

The Game Crafter- CafePress for Boardgames - e1ven
http://www.thegamecrafter.com/home

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replicatorblog
This post generated a lot of points pretty quickly. Is anyone interested in
working on a startup in this area? If so, feel free to get in touch via the
info on my profile. My blog: <http://www.replicatorinc.com> focuses on this
kind of mass customization / personal fabrication. I also have a ton of
ideas/prototypes for companies utilizing these technologies that I'd love to
share.

Also from: <http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

27\. Hardware/software hybrids. Most hackers find hardware projects alarming.
You have to deal with messy, expensive physical stuff. But Meraki shows what
you can do if you're willing to venture even a little way into hardware.
There's a lot of low-hanging fruit in hardware; you can often do dramatically
new things by making comparatively small tweaks to existing stuff.

~~~
pg
If you do decide to start a startup we'd be happy to hear from you
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/apply>).

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thorax
Just reading the title of this post made me swoon a little bit. My friends and
I make all sorts of games like this and this is exactly the sort of site I
need to kill all my productivity.

Looks awesome, I'm going to look deeper now.

~~~
froo
Same, I've always wanted to make a dungeon crawler/adventure style game
similar to the old Warhammer Quest (for personal use that is)

This might help push me closer to that goal, since my homemade cards don't
have the polish as those printed on better quality stock.

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jkincaid
Just wrote about this on TC, I think it's a great idea.
[http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/awesome-the-game-
crafte...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/16/awesome-the-game-crafter-lets-
you-build-and-sell-your-own-custom-board-games/)

To give credit where credit is due, I found it here. Would link to this thread
but there's the whole HN secrecy thing (is that still enforced?). Feel free to
bash TC below :)

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pchristensen
Just a plug for people interested in game design, I have a shared blog about
making games:

<http://hackersandgamers.posterous.com/>

Email me if you'd like to contribute.

~~~
nopassrecover
Interesting stuff here (even for applying to PC games). Thanks!

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JoelSutherland
I'm not sure how I feel about their pricing:

 _The profit is split between you and The Game Crafter equally (50% each)._

I would rather have this priced in to their production costs.

~~~
catone
I was really excited when I saw this headline stream by on my HN RSS feed.
That pricing gives me pause as well, but only slightly.

What really matters to me is how the licensing is handled. I.e., as long as I
own full rights and can pull my game out of their system whenever I want
(i.e., if I find that my game is popular enough that I think I can self
publish or if I find an established company that wants to buy it), then I
don't really mind that they take such a large %. It's still a cheap way to
prototype and sell to real game players to get feedback. :)

Anyway, this sounds awesome, but now it means less sleep for the next couple
of weeks while I pull all those random scraps of paper that make up my game
ideas into something more formal. ;)

~~~
cdr
Not hard to find: <http://www.thegamecrafter.com/publish/rights>

~~~
netsp
Basically the answer is yes (explicitly), you retain rights. Yes (explicitly),
you can use the service for prototyping and yes, it is possible start with
them and move some place cheaper once it makes financial sense.

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replicatorblog
It is pretty neat. This is actually an area where 3D printing could be fairly
useful. You could design custom or choose components or choose pre-designed
ones from a catalog and have them printed in plastic or metal. They would
still be fairly expensive, but if you are going for a family heirloom it might
be worth the cost. You could also do quite a bit with higher end boards, laser
cutting woods and plastics.

~~~
Zaak
3D printed game bits was the first thing I thought of when I started looking
at their site. I would love to see them offer that in the future.

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ja27
I'm trying to find something more meaningful to say than just "neat" or
"awesome", which this is.

So what other niches could somebody do this in? Where else are there
frustrated amateur designers that would love to see their creations
professionally produced (and sold)?

We already have design-your-own shops for books, CDs, DVDs, tshirts,
skateboard decks, Lego sets, circuit boards, bobbleheads, metal machining, ...

What's left? Textiles? Clothing? Food? Wallpaper?

~~~
alex_c
Cars?

At least the body design, even if they're built on common platforms.

~~~
replicatorblog
Cars too, a start up called Local Motors (<http://www.local-motors.com>) is
trying to do a custom/crowdsourced car company. I think it is more conceptual
at this point though. The capital requirements are crazy and I think we'll see
more innovation in this area from companies like Toyota.

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GavinB
The game pieces are fairly generic, so it looks like the best games for this
would be heavily card or board based. You can control the art there, so it
wouldn't look generic.

The real key here is the ability to print custom card decks. Most of the rest
of it could be replicated on your own without too much difficulty.

~~~
replicatorblog
Very true, though if they up the ability to customize the pieces using custom
manufacturing tech that will give them a strong point of differentiation. It
is a great product category to start with.

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GavinB
I think I'll make a board game version of twitter. You compete to get the most
followers, to get replied to by major bloggers, to get retweeted, and
mentioned in the news. The ultimate winner is the first to get a million
followers.

Who's in?

~~~
vyrotek
I think Ill make a similar game except the idea will be to create a bunch of
fake accounts, get a lot of followers and spam marketing links everywhere.

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cesare
Pretty cool idea.

Even just to create a game for yourself for playing with friends.

The website is a bit limited, though.

The games pages should have at least a picture of the board and a description
of the included parts.

~~~
replicatorblog
Totally agree, when you are selling pre-manufactured products it is even more
important than usual to nail down the aesthetics and provide clear product
previews. Amazon can skate with small, not so great product images because
people trust the brands, but with this kind of Mass Customization
visualization is key.

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slmbrhrt
This is a fantastic idea. I've got a few board games in the works, and this
would be a great way to get some decent prototypes made up for cheap. No more
sharpies and white hankies for me!

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robotron
Game publishing on-demand. I like it. Music, books, what's next?

~~~
cesare
(cheaper) electronic circuits?

3D printed furniture and kitchenware?

~~~
preview
Do FPGAs count as cheaper electronic circuits?

~~~
wmf
FPGAs are generally more expensive.

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TrevorJ
This seems really great, however, the TINY resolution requirement for the box
art makes me wonder how good the quality will be printed out.

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mattmaroon
One step closer to being able to produce my game, Settlers of Canton.

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vaksel
pretty damn cool, all this guys need is a single home run, that would get
talked about in the press and this thing will take off like a rocket ship.

~~~
dave_au
I just checked <http://www.boardgamegeek.com> to see if it was mentioned
there. It was, and it was compared to <http://www.superiorpod.com/> and
<http://www.guildofblades.com/>, in case anyone was looking to compare
alternatives.

Discussion was here <http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/424272> and here
<http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/424309>

Also, for those that don't know, boardgamegeek is an awesome resource for
board game information.

~~~
froo
_"Also, for those that don't know, boardgamegeek is an awesome resource for
board game information."_

Just wanted to highlight that for anyone who didn't see it.

BGG got me playing games like Descent (despite it's horrendous pricing when
you factor in the price of all of the expansions... 4!) and Catan and I've
never looked back, thoroughly enjoyed the social aspect of it.

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bprater
Ambitious!

