This is the third part in the series of how I’ve found games to publish for Weird Giraffe Games and Galactic Raptor Games. If you haven’t read the first two blogs, you can do so here
When I’m evaluating a game to publish, either that I’ve designed myself or that someone else has, I have to make sure it fits into my line and has either the potential to feel like a game from that company or that it already feels like that. I also want to be able to work with the designer well and have a good back and forth with them.
So, here’s some more stories about how I’ve found game designs and designers to work with!
Animal Kingdoms
Animal Kingdoms was designed by Steven Aramini, who also designed Groves which was published by Letiman Games. Galactic Raptor Games is a company that’s owned by me and Dan, who runs Letiman Games.
Before Animal Kingdoms was a game about animals, it was first a game about trading in space! Steven had pitched that game to Dan and Dan had initially passed on the game, but then gave Steven some feedback on how to change it to be more of a fit for Letiman Games.
Time passes and Steven fixed up the game a bit, which included changing the theme of the game, and he then approached Dan again. At the same time that this was happening, Dan and I were talking about creating a company. Dan played Animal Kingdoms, liked it enough to send it to me, then I playtested it. I love really enjoyed the game and knew that Steven was great to work with as Dan had already worked with him, so it was easy to say yes to signing Animal Kingdoms.
At the time, Animal Kingdoms had also just won the Cardboard Edison award, which made it even more of a catch as a game. Winning a contest doesn’t mean that a game is great, but it does mean that a certain amount of people enjoyed the game and it certainly helps to sell the game if we tell people that it’s won awards.
Overall, the game had the right feel, it had won an award, and we knew we could work well with the designer, so it seemed like a great game to sign.
Kingdoms of the Deep
Kingdoms of the Deep was designed by Ian Zang, who I’ve known for a number of years. We were part of a slack server for years and met up at conventions regularly. He’d playtested some of my games in the past and I had playtested a number of his games. At the time, he was also working as a developer at Deep Water Games and he occassionally sent designers my way, if he thought that they had a game that would be a better fit for one of my companies. While we were at Pax Unplugged, we were figuring out what to do one night when Ian offered to teach one of his games, as he thought it could be a fit for either Weird Giraffe Games or Galactic Raptor Games.
We played the game, Macrophage, which hit on several of the things I liked in a game! Ian knew that I was a fan of simultaneous action selection, which is one reason he thought that I’d enjoy the game. It was also area control, which was a mechanism that I had in both Animal Kingdoms and Big Easy Busking, so it might be easy enough to continue on in those worlds, if I wanted to, though the game was different enough that it could also stand by itself, as well.
This seemed like an obvious game to sign, as we knew that Ian was fantastic and playtests regularly, he’s also pretty well known in the industry as he’s been on Breaking into Board Games for years, and it was a game that was similar to ones we’d published before, but also different enough and it had a really nice table presence.
Studies in Sorcery
Studies in Sorcery was originally called Degrees of Darkness and it was designed by Chris Glein. I had met Chris at previous conventions, as we had friends in common, but I hadn’t played any of his games until he reached out via twitter and said he had some sell sheets for his games. We were both going to Pax Unplugged (the same one that I talked about with Kingdoms of the Deep!) and a few of his sell sheets seemed like they could be a fit, so we made plans to meet up at the convention. I ended up playing a different one of his games, as that game seemed like the better fit. After the convention, I had decided not to leave immediately and it turns out, neither did Chris, so we ended up meeting up again to play Degrees of Darkness. I wasn’t originally interested in it due to the theme, but after playing I definitely enjoyed the gameplay and also the fact that the graphic design and illustration was really fantastic. It turns out, Chris did all the graphic design and most of the illustration (there was some placeholder art), which made me even more interested in the game.
I try not to make decisions at conventions, so I talked a bit with Chris, then we ended up meeting up again at OrcaCon about a month later and he had taken a bunch of my feedback and ideas for expansions and ran with them, which was a great sign that he’d be good to work with, so I ended up signing the game shortly after that.
One thing about Chris that stood out was that he really understood that as a publisher at a convention, I had a lot of things to do and also my time wasn’t entirely mine and he was willing to work with that to show me his games. The fact that he also helped lead a playtesting group in Seattle and went to a number of conventions also made it obvious that he was able to playtest regularly and knew the value of it.
Other Games
There’s still more games that I’ve signed that I haven’t talked about, so there will be a part 4 to this! As with the first post, it should be pretty obvious that going to playtesting conventions and showing yourself to be a good designer or volunteering to help out can go a long way and give you chances to get your game in front of a publisher. It’s not only your game that a publisher is thinking about when they choose to sign the game, but your actions and behaviors that go into the choice, as well.
Did you enjoy this entry? If you’ve gotten a game published, what factors do you think went into the design to sign the game? Please let me know! I’d love to hear what you think and what kind of things you’d like to see from this blog. Feel free to send me an email or comment with your thoughts!
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