Interviews by an Optimist # 29 -
Mike Petty
Mike says this about himself...
I was born in Lapeer, Michigan in 1969. There are plenty of things I could talk about, but in terms of games, I can make it really simple. I’ve always loved them. I’ve remember the thrill of learning new rules even at a young age. I thoroughly enjoyed playing games and I naturally made a few as well. The only problem was that for most of my life, I was the only person I knew who enjoyed games enough to make time for them. Consequently, I missed most of the good games that came along through the 70’s and 80’s. Stratego and Othello summed up 90% of my gaming experiences. By the time I was in my ‘20’s I rarely gave games a thought, considering them something people grow out of.
In the early ‘90’s, though, I discovered the abstract board game Terrace. It opened my eyes to new trends in games. The simple rules and unique twists on familiar concepts grabbed my attention and from then on I’ve been hooked like never before. With the resources I found on the Internet around that time, I was able to leap headlong into the hobby. Now, ten years later I look at my love of games from three perspectives—gamer, retailer and designer. I suspect you requested an interview because of my experiences in those areas, so I’ll wrap this up by touching briefly on each.
As a gamer, I’m involved in a couple regular groups around the mid-Michigan area. I also head up the high school game club at the school where I teach. It’s a passion of mine to introduce as many people as possible to this hobby. It’s great seeing them discover these games that I’ve enjoyed for years.
Eventually it was these efforts that led me to my work with Fair Play Games, an online game store. My friend Terry Carr runs the business and I worked with him a lot in 2002 and 2003. The perspective I gained in those months was very valuable to my overall goals when it comes to games.
And lastly, my love of games naturally led me to design many of my own. I create games simply because I get ideas, then I can’t stand to just do nothing with them. Some are good, some are terrible, but it’s a goal of mine to see as many people as possible enjoying what I’ve created. In 2000 my friend Stephen Glenn and I encouraged each other to put everything into our dreams of having our games published. He’s gone on to have two of his games picked up by well-known publishers. I can’t say the same for myself, but I haven’t given up yet! More importantly, though, my work with Stephen led to Protospiel. That’s the game designer convention he started and that I head up now (with the help of other good friends). Through Protospiel I’ve learned the joy of meeting and encouraging other game designers as they pursue their dreams.
Tom Vasel: I've heard a bit about Protospiel, why don't you explain some more about it?
Mike Petty: Protospiel is the brainchild of Stephen Glenn. He first mentioned the idea to me in 2000. He envisioned a gathering of game designers where they'd get together just to play each other's prototypes. That pretty much sums the event up.
We held the first one in Charlottesville, Virginia in the summer of 2001. For four days we talked game design and playtested games. Only five of us made up the core group of that first event. Dominic Crapuchettes and Stephen organized it that year. Dominic has gone on to start his own game company, North Star Games. He's published his games Cluzzle and Trivia Casino (due out this year). Stephen designed Balloon Cup and we'll see his latest game, a party/trivia game with a big twist called You Must Be An Idiot, out from R&R Games this summer as well.
In 2002 we moved the event to East Lansing, Michigan. I helped Stephen organize it that year, and we found the mid-Michigan area to be very conducive to our goals. First off, we met up with James Kyle, the designer of HellRail, published by Mayfair Games. He lives only twenty minutes away from where we meet and he brought a wealth of experience to the event. I also knew of several designers I'd met in the area who would be glad to come to join us. That year we had such a great turnout that we've held it in East Lansing ever since.
Now the event draws about twenty designers from Canada and the eastern U.S. We include workshops along with the playtesting, though the playtesting is still the focus. The creativity and contacts that result from the gathering are just phenomenal. I imagine only game designers are going to appreciate any further details of what goes on there. Suffice it to say we always get the same comment. Nothing compares to the advice you can get when you playtest your games with like-minded designers.
