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W. Eric Martin
United States
Apex
North Carolina
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• German publisher 2F-Spiele has released rules in both English (PDF) and German (PDF) for how to use The New Power Plant Cards, published in 2007, with all of the Power Grid expansions released through 2011.
• On the Tasty Minstrel Games blog, owner Michael Mindes explains the concept of "money 'at risk" in publishing", forking the concept into "profitability being at risk" and "cash flow being at risk" and detailing how Kickstarter eases cash flow at risk:
Quote: The hidden and amazing benefit of Kickstarter is the advance of cash flow. The cash flow exchange is reversed. The cash is in hand before much of it is due to pay for things. Not to mention that these initial sales will allow a publisher to do things like boost the total number of copies ordered which will lower their per unit price and boost their profitability.
He then emphasizes the point, noting that successful Kickstarter projects allow a publisher to keep "cash inside of the company, which allows for more projects to be undertaken". I've heard this argument from other publishers, too, with them noting that they have budgeted for X games to be released in year Y, so they throw oddball games or games that suddenly became available to them onto Kickstarter, figuring that if those games are funded, then great and if not, then they'll carry on with their previously determined publishing schedule and la de da.
Now of course taking this approach with Kickstarter could still cannibalize sales of previously budgeted-for items, but I suppose these publishers figure that a lost sale could just as easily come from an opposing publisher's game as easily as from one of their own.
• Mindes has also published a guest post from Panda Game Manufacturing's Michael Lee explaining the basic steps of board game manufacturing.
• Matthew Duhan of Gozer Games is interviewed by Go Forth and Game's Tom Gurganus and talks about the company's history and all aspects of what's involved with publishing.
• Are you ready to create the perfect game? Or at least crowdsource the most perfect game possible based on the whims of whoever participates? Dutch publisher 999 Games is running an open game design event called Het Perfecte Spel (The Perfect Game) in which the public is asked to participate in various ways, starting with a brainstorming phase from January 4-30, 2012 in which participants decide which qualities this perfect game should have. The subsequent phases are concept, development phase and production phase, with all of this taking place in Dutch and on a website devoted to the experiment, that being HetPerfecteSpel.nl (which won't go live until Jan. 4, 2012).
• In a post about items that Steve Jackson Games reprinted in 2011, SJG's Phil Reed notes that the 24th(!) printing of Munchkin is 100,000 copies(!!)
• Michael Schacht has released a Christmas-themed downloadable expansion for Mondo. This and many other downloadable expansions for the game – including the Spiel 2011 promos Mondo Micro and Mondo: Das Duell (although only in German for the latter one) – are available on Schacht's Mondo website.
• Similarly, Schacht has posted the mini Catta expansion for Zooloretto on the Zooloretto website. Seriously, if you wanted to, you could spend entire weeks dressing up the Schacht titles in your collection with all the spin-offs and additions and variants that he's designed. I don't know whether that's good customer service or evidence of a sadistic streak toward game completionists...
• Finally French publisher Jactalea offers both a pun and a hint at future releases with its New Year's note to this in the industry:
"Bonne année" becomes "buttonne année"
Napoleon was a button?!
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"Bonne année" becomes "buttonne année"
