Brandon the Game Dev

Board games aren’t everything. The world is very large and the opportunities to serve others are diverse and abundant.

I’ve been thinking big-picture lately. Many of you have likely noticed this with my recent posts. In Don’t Just Build a Board Game, Build a Business, I make the argument that you should consider creating something larger than a single game. The recent post, 6 Right and Wrong Reasons to Make a Board Game, is all about why your motivations are important to your long-term well-being beyond simple financial success. Could Kickstarter Become a Board Game Store by 2020 and Board Gaming in 2029 are my attempts to look into a crystal ball and imagine what the board game industry might be like in the near future.

All of this is to say: question your underlying assumptions! I cannot stress this enough. It’s a fool’s errand to do the wrong thing the right way.

Why write about this?

First, a little bit of background. I’m a big believer in Jamey Stegmaier’s Lesson #81: Don’t Quit Your Day Job. During the day, I work as a System Analyst on very complicated software in a big hospital. Additionally, I have begun providing marketing consulting services both inside and outside of the board game industry. I am also working on two tabletop games – Tasty Humans and Rift Shifters: Yesterday’s War. In short, I practice what I preach here.

Before we get to the 8 reasons, let me make a few more points so no one has any false ideas about how this is possible.

1. This is only possible through the power of teamwork. Any of these items alone, except for the day job, are not doable by one person’s effort.
2. As for the consulting, that did not come out of the blue. After I started regularly receiving cold contacts via this blog, I set up a separate company entirely to handle them. Heck, I’m still working on publishing the site!
3. It took me years to get to this point. The years 2015 to 2018 were like standing in front of an automatic butt-kicking machine made to show off the durability of steel-toed boots.

Board Games Aren’t Everything: 8 Reasons to Diversify Your Business

Reason 1: The board game boom may or may not last.

Board game sales have been growing year over year over year for several years. On the surface, this seems like unmitigated great news. After all, jumping into a growing industry is generally a winning move.

The only problem is we don’t know how long this boom will last. People might get tired of board games. Not to mention, they’re a non-essential good. Kickstarter has only been active since 2009, which I will note, is after the financial crises of 2007 and 2008. We’ve been in a bull market for a long time as of the writing of this article. We don’t know what will happen to the modern board game industry when the market isn’t doing so well.

Now, hey, don’t be sad! I personally believe board games have a bright future and that they are popular for a lot of reasons. Failure to acknowledge the inherent uncertainty of a single market is foolish, though.

Reason 2: Board game fundraising models may change.

All that time on social media, I’m seeing people lament that larger companies are pushing smaller ones off of Kickstarter. I’ve even written about the possibility of Kickstarter turning into a store in the near future. Either way, the board game fundraising model is inexorably changing. In the near future, the fundraising model could be such that it forces you to either go through a publisher or become the publisher. Not everybody can or should do that!

Reason 3: Board games have a long time-to-market.

Board games are long haul projects. No matter how fast you try to move, board games take several months to create, and often they take years. It’s hard to stay in a business where it takes that long to start making money and there is no guarantee that the game will succeed. Many, many great board games will flop because they are not right for the market at that moment. The long development cycle makes it hard to cope with this.

However, if you have multiple sources of income, this is a lot more tolerable. As badly as I want Tasty Humans and Yesterday’s War to succeed, Pangea Games / Pangea Marketing Agency has more than one way to survive. I don’t have to live and die by the sword, and neither do my direct reports, contractors, and freelancers.

Reason 4: Board games have tight margins.

If you’ve ever requested quotes from manufacturers, freight forwarders, and fulfillment companies and tallied everything up, you probably cried. You probably cried great money tears. That’s because the margins in the board game industry are tight. It’s really hard to sell a game at $50 or more unless the pieces are top-of-the-line. Similarly, you have to optimize everything at a materials level to make $19.99 or $24.99 games in small print runs.

Having more than one way to make money with a business allows you to create more games until you finally create an evergreen that can be produced in a large print run for a low cost.

Reason 5: Overspecializing in one market leaves you vulnerable to shocks.