The results of Protospiel are becoming evident too in a growing number of games that have been released over the last few years. I already mentioned Balloon Cup and Cluzzle, both of which were tested at Protospiel. Other titles that may be familiar to some of your readers are Kory Heath's Why Did the Chicken...? and my own party game What's It To Ya?. Don Beyer joined us last year, and he's helping to organize this year's event. He is one of the co-designers of Bootleggers, published by Eagle Games. Mark Goadrich, a designer who joined us last year, started a geeklist recently highlighting all the games playtested at Protospiel or designed by Protospiel attendees. It really speaks to the talent and variety that we see there each year.
Anyone interested in this year's event can find all necessary information at the website: www.protospiel.org
Tom Vasel: Amidst such an array of designers must have produced some good lessons about designing board games. What tips would you give budding game designers?
Mike Petty: This is a tough question to answer briefly, because there is a wide range of people I meet who have an idea for a game that they'd like to see published. Ask any game publisher who accepts outside submissions about the many letters and emails they receive, and you'll understand what I mean.
The most general advice I can give would be to know the industry very well. Find out which games are similar to yours--it's very likely there are several. Study up so you can be very realistic about how much work it's going to take to create a good game, and how little money you'll likely see from it. Most importantly, don't ever invest a lot of money producing a game yourself until you've received a lot of feedback from several people outside of your circle of friends.
For those who do know the game industry well and who have spent a lot of time developing a game, the most common advice I hear is to get to know people in the industry. While many companies will take a look at your game through email or some other submission process, nothing compares to playing your game with someone from the company who might publish it. William Niebling from Mayfair put it to me very simply: "People do business with people." Getting that face-to-face opportunity without making a nuisance of yourself is often the hard work on top of the hard work of creating the game.
Tom Vasel: Why did you decide to publish your own games, rather than send them to another publisher?
Mike Petty: Oh, I've definitely sent my games to other publishers! I've been doing it for almost ten years, but most of that time I went about it all wrong. I made many of the mistakes I just referred to--probably all but the mistake of blowing a fortune on self-publishing.
To answer your question, though, I have to go back to a two-week period in 2002. I met James Kyle at Protospiel that summer. James led a session at the event where he outlined his model for getting published by a major publisher. His approach appealed to me immediately.
His own game, HellRail, is the classic case. James made 50 copies by hand and sold them all at GenCon one year. Encouraged, he churned out 500 handmade copies of the improved second edition. All of this was done on a shoe-string budget, relatively speaking. His second edition caught the attention of Games Magazine, where it claimed the "Best Family Game" slot (no small feat for a game about hauling lost souls around Hell!). At about that same time he also signed a contract with Mayfair who took notice of the game.
In short, I loved James' model because it rings true with what I want to believe about games--that a strong game will speak for itself. I think we have all been duped at one time or another into picking up a game because it was made to look better than it was. I'm always amazed at how games like that get published. James' talk at Protospiel encouraged me to take the next step and see if any of my designs could attract attention on their own.
These events were only a week after my friend Terry Carr had acquired the Fair Play Games online store. Working closely with him as I was, I knew I had a direct outlet for my games to reach the public. So, a month later I printed up 50 copies of my small word game Yaddy-Yadda. A few other titles came after that, each one testing the waters in one direction or another. In terms of James' model, I'm currently between the Games 100 and a contract with one of my designs. While the process is taking some time, much longer than it did for James, I've been very pleased to see a game of mine gather steam on its own accord.
Tom Vasel: Which one of your games has been the most successful?
Mike Petty: Success is measured on a small scale for my games at this point, but there's no doubt What's It To Ya? is my game that has reached the most people. It received the most positive feedback of all of my Black & White Games. I might add that you started the ball rolling with your review back in 2003. The New World Games edition was a small print run which sold out at the end of 2004. Right now the game is being considered by a larger publisher.
I might also mention Why Did the Chicken...? here. While Kory Heath's name is on the box, that game is a direct result of a joint effort by both of us. Essentially, we developed a creativity game system together, and the boxed game Why Did the Chicken...? is Kory's effort. In that sense, perhaps my contribution to our creativity system would be considered my most successful work.
Tom Vasel: Can you tell us a little about your latest game - "Get Paul That Promotion"?
