Notes from the Panels at UnPub3

The Designer Panel at UnPub3

I'm back from UnPub3 with plenty to talk about, so this will spread out over a few posts. Trust me, there's plenty to discuss regarding Belle of the Ball, but I wanted to cover some of the more general interest stuff first. Case in point: The Panels!

First up were the designers who have had their games at past UnPub events and have since been published. From left to right we have John Moller hosting the event, Ben Rosset with Mars Needs Mechanics, Darrell Louder with Compounded, T.C. Petty with VivaJava, Jason Tagmire with Pixel Lincoln, and Jesse Catron with Salmon Run.

The Publisher Panel at UnPub3

There was also a publisher panel which focused on how to approach publishers and the value of Kickstarter to fund your company's ongoing bottom line. From left to right we have A.J. Porforino of Van Ryder Games, Bryan Fischer of Nevermore Games, Chris Kirkman of Dice Hate Me Games and Dan Yarrington of GameSalute.

I live-tweeted the panel discussion with quotes, but I couldn't type fast enough to attribute the quotes so I left them anonymous. There goes my chance at a Pulitzer. Hope this is still useful to you!

From the Designers:

"I sent a rule book to the publisher, pic of the game, explained what set it apart and why it fit their catalog."

"Go to cons. Schedule meetings ahead of time. Publishers are very approachable. Be persistent, but not pushy, no more than 30min."

"You first have to tell yourself it's going to be published. Going to cons lets you have best chance to go viral and get lucky."

"You don't have to be a graphic designer or buy art for your prototype. Publishers can see the potential."

"A unique theme helps stand out as an indie. Up here we have Martian steam punk, chemistry, coffee, 8-bit Lincoln, and salmon."

"If I could go back in time, I'd reassure myself that my first game will suck but it's a long process."

"Don't overreact. I had one game go bad because of one mechanic and completely revamped it, which ended up failing worse."

"Find the interesting decision players are making and strip away everything else. Simplify, simplify. And remind yourself of that."

"1hr of play testing with other people is worth 10 alone in front of your computer. Got an idea? Get it to the table fast."

"I am forcing myself away from the computer and not let myself obsess about the negative comments."

"My wife said she'd never play with me again if I kept sulking about a bad Play test. You have to brush it off. "

"Look at negative comments as an opportunity if you get the same feedback over and over."

"Ignore the BGG comments, especially if they haven't played. You *should* care about the face-to-face comments and from this event."

"Look at the data. What was the spread? Compare that to the feedback you get."

"Don't ask 'do you like it?' Instead ask specifics, 'when x happens, what about that?' 'Hows the length?'"

From the Publishers:

"Polish your game as much as possible before submission. Don't change it while being evaluated."

"When you ask a publisher, you're asking for time and energy - both are limited supply. Don't waste either with unfinished pitch."

"You can trademark a name, art, but not your game. Also It's costly and unnecessary... And patents are only worth the money you have."

"Ticket to Ride wasn't just a success for its design, but marketing, etc. The publisher does that. Value and respect that contribution."

"Of all industries where you can steal an idea, the game industry is probably the least valuable. No one wants to steal your idea."

"Even if so someone does want to steal your idea, you're already months and years ahead of them."

"Detractors ask why you keep going to Kickstarter, but the benefits to sustainable business and community are too great."

"If you *can* succeed as a company without Kickstarter, it feels like more validation. Also Kickstarter could be outlawed tomorrow."

"Even non-KS publishers miss their deadlines."

"If you want to publish, do it, but know you probably won't have time to design any games. Know that before you go to KS."

"A large part of publishing business is actually just customer service. A KS campaign is like a political campaign in terms of face time."

"If you're lucky enough to succeed and get the product, you're not done. Now you have 1500 more boxes to move."

"Someone raised several times over their small KS goal. A year later, they were 30k in debt. Manage expectations better."

"Most successful KSers lose money due to shipping and packaging. They hurt feelings also not thinking about long timelines."
Both panels were excellent and these cursory notes don't cover half the stuff they all said. I look forward to seeing these panels on video.

Comments

  1. Paul OwenJanuary 22, 2013 at 11:23 PM

    Daniel, sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself during UnPub. Belle of the Ball was on my short list, and I still didn't get to it. By all accounts, I really missed out.


    I think it was Ben R. that said that one hour of playtesting is worth ten hours of analysis. He's right, of course, but one comment I'll make about the "get it to the table fast" advice: I would caution designers not to ask people to playtest a new design until you've playtested it solo yourself at least once or twice. I think it's important to be considerate of people's time, and playtesting is very valuable time. So don't waste it - and disenchant people with your game in their first exposure to it - by having them conduct your very first run-through of an untested game. Your first couple of solo plays will uncover the gross flaws that you really don't need other people to identify for you. Get those out of the way, and when the mechanics seem to work functionally, then you're ready to expose it to real people and discover the things that only live playtesting can tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. DanielSolisJanuary 24, 2013 at 12:03 PM

    Very good advice indeed. Even after polishing a prototype at home, I still present nascent games with the caveat that it's a work in progress.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has...
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results tha...
Read more

One Thing to Avoid in Game Design

Image
When game designer Paul Peterson was interviewed for the upcoming Titans Series of games from Calliope Games, there was one segment at 1:55 that really caught my attention (emphasis mine): "A couple years ago I was teaching people how to play Guillotine and I hadn't played in a while. The first thing I did was say, 'The first thing you gonna do when you open your game is you look through this deck and you take this card.' I pulled out the Callous Guards card and threw it over my shoulder. Everybody laughed. I said, ' That's the biggest mistake I ever made as a game designer in my life.'" Oof. Those are strong words. What's the big deal? For context, the game Guillotine is all about collecting the heads of French nobles during the revolution. There is only one guillotine, with a line of nobles waiting for their grim fate. On your turn, you play action cards to change the order of the line, then take the Noble card from the front of the ...
Read more