This is an extension of what I said in Reason 1. We don’t know how long the board game boom will last. Even if the board game boom does last, there are lots of ways indie creators could be pushed out of the market by uncontrollable factors. New safety regulations regarding toxic materials in ink could force small companies to spend a lot of extra money on safety testing. President Trump could push for tariffs against importing from China, driving up the cost of manufacturing board games by 20% or more. Printer ink could double in price and make board games nearly unprintable. The USPS could raise their arbitrarily low shipping rates and squeeze out the indies so they can finally turn a profit.

Reason 6: If it’s money you’re after, it helps to have multiple income streams.

Money, money, money, money. So many of these points revolve around money. Most people making board games do so because they love making board games, and I think that’s an absolutely fantastic reason. I promote that all day, every day, and I love working with people for whom board gaming is their great passion.

Ah, but you still have to pay the bills. If you want to get that game published, you have to bankroll it, even before you’re ready to raise funds on Kickstarter. If you plan to do that, you either need to be independently wealthy, making a good amount on your day job, or bringing in money on different business pursuits. The first never described me, the second did for a few years, and the third is where I am now with Pangea.

Reason 7: You will build more contacts.

The board game industry is big, but it’s also very small. If you work in different, but related industries – whether through a day job or other business functions – you’ll meet more people. Meeting people whose day-to-day lives are different than your own is one of the greatest ways to learn.

Reason 8: You might find something you like more.

Your motivations are so important. The board game industry runs on passion. After a while, you will find that you either have the passion or you don’t. Diversifying your business will allow you to move toward what you want to do in the long run, whether it’s related to board games or not.

The ability to move toward what you want is crucial. Life is short. It’s too short to spend doing stuff you don’t want to do, at least forever, anyway. “Rise and grind” is fine for a few years, but it makes for an awfully shallow life if you do it for too long. Refuse to let yourself be pigeonholed!

A Caveat: There is a fine line between focus and myopia.

There is one great argument against everything I’ve said. You can argue that it leads to a lack of focus to spread yourself thin across different industries. This, my friend, is true – at least to some extent. The ability to deeply focus is important to doing great work. In fact, this is why I am such an advocate for building a team and having people specialize in what they’re good at and what they enjoy.

Yet the flipside of focus is myopia. You can miss things that are right in front of your face if you spend your days assuming everything must fit into a simple framework. Work hard and with great focus, yes, but also take time to look at the bigger picture.

Final Thoughts

Board games aren’t everything. To focus too much on one way to make money is to miss many paychecks. To focus too much on one way to express yourself is to leave deep thoughts unspoken. Staying within a small community for too long can stop many great relationships from flourishing.

With that, I leave you with one question. What’s a creative or entrepreneurial endeavor you’ve wanted to start outside of board gaming? Let me know in the comments below 🙂

Board games have been absurdly popular for the last several years. In 1999, the possibility of the board game industry experiencing a massive renaissance like the one we’ve all been witness to was laughable. The business was shaky to its core. There were relatively few fans, the supply chain was rocky, and raising funds was hard. Then, serendipitously, one by one, the obstacles toward the modern board gaming landscape fell away. We now have Scythe, Gaia Project, Terraforming Mars, Gloomhaven, Root… The list goes on.

So what happened?

Why the Question “Why Board Games are So Popular” Matters to You, the Developer

First, let’s talk about why the question matters in the first place. Many of you know I’ve gotten really into the discipline of marketing. Marketing isn’t just about selling people random stuff they don’t need, unless you are, quite frankly, a hack. It’s about figuring out what people like, why they like it, and how to give it to them.

When something as seemingly random as board games becomes very popular, it makes a marketer’s Spidey sense tingle. Understanding the emotional origin behind people’s connection with board games is very important if you’re a publisher. You’re not just trying to make the greatest worker placement fantasy game…you’re trying to make a game that satisfies the emotional needs of your customers.

History provides context. That context can be used to explain why board games have become popular. That can, in turn, help us make great games or even predict whether or not board games as we know it will last.

1. The Internet and Social Media Made the Communities Possible

Board gaming is an obscure enough niche that it can’t justify the existence of a TV network, large magazine, or other traditional media outlet. Prior to the modern internet, especially social media, there wasn’t a particularly good way for people to connect over their love of board games. Social media allowed people from all over the world to connect around common interests. This, in turn, allowed people to express demand in ways that enterprising creators could take note of and act upon.