Mike Petty: Sure. In fact, it is a close cousin to the games in the creativity system I just mentioned. In this game, everyone is a "sloganeer" making up product names and slogans for great new products. The catch is everyone is trying to help this guy named Paul to get a promotion by purposely turning out sub-standard work. The humor comes from the ridiculous product names and slogans that are submitted as if they were good ideas. Paul's not really a player in the game, but through the scoring system players can determine whether or not he gets his promotion at the end. Usually two players lose the game. The player who consistently writes the worst product names and slogans will lose by getting fired. The player who consistently writes the best ones will lose as well, being considered by his colleagues as a suck-up who tried to further his career at the expense of Paul.
If it's not clear from the description, Paul's Promotion, as we usually call it, is a strange game. First of all, it's a party game with a theme. To find any humor or even a motivation to play well, you have to role play. I've debated this a lot with many game designer friends who disagree with me, but I really believe any game that requires players to take on a role like this to really enjoy the game is likely to turn off most adults who don't consider themselves gamers. That, on top of the fact that all of our creativity games frighten some players away--those who claim they can't come up with good ideas--makes Paul's Promotion rather un-marketable by usual standards.
While it's silly and even immature in a lot of ways, there are some fascinating things I continue to enjoy about it. I love the contrast between the quiet while everyone is writing submissions and the uproarious laughter when they're read. I also find some interesting philosophical implications in what constitutes a good response in the game. To get the full effect of the humor, a player essentially views the submissions from the various perspectives of the characters involved where they are seen as good, horrible or completely hilarious.
Lastly, I love the game because it resulted from a day of gaming with a group of my former students. The character Paul in the game is named after the guy who gave me the idea for the title. Probably my favorite group of people to game with right now are these guys who come back from college in the winter and summer and visit my wife and I for a day of gaming. I'm still Mr. Petty to most of them, but it's good to know them as friends after having them for years in the classroom.
Tom Vasel: Tell us a little about your stint at www.fairplaygames.com I've heard nothing but good things about them (having dealt with them myself in the past). What are they doing right?
Mike Petty: I worked very closely with Terry for the first year and a half after he took over Fair Play Games. It was great getting a perspective on the industry from the retailer side of things.
Terry and I have been friends since the 3rd grade. We know each other's strengths, and we always work very well together. At first, he handled the mechanics of running the business, and he did all the programming for the site. I was more of a gamer between the two of us, so I handled things like keeping an eye out for new games. I also tried to establish a fun, personal presence at the site. For example, I handled the online contests and newsletter articles dealing with our own gaming experiences.
The problem we continually faced was the store kept growing very quickly. Of course, to Terry this was not really a problem; it was all he hoped for. What I found, though, was the store was taking away what I really liked about games. There was no time for gaming when orders were pouring in, and both of us were working full-time jobs to support our families. When I had a great idea for a promotion, for example, there was no time for Terry to do the programming to implement it. We were completely caught up in the day-to-day business of packing boxes and ordering games. If I could have supported my family with that job, it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world. I would have gladly done it for any number of years. As it was, though, I felt like it was bogging me down on my own goals--not just with games but with life in general. Terry and I eventually worked out a lesser role for me, and his sister joined up with him to run the business. I still help out with the monthly newsletters, interviews with game designers and articles for the site. In the early days when I worked with him, we didn't make enough money to pay ourselves. Now, just to pay me back for all those hours I put in, if I want to pick up a game or two he still treats me quite well. I help out with reviews at the site, so I’m still his first choice when he sends out a review copy.
When you ask what Terry's done right to have such a successful business, I can tell you what I saw. He first started by making sure everything was in stock as much as possible. I was always hesitant to order some game that had negative reviews, and that I didn't think would sell well. My thought was to get a copy only if someone ordered it. Terry would get two copies and let them sit on the shelf until they were sold. Then he'd order four. His thinking was bigger than mine, and we soon started getting comments that no one else had a particular game in stock, so customers ordered from us. As time went on, Terry focused on three things: a large selection, low prices and great customer service. Almost any good comment I hear about Fair Play relates to at least one of those three things.
Tom Vasel: What are your thoughts on the online store vs. brick and mortar debate?
