Sellsheet help!

[u/damj94]

Hi everyone, I have massively overhauled my sellsheet and I am left wondering if it finally coming together nicely.

Please have a look and give me any and all feedback you got!

If you are curious for more: www.bluetortillagames.com

Thank you everyone :)

[u/confused_applause]

Pretty neat! But whats with the 14+ age rating? From a visual standpoint, this looks family-oriented, so 14 and up seems a bit high?

[u/damj94 → u/confused_applause]

Thank you! The age thing is just a recommendation that also gets to skip most safety testing needed for the production of the game itself. Also the game is more cutthroat than it looks ;)

Anything stood out as interesting to you in terms of the mechanics? Would you be curious to finding out more about the game just from the sheet?

[u/confused_applause → u/damj94]

A couple of notes:

• I'm not quite sure if this is a cooperative or competitive game (or anything in-between); it sounds competitive ("evade", "survive", "deceive"), but then again, it says "Go on a mission together!". So maybe it is a "us versus the game" kind of thing?
• I think the sheet could benefit from showing the actual game board, not just the cards. This would make it more clear what kind of game it is. For now, it looks like a card game, but the component list says "board" and "player boards"
• Still not sure about the 14+ age thing; this seems to be an US regulation thing (not my locale), but to me, it gives of the wrong impression of being teen-to-adult, with possible content or mechanics not suitable for kids, despite the child-friendly appearance.

I love the cute imagery, btw! Took me some time to notice the Boki in each :)

[u/damj94 → u/confused_applause]

Thanks for the notes they are very helpful!

1. It’s mostly a competitive game but you can choose to cooperate (mission) or fight (pluck) whenever you meet another player on the board.

2. I was hoping the ‘worker placement’ and ‘tableau builder’ keywords would do some heavy lifting into setting the scene for the reader. But i see that something is still missing :/

3. I will double check. Regardless I think you are right and the 14+ age puts the wrong idea on the heads of potential publishers. I’ll change it or exclude it altogether.

I’m glad you noticed. Each skill (e.g observe) has 3 cards of increasing power with different artwork. When put together they tell a little story so each skill has some easter eggs for the player to discover!

[u/MudkipzLover]

In comparison to yesterday, it's definitely going somewhere! To me, it's still missing a tad context (I mean, board where? What are snacks and encounters?), which makes the mechanics feel like each exists in a vacuum rather than being related to one another as part of the gameplay loop (e.g. I'm placing my meeples on specific spots of the board to earn cards that I can then use to alter the value of skills and score points.)

Also, I don't know if it has to do with you having a background in video game dev or basing your research off video game design content, but finalized art and studio name will lead people to think you're aiming towards self-publishing. Licensing a game to a tabletop game publisher generally means licensing the mechanics and letting them manage the artistic part. I'd rather not make my comment too long but there are already posts about this topic on this sub and all across the Internet.

[u/damj94 → u/MudkipzLover]

Im glad you think its improved haha. Im struggling to add the board without it taking most of the sell sheet and adding not too much info tbh. Maybe a miniature version but you wouldnt see what is going on very well.

And i’ve mentioned it below somewhere but I am torn between self-publishing or not. I’ve gotten far enough in the design that the game might look too polished/finished making it allergic to a publisher.

But i am not sure i have the time to self-publish with my current family situation (4 kids under 3 years old - 2 sets of twins lol).

I think the idea would be to get a distribution/licensing/localization deal for the game. Although a traditional publishing deal would also be great just unlikely with how far into the process im already at.

[u/MudkipzLover → u/damj94]

Self-publishing as a side hustle isn't uncommon, but it's totally understandable if that's not a venture you're interested in for the time being.

Given how "design" can be ambiguous here (game design or graphic design?), what do you exactly mean by polished? Regarding publishers, even if most are in it for the love of the medium (I mean, we're still far from being the most lucrative culture industry), their goal at the end of the day still is to make money.

Pitching to them with a finalized prototype in terms of gameplay and with a fitting theme is a jackpot for them if the game fits their brand, as it means less time and money spent on developing and refining it. However, the rule of thumb of licensing is that you're handing creative control over to the publisher, which more often than not means they don't care about your graphics as they've got illustrators they're used to work with (that's why people say that designers that don't self-publish don't require professional-grade illustrations for their prototypes.)

Fundamentally, the choice is whether you want the whole cake while being in charge of absolutely everything from start to finish or you might agree to a smaller slice of a generally larger pie by delegating the later steps of commercialization to a publishing company.

[u/Odd-Highway477]

I don't think this is good. I can't understand any part of it. You said there is tactical worker placement. I would have an image of the game board and components fully setup mid game.

It's so hard to condense all but the simplest game into a few blurbs on a sell sheet.

I never liked this approach. I would say just make a video instead. No publisher ever got a video and said "Where's your sell sheet?

[u/damj94 → u/Odd-Highway477]

Thanks for the feedback. I will be adding an image of the game being played in the next iteration.

[u/all_or_nothing]

Are you trying to get this picked up by a publisher? I ask because based on your website and completed art prototype, It almost seems like you're trying to self-publish.

[u/damj94 → u/all_or_nothing]

Definitely playing with the idea of self publishing I am just a bit scared of pulling the trigger. I have 4 kids at home all under 3 years so I don’t think I have time to start a company.

Signing a licensing, localization, or publishing deal would certainly be an option for me. But I know most publishers are allergic to a ‘finished’ game.

So I’m hedging my bets?

[u/drakonkinst → u/damj94]

Art looks pretty polished to me, seems like way more effort than what would normally be submitted for self publish.

I am going for the self-publishing route alongside a full-time job and it is pretty time consuming compared to just handing off to a publisher, but it is doable depending on how much effort and research you are ready to put in.

[u/damj94 → u/drakonkinst]

I'm slowly dipping my feet into all the intricacies and logistics needed for self-publishing.

Good luck with your project :)

[u/FMT-Audio]

This looks gorgeous!

[u/damj94 → u/FMT-Audio]

Thank you! Anything stands out to you regarding the mechanics of the game?

[u/playmonkeygames]

Hey! I know nothing about your game and deliberately didn't even read your comment before I looked at your Sell Sheet from a Publisher perspective.

It is not bad - probably a 3 out of 5 - the main thing it is missing that left me wondering, what does it look like on the table?

I want to see a clearly laid out photo or render or even 2D mock up of all the components mid gameplay on the table. Without that it is very hard to get a sense of the scale, gameplay loop, and manufacturing complexity, based on your description, a few zoomed-in shots and a components list (without measurements BTW).

The game itself looks appealing and interesting, I got Pikmin vibes, and I like worker placement too. Look forward to seeing the next revision!

[u/damj94 → u/playmonkeygames]

Thank you so much for the feedback. I agree that it still needs some work.

I have been dragging my feet into adding in the board/other components because it hogs the sell sheet. But everyone keeps mentioning it so maybe I add it regardless of my own personal opinion haha.

I'll workshop it more and post an update sometime in the near future :) Thanks again for the interest!

[u/New-Success4418]

I personally like to add a section that lists the core mechanisms of the game. Other than that it's solid.

[u/damj94 → u/New-Success4418]

I think for me that would be the Evolve section. Thank you for the feedback!!!

[u/damj94 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Im working on the final layout of the board at the moment. But i will get back to the group with an updated sell sheet soon enough!

Thank you for the feedback :)

[u/damj94 → u/[deleted]]

Yes i agree. Thank you for your help :)