2. The Internet and Social Media Made Us Want to Log Off

Simultaneously, the very same tools that made board gaming as we know it possible – the internet and social media – came with a whole bevy of problems. Humans, biologically, are not programmed to talk to faces on screens. We need other people, physically, in our lives or else we suffer. We become lonely and isolated – one of the biggest problems of the modern age.

On top of that, the modern internet qualifies – in my opinion – as a social supernormal stimulus. A supernormal stimulus being anything that’s really attractive and not natural, such as junk food and it’s delicious calvacade of fats and sugars that our ancestors would never have been exposed to. Social media is a very normal part of socializing now, but some people are reacting – at least in my anecdotal evidence – with a sort of revulsion to that. They turn to more “wholesome” hobbies like board games. People want a form of escapism from the supernormal stimuli of modern life.

Now all that said – this is not why people prefer one particular game over another. This is not why people go out and buy Terraforming Mars or Azul. It is my opinion that this modern feeling of overwhelm creates a desire for a tangible social experience – which board gaming provides better than most forms of entertainment available today.

3. The Supply Chain Changed

People began to connect over their love of board games. At the same time, people felt a desire to play board games to get away from modern hyperstimulation. Completely unrelated to either of these occurences, something else was going on simultaneously.

Internet access and lax trade policies made it possible to manufacture games across the world. Board games are difficult to manufacture because there are a lot of parts. It used to be tough to find a printer for a reasonable price unless you were a really big company like Hasbro. Now, it’s very easy and takes a couple of days.

Revolutions in the print industry as well as the logistics industry made the supply chain for board games go from being very complex to sorta complex. There are still barriers to entry, mind you, but they are a lot lower. This allowed smaller print runs, which in turn allowed games to be made around niches. At the same time, you could identify profitable, in-demand niches by checking in with the growing board game community, which was by now both an online and offline entity.

4. Kickstarter Changed the Profit Model

You might find it remarkable, but we managed to make it this far into the article without mentioning Kickstarter. Created in 2009, I don’t remember seeing much of the site until 2012 or 2013, well after the widespread adoption of social media. With a simpler supply chain providing lower barriers to entry for pleasing a newly connected community, now all that was missing was a way to make the money to print the games.

Oh, hello, Kickstarter.

You probably know how this story ends. Board games have taken over Kickstarter, accounting for as much as 30% of the revenues they bring in. When Kickstarter entered the scene, the last barrier to entry – money for printing – fell away. This, in turn, opened the floodgates for a thriving culture of board game creators to create a steady stream of board games for board game fans. Regardless of Kickstarter’s future, their contribution to the board game industry is and always will be monumental.

5. A Culture of Creation Developed

Last but not least, there is one remaining element that helped make board games as popular as they are. That is board game designers themselves. A massive culture started to develop around board game design. If you don’t believe me, just type “board game design” into either the Twitter or Facebook search bar. You’ll see men and women from all over the globe who are passionate about making board games. There are entire cons dedicated to play-testing board games (Protospiels).

The culture of creation is yet another tributary into the mighty river of the modern board game industry. It may be the most important, too. The internet, social media, and the global supply chain are here to stay. Kickstarter may or may not keep their business model as it is today, but that’s not terribly important as long as the demand for board games continues to grow. The passion of creators is what keeps a steady supply of board games coming out today.

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By thinking about why board games are so popular, we can better understand gamers and their ultimate desires. From there, we can continue to make games that are emotionally satisfying.

Why do you think board games are so popular today? Let me know in the comments below!

(Jamey Stegmaier has written an article recently called Top 10 Reasons for the Rise in Popularity of Tabletop Games. It’s another great take on this subject, and I encourage you to read it.)

Making board games is really difficult. A lot of people who decide to make board games can’t tell the difference between the right and wrong reasons to make a board game. I want to talk about this in depth today because your motivations will seep into everything you do – for better or for worse.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been talking about the future of Kickstarter, board gaming, and those of us who strike it out on our own to make games. Much of what I’ve discussed is only superficially about board games. The deeper messages are based on business strategy and the ability to plan for the future. This is where your motivations become really important. The right reasons will keep you going in the tough times and the wrong ones will eventually push you out of the business.

The Wrong Reasons to Make a Board Game

Wrong Reason to Make a Board Game #1: A Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

Some people see multi-million dollar Kickstarter campaigns and become excited about the financial prospects of the board game industry. You’re smart enough to know that campaigns like that are rare and almost always the result of teamwork. Yet you may still aspire toward that sort of campaign.

