I'd like my game Mammalath on BGA

[mathgrant]

I hope this is the right forum for this request. If not, I trust the admins will move this to the right place.

I recently had my new board game Mammalath published by nestorgames, and I'd like to play it with skillful players from around the world. Plus, I read this post by Nick Bentley (designer of Blooms and Circle of Life), and the exposure that comes from having a game on BGA could be very helpful to me. I designed Battle of LITS, and after having the game published on BGA, the game easily got over the 30-rating threshold on BGG and became a ranked game. Granted, those ratings are somewhat mediocre (6.4 out of 10, a fair bit lower than the other ranked abstract games by nestorgames), but it's still an accomplishment to have my game compared to Monopoly, and an accomplishment in which I am rather proud.

Battle of LITS was programmed by a friend for free, but said friend didn't express any intention of programming more games afterwards, and due to events I don't care to go into, he might not even like me anymore, so my odds of getting Mammalath programmed for free are slim. I contacted BGA privately hoping to be connected to a programmer like Bentley was, but so far, I got no response. So I'm reaching out on these forums. The odds are good, in my estimation, that nestorgames will license the game and its artwork out to this site, especially since I'm offering to pay 100% of whatever monetary compensation the programmer demands (name your price, and if I think it's reasonable and within my budget, I'll pay it; Bentley paid $350 for 6 hours of work for his games, and I suspect Mammalath is equally complex and will take a seasoned programmer approximately the same amount of time and effort), and nestorgames therefore will essentially get free exposure and hopefully free sales as a result. Shoot me a response to this thread or a PM if interested. It would mean a lot to me!

[Jest Phulin]

This post might get better responses if placed in the Developers forums.

[sourisdudesert]

Hello

Sorry for not responding you earlier.

The best way to do it is from this page:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepublishers

This way, developers can be aware that the game is available for development

Hope this helps.

[RicardoRix]

This is very badly off the mark.

Code: Select all

Bentley paid $350 for 6 hours of work for his games

This means Nick Bently worked for 6 hours not the coder.

The rest is my conjecture but probably close to the truth:
The game he refers to is 'Circle of Life'. The same programmer programmed his other game Blooms. Both have the same hex grid and share a lot of the same characteristic. To start with, a copy and paste of this project was a very good start to get the project off the ground, the UI almost comes for free. Also the game is quite simplistic, just 2 rules to the game, however the rule of eating being probably quite tricky to code.

I would say most games would be 100+ hours of work, let's say in this case it was 35 hours, that's still just $10 / hour.

[mathgrant]

This post might get better responses if placed in the Developers forums.

I’ll try there later. For now, my focus will be on responding to replies in this thread.

Hello

Sorry for not responding you earlier.

The best way to do it is from this page:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepublishers

This way, developers can be aware that the game is available for development

Hope this helps.

Will do

This is very badly off the mark.

Code: Select all

Bentley paid $350 for 6 hours of work for his games

This means Nick Bently worked for 6 hours not the coder.

The rest is my conjecture but probably close to the truth:
The game he refers to is 'Circle of Life'. The same programmer programmed his other game Blooms. Both have the same hex grid and share a lot of the same characteristic. To start with, a copy and paste of this project was a very good start to get the project off the ground, the UI almost comes for free. Also the game is quite simplistic, just 2 rules to the game, however the rule of eating being probably quite tricky to code.

I would same most games would be 100+ hours of work, let's say in this case it was 35 hours, that's still just $10 / hour.

Thanks for the criticism. I know not how many hours of work JackLance put into Battle of LITS, so Nick Bentley’s post is all I have to go off of. I’ve received an offer to program Mammalath that’s way more than $350, and while I reserve the right to reject the offer if a cheaper one comes along, I’m certainly going to focus on saving up money for said offer and, if I still think implementing my game is worth that much money, I’ll do it.

FWIW, the founder of nestorgames tells me that online implementations of his games seem to reduce, not increase, sales, so out of an abundance of caution with that point in mind, I will not have Mammalath Plus implemented on BGA.

[RicardoRix]

Yeah, I guess it depends on what you're after. Even with the possible cash incentive, the coders will still be doing it more for love of it. Personally I like the idea of working with one-off kick-stater type projects, mainly because I see myself possibly (yeah, right) in that position one day. And the larger publishers already have exposure, even if those games are potentially better.

I'm not sure why an on-line presence would hurt sales, but I am no expert. It must certainly help with exposure which I would have thought is half the battle, especially with small publishers. Either way good luck with your project, LITS is an awesome game.

[mathgrant]

Yeah, I guess it depends on what you're after. Even with the possible cash incentive, the coders will still be doing it more for love of it. Personally I like the idea of working with one-off kick-stater type projects, mainly because I see myself possibly (yeah, right) in that position one day. And the larger publishers already have exposure, even if those games are potentially better.

I'm not sure why an on-line presence would hurt sales, but I am no expert. It must certainly help with exposure which I would have thought is half the battle, especially with small publishers. Either way good luck with your project, LITS is an awesome game.

I guess I'm after exposure (so I can truly see how my game stacks up in the BGA rating against other AbStrats) and skilled opponents against whom to sharpen my own play. I'm willing to pay what the market value for that is, but I don't know that value, so I just have to open myself to offers and see what I get.

And I'm glad you enjoy Battle of LITS. I was inspired by many attempts at turning Sudoku into a board game to take a more obscure Japanese logic puzzle and do the same with it, and Battle of LITS resulted. It doesn't necessarily set out to be the next chess or go, but I think it does what it does set out to do. There's definitely a giant skill gap between the best players on this site and me, as I've learned from the tournaments, and that's always a good sign in an AbStrat.

[Jest Phulin]

I'm not sure why an on-line presence would hurt sales, but I am no expert. It must certainly help with exposure which I would have thought is half the battle, especially with small publishers.

This is probably an accounting issue. Online presence will drop sales initially (why buy a physical copy when you can play it for a reduced price/free online), but the wider audience base often tends to make up the difference.

For example: A game normally gets exposed to 1000 new people a month, and sells 100 units a month. Online implementation happens, and sales drop to 75. This shows "oh, no, online implementation hurts sales!" Of course, 6 months later sales are 125 units, and a year later they are 150 units since 2000 new people are being exposed. Most people tend to look at the immediate effect, and not factor in any long-term results. (Yes, I know that a lower percentage of new people exposed are buying the game, but the total volume makes up for it.)

Hmmmm.... There was an old thread around here somewhere where someone asked what games people had bought because they were exposed to it on BGA. Didn't get a lot of responses, but it did show that the exposure helps.

[Een]

Thanks for the criticism. I know not how many hours of work JackLance put into Battle of LITS, so Nick Bentley’s post is all I have to go off of. I’ve received an offer to program Mammalath that’s way more than $350, and while I reserve the right to reject the offer if a cheaper one comes along, I’m certainly going to focus on saving up money for said offer and, if I still think implementing my game is worth that much money, I’ll do it.

A quick word on this: the cost of life for the developer and thus the cost he would put on his/her time may vary a lot depending on where he lives. Any offer may also depend on the developers skill and on him/her having already some experience with BGA studio or needing to learn the platform. And of course, if his/her motivation is love for the game (or board games in general) or money. So requests for paid game development may get very different offers (or none). If in doubt about an offer, you can send me an email with the details at the BGA studio email address, and I'll let you know my opinion.