The first real playtest of Blowback went off with flying colors. In fact, you can read an AP report by two of the players over here on The Forge. As I told the players during a break: I’d played through Analysis twice, talked through Mission once, and sort of had an idea in my head of how Blowback was supposed to go. With those things in mind, Analysis and Mission both went extremely smoothly, with only two minor changes that I’d make. Blowback was rushed, since we were running out of time, but it ended on a pretty interesting note. All in all, I’d say it was a success, and my thanks go out to Jim, Chuck, Sam and Kate for taking a chance on the game. I’ll update the text to reflect the changes we made and finish writing up Mission in the next few days, and then release the next phase of the playtest document.

In other news, I got the paper samples from 360digital and I’m extremely impressed. I think I know who I’ll be using to print the game. The only disappointment is that their matte laminate scratches easily– but that’s true of ALL matte laminate, so it’s hard to blame them.

Filed under: Blowback by Elizabeth
No Comments »

With thanks to Shreyas. You can download it in PDF form here.

Filed under: Blowback by Elizabeth
2 Comments »

I emailed them to ask if I could perhaps purchase a copy of a full-color book they’ve printed in the past, as I was concerned because I’d never seen their work.

The rep mailed me back 15 minutes later to let me know that a full-color children’s book and a guide book with samples of all of their papers and covers was already mailed to the address on my quote.

So THAT’s promising.

Filed under: Uncategorized by Elizabeth
No Comments »

Here are the quotes I’ve gotten from various printers, and how I feel about said printers. Unless otherwise specified, the quote is for a 50-page, perfect-bound, full color book, at a quantity of 100 books. My plan is to cover half the cost of the print run with money from the budget, and the other half of the print run with pre-orders. I don’t want to rely on pre-orders for the entire cost of the print run like I did last time: it works when you have a B&W book and can cover the cost of 4 books with a single pre-order. In order to make that happen with this book, I’d have to charge rather high prices, and I don’t want to charge more than I’m comfortable with. The final price point will probably cover printing somewhere between two and three copies of the book.

In descending order of cost:

Blurb.com: has the trim size I want, specializes in coffee-table books. Very high-end paper, a really luxurious feel. Also operates like Lulu; doesn’t give bulk discounts though. Price: a whopping $19.95 a book, and that’s if I trim it by 10 pages. I don’t see this as a viable option.

Collective Copies, Florence, MA: A local company. We use them for Mist-Robed Gate, and Vincent uses their Amherst branch for Dogs in the Vineyard. Our guy there, Steve, is an artiste. He does amazing work with no hassle and a quick turnaround time. No shipping, either! You don’t pay anything until you’ve got the whole order in your hands. Free proof. And he is always really excited about working with us, because our projects are a lot more graphically interesting than the brochures and stuff that Collective usually prints, and it gives him a chance to show off. I’d work with Steve every time I had a project, if I could. They don’t do 8×10″ landscape, however: their biggest landscape trim is 9×7″. I’d be willing to go smaller like that for Steve, but unfortunately, even with a print run of 100, he quoted us an astonishing $16.50 a book. In this case: even more expensive than Lulu. (Who is surprisingly competitive when it comes to bulk pricing on full-color, but we’ll get to that.)

Fidlar Doubleday: I’ve never used them personally, but heard very good things. They never responded to my website query, but a friend set me up with his representative, who was kind and informative and prompt. They didn’t have a problem with the 8×10″ trim size, which was refreshing. Unfortunately, when you divide the setup cost and distribute it through the print run, their estimate is $12.28 a book. However, the representative did email me a few days after the quote and said that if I was getting lower quotes elsewhere, to email him and let him know. Which I plan to do.

Lulu.com: Lulu has a reputation for being overpriced and, in some circles, a fiscally irresponsible choice, only useful if you’re too concerned about whether your game will sell at all to put up any money up front. (Also useful for international publishers who don’t want to hammer US citizens with seriously high shipping costs.) I printed a full-color zine through Lulu a few years back, and the quality was quite high: they use excellent paper, the binding is solid, and the colors seemed surprisingly true, considering the bad things I’d heard about Lulu’s color management issues. They don’t offer the trim size I want, though: their landscape is 9″x7″. However, for a print run of 100 books, their quote is a surprisingly competitive $11.65 a book. Still on the high side, but not THE highest, as I’d expected. Note the nearly $400 difference in total cost between Lulu and the local heroes. It makes me really sad. Even the cost for a print run of one single book from Lulu is only $14.50.

Publisher’s Graphics: Again, I’ve never used them, but people seem to either love or hate these guys. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard complaints about their quality, but I’ve certainly heard it about their customer service and wait times. Their estimate is a tempting $9.50 a book with no setup fee. I’d only feel comfortable using them if I got the manuscript done far ahead of schedule, though.

360digitalbooks.com: I was pointed to these guys by a friend who’d spoken to, but never used them. I don’t know anyone who has, and it makes me nervous, as does the extreme low-ball of $6.76 a book including setup fees. I’d really, really, really want to see a copy of something they printed before I committed my money to them– I’ve learned in the past that you get what you pay for.

Those are the printers I’ve talked to, and their current standings. Crazily enough, I am leaning towards Lulu, but still considering Fidlar. Any suggestions? Places I’ve missed? Ways to cut cost? People who might want to cut me a deal?

Filed under: Blowback by Elizabeth
9 Comments »

For some reason, comments aren’t working for me– I can’t seem to be able to comment, and I don’t know if this is a just-me thing or if it’s something other people are having issues with. (I think it must be a wider problem, because the spam comments have slowed down a lot.) Someone did manage to comment, however! This is what GBSteve had to say:

Do you have to pay for playtesting? I’m sure there will be volunteers for such an exciting project (like me).

Also, unless you think it supping with the devil, you might consider other sources of venture capital, arts grants or support from publishers/distributers. Some of these guys can be very flexible.

Here’s the thing, Steve. What I “pay for” when it comes to playtesting is, honestly, stuff I’d pay for anyway, 90% of the time. I love making a good meal for people when they come over to play. I like going to cons; I always go to JiffyCon, but I’m on the fence about PAX East because the tickets are $50. (That said, I am more than likely going to suck it up and go; it’s a new con, a break-off of one that’s extremely popular, and I want to get my games in front of new audiences.) So I posted playtesting to kind of acknowledge that it’s one of those invisible costs: I do these things to promote and improve my game, and they cost money– but they are things I’d probably still do for fun if I wasn’t working on a game. That said, I will take up every single playtesting offer I get, and hope to have a rough but mechanically complete playtest document ready soon after JiffyCon, November 14th.

As to other sources of revenue: it’s a fine line. Ultimately, I want people to give me money when the game is finished, because it will be more likely to become profit and not sunk into production costs. Also, this is approximately 20 times my starting budget for any of my previous projects, so I feel a bit silly saying “I need more money than this, guys.” That said, there are a couple of printers, etc. that I’m planning to talk to about cutting me a deal, and explaining the nature of my project to them, etc. It’s interesting, because the consumers of indie games are, I feel, far more likely to need the services of a quality POD printer than most customers that buy things that have been printed on demand, so perhaps there’s a promotional thing I might be able to work out with them. I’m going to go over print quotes in my next post, actually.

Filed under: Blowback, Dissolute Games by Elizabeth
No Comments »