I have an idea for a card/board game. How do I do this?

November 17, 2019 10:42 AM

[Intellectual Property Filter] I have an idea for a card/board games. I need help finding resources on two different matters. 1. What do I need to research / what trees should I bark up to figure out the best way to bring the game to fruition? 2. How do I ensure the protection of my intellectual property (IP) while I'm navigating a way to create and market/sell said game?

I'm not looking for advice on whether or not it's worth it to design or create a board game.

I *am* looking for information and resources on:
- Methods for independently creating and selling the game myself, as an option
- Companies or third parties who you can pay to "vanity" publish (and perhaps even provide a marketplace to sell) said game, as another option
- Methods for pitching the game to other publishers without going through self-publishing or vanity-publishing, as a third option

As well as:
- How do I protect the IP for this game idea before I'm able to actually finalize its creation and sell it?
- What other legal/regulatory stuff do I need to know about? I'm in North America (US/Canada)
- What are the best resources online for this kind of thing?
- Is there any good info out there on things NOT to do?

Thanks in advance and if there are any follow up questions, I'll try to provide clarifying info as best I can without talking about the game idea itself.

posted by nightrecordings to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Go check out the Board Game Design forums on BoardGameGeek as a first step.

Also, Kickstarter (et al) campaigns for indie board games are many and varied, go check out some of those to see what the typical self-publishing route looks like these days. They often include lots of details about how to find printers and manufacturers and whatnot in the updates.

Finally, getting a complete, playable board game is a matter of a huge amount of work and a ton of play-testing to get the balance right, and unless your idea is somehow breathtakingly original in its style of play, protecting your intellectual property should not be a primary concern. (And even if it is breathtakingly original, there's relatively little IP protection for how games work -- the artwork is protected and specific trademarks may be protected, but how the game is played is likely not.) You'll be much better off using the resources afforded to you by being open about what you're working on and getting the support of a very supportive community than by keeping everything all hush-hush out of fear that someone will steal your idea. Ideas are easy, execution is hard -- get help with the hard bits.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:55 AM on November 17, 2019 [13 favorites]

The MeFi Wiki Get a Lawyer page includes a section of legal resources for artists, and the usual warning that "it can be unwise and potentially harmful to answer legal questions with information obtained only from the internet."
posted by katra at 10:57 AM on November 17, 2019

Lately I've been reading up on this a bit and one helpful and thought-provoking resource is Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games - he has a ton of videos and blog posts about various aspects of game design and publishing process, and running Kickstarter campaigns for boardgames. Here are his company's submission guidelines, which are probably for more-developed games than yours if you're still at an early stage, but which give an idea of what kinds of things a publisher might be looking for or thinking about -- they have their own niche and they're clear about what that is with a lot of helpful links there.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:20 AM on November 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've suggested this one on AskMe before, but James Mathe's site is a goldmine of this kind of information. On IP and regulatory questions, for example, read Dammit Jim, I'm a publisher not a lawyer.
posted by Paragon at 1:14 PM on November 17, 2019 [2 favorites]

Seconding jacquilynne, LobsterMitten, and Paragon.

Unless you're willing to front all the money for the game yourself (and even if you are, honestly), Kickstarter still rules the roost when it comes to selling the game - you're not supposed to use the platform as a preorder platform, but everyone does anyway.

The closest thing to a "vanity" publisher I can think of would be some of the small run companies that are commonly used for creating nicer-looking prototypes of games you're working on. I've personally used https://www.thegamecrafter.com/ and https://www.printplaygames.com/ before. If your game primarily uses cards, a custom deck printer like https://www.makeplayingcards.com/ might be more suitable.

I'd also suggest the following Facebook groups, many of which were administered by James Mathe before his untimely passing:

Board Game Design Lab Community

Designer // Publisher Speed Dating

Card and Board Game Designers Guild

Art and Graphic Design for Tabletop Games

Best of luck. My one core piece of advice I'd give is don't be afraid to reach out to the community - we're all so busy on our own stuff that stealing IP is not a real concern, and almost everyone I've met in this community is very generous with their time for advice, feedback, review of ideas, etc.
posted by isauteikisa at 1:43 PM on November 17, 2019 [4 favorites]

If you can, go to this:
https://burningcat.com/?from=ek-home_banner
posted by feistycakes at 5:14 PM on November 17, 2019

One tip I'd offer you is that you should look for a local "unpublished board game" club/group. They are super generous, will give helpful critiques, help introduce you to publishers, help you negotiate, etc. The larger the city the more likely there's an actual publisher that attends / gives advice.

Hope this advice helps!
posted by bbqturtle at 7:33 PM on November 17, 2019