At PAX East this year, I was lucky enough to give a panel talk about “How to Make Your First Board Game: From Ideation to Production.”
As PAX East was the first gaming convention I’d ever attended back in 2020, to me it had always had a special place in my heart, even though it’s primarily a video game convention, and not a board game one.
After getting into the GAMA Horizons Fellowship this year, I got to work with a great mentor who taught me so much about the industry. I unwittingly entered the industry back in spring 2021, at the height of the pandemic, being stuck at home with nothing to do – I decided to design a board game. That became Cake Auf!
I couldn’t get to where I am today without the many people who have helped me along the way. That’s why I wanted to give back to the industry and present a panel talk that would have helped me back in 2021.
I’ve provided both a YouTube video presentation of the panel, as well as a downloadable PDF.
The panel is broken down into the following categories:
- Intro to Game Design:
- Getting ideas
- Making your first prototype
- Playtesting
- Making a presentable prototype
- Self publish or Pitch to publisher?
- Intro to Game Manufacturing
- Mass manufacturing or Print-on-demand?
- Tips for things to watch out for when working with manufacturer
- Product design tips
- Keep it simple for your first game
- Intro to Game Logistics
- Board Game Logistics: getting the games from the factory to your end user
- Work with freight forwarder/fulfillment company or self-fulfill?
- Work with distribution to sell games to retail?
- Intro to Game Marketing
- Introduces different types of marketing strategies
- Kickstarter: what you need to do before you launch
- 1-year game plan to prepare to launch on Kickstarter
If there are other questions you have regarding designing and producing games, please feel free to email me at contact@hawberrygames.com. I get a lot of spam on the comment section, so I’ve closed the comments to registered users.
