|
Getting Produced and Promoted. I firmly believe that a lot of the best games ever invented have never been published. To add to the frustration of the inventor others that simply don't measure up manage to get published simply to promote a television show. Also apart from that and the games world moving heavily into the computer game market the major producers seem to follow the Hollywood film making formula by producing many of the same things over and over again with different packaging. Although Monopoly was the great original it has been repackaged continuously as have many others that have existed for decades. There appears to be little desire to recognise something new or original with substance in board games so if you think all the hard work has been done, you’ve created the new “MONOPOLY” and all you have to do is show it and they’ll be begging you to let them make it think again. A lot of us inventors aren’t always objective and often very naive. We might have thought that by coming up with a solid idea and developing it that we had done the hard bit and the rest would be easy. Quite often to get a major game publisher to even look at a new idea is an achievement in itself. Perhaps the reluctance to manufacture and promote new decent board games can for the most part be probably blamed on computer games and a generational shift but until they produce good games instead of developing sub-standard ones as a spin off to a television show it’s hard to gauge how much interest has shifted to computer and other game formats. To have the kind of success board game inventors dream about, our games really need the promotion and exposure that only major game publishers can provide. You could have best idea (game or otherwise) ever invented and unless it gets exposed and promoted properly it's most likely a dead duck. Promotion will sell just about anything. Who would have expected success from an idea like the Ninja Turtles? Rewards. One thing about board games I believe is that a first time inventor probably never plans to invent a game to make a fortune. I mean, I don’t think anyone just sits down seriously thinking they can think up a money-maker. Once hit with an idea they might start thinking that way, but initially when the idea comes out of the blue it's a kind of uncontrollable enthusiasm that pushes a game to completion not money. Being amongst the few that hit a money jackpot would be nice but it would be silly to assume it’ll just happen. Just to see your games on the shelves could be enough. I have invented five games and have largely been rewarded by just creating them. Would I like to see them published? Absolutely I would. These games were created in the early nineties and even then I thought with these electronic or computer type games already arriving that my games were thirty years too late. I had sent a couple of written submissions without any success and probably prematurely as most of us inventors tend to do that. The board designs have all been drawn by hand and coloured paper typed on, scissor cut and pasted before getting colour photo copies plus any laminating done. Playing cards were done the same way and other than basic typing I didn’t use a computer. If I was more computer literate I’m sure I could have saved myself a huge amount of time. I still continued to refine and develop them but money restrictions and the uncertainty of what direction the board game market was stopped me taking it further. A more recent non board game invention featured on this website made me decide to resurrect these board games created basically twenty years ago to be included as part of it. Although Bag or Basket was developed in the rough at around the same time as the others I only put it together as a more finished looking prototype recently and now finally I’ve got around to doing what the attached newspaper article indicated was my intention over thirteen years ago.  A lack of computer literacy (not uncommon for someone of my age) was another factor until a recent fortunate encounter finally got it to happen. The irony in all this is that while the internet has been one vehicle that has assisted computer games it also can now help me expose my own game ideas to a wide audience, game companies and perhaps some venture capitalist.
|