Brandon the Game Dev

In the last few years, live-streaming has skyrocketed in popularity. Through live-streaming, we can share videos of ourselves and our screens with a greater audience, who can communicate with us through chat. It’s tempting to think that the analog nature of board games would preclude live-streaming, but this is not the case. Live-streaming board games can be done with digital tools such as Tabletop Simulator or video cameras capturing gameplay on the physical tabletop. No matter how you choose to do it, live-streaming can be a great way to build an audience and share your game with the world.

To help you understand how to put on a great show for your fans, I’ve brought in Will Esgro of Happy Fun Time LIVE. He’s an up-and-coming board game live streamer I’ve worked with in the recent past. He knows how to put on a good show!

We interviewed via Discord direct messages which have been lightly edited for clarity and flow. This interview is broken into six parts:

1. Who is Will Esgro?
2. Why watch streams?
3. Why stream games?
4. What are the technical requirements?
5. How do you build a community?
6. Parting advice

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Who is Will Esgro?

Brandon: Thank you so much for agreeing to interview with me for the blog! This is going to be a good one – I hear a lot of questions about live-streaming board games.

To get started, tell me about yourself and Happy Fun Time LIVE.

Will: Thanks for reaching out and for providing an outlet to share my experiences.

I’ve been involved in gaming since the age of six when I got my Nintendo. I’ve always tinkered in technology and I often pour myself into side projects when I get bored. Streaming started as one of these “distraction” projects.

I got involved in Twitch streaming when it was migrating from JustinTV, which was basically a platform where people could stream media over the internet and talk about it while watching. I was using my online handle wesgro2. I’d stream Kerbal Space Program, Day Z, and Mech Warrior Online.

After my wife and I received our amazing son 2 years ago, we made the joint decision that I would stay at home with him. Originally, I worked part-time for about a year during the transition. While this was all happening, I started having friends over often to play board games.

I stumbled into Kickstarter, where I noticed some of the most innovative and exciting games were being launched, and this led me to find content creators on YouTube and Twitch. Everything sort of clicked after that.

Brandon: And you’ve been streaming for roughly a year now?

Will: Under the new Happy Fun Time LIVE brand, yes.

Brandon: For those unfamiliar, this is the Twitch channel where you do play-throughs and interviews with the creators of new games.

(Which is a lot of fun for the creator, I might add.)

Why watch streams?

Brandon: With all this in mind, what is the appeal of streaming board games for the viewers? Why do people watch?

Will: I think our core viewers watch and participate in streams to replicate the experience of playing with a regular gaming group. Not many rural or suburban areas of the US or world have places where you can meet up with fellow gamers and just play. It’s unfortunate, but many local game stores in or around small towns devote their resources and space to Magic and Warhammer players. Board games are often overlooked. I don’t blame them because often those are the only returning customers to their stores.

Others will pop in to check out a game they may have been interested in.

I like to ask people ahead of our streams what they want us to play.

Our best night in terms of views are on the nights where I’m just relaxed and having a good time with the guests and our chat.

Brandon: Vicarious experience is a big part of what makes streams work, though having a community is probably bigger. People can respond to you, and you to them in real time.

Having streamed several games, I have to say that it feels like doing small-town radio. You can really connect with your audience in a way that blogging, video, podcasts, etc. don’t allow you to do.

Why stream games?

Brandon: What is the appeal of streaming board games for the creators?

Will: I think the biggest appeal for me was that we are in a board game boom right now. The pool of content creators is small but growing pretty rapidly. I wanted to get in on the ground floor and ride the wave.

I think each creator has their own reasons and influences. Mine were that I like board games and the opportunity to grow in that area of Twitch streaming is exponential as opposed to mainstream gaming which is already gobbled up by too many mainstream streamers.

I’m also planning on streaming some figure painting as I learn the process.

Brandon: For you, it gives you a chance to see new games before they’re out.

For game developers, I’ve noticed that streams are a really good way to spread the word about games. This is especially true since they’re often recorded and saved online for later viewings.

