Re: Games on demand

["boardgamesbook" <dhohls@...>]

--- In piecepack@yahoogroups.com, "Brett Paul" <brettp@e...> wrote:
> > There is nothing in the piecepack design that prohibits one using 
a 
> > board with it.  Bear in mind, though, that the piecepack 
philosophy 
> > is to be a "portable" system - having to carry boards around 
might be 
> > an extra hassle.
> 
> As an on-demand board game approach, this would really be a 
different philosophy. I wasn't looking to expand the piecepack idea. 
> 
> What you have is an inventory of pieces such as wooden cubes, 
cylinders, different pawn shapes, etc. The game designer would have 
to pay for setup of his board artwork and box artwork, and define 
which pieces are to be included in the game and in what colors. 
> 
> The organization that turns this into a real game (I'll call it 
the "service") would take this inventory and artwork and determine 
the on-demand price of the game, allowing for all costs plus some 
profit for the service as well as the designer in some equitable 
ratio. Then, the designer could link directly to the service from the 
web or through a game catalog or whatever, and people would be able 
to order games from the service. When a game is ordered, a game board 
and box are printed and prepared, the appropriate components from the 
inventory are included, and the game is shipped. Voila! On-demand 
board games.

Hmm.  Nothing wrong with this idea - but, like all ideas, needs some 
courage and initiative to make it work "in the real world".  Its 
somewhat similar to the approach adopted by Cheapass Games - except 
they let *you* provide the bits&pieces and avoid the costs of boxes 
and fancy cover art.  I guess this would slot somewhere between CaG 
and the 'normal' method of games production.  Just remember you will 
have some fixed costs in this process, and the cost of 'low volume' 
printing (depending on level of sophistication used) can be quite 
high. Cost recovery will be an issue for someone...