Mike Petty: First off there's not much sense debating for or against the online retailers. As long as they can stay afloat, they're not going away. The question is how the rest of us-customers, retailers, publishers and distributors-will deal with the changes they've brought on. My only hope is that everyone will take their decisions seriously with a focus on the good of the industry.
A week after Terry and I took over Fair Play I was talking to an industry leader, who politely but firmly opened my eyes to the seriousness of this debate. He made it clear he despised what we were doing. His argument was that gaming spreads primarily through the game stores. Online stores undercut the brick and mortar retailers, and they offer no equivalent opportunity for people to notice gaming or experience gaming. He, in no uncertain terms, told me we were pulling the whole industry down by breaking its very backbone. The best middle ground he could imagine was that an online retailer should also run a brick and mortar store or, at the very least, the online store had to set prices so that after shipping they were at retail price.
The counterargument to this from those in online businesses was that the online store must sell for less in order to make up for their lack of services. For example, when purchasing online, a customer can't look at the box, feel the heft of it or have a chance to play the game in a demo. Also, the shipping time is less than satisfactory for anyone who's used to dropping in a store and immediately getting the game he wants.
I took all this to heart, and Terry and I did a few things to make sure we were in balance. For example, we offered incentives to large gaming groups who placed orders through Fair Play. The idea was that an active group could attract new gamers just as well as a group in any brick and mortar store could. Our contests, mini-reviews and other features at the site and our newsletters were meant to offer customers more than just a discount outlet for games.
With creativity and effort, there are things an online retailer can do to be sensitive to and help the industry as a whole. In practice, though, it appears that offering cheaper games has become the main point of competition. Discounts are now well beyond simply making up for an online store's lack of service compared to that of a brick and mortar store. It appears the-latest-game-retailer.com can get away with offering little more at their site than the just the lowest price. No matter what services the other online stores are offering customers, if one is getting away with selling games at a lower price, the others generally have to follow suit.
The result of this is that the perceived value of games has decreased. I've read emails from customers who act like it's a crime to sell a game and make a little money. But if simply offering deep discounts is hurting the industry as a whole, is there really nothing the rest of the industry can do? Can't publishers make policies against selling to retailers who sell at deep discounts? Even if publishers were blind to the fall of the game industry, though, couldn't distributors take similar steps? And customers play their part as well. Is it right for them to find their information elsewhere, then head over to the cheapest online retailer--whose bare-bones site offers nothing more--to place the order?
I'm not an expert on these things by any means. I would think, though, that before the online stores are going to bring down the industry, these relatively simple measures could be taken to rein in the potentially destructive actions of the online retailers. Since those things aren't happening on a large scale, I'm wondering how realistic the fears are.
In the real world, the brick and mortar stores that survive the changing industry will be those that focus on what they can do best. Offering great events that draw people in and demoing games for curious new customers are things the online stores can't compete with. From there, each customer who enjoys those events and the benefits of a local retail store will have to support those stores rather than going online to make their purchases.
Ultimately, and this is pretty idealistic, but if we act responsibly and keep an eye out for the industry as a whole, we should be able to adjust with the inevitable changes brought on by changes in technology. The only question that remains is whether we--whatever role we play--will focus more on money than the good of the industry.
Tom Vasel: I hear that you run a high school board game club. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Mike Petty: My return to gaming took place at the same time I started teaching about ten years ago. Even during that first year I would have several students stay in my room during lunch, and we'd play abstract games. We played new games like Terrace and La-Trel, but we also played a lot of chess.
About four years ago I started the official game club at the high school. On one hand it was a little frustrating when I started out. The average student didn't get into the same games that I did, so I had to be flexible. Also, teenagers require patience when they’re learning and playing games! Still, it's been a very rewarding experience overall. Many students who stay after for the club are not involved in other activities in the school, so they really look forward to our meetings. And as I mentioned earlier, the most rewarding part is when they come to visit me after they graduate, and we can game together as friends.
Tom Vasel: How did you advertise the game club?