Assume you made $4 million like Rising Sun. Let’s say it’s made by a team of five people – a low estimate, honestly. Now let’s say there is a profit margin of 15% on it, which is pretty high for a niche product with physical inventory. You are then left with $120,000 before taxes. That is roughly equal to one year of salary and benefits of a decently well-paid white-collar professional in an urban area once you add healthcare, dental, vision, and the taxes your employer pays and you never see. Seriously, try this online calculator out if you don’t believe me.

Now let’s be real – most of us would love that kind of cash to do this kind of work. Still, my point is that this is a best-case scenario in which you’re not even wealthy. Your upper bound in the board game industry, without doing some other kind of work, is the lower bound of the upper middle class in a low cost of living area.

There are right and wrong reasons to make a board game, and money is definitely one of the wrong ones. Yes, you should try to make a profit if you want one. However, don’t perceive the board gaming industry as your ticket to fabulous wealth. It’s not the linchpin in your FIRE retirement strategy.

Wrong Reason to Make a Board Game #2: You Hate Your Job or Boss

It’s seldom these days that I see a person truly convinced that board game design will make them rich. However, many want to start their own business because they hate their job or boss. They build a business with the expectation that they won’t make much money, but it will be enough to survive. One of the most foolhardy beliefs I see mindlessly echoed online is “turn your hobby into a job.” Don’t do that – create a larger business and use your hobby and an existing market to establish yourself and create a product.

If you build a business, you need to make it to where you can sell different kinds of products to meet your customers’ needs. Board games may not meet their needs forever, so you need infrastructure in place to switch if you want to. We have no idea how long the modern board game boom will last or if it will at all. Even if it does last, that’s probably going to bring tougher competition. You have to think bigger than board games if you want to see yourself out of the traditional job market.

Wrong Reason to Make a Board Game #3: You Think It Will Be Easy

I failed to mention earlier the fallacy of the “quick” part of “get rich quick.” Board games are long haul projects. They take several months at best and can even take years. You have to stagger game releases and work in a team to try to bring in steady income with games. Even doing so, you’re likely to have some duds in between.

It’s not easy! The time taken alone is difficult, but the actual tasks themselves are even harder. I didn’t appreciate how hard making a board game was until this blog took off and I started getting calls from entrepreneurs. We forget how much goes into making a game. There is game design, play-testing (which is incredibly detailed), manufacturing, fulfillment, marketing, and much more. Some things can be created on a lark, but board games – at least made for profit – cannot be created this way. It’s difficult and it requires money and project management skills.

The Right Reasons to Make a Board Game

These will be a lot shorter because there are no fallacies to point out 😛

Right Reason to Make a Board Game #1: You Love Making Board Games

If you really love making board games for its own sake, you should do it. Hoping for large amounts of cash, an easy project, or a way out of things you don’t like will make you unhappy. Yet if game development is truly something you love, it is worth it. Life is short and as long as you meet your commitments and stay in touch with the ones you love, spend as much time as you can doing what you want to do.

Right Reason to Make a Board Game #2: You’re Trying to Figure Out What You Love

Not everybody knows what they want to do with their life and free time, and that’s fine. Sometimes you just need a complicated project to focus on for its own sake. That’s where I was with board gaming in 2015 when I started making my own. When there are so many options in life that you don’t know what to do, sometimes picking a focus – any focus – can help set your life on the right track. I was 22 years old and right out of college. Making board games helped me decide what I ultimately wanted to do.

Right Reason to Make a Board Game #3: You Want to Work Hard & Learn Quickly

Last but not least, if you’re looking for a challenge, creating a board game can certainly fill that need. Between the game design, play-testing, manufacturing, fulfillment, and business skills, you will find no shortage of new things to learn. If you’re willing to work hard and you just want to learn as much as you can, this is a fun way to do it.

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Knowing the difference between the right and wrong reasons to make a board game goes a long way. You need to understand your motivations so that you can remain productive and happy while you’re making games. Having unrealistic expectations can cause a lot of frustration.

What I’ve discussed above may have made you uncomfortable. I am empathetic to that. My only desire in writing this is to get you to examine your motivations so that you can remain happy while making board games.

Why do you make board games? Let me know in the comments below!