The Stan Plan
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By now, you guys have seen my "I got a plan, Stan!" comment in our Line thread. Some of it was discussed last Sunday with Josh. I intend to elaborate here and answer any questions.
What the plan is: A road map and checklist that will expand and amplify our perceived value beyond just the possible future revenue of a game we want to publish.
Why the need for a plan like this: Publishers of board games invest hundreds of thousands of dollars between marketing, manufacturing, and distribution on a single game title alone, so obviously they don't willy-nilly take just any board game on as an investment project. They want as close to a "sure thing" as possible and as much of the "hard" work done for them before even considering a new game and whether or not it fits in with their existing product line and company mission. So our plan, in a nutshell, is to not only do that work for Kred, but to establish that we are in a position to offer services that help aspiring game creators, as well as small to mid-sized publishers, with "road to publish" services.
What the plan is not: It is not any specific commitment, long-term or otherwise. This plan does not require much more effort or work than we are already doing for Kred. The fact that we offer services does not mean we get any takers. If we do, we'll price accordingly when the time comes. For now, that is not the point.
What is the point? Imagine yourself as a game publisher. You're always on the lookout for that next big title that will translate to a decent profit and add further value to your product line. You're running a booth at a board game event and suddenly you are cold-approached by some guys with a game that looks interesting and possibly might fit with what you're looking for. Maybe they seem to have crossed their t's and dotted their i's, brought a nice prototype, a sell-sheet, etc., and even present well — but you don't know anything about these guys. You're probably thinking you don't have time to look into their game in detail.
Then one of them hands you a business card and says they offer development phase services for creators of tabletop games.
Instantly, what does this tell you? I won't make a list here, but suffice to say it answers a lot of questions about these four guys. At the very least, you know they've invested a lot — time, work, and money — in their game development already, they've done their homework, and most likely know the position a publisher is in. These guys are not here to waste your time. You just may give their game a deeper look when you get home.
What's happening here? At the very least, networking. Exchanging business cards can lead to further contact down the road for other projects, referrals to other publishers, and even a source in the business that can be contacted for inquiries. In the best case scenario, a relationship with a publisher and possibly an exchange of services. Regardless of publishing our game, publishers we build relationships with can send us a bit of business when someone prematurely pitches a raw, underdeveloped game to them and is in need of some of our services.
What else are we doing at the Osaka event? Whether or not we get Kred looked at by any publishers, let's emphasize that we play games — a lot of games (we can prove it by showing our stat-app page) — and invite them to contact us if they need playtesting of any games they might have in development. This we'll offer free of charge.
Our webpage for our services should speak volumes about who we are and what we do. Josh and I have said we are willing to put our mugs on the site in the developer profile page. Hopefully you guys are as well.
https://montoyahome.com/tfdstudios/index.html
(The website is merely a placeholder with a general scaffold. No need to nitpick on words and design just yet — there's lots to be done here!)
In order to get Kred on the proverbial map, we're going to need to make our presence known through social media, participate in several tabletop game communities, and make a good name for ourselves. Branding is important, and filling a niche with "development phase" services under the TFD name makes our quest to publish Kred more achievable by establishing credibility, growing our audience, and creating value long before the game reaches the market.
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Plan that Josh and I mulled over is here. This is not set in stone but is meant as a starting point for us to discuss in order to get shit done in support of Kred getting into publishers' hands in the best possible conditions for success.
https://montoyahome.com/kred/plan2027/plan.pdf
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By now, you guys have seen my "I got a plan, Stan!" comment in our Line thread. Some of it was discussed last Sunday with Josh. I intend to elaborate here and answer any questions.
What the plan is: A road map and checklist that will expand and amplify our perceived value beyond just the possible future revenue of a game we want to publish.
Why the need for a plan like this: Publishers of board games invest hundreds of thousands of dollars between marketing, manufacturing, and distribution on a single game title alone, so obviously they don't willy-nilly take just any board game on as an investment project. They want as close to a "sure thing" as possible and as much of the "hard" work done for them before even considering a new game and whether or not it fits in with their existing product line and company mission. So our plan, in a nutshell, is to not only do that work for Kred, but to establish that we are in a position to offer services that help aspiring game creators, as well as small to mid-sized publishers, with "road to publish" services.
What the plan is not: It is not any specific commitment, long-term or otherwise. This plan does not require much more effort or work than we are already doing for Kred. The fact that we offer services does not mean we get any takers. If we do, we'll price accordingly when the time comes. For now, that is not the point.
What is the point? Imagine yourself as a game publisher. You're always on the lookout for that next big title that will translate to a decent profit and add further value to your product line. You're running a booth at a board game event and suddenly you are cold-approached by some guys with a game that looks interesting and possibly might fit with what you're looking for. Maybe they seem to have crossed their t's and dotted their i's, brought a nice prototype, a sell-sheet, etc., and even present well — but you don't know anything about these guys. You're probably thinking you don't have time to look into their game in detail.
Then one of them hands you a business card and says they offer development phase services for creators of tabletop games.
Instantly, what does this tell you? I won't make a list here, but suffice to say it answers a lot of questions about these four guys. At the very least, you know they've invested a lot — time, work, and money — in their game development already, they've done their homework, and most likely know the position a publisher is in. These guys are not here to waste your time. You just may give their game a deeper look when you get home.