Mike Petty: I’ve actually never made an announcement to spread the word. I had a core group of students who played games during lunch and occasionally after school. Once we started the club, they brought their friends, and it grew naturally. Also, I always have a chess set and other games or puzzles around in my classroom to occupy students who get some free time. It's pretty easy to spot the ones who may be interested in gaming, so I take the opportunity to tell them about the club.
Tom Vasel: What games were the most popular?
Mike Petty: Favorite games have changed over the years, but the constant factor is they must have excitement to catch on. Strategic brain burners just don't get much attention. Generally there must be combat in the game. Risk 2210 was a big hit. There's almost always a group of guys playing Magic. Probably the most popular game year after year has been Werewolf. For three years it was the game we closed with every time. I usually acted as moderator, since, being the only teacher there, I didn't stand a chance of survival!
We have enjoyed some party games over the years as well. Balderdash was a hit. My various experiments with the creativity system have been highly requested too. In fact, the students have helped me a lot with play testing a number of my designs. While they're not the best at communicating exactly what's not working for them in a game, it's pretty easy to read when they're not enjoying something.
All things considered, the game club has been a very positive experience for me and for the students. I'm sure it would be a big step for me to start a high school game club if I wasn't already involved in the school. Still, I encourage anyone who might be even remotely interested to look into the possibility.
Tom Vasel: Did you ever allow the kids to "check out" games, like a book from the library?
Mike Petty: Oh, I'm pretty easy going when it comes to loaning out my games. This is particularly true when it comes to students. One of the things I've always enjoyed about gaming is how excited other people are as they discover all these games they've never heard of. Consequently, I have a hard time saying no to a kid who asks to borrow a game to show it to his family or other friends. I usually just remind them the games don't come cheaply, and I ask them to please take care of it. Over all the years of loaning out games I can only remember one lost set of rules and one damaged box. If that's all that happens now and then, I'll gladly loan a game for their enjoyment rather than keep it sitting on my shelf over the weekend.
Tom Vasel: How big a part is games in your life? As a designer, are much of your waking hours spent gaming/writing about gaming/thinking about gaming?
Mike Petty: There's no doubt I greatly enjoy games. I take them seriously--or at least I take the benefits of gaming seriously. Time with friends and family, entertaining others with my designs or games from my collection, working to promote the hobby so others can find the joy of games--these things are important to me. If games were an end in themselves, I'm spending way too much time on them. I hope, though, that through games I can accomplish and experience some good things.
How much time do I spend? Well, in our home, games are the primary form of entertainment. I never watch television. Often from 8:00 to 9:00 at night my wife and I will play a game together. It may be my own design I'm testing in early stages, chess or some other game off the shelf. My wife, by the way, enjoys games almost as much as I do, and for that I'm very grateful. Short trips to cons are dates we can both enjoy. This means I can spend more time on my hobby, because many times it's something we do together.
We usually have friends over to our house for gaming at least every two weeks. Those sessions can go for about six to eight hours. The game club takes a couple hours each week as well. I'm also involved in two other game groups that meet about once a month.
When I'm not playing games, I work on my own designs. On a daily basis I don't work on them for extended periods of time unless I'm finishing one up as a Black & White edition, or I'm polishing a prototype in late stages of development. Most of the time it's thirty minutes here or there writing up rules or making graphics for a prototype. Only recently I've been able to get some playtest sessions planned every couple weeks. Having my latest big thing ready for those takes a few hours on the weekends. The playtest sessions usually take several hours, since I not only test my games, but we also play games from all designers present.
As for my online work writing interviews, articles and newsletters for Fair Play, those things take awhile for me. I'm not terribly fast when it comes to writing. You've surpassed the total number of interviews I've done for Fair Play over two year's time in only three months! While my time spent writing for newsletters and the site doesn't compare to what I used to spend, there are times where I'm holed up in my room for a few hours on the weekends.
Lastly, being a teacher I spend as much time as possible in the summer with things related to gaming. It's usually centered around Protospiel. As it approaches, I put a lot of work into my prototypes and any sessions or materials I'm responsible for there. Usually the weeks afterward are spent sifting through all the great ideas that result from the event.
Tom Vasel: It's sounds like Protospiel is a big step in the right direction for a designer. What other steps should prospective designers take?