If you’ve got a live Kickstarter campaign and a compelling game, it’s not hard to pull viewers from the stream to your campaign either. I did that with War Co. and made thousands of dollars that way.

Will: And vice versa, we often get new viewers and sometimes strong community members through partnering with designers to promote their games.

Brandon: That’s true, game makers tend to have their own audiences which in turn make yours bigger for later streams with other creators.

What are the technical requirements?

Brandon: What’s involved in streaming from a technical perspective?

Will: I use Streamlabs OBS. It’s free, robust software that is only limited by your imagination when streaming. I just started using a new bot called GatherBot which interacts with viewers while we stream. There is a quest mode that lets people in chat take on different quests in chat to earn rewards. I’ve been loving it.

Hardware is the tough part. We use between 2 and 3 webcams for our live board game play, which is a challenge since I have to take it all down and set it all up each week.

Monday and Wednesday stream setups are easy because I just play video games or invite community members to play Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia games with me.

Will: That is the Friday table.

Will: And that’s for Mondays and Wednesdays.

Brandon: Would you say you need a special computer to run streams, or can you work with a simple office desktop (or even laptop)?

Will: For board games, you’ll need a decent processor, RAM, and graphics.

Technically, you could get away with using a cell phone, but it may fall flat due to lack of scene changes and no great way to show the board and players at the same time.

I suggest at least an i5 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 900 series Nvidia graphic card or equal AMD tech level hardware.

Brandon: The bravest among us may even wish to make their own PCs using parts they get from Amazon.

Will: I’ve been building my PCs for the last 15 years. 🙂

Brandon: Using sites like PC Part Picker and YouTube tutorials as guides. Helps you make a really great computer for a much lower price. I use a home-assembled PC for Pangea Games too. Five hundred bucks in parts and still lightning fast after three years.

Will: Yep.

Will: I still mainly use NewEgg and TigerDirect.

How do you build a community?

Brandon: Once you have all the supplies, how does streaming work socially? How do you engage viewers and maintain a community?

Will: It all starts with your offline friends. Ask them if they want to be a part of it and ask them for feedback. If they don’t enjoy watching you or supporting you, that’s your first sign that something isn’t working.

Start various social media accounts to promote when you stream, then start following and engaging members of the community you would like to grow in.

I suggest Twitter as a primary way to reach out and Reddit as a secondary one. Those seem to have the most traction in cultivating an effective and engaging community.

You also have to commit to at least 10 to 20 hours of watching other content creators and genuinely supporting them. Parallel growth with other streamers is a large part of the initial process.

Start running giveaways. I take about half of what I generate monthly and apply it to prize support for our viewers and subscribers.

I run a monthly giveaway of $40 – 50 in value. Then I run smaller giveaways each time we hit $50 worth of bits on our channel. The monthly is run through Gleam.io which is a great tool for growing each of your social media accounts and media channels symmetrically.

Brandon: That first part is important but easy to miss: make sure you’re able to engage your friends first. Then social media, giveaways, getting involved in the community, and finding peers are all really good ideas.

Will: I now have about 500 followers on each account and our channel.

The really crappy part of streaming is casting.

Brandon: Casting?

Will: Some people are not great in front of a camera. That includes friends and community members.

Brandon: That’s true. Some folks just aren’t telegenic – through no fault of their own.

Will: You have to be ready to have serious conversations with people as you grow regarding how they fit.

This is very challenging and it could temporarily stifle your growth if they don’t take it well.

You also have to develop a sense of who will be right for each game you choose to play on stream.

If you have a goofy friend who is always cracking a joke, they might not be as great for a very involved 4x or Euro game.

They may distract too much from the gameplay and ruin the experience and frustrate you while you’re live.

Will: Same goes for someone who pays lighthearted games too seriously. It takes away from the experience.

The funny thing is I think we all have that friend who shows up for some game nights that we wish we could politely ask not to join in the future when playing a certain game. Like when Grandma used to always flip the table during Monopoly.

I actually have to have those conversations though, and it sucks.

