Below are some things that I hope will help you in see how a new board game could get to market (you may have to correct some of the wording as I wrote it quickly!):

The 5 things that I would tell any inventor that you MUST have to succeed in this VERY DIFFICULT industry are: PASSION (you must BELIEVE in your product to KEEP GOING no matter how many times you get “crushed”-and believe me you will as I did!), DETERMINATION, MOTIVATION, TENACITY and MONEY. In addition you must have GREAT idea (not necessary a totally original idea but just rather something with a UNIQUE twist; case in point there a dozens of successful trivia games and each has something unique).

 There are, however, two very different routes you can take to get your game out there…and both have their advantages and disadvantages:

 1. LICENSING: In order to get your game made and out on the shelves…you do have a choice of either LICENSING it to a game company where they will put up all the money, manufacture the games promote the game and get it out there…HOWEVER you would only receive a SMALL percentage in royalties maybe 5-10% of all of the profit. So…you wouldn’t need any money and you’d have no work to do…but you’d only receive a small profit.

2. PRODUCE GAME INDEPENDENTLY: This method is FAR more difficult but you have the opportunity of making a lot more profit in the end!  Firstly you need to INCORPORATE or start a company of your own. Also…in the this route, unfortunately…the most important thing you need is MONEY MONEY MONEY…for manufacturing the games and advertizing. Ideally you need about $70,000.00 to $100,000.00 to put out about 5,000 games and for sufficient advertising. You can however, first make a small run of 500 games for about $15,000.000 and get some FREE advertising (which is VERY hard to get…but the media likes NEW products)…but if you don’t get free ads…you’ll need about $30,000.00 to get started. The best is getting money from friends and family as I did (and they will become SHAREHOLDERS in your company). First get a PROTOTYPE made (about $250.00 each from a graphic designer) and then go to various game stores and see if they’d buy a few and then take those “yes’s” to the people who you ask the money from to show them there is a demand for your product. Then you would need to find a DISTRIBUTOR to MARKET, STORE, DISTRIBUTE and SHIP your games of whom you’d pay about a 30% cut to off of every sale.

My suggestion is to stay independent. It’s a lot of work and you need a lot of money but the rewards are tremendous in the end. And please visit my website at: ww.ifyouhadtochoosegame.com for more inspiration!!

12 Pitfalls You Should Avoid When Creating Your Own Board Game:1. ‘Not having enough money to produce some inventory and have some advertising

2. But being afraid to go ahead because you don’t have enough money

3. ‘Not truly believing in and being very enthusiastic about your game

4. Being afraid to take risks

5. Aiming too high too fast

6. Being overly confident

7. ‘Not being confident enough

8. ‘Not having a “thick skin” and not realizing it’s actually a horrible cut-throat industry/
‘Not willing to plow ahead when you encounter obstacles

9. ‘Not expecting that there will be competition

10. ‘Not doing enough research in your area of what’s out there

11. Trusting everybody

12. ‘Not creating enough advertising/promotion for your product

I WAS ON DRAGON’S DEN for my party Board game If You Had To Choose…? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! VERY VERY SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Bad News: Well….no deal….they won’t deal with anyone unless you’ve already made substantial profit which is so stupid because why would I be there pitching if I had? Also…they it seemed they had a predisposed opinion about board games even though mine was the first board game to actually have had sales- I’m in Indigo and Zellers, sold 12,000 games, $200,000 revenue to be exact.
 
But they didn’t care….Kevin , the mean one, said he thinks the board game business is “crap” and the fact that even though I had sales, I had yet to make a profit (because I’ve still been paying off the manufacturers who produced the game-growing pains!)….so he said thererfore “that I was just one notch above the crap” so they weren’t interested. Also…I’m kicking myself becaust I did get mixed up with one of my revenue sales figures….but it wouldn’t ahve matterted anyway since I had no proft.
 
I’ve heard though that out of 300 pitches, they only go for about 30 anyway, and  in the end anyway…and afterall it’s a TV show and just all for entertainment.
 
But…yes…they were far tougher than I imagined…even though they seem to love the questions from my game as they kept asking me for more, because I was still having growing pains and therefore had made no profit  they just weren’t interested. It was  far scarier (the really bright lights!!) and tougher (they were pretty mean at the end!) than I had imagined it would be. Honestly, I feel as if I’ve jsut come out of a night-mare from hell- these five judges were sitting on their thrones in these bright lights waiting to decide if I’m “I’m going to hell” and they decided I would…very very surreal….

The good news: good news is that I’m quite sure they’ll air this (as you know they only air 200 out of 300 pitches depending on how entertaining they are for TV) as I think I did amazing…I asked then a bunch of questions from the game and they and everyone else were howling in laughter. Everyone on the set afterwards said “You were fabulous and that was so so funny!.” So the exposure this will get when it airs will be wonderful I’m sure.