I've sent out requests for quotes from a half-dozen US-based printers. While I wait back to hear from them, I now have to either do the art myself or find an artist, with the latter obviously preferable.
Next steps:
- Get quotes from printers in the US
- Hire artist or do art myself
Don't do the art yourself.
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing you're doing - got quotes at this stage - which is a little premature. If you do get art done, it will take longer than you think - in my case, 3-4 months, and it's still not completely finalized. The people doing the quoting often expect you to be ready to go; the quote validity is often only for 30-60 days.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you're getting quotes just to figure out the ballpark for prices, then that's fine. I got a bunch of quotes, and my results are shown here:
http://planktongames.blogspot.com/2010/06/game-production-costs-summary.html
Dave, yeah, I'm looking for ballpark figures so I know how much my goal should be in my Kickstarter campaign.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. How many cards are there in Diggity? What specifics did you give them for things like weight/finish?
If I might ask, what game are you hoping to publish?
ReplyDeleteTim, I'm most likely going to self-publish Pioneer. Since it is only a card game, it will be the least expensive one to do and will have a lower likelihood of me screwing it up because I have zero experience publishing something.
ReplyDeleteIf Pioneer is successful (relatively), then I can think about the possibility of my other designs.
However, I would still rather have other publishers print my games. Designing, playtesting, and refining games is what I love. The business stuff is, for me, a means to an end after going over 5 years without a single published design.