Howdy all,
As you may or may not know by now, I’ve been hired by Steve Jackson Games. I fill several roles, but the two I operate in most often are Playtest Coordinator and Game Developer. When I announced this (very welcome) conclusion to my membership among the unemployed, I received many congratulations. I also received more than a few requests to start a blog about it.
I put the Game of the Month on indefinite hiatus after posting the 120th game in December 2009. Since then, I haven’t been sure about what to do with Invisible City. I’ve been looking for something that would be interesting to the same kind of people who liked the Game of the Month that I’d update on a regular basis. I was going to use it a a forum to share and discuss the book I’m writing about game design, but (now that I’m employed) I’m not working on that as much as I had been. I figure that a blog about my experiences at Steve Jackson Games fits nicely.
I’m going to write about things that I think you’ll be interested in, but I’m not you. Consequently, what I choose to write about may not match what you want to know. I’d like to see this become a two-way dialogue. If you ask questions or provide guidance about what you’d like me to write about, I’ll address your requests to the best of my ability. That said, there are three important rules I will not violate:
1) I will not discuss unannounced products coming from Steve Jackson Games.
2) I will not name anyone in the company by name.
3) I will not accept your game prototype for submission to Steve Jackson Games. The company is not currently accepting unsolicited submissions.
About my position: I’m responsible for coordinating in-house and out-of-house play tests of upcoming board games. I’m also responsible for shepherding all of the non-Munchkin board games from submission to the point where they’re ready to hand off to production for art and layout. At that point I keep an eye on them, but I’m not nearly as involved. Once the game goes to the printer, I’m no loner involved.
Some things I learned in the first three weeks:
The prototypes I’ve made and sent to companies are not nearly as good or as bad as I thought they were. They’re right smack-dab in the middle.
If you can, put your prototype in a box and put a big label on it. Use a good, durable box from another game if you can. Include the name of the game, your name and contact info (phone, address, email), and the date you submitted the game. There are several reasons for this:
- It looks better and stores better than a large Ziploc bag (Which is what I’ve always used in the past – not good).
- It tells the people you’ve sent it to who made the game, and when they got it. The latter part is tremendously important.
- If the box is a decent size, it creates a place to store information about your game. It’s also a great place to put a SASE if you want your game returned to you in the event that it is declined.
Unless you really, truly don’t care about getting it back, do not send your hand-made prototype. This is especially true if you painstakingly hand-drew all the art on your 104-card deck, for example.
Play test your game before you send it to a publisher. Blind play test your game before you send it. Hand the rules to someone who doesn’t play games and have them edit them without even playing the game. Hand the rules to someone who’s an absolute game cheese-monkey and have them edit them without playing the game. Do the same thing with any cards or other components with text on them. (I’m not worried about not play testing the Game of the Month games enough. However, there are several games I’ve set off to publishers that I really did not play test enough.)
They’re a pain to use, but (unless your prototype cards are really, really high quality) put your prototype cards in card sleeves. It looks better, they’ll handle better, and the play test at the publisher will go better.
If you have a component in your prototype that physically makes the game hard to play, make it better before sending it off. (I used to not concern myself with that when I sent my games off to publishers, figuring that it wasn’t my concern. After all, I just have to make a fun game, right? Wrong. If physical components get in the way of playing the game, it tarnishes the “fun” and will bias people against your game.)
You can assume that the publisher will have dice, pawns, etc., but it’s far better to provide all of the components needed for play (except perhaps pencils). It costs more, but you’ll look like a champ. It shows that you’re completely aware of what goes with the game.
Okay. That’s enough for now. More next Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
— Jonathan A Leistiko :: gaming : thought
Invisible City Productions is a collective of game designers, writers, and artists who provide this as a space for the creators of secret media to come together and touch antennae.
I did put my contact info in the box and rules. But I skipped the date altogether. I would never figure that out. Thanks for the tip.
— Pastor_Mora Mar 27, 04:48 AM #Definitely a good tip about putting a date on submission packaging, I hadn’t really thought about that before.
— Andy Van Zandt Mar 27, 07:11 AM #I agree about the date – wouldn’t have thought of that. Can you elaborate on why exactly that’s a good thing? I can see it wouldn’t hurt, but didn’t realize a publisher would need or use that information. Good to know that they do!
— Seth Jaffee Mar 27, 11:47 PM #i’d reckon it gives them a way to prioritize submissions (which i see as very valuable on the submitter’s end as well… i’ve got 4 prototypes at 4 different publishers right now, anything that would make me feel like the waiting could go faster sounds reasonable). in John’s case, he’s being handed someone else’s queue, and probably has no frame of reference for which ones came first.
a submission that’s 5 years out of date would probably need some checking to make sure the person even wants it considered any more.
— Andy Van Zandt Mar 28, 07:17 AM #re: Dates – Andy has it exactly right. There are records of which games were submitted when, but if they were on the actual boxes, it’d be so much easier. Also, they’re sitting on a shelf right in front of my desk – I see them all the time, every day. A date provides larger context. It conveys urgency and importance.
Writing this makes me realize that I’m probably going to date-stamp all the boxes when I’m back in the office on Monday.
— Jonathan Leistiko Mar 28, 08:28 PM #Congratulations on the new job!
— Fred Mar 30, 01:40 AM #