What's happening here? At the very least, networking. Exchanging business cards can lead to further contact down the road for other projects, referrals to other publishers, and even a source in the business that can be contacted for inquiries. In the best case scenario, a relationship with a publisher and possibly an exchange of services. Regardless of publishing our game, publishers we build relationships with can send us a bit of business when someone prematurely pitches a raw, underdeveloped game to them and is in need of some of our services.
What else are we doing at the Osaka event? Whether or not we get Kred looked at by any publishers, let's emphasize that we play games — a lot of games (we can prove it by showing our stat-app page) — and invite them to contact us if they need playtesting of any games they might have in development. This we'll offer free of charge.
Our webpage for our services should speak volumes about who we are and what we do. Josh and I have said we are willing to put our mugs on the site in the developer profile page. Hopefully you guys are as well.
https://montoyahome.com/tfdstudios/index.html
(The website is merely a placeholder with a general scaffold. No need to nitpick on words and design just yet — there's lots to be done here!)
In order to get Kred on the proverbial map, we're going to need to make our presence known through social media, participate in several tabletop game communities, and make a good name for ourselves. Branding is important, and filling a niche with "development phase" services under the TFD name makes our quest to publish Kred more achievable by establishing credibility, growing our audience, and creating value long before the game reaches the market.
I'll reiterate the concerns I expressed on Saturday so everyone is on the same page.
So our plan, in a nutshell, is to not only do that work for Kred, but to establish that we are in a position to offer services that help aspiring game creators, as well as small to mid-sized publishers, with "road to publish" services.
Even the nutshell is daunting. It's a bit unclear what the goal is. Are we trying to establish ourselves as a service provider for publishers? For game creators? Or are we seeking services ourselves?
exchange of services
This doesn't seem like something that happens normally in business. Normally, creators seek the services of publishers or publishers seek the services of manufacturers. I'm not saying it couldn't happen. But, if we think publishers are too busy to look at our game and then we're asking them for more time to explain why they should take a chance on this other idea we've got, I'd only expect a, "We'll have someone call ya' kid but don't wait by the phone."
invite them to contact us if they need playtesting of any games they might have in development
Publishers don't need a 4-man playtesting agency. Any games they have in development would already have been thoroughly playtested. This time around, I really think we need to approach this from a perspective of educating ourselves about how things work instead of trying to explain what we think might be worth a shot.
I don't think we should offer playtesting as a service to publishers and, although we may be able to show off a couple of online games that they can test drive, I don't think we're coordinated enough to call ourselves an online development team either.
If anything, I think we could call ourselves a design and development firm and offer prototyping services to other game creators. But that wouldn't have anything to do with getting KRED published.
As far as that goes, we need extensive play testing, intimate knowledge of every aspect of the game, well rehearsed talking points and a kick-ass sell sheet. I got a reply from Custom Box Makers and, if we can get 8 boxes with inserts, the rest will be a piece of piss. We just need to set up a big play test fest.
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Even the nutshell is daunting. It's a bit unclear what the goal is. Are we trying to establish ourselves as a service provider for publishers? For game creators? Or are we seeking services ourselves?
It doesn't matter. What does matter is that being a team of 4 individuals with complimentary skills that make up a "studio", that has done what it claims to do with regard to game development in early phases, shows that we are not fucking around. We don't give a shit if anyone contacts us for services. If they do, it will most likely have to do with digital versioning of projects, which I'll gladly do, or possibly some oddly shaped game pieces needing to be 3D printed(Cody is free to take it and charge what he wants or purposely overcharge to discourage the order). But again, getting business is not the point.
This doesn't seem like something that happens normally in business.
It does. Even competitors work together (See Anthropic, Google and XAI recently). It happens less often the bigger the entities and more often the smaller the entities. I have loads of stories of when collaboration helped my businesses and where my businesses helped another business. But again, this is not the point.
Normally, creators seek the services of publishers or publishers seek the services of manufacturers. I'm not saying it couldn't happen.
Creators, while they do seek the services of publishers, they have a lot of work to do on their own before they get to that phase/stage. Need proof? That's us. Is there a niche market for what we are good at and what we are doing for our own titles? Maybe. But again, this is not the point.
Publishers don't need a 4-man playtesting agency. Any games they have in development would already have been thoroughly playtested.
Not true of smaller, indie publishers who are basically just people like us with a bit more money than us doing "self" publishing. But again, not the point.
This time around, I really think we need to approach this from a perspective of educating ourselves about how things work instead of trying to explain what we think might be worth a shot.
We shall educate ourselves over the course of the next 7 months. That is part of the plan.
If anything, I think we could call ourselves a design and development firm and offer prototyping services to other game creators. But that wouldn't have anything to do with getting KRED published.
This is the point. And yes it does have everything to do with KRED. That gives us CRED when we shake hands with our first publisher. This is the entire point.
In summary, none of the questions Josh raised are wrong. They're just not the point. The point is singular: get KRED in front of a publisher and be taken seriously when we do.
Everything else, the studio identity, the complementary skill set, the dev-phase services angle, is infrastructure for that moment. It's not a business pivot. It's not a new revenue stream we're chasing. It's the answer to the question every publisher is silently asking when a stranger walks up to their table: "Why should I believe you?"
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