Few things satisfy a board game designer more than watching other players enjoying the game they’ve developed. Anyone publishing a board game will tell you how seeing their title on display in a store is an unforgettable experience.
However, not many know the incredible amount of work and the number of people involved in creating their favorite board games.
Bringing a board game to life is perhaps one of the most exciting challenges every designer will eventually face. Yet, one of the most challenging hurdles is convincing a publisher to release board games submitted to them by designers.
Why is that?
According to recent estimations, the global market for tabletop games amounted to $13.1 billion in 2023, and it is expected to reach 32.2 billion by 2032. This means a huge opportunity for board game developers. Despite the optimistic trend, competition is surging and publishers are becoming highly selective.
For example, Stonemaier Games, a well-known publisher revealed that out of the hundreds of board game submissions they receive annually, fewer than ten titles are published.
Getting a board game published by a company willing to invest resources and efforts in your project is not a stroll in the park. In this guide, we’ll explore the most relevant factors in selling board game ideas and how to pitch a board game to a publisher.
Key Takeaway Section
- Convincing a publisher to invest in your board game.
- How to craft a compelling pitch package to show publishers.
- Board game events to pitch a project.
- Alternative ways to publish a board game.
Contents
10 Steps to Sell Your Board Game to a Publisher
Before delving into this guide, it is essential to remind yourself that there is no perfect formula for every publisher. While some practices and approaches work most of the time, there must be often something unique about you and your project that showcases your originality and value to publishers.
Think of it as applying for a job. There are standards that you must meet, but it’s what makes you different that helps you stand out.
1. Develop a Compelling Game Prototype
Consider that your game’s highest-quality prototype will most likely be crafted after you build relations with manufacturers. This means the prototype you use to represent the gameplay experience to your publishers does not have to be perfect.
That being said, invest some time into delivering a version of your prototype that is enough polished and not made out of the worst paper or material you had at your disposal. As a rule of thumb, you should invest more effort in ensuring your prototype is functional rather than just visually appealing. After all, a prototype that works well will look better than something cool but pretty much useless.
Don’t forget to add a unique twist to your game prototype. This can take the form of innovative physical parts or materials not usually found in board game components.
2. Playtest Extensively and Gather Feedback
Imagine yourself being the publisher 🎲
You’re receiving a game from a stranger. The sender respectfully asks you to invest your resources and efforts to release their board game to the world, using your connections with stores and sellers, and launching the game in the market with your name on it.
The least you would expect is for the game to function properly, right?
This is exactly how publishers feel when they receive your submission. They need to be certain that your game is well-refined in its mechanics and ready for the market. As a matter of fact, the best board games you can think of have gone through hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of playtesting.
Gather a variety of players and diversify the group that interacts with your prototype. You can even use online platforms like Tabletop Simulator, Board Game Arena, and Tabletopia. Although this may require creating digital versions of your board game, it will reward you with access to more playtesters and valuable feedback.
3. Research and Identify Suitable Publishers
If there’s one way to waste your time and energy it’s trying to get your game released by the wrong publisher.
Your board game should communicate a specific theme and concept, as this shapes the project’s overall direction. By doing this, you attract a potential target audience interested in that theme. This makes your game appealing to some people more than others.
The same applies for publishers.
Instead of hoping for a response from a popular publisher that may not align with your concept, focus on finding companies with a history of board games similar to yours. Doing so raises your chances of getting the publisher’s attention while also tapping into an audience that is naturally aligned with your game.
Joining board game events can also improve your chances of finding the right publisher. Alternatively, you can consult some popular directories of board game publishers such as:
- Cardboard Edison: a compendium with more than 340 board game publishers. It requires a small monthly fee to gain access.
- BoardGameGeek list: a free database with hundreds of companies mainly consisting of designers and distributors.
- Tabletop Publishers: with more than 500 names, this site provides many useful information and points of contact for publishers in the market. A one-time lifetime membership fee is required for access.
4. Understand Publisher Submission Guidelines
The preferred board game theme and the target audience are not the only elements differentiating publishers. Their submission guidelines are a detail that risks being overlooked but is critical to increasing the chances of consideration for board game designers.
