Every single company does this in a different way, but some aspects are always the same. First of all, for the love of all that's holy, GET. A. CONTRACT. It may give you a bit of money upfront or state that you'll get a cut of the profits once the game actually hits the shelves – either way, it's for you to negotiate and decide what's best for you.
Remember, your game could take ages to come out, so do you want to be sitting around waiting? Even then, what happens if the game doesn't sell? If you go for the advance, you're guaranteeing yourself a bit of cash but may be selling yourself short in the long run. However, I'm not in your head and I can't decide what's best for you. Who am I, your mother?
Now begins the fun and games of your production company going through the process of sorting out art, sourcing printers, organising shipping and generally taking a bleedin' age to get the damn game made.
At this point, many of them now choose to use Kickstarter in a bid to cover themselves in advance – like it or not, Kickstarter has essentially turned into a system to pre-order stuff since its launch in 2009 and a LOT of companies are more than happy to use it.
Not only does it allow them to gauge the popularity of a product, it also means that they don't have to shell out too much of their own money to get the game made.
It sucks, but that's the way it goes. I'll write more about the whole Kickstarter experience in next week's column – after all, that's how the production company who made Ace of Spies got the cash.
Anyway, eventually your game will be pretty much done. In all honesty, you'll invariably have very little input in what happens between you signing your name on the contract and it actually arriving at the shop – some companies are cool with keeping the designer in the loop during the production process, asking for opinions and thoughts on certain elements but many will just get on with it.
Sure, they'll need the occasional clarification on a rule, maybe even the odd rewrite here and there, but don't expect much more than that by way of interaction. Oh, you should also get a proof copy of the game before it goes into full production too, which is always nice – then once that's got the OK from the publisher, the printer hits the switch and boom!
Well, not boom. More like booooooooooooom. Most companies use printers in China as it's much more cost effective, so even after the game has been printed up it needs to be tested for poisons (particularly if there are wooden bits in there, or stuff has been painted) and make its way across land and sea. This can take WEEKS.
After all, most of the time the ships are heading across the Pacific, and I've heard that's pretty big. Customs then hold it up for as long as they feel like before the pallets filled with your baby are shipped to the distributor who will, in turn, send them to game stores around the world. Maybe even back to China in some cases. How ironic.
Read the rest of Mike's Table Top Gaming Columns Here.
