Kickstart Your Custom Playing Card and Board Game Ideas
Netcong, NJ (PRWEB) September 25, 2013 -- This fall independent game developer Peter Vaughan will become a first-time publisher of the a custom playing card game, What the Food?!, where players take on the role of one of over a dozen classmates caught in a classic cafeteria food fight.
Designed for lively social interaction, three to eight casual to advanced players can pick up food, throw funny combos at friends, and duck to avoid “humiliation” points from flying food impact, while school events cause random, silly chaos.
After coming up with the game’s concept and prototype about six months ago, Vaughan recruited Nickelodeon story artist Sebastien Duclos and tech lead at DisneyToons Jason Carter to help with art, play testing and app engineering. Vaughan, whose day job is in movie production at DisneyToon Studios, then launched the game on Kickstarter with a $12,000 fundraising goal to create a limited production run. In one month he nearly doubled that goal, with $22,601 funded from 431 Kickstarter backers.
“Custom playing card and custom board game publishers have their own design staff and will reject all but a few outside admissions,” says Vaughan. “I could have spent years pitching my idea. And printing my game on demand would create a nice copy for my coffee table, but never reach the economy of scale to put it in the marketplace for players to enjoy.”
Vaughan is part of a new breed of independent game developer no longer willing to defer their creative vision until an executive greenlights it. Instead, they are making their game development dreams come true with the help of community fundraising sites like Kickstarter, along with custom playing card and board game companies willing to team up with independent developers.
To take his game from concept to a playable, marketable game he contacted dozens of custom board game and customized playing card manufacturers. He eventually selected the only company that sent samples and replies immediately, Ad Magic, a N.J.-based company that creates custom playing cards and board games.
“As a new developer, I had a ton of questions, but they always replied quickly and in detail,” says Vaughan. According to Vaughan, Ad Magic President, Shari Spiro walked him through custom playing card terminology from card stocks, coatings, cores, and adhesives until he found the quality and price point he was looking for.
Shari believed in What the Food?! as a game, tweeted about it, blogged about it, put it on her Facebook page, and even backed our Kickstarter campaign before we signed a contract with them,” says Vaughan. “She has been a supporter, guide, and partner.”
Though What the Food?! is not yet published, Vaughan’s game has already caught the attention of some local game stores, who have invited him to demo his prototype at the request of customers. He plans to distribute his game both online and through local game stores, with future game expansions such as holiday themes or exotic foods or locations a possibility.
“Who would have thought that a small, independent, first-time publisher of a custom playing card game could get it into the marketplace so quickly while keeping creative control and ownership?” concludes Vaughan. “With the help of Kickstarter and Ad Magic, the game of game publishing has changed.”
Shari Spiro, Ad Magic Inc, http://www.admagic.com, +1 (973) 448-1766, [email protected]
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