Some publishers might require you to submit a form they provide (usually on their website). These companies often ask for your board game’s core features, such as category, player count, game length, etc…
Other publishers will prefer to ask you to email them with a sell sheet or even a video example of your board game being played. These are all elements that are part of your pitching attempt, which is an essential step of your submission process that we will further write about in Step 5.
In some rare cases, a publisher might not disclose their submission requirements. If your chosen publisher falls in this category, we suggest sending them an email asking for them.
5. Create a Professional Pitch Package
At LaunchBoom, we’re seriously discussing creating a Shark Tank version for board game designers.
Why? Too many great games fail to make it to day one because of poor selling attempts.
Your pitch package should be by far the sharpest tool you craft when submitting your board games to a publisher. We dare to say that the way you present your board game is at this point as important as the game in itself.
Essential pitching elements are a few but they must be carefully prepared to have the strongest possible impact on the receivers
- Sell sheet: This item should present your board game’s title, synopsis, playtime, player count, age range, gameplay overview, components, and contact info—all concisely and attractively on a single page.
- Rulebook: Go through rules and mechanics using visuals to aid your publisher’s understanding. Keep images clear and the design consistent in style, fonts, and colors to avoid clutter and maintain readability. In this guide, we explain more about how to create a great rulebook also for your future players.
- Gameplay video: Gather your friends and playtest your board game highlighting the way they interact with core mechanics and game experience. Finally, edit all the clips in a single short video to attach to your pitch.
6. Craft a Compelling Pitch Email
Finalize your pitch with a compelling email.
Some publishers won’t explore your sell-sheet, rulebook, or gameplay demonstration if your introduction doesn’t stand out.
The first few lines of your email should highlight the most unique features of your board game. Pehraps it’s the intriguing twisted theme, the innovative mechanics, or the eye-catching artwork of your components. Whatever makes your board game special, ensure publishers notice it right away.
Originality in your email should be integrated with professionalism. Make sure your text is error-free, and balance creative expression with politeness.
7. Prepare for Meetings and Presentations
Well done! Your email landed well and your pitching package made an impression.
If all goes smoothly, you should be asked to meet the publisher in person or via video call.
Although publishers are usually on a tight schedule, you can expect them to be more available to listen to you for a longer period. Aim for a 10-15 minute long presentation. Here you can share more about the story behind your game. This will help build an emotional connection with your listeners, making your board game more memorable.
Elaborate more on the “fun factor” which is what makes your board game engaging for players. Remember to bring your prototype so that your listeners can have a tangible element to relate to your explanations.
Your potential publishers aim to profit from the games they invest in. This is why you should talk about the practical costs of your project, how you envision your board game to position itself in the publisher’s portfolio, how it can withstand the competition, and if you expect to work on future expansions or tie-ins.
Allow time for Q&A and encourage interaction—you could even let your publisher play a quick round of your board game as long as it’s not too time-consuming.
8. Attend Industry Events and Network
The meeting before the meeting is the most important meeting…and for board game designers and publishers, it usually takes place at events.
Having the chance to connect informally with a publisher before a formal submission can raise your chances of securing a place in your mind.
Look for conventions, trade shows, and fairs about board games in your local area. Next, bring your sell sheet, rulebook, and physical prototype. Approach industry professionals with politeness, and if you have the chance, let them try your board game.
We have listed here some of the most popular events where board game designers and publishers can build the foundations for a possible collaboration:
- Gen Con in Indianapolis, US.
- PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, US.
- Breakout Con, Toronto, Canada.
- Spiel, taking place in Essen, Germany.
- Lucca Comics & Games, Italy.
- Tokyo Game Market, Japan.
- Jakarta Tabletop Expo, Indonesia.
- Seoul Board Game Festival, Korea.
- Diversão Offline (DOFF), Brazil.
- Geek & Game Rio Festival, Brazil
- ICON Comics & Games Convention, South Africa.
9. Follow Up Professionally
The worst situation for a board game developer is having done everything we’ve listed so far without any hint of agreement from the publishers they approached at fairs, through emails, and in-person presentations.
Although working so much to have no immediate response can be frustrating, this is where patience plays a crucial role. Maintaining professionalism is of paramount importance to navigate such a delicate moment.
This is when publishers are playtesting and considering your board game. Being pushy in demanding a response does not bring any advantage. If you find yourself in a situation where you have not heard from a publisher for weeks after your board game submission, draft a friendly follow-up email to inquire about the status of your submission.
