30 – When You Finish Multiple Prototypes…

… you’re busy for quite a while. My set of review prototypes kept me fully occupied for the last three weeks. And they really had to get done, because the 12 m² of cardboard and 14 m² of paper were taking up a huge amount of space in my apartment.

Creature standees and color hearts for 3 games

Matte varnish for the boxes so they’re less sensitive to water

Boxes drying and waiting to be filled

Components ready for packing

If I hadn’t made them myself and had ordered them from my manufacturer instead, 10 prototypes would have cost me €2000–3000. I also would have had to wait around 2–2.5 months for them. On top of that, I would have had to interrupt my illustrators’ work to adjust some graphics for printing — all for prototypes where many illustrations aren’t even in full color yet. Prototypes from a manufacturer aren’t always that expensive, but my game — even without miniatures or complex plastic components — is quite elaborate and definitely not small. The materials cost me about €55 per game, and in total I processed around 650 individual parts (cardboard, cards, paper, stickers, card sleeves…).

The finished mountain of games

They still take up a lot of space, but seeing them completed is a huge relief. Now it’s time to ship them out. I’m excited to see what happens next.

Do you have any questions about crafting prototypes? Just leave a comment — I’d love to hear from you!