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Geek Culture / How to publish my CCG?

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Fuzz
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Location: Tasmania, Australia
Posted: 17th Apr 2014 03:33 Edited at: 22nd Apr 2014 14:14
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Legends Of Avalon: Age Of Heroes - CCG


My friend and I have been working on a collectible card game that we'd like to make physical and digital versions of.

Digital we can do, but how would we go about getting a physical version created? I have little knowledge of business or publishing. My friend suggested a Kickstarter when we have our prototype ready, but I have no idea how to found out how much it would cost to produce.

Anyone dealt with this kind of thing before or have any knowledge about it?

We have around 200 cards so far including creatures, hero cards, spells, items, buildings and more based on 3 factions.

I know it may seem unrealistic to produce a CCG but it's something we both really want to do.


Progress on the game

3 Factions: Heroes, Villains and Neutral

Card Types: Creatures, Mounts, Siege Weapons, Items, Spells, Gold, Buildings, Terrain, Events (Buildings and Events are optional)

31 Skills and Traits for cards

Rules are almost complete

Game Mat/Board is almost complete

Cards

Almost 200 Creatures, Mounts, and Siege Weapons to customise your deck and the way you want to play

35 Spell Cards

6 Event Cards

3 Building Cards

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bitJericho
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Posted: 17th Apr 2014 03:45 Edited at: 17th Apr 2014 03:51
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It's not unrealistic. If you do a kickstarter consider 40 5-10 (sorry I thought it was wayyyy higher) percent of your income gone out of the gate! After throwing at least half of the remaining amount to manufacturing you're looking at well over 50 percent of your income gone. It may be more cost effective to find a publisher of CCG. Might cost around the same but they'd get you in front of buyers and in stores. The publisher will also help you produce it and manufacture it. Find your favorite games, look at who the publisher is and give them a call. Make sure you have something worth showing them.

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Barry Pythagoras
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Posted: 17th Apr 2014 14:28
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If you are getting them made remember to make the images huge. Printing requires a high dpi.
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Van B
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Posted: 17th Apr 2014 17:30
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Ideally you'd have vector images rather than bitmap, it's the only way to get the sort of print quality that people will expect.

I guess, all you can do is canvas a few printing companies and see what they can offer per set, but avoid the big guys who make their money printing business cards - they always have massive setup fee's, and when you have lots of 'pages' it can cost a helluva lot. Cards will be printed on big sheets, with maybe 50-60 cards on each sheet, so split the factions up to make the basic sets, and get a quote for printing those and some samples. Get 3 or 4 quotes and decide yourself between quality and price.

I think it might be better to avoid a publisher, try and produce the card game yourself - consider that you probably know some people who might appreciate some work, putting collections together, shipping out, that money is better off in the pocket of your family and friends than some publisher. Card game fans will just love the idea that the sets are put together by hand, sell them on that principle - hell I'd get hand made wallets for the card sets as well. I don't think it would be a bad thing to segregate this from the usual mass produced card games.

Good luck with it, I'm no card gamer, but I can see the attraction of having a personal touch with this stuff - at least I hope the buying public are getting sick of mass produced soul-less crap. Card games are like indie games... there are still people who don't mind paying for quality and like to support folk like us beyond just being consumers. I guess that's why Kickstarter is still a thing.

I am the one who knocks...
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Fuzz
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Posted: 18th Apr 2014 10:57
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Thanks guys. We are considering going with Kickstarter when we're further along, considering we most likely don't have enough money to go with a publisher with start up fees and all that.

I'll definitely post progress and updates here if anyone is interested.

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bitJericho
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Posted: 18th Apr 2014 18:47
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Quote: "considering we most likely don't have enough money to go with a publisher with start up fees and all that."


What?? You don't pay a publisher up front. Publishers collect out of your earnings. If a publisher isn't busting down the door for your idea then you don't have a good one (or the publishers don't think so, anyway).

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Fuzz
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Posted: 18th Apr 2014 19:56
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Well I did say I didn't know much about publishing

I guess when we're a bit more along and polished, we'll ask publishers what they think or pitch our product, how ever it goes.

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Fuzz
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Posted: 22nd Apr 2014 17:00 Edited at: 22nd Apr 2014 17:12
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Just a few images I'd like to share. I'm not good enough to do the actual card art but I like working on the designs.

[img][/img]
[img][/img]

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Libervurto
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Posted: 4th May 2014 00:36
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What is unique about your game?
How does it play?
CCG seems like a hard sell on Kickstarter, isn't the point of CCG's to nickel and dime people to death? (The original "in-app" purchasing!) I'm not sure I'd go for that if I'd already fronted the money to produce the cards in the first place.
To get a publisher or crowdfunding you will need a good quality prototype which will cost a fair whack to print.
You will also need a business model.
Vector images are a must.

Do you have a scanner and printer? I would scan in your drawings and vectorise them (Inkscape is free), leave them as outlined drawings and print them out on cheap card. You will probably make several versions of the game before it is even ready to think about going to a publisher, so do your testing as cheaply as you can. Get your friends to help play test, you will need to play it to death to find balance issues, if the game is good your friends wont mind this, and if it is really good they will be bugging you for the next playtest.

Formerly OBese87.
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Quik
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Posted: 4th May 2014 00:48
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pretty sure CCG is not at all too difficult to sell on KS - seen multiple succeeded ones. However, they did all seem quite unique



Whose eyes are those eyes?
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Fuzz
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Posted: 4th May 2014 12:50 Edited at: 4th May 2014 12:52
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Libervurto, our game is unique (hopefully, I've only played a few card games) as it's like an RPG and strategy game condensed into a card game. We have a customisable rule set with features like buildings and mounts for characters, events, faction, hero cards and lots of options to customise your deck and play style like you would an RPG or strategy game.

I have access to a printer and scanner though I'd probably draw the art on my tablet or get the help of my friend who is a great artist. We definitely want to make a few versions first and play with friends and the like first, like you said, to test and balance.

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Libervurto
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Posted: 4th May 2014 18:30 Edited at: 4th May 2014 18:32
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Maybe when you get the rules and balancing ironed out you could even make some videos for youtube explaining the rules and showing playthroughs like Wil Wheaton's Tabletop. That will help you get good at presenting the game if nothing else and if you're lucky maybe even generate some interest in the game.

Formerly OBese87.
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Fuzz
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Posted: 4th May 2014 19:18
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Thanks for the ideas I was actually thinking of playing at the local games/pop culture store to see what people thought.

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