Mike Petty: Well, maybe a better way to put it would be that the types of things that happen at Protospiel are the important first steps a designer should take. Protospiel gives everyone an opportunity to connect with other designers and to take a very critical look at their games through playtesting.
The problems with Protospiel are that it only happens once a year, and it's not geographically convenient for everyone. What I suggest is that designers look for the chance to hold gatherings similar to Protospiel more frequently in their own areas. I'm sure mid-Michigan is not unique in the fact that several game designers and aspiring designers have come out of the woodwork over the last few years. We, just like other Protospiel attendees from the Chicago area and Canada, have started regular gatherings just to get together and playtest our games. Just like writers would join a writers group, it's vital designers have a playtest group. It's not something that will happen on its own. Good playtesting is a lot like work, but no amount of fancy prototypes or rules that sound great on paper will make up for it.
I should add that, while we'd love to see new faces at Protospiel, if those dates aren't convenient, designers may want to look into Stephen Glenn's PowWow. It's held in Virginia and is very similar to what we do at Protospiel.
Tom Vasel: What is the max size for an event like Protospiel? It seems to me like they work best as smaller events...
Mike Petty: The overall size of these events isn't really a big deal. We always break up into smaller groups as required by the games. More designers just mean more games going at the same time. Now, to clarify on how we organize things, Protospiel itself is a little different than the other play test sessions we plan during the year. We ask that everyone who comes to Protospiel be a game designer. By that, we mean someone who has worked their way through the game design process to some degree. This keeps the size down somewhat, but that's not why we have that requirement. We've never discussed limiting the attendance other than for considerations of the space we rent. At its peak, we usually have four or five games being tested at one time. That's about 16-20 designers. More may come to the event over the three days, but they're not all there at the same time.
The other gatherings we plan here in Michigan (which are the only sessions I can comment on) have been more loosely organized. I usually suggest designers try to bring along one or two friends who are just there to playtest. This way we can get a good sized group and still have hopes of getting to play at least one game from each designer. If you figure in time to teach the rules to a game and the all-important wrap-up after the game, even a 45-75 playing time can take over two hours. It seems there's never enough time to playtest as much as we'd like!
Tom Vasel: Do you have any games you are working on now that you can tell us about?
Mike Petty: I’d love to believe everyone is waiting to hear about the latest games by Mike Petty! I'll be realistic, though, and try to phrase this in a way that may interest others who may be toying with game design even if they've never played my games or cared to.
To do this and still answer the question, I have to share a quote I read from Jordan Weisman. He is the brains behind the very successful Clix games by WizKids. He said, "The best games introduce a new interaction model between the product and the players." I don't know if that sounds simplistic or not, but taken in context this quote has had a huge impact on my game design goals. He's not talking about creating good, fun games that simply repackage tried and true mechanics. He's talking about games like D&D and Magic that affect the entire industry. It's difficult to try to come up with something so new, and I don't presume to be close to anything that big. Still, my current main project is a fairly large strategy game that started with what I believe is a new interaction model.
Continuing along these lines, I have to refer to my work with the creativity system again. My initial ideas that led to that system were inspired by Weisman's quote. I wanted to see a game that didn't turn things into numbers. Sometimes I get so tired of reading rules about the highest total on the cards, the most cubes in a region, and so on. All of the creativity games we play are such a refreshing change in that regard. I'm continually coming up with new games that fit in that system. My current favorite is called Abe & Einstein. It's a game where players speculate on what might happen during a chance meeting of two people, living, dead or possibly fictitious.
I've also been exploring the possibilities of games based on licensed products. I created a light card game based on a popular comic strip recently. While I can't say I'm close to seeing the game published right now, I have been in contact with the distributor of the strip, and there's definitely an interest in the game. I don't have the funds to pursue it myself, though, so I'm in the process of contacting publishers who I think may do a game such as this.
Tom Vasel: What advice would you have for aspiring game designers?
Mike Petty: I encourage would-be designers that I meet to clarify their goals and do whatever it takes to determine if the goals are realistic.