Brandon: Flipping the table after the first turn of Monopoly is a house rule where I live.

It’s true, though, you often have to have uncomfortable conversations with people when doing public-facing entertainment. That’s never easy.

It is, after all, a light version of show business.

Parting advice

Brandon: Okay, one last question.

If there were one piece of advice which you could give yourself before you started streaming, what would it be?

Will: That is a tough one. Streaming is a long experiment until you “make it”. I don’t think I’m at that level yet. Once I’m there, I think I could better reflect and let you know what I did to get there, and what formula clicked.

For now, I’m just happy to have a core group of about a dozen viewers who hang out each night I stream.

Brandon: That’s a good attitude to have. Building an audience from scratch is a long, slow process that gets easier only after a lot of time.

That’s all I’ve got. Thank you very much!

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Live-streaming board games is becoming more popular as time goes on. It’s a great way to share your games and engage your community. Have you ever streamed a game? Would you like to? Let us know in the comments below 🙂

August 2020 Update

Because of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, a lot of people cannot go to conventions, local game stores, or even their friends’ houses to play board games. Love of gaming can’t be quashed by a virus, though. If you want to watch some live-streaming board gamers, the top 10 most popular shows at the time this update is being published are:

1. FFGLive
2. Shut Up & Sit Down
3. BoardGameGeekTV
4. AnalisisParalisis
5. GoldSquadronPodcast
6. TheBrothersMurph
7. BigPotatoGamesTV
8. LederGamesMedia
9. VttvLive
10. Deagal_Remyr

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the fourteenth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development.

In this article, I will be talking about how you create instructions that will allow manufacturers to create your game as a physical product. Creating technical specs can be a complicated task. You need to choose the right materials, understand the basics of board game manufacturing, and meet legal and distribution requirements. Once you understand all that and agree on specs with your desired printer, you will then need to make files according to their standards. It’s a lot to take in.

For context, I’d like to carefully define what board game specs are for. When you’re creating a game that prints more than a few copies, you’ll need to ask a special kind of company to manufacture your game. These companies use what’s called offset printing – basically the method by which more than 500 games can be cost-effectively printed. Most of the ones I know of are based in China, so you want to create very, very detailed specifications that you can send to the printers. If your specs are good, you are likely to get a good product in massive quantities for a low price.

As an example, see the Highways & Byways specs in the following paragraphs. I sent these out to a handful of offset printers to receive a quote.

Board Box Specs, 12.5 in. x 10.5 in. x 2 in. (318mm  x 267mm x 51mm)

1 Board Box 12.5 in. x 10.5 in. x 2 in. (to fit quad-fold board)

Material: 1.2mm premium white lined chipboard wrapped with 128 gsm art paper

Finish: Water-proof matte laminated smooth finish

Printing: 4C/0C

Board, 24 in. x 20 in. (610mm x 508mm)

Fold: Quad-fold

Material: 1.8mm chipboard wrapped with 128gsm embossed texture art paper

Finish: Water-proof matte laminated smooth finish

Printing: 4C/0C

Rules, A4 Size or similar, 8.27″X11.7″(210.058mmX297.18mm)

8 pages

Saddle-sewn

Material: 78 lb (115 gsm) art paper

Printing: 4C/4C

Finish: Water varnish

Punchboard, 9”x9” (228.6 mm x 228.6mm) with 48 tiles

48: circular, .5” x .5” (12.7 mm x 12.7 mm)

Material: 12pt C1S + 1mm chipboard + 12pt C1S

Finish: Gloss laminated (smooth finish)

Thickness: 2.5mm

Printing: 4C/0C

House Pieces, 4

Purple, 1

Green, 1

Blue, 1

White, 1

Pawns, 4

Purple, 1

Green, 1

Blue, 1

White, 1

129 Poker Size Cards, 2.5” x 3.5” (63mm x 88mm)

Material: 300 gsm blue core card stock

Finish: Matte (smooth finish)

Printing: Fullcolor, both sides

6 Tarot Size Cards, 2.75” x 4.75” (70mm x 121mm)

Material: 300 gsm blue core card stock

Finish: Matte (smooth finish)

Printing: Fullcolor, both sides

Bag or Bags

Determine case-by-case by manufacturer

I need something but I want to see what’s available and cost effective for holding the punchboard tiles, house pieces, and car pieces.

