#Shitty indie games client base professional#

#Shitty indie games client base professional#

Design and Pre-ProductionĬlearly the work of a professional game designerĮarly prototyping of tabletop games can and should be done relatively inexpensively, especially during the heavy iteration phase as you’re first testing the mechanics. I do not mean to negate or devalue anyone’s working hours, but I do aim to primarily share what the documented hard costs of this project have been, regardless of undocumented working hours. My studio partners were incredibly accommodating in that they were open to me spending a few studio hours per week on the game, and were willing to share their insight, feedback, and help during office hours.

I was self-employed full-time at Happy Badger Studio and Rampant Interactive, and was working on Pass the Buck: A Game of Corporate Responsibility Management as a side project in what time I had available. It’s important to note that none of the cost estimates in this include payment for my own time. I’ll be totally transparent about the risks, costs, mistakes, and financial projections of self-publishing my first small-run indie tabletop game, so if talking about money, profit margins, and stupid mistakes makes you squirm, it’s time to get over it. This will largely be a financial and production retrospective rather than a design postmortem (which I may write up another time). After spending more than two years designing, iterating, fundraising, and publishing my card game, Pass the Buck: A Game of Corporate Responsibility Management, I’ve got a lot of experiences to share that I hope will help to prepare other aspiring indie tabletop game publishers for the lengthy and arduous process.