Checklist for Making a Game

This comprehensive checklist guides board game designers from concept to production.

What it is: A Quickstart Guide to Making a Board Game: a 7-page tick-box checklist that takes you from first idea to selling your game.
Who it's for: First-time game creators at the concept stage, before any money goes into artwork or manufacturing.
What's inside: Four stages: game play and design (including playtesting), the artwork stage, manufacturing and logistics, and marketing and selling your board game.
How to use it: Work through it in order and tick each box before moving on. Every step is there to save you time and money later.

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Hero Time Limited

A QUICKSTART GUIDE TO MAKING A BOARD GAME In this checklist, we will walk you through the essentials of creating your board game. From brainstorming, playtesting and developing your game to marketing and selling it. Follow this list one to one to avoid pitfalls and to make sure your game will sell. Don’t skip even one step as they are all crucial and will save you a lot of time and money.

GAME PLAY AND DESIGN ☐ Write down 3 specific emotions you want your players to feel when playing your game.

(Excitement, humor, a sense of progress) think of the following questions: 

In which games have you felt those emotions?(Cards Against Humanity, Uno, Colt Express)

Which specific moments have made you feel those emotions? (Playing a good card in CAH, Combos in Uno and flipping the deck in Colt Express to execute actions)

Make sure your game theme can evoke these emotions

How long should the experience you’re looking to provide last for? (15-30 mins / 30-60 mins / 60-120 mins / 120 + mins

☐ Figure out what will the game play look like – answer the following questions      

What will players be doing on their turns? What will they use to take actions in the game? What short term goals will players have? What is the long-term goal of players? What will trigger the end of the game? What is needed to make a physical version of the game?

☐ Make a preliminary list of your components – you can check components here Board Game

Pieces Archives – Board Game Manufacturer (herotime1.com) ☐ Create a prototype for your game – 

You can make a physical prototype or a virtual one on tabletop simulator

Make sure you have at least 5 rounds of play with your prototype

☐ Find play testers for your game: family, friends, yourself, game groups and others ☐ Find professional play testers to play your game and give you the hard truth about the

game – do not be cheap, it is worth the money. You can use our team at https://www.herotime1.com/board-game-testing/ ☐ Throughout the playtest answer the following crucial questions:   

What decisions are players making? Are these decisions interesting? Do players have a good understanding of their goals?

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Hero Time Limited     

What was the most frustrating aspect of what you played? What was your favorite moment of what you played? Is there anything you wanted to do, but couldn’t? What were you doing in this experience? How would you describe this game to your friends or family?

☐ Start writing the draft of the rulebook while working on the Game! According to our survey,

over 50% of designers recommend that you keep updating the rulebook as you go through playtests and understand new things about your game. ☐ After you think the game “is done” do a few more blind tests with people you do not know ☐ Make a final list of all your components and get in touch with Hero Time to make sure the

game is feasible price wise, you can also check our quotation system

ARTWORK STAGE The right artwork can make your game look and feel amazing! Unless you want to create the artwork yourself, it is a good idea to find an artist who fits the game. Note: This is a step you don’t want to jump into too early, so it is good to have already be at a point where you are happy with the game in terms of gameplay and theme.

Working with an Artist ☐ Make an art/vision board. Find artwork which would fit your game and place it all in one document. Having a vision board will not only help you understand what you’d like your game to feel like, but will make it much easier for the artist you end up working with. You can find art from other games or on websites like deviantart.com which you can add to your vision board.

☐ Find the right artist. The best place to start would be to reach out to an artist whose work you love. Send a message to any artists you really liked from your vision board and see if they would be interested in creating art for your game. Check out the artists we work with at Hero Time!

☐ Make a list of art assets needed and get a quote from your artist See which components will need artwork for your game. Make a list of illustrations you’d like and be as specific as possible. Send the list to your artist and ask them what their price would be. If you have a lot of necessary artwork, most artists would offer you a payment plan, and different prices based on the amount of detail you’d like.

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Hero Time Limited

Crucial Steps ☐ Make sure you talk to us in advance to consult you on components and to make sure the components you chose are all feasible and the correct size https://calendly.com/hero-timecreator-assistance

☐ After confirming the components download the right templates for your artwork at https://www.herotime1.com/template-generator/ ☐ Make sure you and your artist follow the best practices of artwork creation for your game, learn more How To Set Up Your Board Game Artwork For Print - YouTube ☐ If you need any assistance to make sure your artwork is done properly contact us ☐ At this stage you can start planning also your advertisement content for social media, banners, Kickstarter etc. Check for exact ratios here

MANUFACTURING AND LOGISTICS Manufacturing ☐ Make a list of all the final components. ☐ As you create the artwork and start sharing your game with people, there will be a few changes in the components, make sure you update the list and let us know. ☐ Determine the age of players and check with us about safety tests in different markets if needed ☐ Make sure you label your game correctly. Visit our resource page to check regulations. ☐ If your game requires any standard or test, it is time to make them ☐ Upload all your artwork to the cloud. (We use Microsoft cloud to ensure the safe transfer of files, and that everyone has access to the files in one place to avoid mistakes) ☐ Work with the creator assistant to adjust your final files for print and make sure they convert well to the print version ☐ Start production and get updates and videos from the production floor

