What’s Taking So Long?
Designer Matt Dunstan (Chocolate Factory, Elysium) had a brief thread on twitter talking about time to market for a game. From first pitch to contract takes him an average of 12 months, and once a contract is signed it takes an average of 28 months to game release.
Matt’s overarching lesson learned is that it pays to be patient. I hope to contextualize what goes on in those 2+ years between signing a game and publication.
Every publisher’s timeline will be different, and as a new publisher – I am sure that our timelines and workflow are a bit aberrant, but I am going to outline the high level process, and hopefully provide some insight into why it takes years to bring a game to market… event after it’s designed.
I may not know how long it takes to make Chocolate, but I have an idea of how long it takes to make Chocolate Factory
Below are some of the many tasks and deliverables publishers take on to bring a game to market. I am mostly focusing on games being Kickstarted, although most of the steps will be the same for games sold directly into distribution. Also note, that many of the steps will be run in parallel:
Game Development: For the purposes of this article, we’re going to assume that a game is already designed, and well tested. Even with a great game, a publisher will need to do their own playtesting, balance mechanics, and optimize it for the experience that they want their consumers to have.
Concept Design: Not all publishers will have a formalized concept design process, but it is definitely at least an informal step. In concept design, the art or creative director will evaluate a number of overall designs, styles and aesthetics. This could include commissioning concept artwork and working with a product designer.
Illustration: I wrote an in depth article on finding, hiring, and budgeting for illustration. What I didn’t touch on is time. Finding the right illustrators, and then commissioning artwork often takes months.
Graphic Design: A lot goes into making a game pretty, and functional. Most designers likely have some sense of how hard this task can be, the amount of iteration and headache that perfecting UI/UX entails.
Component Design: Meeples, giant trees, and miniatures. Someone, or a team of people need to design all the game assets.
Rules Writing, Editing & Formatting: Someone needs to take on the role of technical writer. Rules need to be edited and formatted. The rules need to be laid out with graphics and templated, and re-edited.
Solo Design: Many games offer a solo mode. This is often designed by the publisher, or a third party (like the Automa Factory). Any assets created for the solo mode (like an automa deck) need to be put through the same treatment as every other game asset (playtesting, component design, etc).
Prototype Production: A small batch manufacturer (like The Game Crafter, or Print and Play Games) will be employed to manufacture high quality prototypes. These will be used for playtesting, preview content, and demos.
Blind Playtesting: Throughout the process a publisher needs to make sure their game hits right. They also need to identify all the pain points, and play issues that crop up when the game is taught and played by new players (without someone there to teach them and arbiter confusion).
Digital Assets: Beyond just a digital version of the game, publishers will create digital content like gameplay gifs, and 3d renderings.
Marketing Campaign: A good marketing campaign will be months in the making and execution. For games going directly into distribution this will include at least sell sheets for retail partners, review copies to reviewers, previews at conventions, and outreach to consumers. Crowdfunding campaigns will usually include months of paid advertisements, as well as a well structured review campaign.
Crowdfunding Event: Concurrent with marketing and development, publishers need to build out their crowdfunding campaign. Then the actual campaign will usually take a month, then some time for a backer-kit and late pledges.
Production & Distribution: timelines for production and distribution will vary less from publisher to publisher, so I can give some harder numbers here.
Pre-Production: Files need to be formatted to manufacturer specifications. The manufacturer reviews the files, and if there are any issues they iterate back and forth with the publisher to fix them.
Proofs (15-20 days): After files are signed off on, the manufacturer will make a proof copy of the game. This will check for color, component quality, and any other issues that can arise. Once the publisher signs off on the proof, the manufacturer will start in on mass production.
Components, Print & Assemble (30-70 days): It is important to keep in mind that many components are outsourced. At the very least this will include vacuum molds, but most manufacturers will have other limitations in what they produce, meaning they need to order components from more specialty factories. This could include plastic and metal components, or even meeples.
Almost all manufactures produce printed components and assemble in house. [When we RFQ manufacturers we make sure to ask which components are outsourced, and to find out more about their sourcing and partners for those components]
The manufacture and printing process is multi-stepped and requires time for glue and varnish to set, for molds to be made, for components to go through QA, and for boxes to be assembled.
Freight & Shipping (30-60 days): Anyone who followed the industry (or the state of the world) over the past couple of years will know that freight and shipping can stretch far beyond 50 days, with shipments stranded for months. But, 30-60 days is a fairly typical historical timeline to truck games from the factory to the port, load them on a boat, and ship them to local markets (delays at customs not withstanding).
Fulfilment: Once games arrive at domestic warehouses, they need to be sorted, packaged and shipped to end consumers. Depending on the volume of games, this can take a couple of weeks. Then you have to account for delivery times in local markets.
Retail Release: Concurrent with fulfilment, games will be shipped to distributors and directly to retailers.
And beyond all of the steps, and efforts to make one game, publishers will often have multiple games on their plate. Meaning that any given game will need to wait its turn.
While every timeline will be different, I hope this contextualizes somewhat the time and effort involved in bringing a game to market. If you’re a designer in the process of selling your first game, be patient, there is a lot going on behind the scenes to make your game great.