This guide comes in four parts:

• Choosing Materials
• Printing Basics
• Legalese and Distribution
• Preparing Print Files

Choosing Materials

Before you contact any manufacturers, you need to have a good idea of what parts your board game will need. Parts include boxes, cards, boards, tiles, punchout tokens, wooden and plastic pieces, instruction manuals, and more. Imagine your board game as a complete product – when you open the box for the first time, what comes out? Make sure you think of everything!

You can use websites like Board Games Maker, The Game Crafter, and Make Playing Cards to help you get an idea of what materials you will need. These sites also provide good quality prototypes and specs that you can pass on to printers who will do bigger print runs. I do not recommend using these sites for anything other than prototyping.

To illustrate my point, I’ve included the above screenshot of Board Games Maker’s website. I used this site to help create Highways & Byways specifications. I selected a board which matches the size I want for my game board. Then I looked at the bottom left where it says Specifications for a lot of useful information, including: dimensions (imperial and metric units), material, finishing, thickness, and printing (4C/0C). Let’s break that down a little bit.

• Dimensions – Every single part you include in your game should have its size specified in both imperial and metric units.
• Material – You can copy and paste this directly to describe what you’re looking for to your printer.
• Finishing – Gloss means shiny, matte is a dull luster. Either one can be pretty, but I went with a matte board so that the gloss finish pieces would stick out more. You can choose between smooth and linen finish as well – linen is nicer, but more expensive, making it a good goal for Kickstarter.
• Thickness – You should always describe thickness of materials to your printer.
• Printing – This describes how many colors will be used on each side. For most cards, it would be 4C/4C – full color on both sides. For this board, since it’s only printed on one side, it’s 4C/0C.

You can use a similar method to find specs for just about any component you can imagine: boxes, cards, boards, tiles, tuckboxes, dice, booklets – you name it. Either Board Games Maker or The Game Crafter will be able to help you find hard specs.

Printing Basics

After you create the initial specs and it’s time to print, you’ll need to make files for your printer to use for printing. This can get really complicated since each manufacturer has their own templates and standards. They’re pretty similar, though. I’ll tell you what I know to help save you time.

When you’re creating files for printers, there are a few constant rules that you always need to follow:

Always use 300 dpi resolution or higher. Any less than that and you run the risk of getting fuzzy images and low-quality printing. It’s not pretty.

Always use the correct file sizes specified by your printer. Board Games Maker provides pretty good templates that you can use that will work for most printers, but you may need to change some things up by hand.

Always respect the bleed, trim, and safe zones. Anything that you print might print slightly off center if parts of the printing machines are misaligned. Anything in the safe zone on your template will always get printed, the trim line is where it’s supposed to be cut, and the bleed line contains everything that could potentially get printed if the machines are misaligned.

Always use CMYK instead of RGB colors. RGB colors are made for computer screens, CMYK is made for printing. Computers can show more colors than printers can print. There’s a lot of cool physics involved that explain why this is, but I’d have a hard time explaining it on this blog.

Always use rich black instead of true black. Colors in CMYK printing are represented by giving a number to each letter in CMYK: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (K). You might think that C 0 / M 0 / Y 0 / K 100 would print pure black, but it simply doesn’t. It just comes out as a nasty sort of dark gray. To get true black, you’ll need something like C 40 / M 40 / Y 40 / K 100.

Each number in CMYK essentially represents instructions on how much ink to put on a spot on paper. How much ink goes on each spot is called “ink coverage.” You can make real messes with ink coverage if you’re not careful. If all the numbers in the colors add up to be over 300 (or in some cases lower than that), the ink can run. You need to make sure not to exceed 300% ink coverage for every color in your game.