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Logistics ☐ Find a warehouse to store your game (it can be in your home or at any warehouse of your

choosing) ☐ According to your sales channels you should find a fulfillment center (if you sell on Amazon you can use FBA, selling on your own site you can choose any other 3PL solution, or even fulfill from home) ☐ If you plan on selling internationally find other fulfillment centers that can fulfill in your target market ☐ Make a detailed list of all your shipping locations, including o o o o

Name of recipient Address with Zip code Phone number for contact Number of games to send

And send us the list, so we can send games to those specific locations (we send worldwide including duty and VAT. Contact us for more details. ☐ If you are KS your project, make sure you have a pledge manager and a detailed list of all addresses of backers so we can fulfill and send them games directly from China. ☐ If you fulfill with Amazon, use your amazon account to create labels for the game so we can put on the game before we ship *In this section we will walk you through the steps and do the heavy lifting

MARKETING AND SELLING YOUR BOARD GAME Intro to Marketing There are two types of channels you can use for marketing A. Discovery – word of mouth, Press releases, reviewers, and community management B. Advertisement – Googleads, Amazon ads, Facebook ads, banner placement, etc.

Though these channels are different, they share some fundamental things you have to do:

Fundamentals ☐ Find your audience! Who are you targeting and why will they like your game? ☐ Interact with your audience and get a feel for them, learn them and what they like (have an anonymous survey done) ☐ Build a website that represents your company/game and connects with your audience.

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☐ Make sure your website is built to convert and generate sales or at least to generate leads (emails and contacts) – contact us if you need some advice on website

Discovery ☐ Build a Facebook page so people can follow and know who you are (Twitter, IG, etc. Can work as well) ☐ 5-10 marketing emails, you can use Mailchimp or even do it manually ☐ Make sure your personal Facebook page represents who you are and what you do as well. ☐ Join relevant groups (only those groups where your specific audience hangs out) ☐ From withing those groups find the perfect reviewers and community leaders that will help you share about your game ☐ Find reviewers on YouTube that will talk about your game. Check all reviewers list here Board Game Reviewers | No.1 Board Game Manufacturer in China. (herotime1.com) ☐ Find other active blogs to talk about your game ☐ Donate games to increase awareness etc. ☐ Do some giveaways (these can become a bloated expense with no direct result, use with caution) ☐ Offer existing customers benefits for friend referral *make sure you talk about your game with your target audience from the early stages of development

Advertisements ☐ Choose at least two platforms to promote your game in (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Youtube etc.) ☐ Check what keywords your audience looks for on the chosen platforms ☐ Evaluate which keywords are the cheapest and have high conversion (words you can rank easily for) ☐ Choose 5 keywords to focus on ☐ Create at least (best practice is 10 of each) 3 short video ads (Facebook and YouTube), 3 written ads (heading and meta description) for google and Amazon, and 3 banner ads (if you will use this channel). – each ad should represent a different view of the game e.g. actual game play, display, what players get ☐ Run the ads for a good 10 days

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☐ Do a A/B Trial with your ads

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☐ After seeing the results tweak the ads for better conversion ☐ Keep repeating until you get the best result Acquiring an audience takes persistence. Make a habit of finding and maintaining good contact with your audience and soon you’ll have built a community interested in your game ☐ Offer existing customers benefits for friend referral *All these practices are also relevant if you are promoting a Kickstarter Page

CROWDFUNDING – ONLY IF YOU MUST A word of warning: Many people misconceive and see crowdfunding as free money they can get for their idea before they even invested in their game. However, this cannot be farther from the truth. Promoting a crowdfunding page successfully requires a much larger investment than promoting your own website and game. On average campaigns up to 30,000USD spend around 6,000USD on advertising and building the infrastructure around their project. With this investment income is not guaranteed even if it funds successfully. (In contrast to regular channels where you at least generate sales and some revenue). Hence, crowdfunding is not for everyone nor for every game. If your game is cheap enough to make and you believe in it, simply make it and follow our marketing checklist to start generating a consistent income from your dream. If you still want to venture down the road of Crowdfunding, please do the following: ☐ Learn how to open a Kickstarter and all the terminology involved in it in this youtube playlist ☐ Create your 1:30 to 3 Minutes video ☐ Define all your Rewards Correctly (Pledge Levels) ☐ Define the funding goal (Base on the Calculations) – Contact us here. ☐ Determine whether to do Early birds ☐ Decide to do or not to do stretch goals ☐ Look for Collaborators After completing the above tasks, you should start thinking about the content on the page itself. We have created for you a full list here of all possible pieces. Use a pencil to check those pieces you think are necessary for you.

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YES! Might Don’t

Hero Time Limited Part / Section of the campaign (not in any particular order)

need 1:30 to 3 minutes video about the Game / you Engaging intro Presentation Good looking images Themed Banners / Theme campaign overall Gif animations of the game’s key elements How to play section Pledge Level Description / what’s in the box section Stretch goals Shipping Description, including Tax and Duties policies Review/Preview/Walkthrough Section Quotes About the game from other players Gameplay Video (Could be from an actual play or from tabletop simulator) “Why back now” Section Rulebook Access Highlighted Features of your game (like unique mechanic, the quality of components, miniatures detail, etc) Add-ons for the specific page which will increase Pledge amount? Disclaimer If the game might affect minorities. You have to mitigate the public opini on by doing your disclaimer. End of campaign, list information: we are talking about the “Negative feeling” issue s like Return Policies, Cancelation policies, Risk and factors from a crowdfunding.

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