Here are some ways to start your email:
- Hello, I’m following up on the game I’ve recently submitted. Have you had the chance to give it a try yet?
- Hi, I hope you had the chance to play the game I sent you. If so, I’d love to hear whether you would be interested in it…
Plan a couple of follow-ups to send in intervals of 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the publisher’s previous instructions. If you don’t hear back from them after the second email, move forward by keep improving your board game, and contacting more publishers.
As Jay Cormier, owner of Off the Page Games and designer of dozens of published games, likes to remind “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Your goal is to have a game in multiple different stages so that you’re always improving something at each stage.”
10. Negotiate Contracts and Understand Agreements
We went through the worst case, and now let’s talk about the best one—Your board game has been accepted by a publisher! 🎉
You feel unyielding joy and carried by the thrill, you sign whatever the publisher sends you to finalize your agreement.
This is where we would like to stress a bit more.
Launching a board game through traditional publishing makes the publisher benefit the most from the sales driven by each unit sold. This is why designers should keep an eye on the contracts they sign to avoid unpleasant misunderstandings.
We always recommend showing your publisher’s contract to a legal consultant. However, you should get acquainted with some basic key terms you can independently discuss and negotiate with your publisher.
- Royalties are the percentages of sales divided between the publisher and designer. Consider asking about the royalty structure and how it will be calculated.
- Rights transferred to the publisher. As a designer, you can ask whether you will retain any rights in case of future adaptations or expansions.
- Terms of Agreement are the conditions of your contract with the publisher, and the conditions for renewal or termination.
- Quality controls about your board game‘s production should uphold some specific guidelines. You should know about the production process planned by your publisher, and whether you will have any say in the quality of the final product.
- Promotions and the publisher’s responsibilities for advertising your game. Ask about the publisher’s efforts to market your game and their commercial budget.
- Intellectual property rights define the ownership over the game’s art, mechanics, and branding.
Alternative Paths to Publishing Your Board Game
Traditional publishing has always been a solid choice for designers. This is mainly due to the publishers’ connection with the wide audience of players, their network, and their infrastructures in the market.
However, this comes with some costs for board game designers.
Publishers tend to retain the majority of the revenue driven by the board games they release. Designers are often paid in royalties ranging between 5 to 10% of the game’s wholesale price. Moreover, the publishers might push to have most of the creative control over how the final product will look. Combine these flaws with the fact that it might take months for designers to hear updates about their submissions from publishers, and you might legitimately ask—is there any other way for me to get my board game published?
We elaborate on the answer in the chapters below.
Self-Publishing and Crowdfunding
Designers who believe that the drawbacks of traditional publishing are too heavy to bear, usually seek to:
- Have full responsibility for the final version of their board game.
- Foster a closer relationship with the community following their board game.
- Retain most of the revenue driven by their board game’s sales.
If these criteria resonate with you, consider launching your board game independently.
Self-publishing usually consists of getting your board game into the market via crowdfunding. This is mostly achieved by raising funds for your project on dedicated platforms such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or Gamefound.
When you self-publish a board game via a crowdfunding campaign, you take the role of both business owner and developer. This requires you to use online platforms and social media to build your audience, create an effective advertising strategy to market your game and bear the financial risk of your project. Furthermore, the rise in popularity of indie board game development goes hand in hand with a higher number of crowdfunding campaigns that fail to meet their targets.
In summary, self-publishing encompasses the principle of “high risk, high reward.”
The success of campaigns funding board game projects tends to echo for years. As evidence of this, you might have heard about these games launched on Kickstarter before gaining their modern popularity:
- Gloomhaven, funded in 2015, raised $386,104 from 4,904 backers.
- Darkest Dungeon, funded in 2019, raised $5,657,479 from 28,842 backers.
- Avatar Legends, funded in 2021, raised $9,535,317 from 81,567 backers.
You can read more inspiring success stories in our article about the best Kickstarter board games.
Partnering with LaunchBoom for a Successful Launch
Now you know both the advantages and disadvantages of each publishing method.
What if you could retain the benefits of self-publishing without worrying about the risks that building a business and managing a marketing strategy implies? More specifically, what if you could focus solely on developing your board game, while a team with proven expertise in crowdfunding campaigns took care of the rest?
