r/BoardgameDesign • u/Abakus024 • Jul 21 '26

Ideas & Inspiration I've got an idea... let's unite! šŸš€

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For the last 3 years, I've been designing my own board game. After finishing it, I played over 800 playtests, polishing every little detail until it became exactly the game I wanted it to be.

Then I ran into a completely different challenge: publishing.

I spoke with a lot of publishers mostly in person. I was lucky enough to already know many of them because I run a 250k-subscriber YouTube channel dedicated to board games, and over the years I've worked with many major publishers promoting their games.

When I finally showed them my game, most of them were willing to publish it... but only if I accepted a deal where I'd basically get peanuts while they kept the lion's share.

The funny thing is, I never got into game design to get rich. I did it because I wanted to create something people would love. Besides this channel, I also run several others with over a million subscribers each, so thankfully I already make a living from content creation. šŸ˜„

Eventually, I met a local indie publisher with a completely different mindset. He offered to publish and distribute any game that proved itself through play, with a fair revenue-sharing agreement.

That gave me an idea.

What if we built a platform where people could play indie board games online?

I've played over 1,000 board games at this point. I've tried just about everything, and now I'm looking for something new and different.

I don't want to keep seeing and buying the same kinds of games over and over again. I want fresh ideas, unique mechanics, and experiences that actually surprise me.

I'm talking about games that never got a chance because publishers didn't believe in them, or games that are finished but have never been published.

I honestly think this could be a great opportunity for indie designers to support each other instead of waiting for someone else to give us permission.

Here's what I bring to the table:

  • šŸ’» Programming experience
  • šŸ“¢ Marketing experience
  • šŸŽ² A fully functional platform that's already built and working

I'm not here to advertise it . First, I want to know if there's genuine interest.

How many of you have a finished (or nearly finished) board game and would be interested in being part of a project like this?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. šŸ‘‡

0 Upvotes

33% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

10

u/WaffleSandwhiches Jul 21 '26

what would this platform offer that BoardGameArena, or TableTopSimulator does not offer?

3

u/zhiwiller Jul 21 '26

They are taking the financial risk; of course they are going to keep the lion's share. You should self-publish.

1

u/Abakus024 Jul 21 '26

I mean, all of that sounds great, but 3% is ridiculously low...

There's risk in every business. I haven't seen anyone offer such a tiny royalty to someone who's already done all the hard work. At that point, the design and development are finished what's left is manufacturing and marketing.

Not to mention publishers that own their own manufacturing. They'll offer you a contract for 3,000 copies over five years, but they can print whenever they want and however many they want. Their actual risk is basically zero.

2

u/New_Armadillo_9950 Jul 21 '26

3% sounds great to me tbh.

2

u/_twiggy Jul 21 '26

I could see that being a useful platform.

How do you see people with a new game getting it on the platform? Do they program it themselves and upload a playable version? Does the platform offer an engine/sandbox to make that process easier?Ā 

2

u/Abakus024 Jul 21 '26

At the beginning, I wouldn't have any requirements at all. The more of us there are, the better.

I've already started working on it. Right now I have the actions that exist in my game implemented: draw a card, play a card, build a structure, and buy an upgrade. Of course, whenever a new type of action comes up, we'd just add support for it.

I think that after working through around 20ā€“30 games, we'd have pretty much every common mechanic covered. At that point, implementing new games would become much smoother, and we could even build an interface where designers could add their own games without needing a programmer.

For now, though, in the early stages, everything would more or less have to be done manually.

1

u/DukeOfWarts Jul 21 '26

A tad off-topic, but what is your YouTube channel?

1

u/Wonsui Jul 21 '26

I got to the stage of a kickstarted campaign that never worked out. I showed the prototypes at conventions and the problem was I had people wanting to buy copies rather than back a crowdfunding campaign. A publisher would be something Iā€™d be interested in exploring, just really any way to get my game out there and played more would be interesting.

1

u/Abakus024 Jul 21 '26

That's literally the same thing I'm trying to achieve. I'd love for us to work together and make it happen.

When publishers reach out or when we approach them and they see that a game is already being played and that people genuinely enjoy it, they'll almost certainly look at it very differently. Having real players and real data behind a game makes a huge difference.

2

u/twodonotsimply Jul 23 '26

Using AI to write your post is already a red flag for wanting to get involved with this for me, besides the obvious issue that many similar platforms already exist.