better now - but we had an "official" demo, with local press coverage.
We're working towards a spring release of a 280-card subset of the 500+ cards we now have. The reason for this is to keep production costs down. We did get an estimate for a full production run, including tuck boxes, etc., and that was in the $40,000 - $50,000 range, depending on how many deck variations we wanted. So, we're going with the subset and we will assemble decks and shrinkwrap them for sale locally, through stores on consignment. We will not be selling them ourselves; our job is to promote the game, not get into the retail business. Revenue from this will bring in enough to go into full production.
As for Kinko's, we've found the quality of service to depend primarily on who we deal with. There's one employee who can't even open files from a disk, so when she sees us coming, she passes us off to someone else. There are a couple of employees who've gotten to know us and our project and are very helpful and go out of their way to do good work. Plus, the regional manager has recently started helping out as well. They've already said they can't handle the commercial version, but for our home-made stuff and the posters we've done so far, they've been very good. And besides, they're open when I'm not working, which most other printers/copiers are not.
So, if you've taken the time to read THIS much, then perhaps you can offer suggestions, advice, thoughts...?
Thanks!
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Hey, thanks for taking the time to look it over! We actually have received very similar feedback and have streamlined the rules considerably. They should be posted next week. Thanks again!
This is a great discussion and very timely for me! I'm working on getting a ccg published independently. I've already gotten lots of good info. Check the website: http://www.magewarfare.com. Here's the story so far: My son (who's almost 17) created his own ccg after getting bored with the existing ones. He came up with all the rules and the gameplay and I helped with some cards. When we had 500, we figured it was time to try it out. Our first step was to playtest. We put the cards in a database and used Word's mail merge to produce a whole lotta pages neatly arranged in tables with card-sized cells. We had that printed and cut at Kinko's (more on them below), put them in card holders (using cards from those other games for backing :-) ) and took them to our local comics/card shop and with the owner's support, enlisted some local gamers. We've been taking feedback and streamlining the rules (it was pretty complicated at first), while at the same time enlisting artists through word-of-mouth, our website and artist forums.
It's been about a year and we know have about 40 artists, 80+ pics (more coming in all the time) and a growing number of players eager for the first release. Thanks to a state-funded non-profit agency (http://www.microcreditnh.org), we also have access to some funding. We're still using "homemade" cards - though they look better now - but we had an "official" demo, with local press coverage.
We're working towards a spring release of a 280-card subset of the 500+ cards we now have. The reason for this is to keep production costs down. We did get an estimate for a full production run, including tuck boxes, etc., and that was in the $40,000 - $50,000 range, depending on how many deck variations we wanted. So, we're going with the subset and we will assemble decks and shrinkwrap them for sale locally, through stores on consignment. We will not be selling them ourselves; our job is to promote the game, not get into the retail business. Revenue from this will bring in enough to go into full production.
As for Kinko's, we've found the quality of service to depend primarily on who we deal with. There's one employee who can't even open files from a disk, so when she sees us coming, she passes us off to someone else. There are a couple of employees who've gotten to know us and our project and are very helpful and go out of their way to do good work. Plus, the regional manager has recently started helping out as well. They've already said they can't handle the commercial version, but for our home-made stuff and the posters we've done so far, they've been very good. And besides, they're open when I'm not working, which most other printers/copiers are not.
So, if you've taken the time to read THIS much, then perhaps you can offer suggestions, advice, thoughts...?
Thanks!