This is where LaunchBoom plays a key role.
For the past ten years, we have helped dozens of indie board game developers successfully launch their projects on Kickstarter. Our team of experts operates on a proven system that reaches your audience, builds a community, helps you set realistic goals, and gets your board game funded in a flash ⚡.
Here are some of the most recent games we helped launch:
- Peaks, which raised $198,354 on Kickstarter.
- Last Light 2nd Edition, raising over $650,000 on Gamefound.
- Vicious Garden, which pledged $555,283 on Kickstarter.
Do you have a board game to launch? We believe in its potential and would love to hear about it.
Case Studies: Successful Board Game Pitches
A guide on how to sell a board game to a publisher would not be complete without real examples of designers who successfully pitched their games before they became modern bestsellers.
Example: “Wingspan” by Elizabeth Hargrave
Matching a passion for nature, hiking, and birdwatching with an interest in game design led to the creation of one of the most celebrated board games of modern times; Wingspan.
The story behind Wingspan’s designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, highlights the importance of improving a project before having it released by a publisher. After being ignored by most publishers she cold-emailed, Elizabeth pitched Bring in the Birds (the original name for Wingspan) at Gen Con in 2016. Among the listeners was Jamey Stegmaier, founder of Stonemaier Games, who advised Elizabeth to increase the number of cards to ensure greater replayability.
About six months passed before Stegmaier accepted Elizabeth’s revision and decided to move forward with production. Although Elizabeth spent all that time without any payment, she later noted that her earnings from Wingspan in its first year exceeded her income as a consultant.
Wingspan’s story emphasizes the importance of perseverance in reaching out to publishers and attending board game events to pitch a project. Moreover, Elizabeth’s success is also proof of how rewarding it can be to stay humble and continually improve a board game prototype based on feedback received.
Example: “Mothership” Transition from Crowdfunding to Retail
Opposed in methods (but not in success) is the recent story of Mothership, a sci-fi-themed board game developed by Peter Sanderson.
Mothership surpassed its initial target of $39,000, ultimately raising a total of $50,075 in just 29 days!
At the core of Sanderson’s first-ever published game lies a powerful combination of community engagement and effective marketing. The former element consisted of Sanderson’s connection with his project’s followers on Facebook, Instagram, and BoadGameGeek forums. On these platforms, he actively updated fans by discussing strategies and incorporating their feedback.
The crowdfunding campaign of Mothership included multiple elements that contributed to its great launch, such as backer rewards, special events, and appealing game components that fueled players’ passion for the sci-fi theme.
Final Thoughts
Today you learned some board game pitch tips to showcase your ideas to potential publishers.
As a cherry on top of this guide, we encourage you to persist in your efforts to get your board game published and continuously improve your project with extensive playtesting.
Keep your head up, but don’t get too stubborn about doing this journey by yourself! At LaunchBoom, we offer tons of support for potential indie designers like you who are looking to make their board game stand out from the competition.
“A great resource that sets realistic expectations, LaunchBoom is quite clear in what they can deliver and the upfront cost is well worth it.”
– Ross, developer of Vicious Gardens, raising $555,283.
How to Sell a Board Game to a Publisher: Frequently Asked Questions
How Do You Sell Your Board Game to a Publisher?
Before selling your board game to a publisher, make sure you develop a compelling prototype and playtest it a lot. Prioritize your research for suitable publishers according to your game theme and expected audience. Remember to follow the publisher’s submission guidelines, maintain professionalism during follow-up emails, and attend industry events for networking.
How Do I Sell My Board Game Idea to a Company?
Your board game idea can be sold through a strong and engaging concept. Discuss your intellectual property to the point where you have clarity over the publisher’s expectations. Use non-disclosure agreements to protect your concept during discussion. You can consider filing for copyright and trademark protection for your game’s name and mechanics to prevent unauthorized use.
How Do You Submit a Game to a Publisher?
When submitting your game to a publisher, you must make sure you have its guidelines clear. Then, prepare a professional pitch package including a sell sheet, rulebook, and gameplay video. Finally, personalize your approach by opening your submission with an engaging hook to increase your chance of getting the publisher’s interest.