I have one friend who just wants to make games for his family to enjoy when they get together for holidays. I think that's a great goal, and I encourage him to pursue those ideas.
Another of my friends, Don Beyer, came to me shortly after we met, and he told me he had an idea for a game. I told him it sounded interesting and he should follow through with it. Certainly not on my encouragement alone, Don teamed up with two of his friends, and he aimed sky-high. They worked hard with a clear vision of what they wanted to accomplish with their games. Within a year they had turned that idea into Bootleggers which is now published by Eagle Games.
Contrast these cases with someone who doesn't have a clear goal. I know a lot of designers, myself included, who have spent years toying around with several game ideas that all end up somewhere from 25% to 75% complete. That shows a lack of focus. Get a clear goal, go for it and see if you've got what it takes. Maybe your dreams will come true. Maybe you'll find out you don't have it and you'll never make another game. Maybe you'll just re-focus and get a more realistic goal. The thing is, you'll get to the point a lot quicker and what you learn will be worth the effort either way.
Tom Vasel: Let's say that there is someone who can't make it to Protospiel, for whatever reasons, and doesn't have many connections in the industry. How can they go about promoting their game?
Mike Petty: It's simply a matter of getting the game in the hands of the right people, though actually doing that may be far from simple. Before I elaborate, let's state the obvious: It's all a waste of time if the game isn't strong. I keep stressing this because, from my experience, the vast majority of people trying to break in are not aware of how their game stands in comparison to the wealth of choices available to potential buyers.
Assuming someone has a strong game, it really boils down to three resources: money, personal contacts and time. It will likely take a combination of at least two of the three.
Some people are blessed with enough cash of their own to produce and promote their game successfully. Others seek out investors. Look at what Venatic accomplished with Duel of Ages. I've also watched my friend Dominic Crapuchettes work his way up through this process with North Star Games and his first game Cluzzle. Essentially, enough money will allow a designer to accomplish what an established publisher would in terms of quality and promotion.
Perhaps the best way to go is to make personal contacts within the industry. As I already stated earlier, this is the advice I usually hear. For a person who has little contact at the present time, it's important to go to cons and get to know the people behind the scenes. This isn't always an easy thing to do; and if it's done improperly, it can work against the individual. It's probably not best to introduce yourself and, in the same breath, tell them about your great game. I know my friends Kory Heath, Stephen Glenn, Don Beyer and James Kyle can all tell about how their connections led to the publication of their games, but in each case, relationships came before talk of contracts.
And that leads us back to the third resource--time. Any designer can almost immediately answer the question of whether he has the cash or contacts to get his game in the hands of the right people. If the answer is no, then it's going to take time. It may take many years. I've already talked about James Kyle's model for breaking into the industry, but that's really what we're talking about here. The money and/or personal contacts will come if the game is strong enough, but patience will be the key.
If a designer like you describe is looking for a step-by-step process, here's what I've seen work. Make as many inexpensive copies of the game as you can. Get a website up and link up to the Boardgame Geek. Both the edition of the game and the website have to be of a good enough quality in relation to the selling price to appeal to the target audience. Get review copies in the hands of the right people (and I should add, Tom, that I think your name is one of those at the top of that list!). Sell as many copies as you can produce through conventions and online retailers. When there are more games released in a year than there are days, it takes a lot of work to continually put your game in the face of the public. If it's got what it takes, though, there comes a point where it gains its own attention.
And lastly, for those who can't make it to Protospiel, be sure to check out the Resources page at the Protospiel site (www.protospiel.org). James Kyle has done an excellent job of listing resources that aspiring designers will find useful. There is a list of sites there created by designers who have attended Protospiel. Most of these sites and the work of the designers are excellent examples of people working through this process I just described.
Tom Vasel: Mike, I appreciate the time you've taken for this interview. Any final words for our readers?
Mike Petty: First of all, thanks for the chance to highlight Protospiel and my games. I always enjoy your reviews and interviews, and it was a pleasure taking part in this one.
Any final words? Well, I hope the designers will keep dreaming, and the gamers will keep playing. But then again, could we stop even if we wanted to?
Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
April 24th, 2005