Legalese and Distribution

While your printer will print more or less anything you give them, there are certain legal and distribution requirements that you will want to meet. Real quick: I’m not a lawyer, so double check everything I say with other sources to make sure you’re getting the most up-to-date and accurate advice.

Barcode: If you create a game that you intend to sell in any kind of store, you need a GS1 UPC-A barcode. You can buy these online for relatively cheap on websites like Buy A Barcode. Always follow reccomended guidelines on the print size of the barcode – if it’s too small, it won’t scan.

Don’t try to go super cheap on barcodes! If you buy one and it’s not actually registered with the barcode regulating organization, GS1, then you might run the risk of your barcode being the same as someone else’s. That could lead to your products getting pulled off online stores or even out of physical stores. It just creates a huge headache for the people handling your logistics.

“Made in China”: If you make a game in China, as many do, your box has to say “Made in China” on it somewhere. This is a legal requirement.

Age Restrictions: Have you ever noticed that most modern games have “14+” on the box? There’s a good reason for that. There are special legal requirements that affect games created for children under the age of 14. If your game is truly for children 14 and older, then you won’t have to meet them.

In the case of games for children, but not exceptionally young ones under the age of 4, you’ll need to meet a few additional requirements:

• Your game will need to be safety tested. This costs hundreds of dollars, maybe even a thousand or two for each batch. The cost of meeting international regulations sucks, but not as much as children getting toys with toxic ink or flammable parts. Be a good citizen, get your stuff safety tested if it’s for kids. Otherwise, it can get tied up in customs, or worse.
• Once your game is safety tested, then you can put the “CE” label on the box, which means it’s compliant with relevant European Union standards. (The relevant standards for board games are often EN-71-1, EN-71-2, and EN-71-3, but make sure to do your own homework on this.)
• You’ll need to put a “No 0-3” label to indicate your product is not intended for babies.
• Finally, if your game has small parts, you’ll need to put a “choking hazard” on the box.

All together, that looks a little something like the following image, except with a barcode where there is currently an empty white space. (I haven’t bought the barcode yet.)

Preparing Print Files

Each print file that you prepare for your printer will use a template specifically designed for the components you’re including. I can’t really help you create those templates, you need to find them using the resources I’ve provided. I do, however, have some advice for certain types of components.

For cards, pick a size and find the template on Make Playing Cards. Figure out how many cards are on a sheet and try to print on the fewest sheets possible to decrease cost.

For game boards, figure out where the folds are and adjust art as you need to.

For booklets, choose the number of pages and go with saddle-stitching. You can also get perfect binding, spiral binding, and casewrap binding. However, unless your rulebook is Ulysses by James Joyce, you’ll probably only need saddle-stitched.

When making punchboard pieces, you have to include bleed on each piece. You can’t usually make pieces smaller than 6mm, and even if you could, you probably shouldn’t because they’d get fiddly fast. Punchboards can get expensive, so try to fit everything on one or two boards. Use thicker pieces, like 2.5mm instead of 1.8mm – they are so much easier for players to pick up and use.

For meeples and other pieces, ask your printer what is available. Use The Games Crafter to find the parts you like and ask for ones like that. Providing specific examples makes life easier for your manufacturers.

When it comes to bags and inserts, it’s always nice to include them. Players really appreciate it.

Miniatures require their own 3-D models – I don’t know much about this. I know that the set-up cost is really high, but people are very enthusiastic about miniatures in tabletop games. If you plan on making miniatures, you need to find a good 3-D modeler and prepare for a large print run.

Deciding How Much to Spend

It won’t take you long to realize that the materials that go into your board game will determine the cost to manufacture it. Knowing exactly how much you can afford to spend per unit is difficult, and it’s something I talk about in-depth in this post.

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It can be difficult to take the products we imagine in our heads and describe them in enough detail for people halfway around the world to make them a physical reality. It is a necessary skill, however, and I hope that this article has provided you with enough context to get started. If you have any specific questions, please ask below in the comments, I’d love to help 🙂