41 – What Actually Happened to the Prototypes?

Lately, I’ve been asked quite often how I managed to get reviews for my board game, and how — and which — reviewers I contacted. It’s not a small undertaking and requires a good amount of time.

In earlier posts, I mentioned that I handcrafted a total of ten prototypes. Creating these prototypes alone cost me a full month of work (full‑time). Of course, this depends heavily on the scope of the game, and you can certainly outsource the production. But even then, you need to plan for plenty of time, because the print files must be prepared, and the prototypes still need to be produced and shipped. That can easily take a month as well — and naturally costs more.

10 pretty prototypes

Over the course of 3.5 months (mid‑May to early October), these prototypes reached a total of 31 people and resulted in around 20 reviews plus several additional playtests. Eight prototypes were shipped out. I kept one German and one English copy for testing, promotion, photos, and videos.

Shipping and reviews take time, and during COVID it wasn’t exactly easy for reviewers to gather enough players around a table. I’d say you should expect about 3–6 weeks per reviewer for a prototype.

How did I contact reviewers? First, you naturally reach out directly to your favorite reviewers. They usually list contact information on their channels. However, not all reviewers do previews (for games not yet available on the market). You can find additional reviewers most quickly through Facebook groups, though there are other good platforms too (BoardGameGeek, Reddit). You can ask players which reviewers they like most, or you can contact reviewers directly.

For example, the group Brettspielwiese includes many German players and reviewers. In English‑speaking groups like The Boardgame Group and Board Game Revolution, you’ll find lots of players. Especially in The Boardgame Group, I recommend talking to Collin Spanberger about this topic. :) In the group Board Game Reviews and Media, you can directly ask for interested reviewers.

It’s also important that the game fits the channel. Not only because you’ll get better recommendations, but also because the reviewer themselves will be genuinely interested in the game. That’s why you should familiarize yourself with each channel — which, of course, takes time. I usually looked for posts about games that target a similar audience to mine, such as Small World.

A high subscriber count is nice, but the views and interactions on the videos themselves are far more relevant. There are channels with many subscribers whose videos barely get any views. That can happen because of bought subscribers, but it can also simply be due to long periods of inactivity. As a result, new posts barely show up, or the channel has one or two extremely successful videos that attracted many people who don’t actually follow the channel otherwise.

How did shipping go? Shipping to the USA and the UK is, of course, expensive, but overall it worked well. Most reviewers kept to their timeframes. Naturally, during COVID there were understandable delays here and there. There were only two annoying incidents: one reviewer kept the game for 2.5 months and repeatedly asked for extensions. During that time, he played it only once, so I eventually had the prototype forwarded without a review. Another prototype got stuck somewhere in the postal system for three months (despite having a shipping confirmation). Aside from that, shipping went very smoothly.

The Sorting System

One more thing to keep in mind when shipping: a prototype — even a professionally produced one — is no longer in its original condition after the first recipient. My game includes a sorting system for standees, and I’ve transported these prototypes many times. They’ve been rolled around on a little cart through Berlin and Essen and got shaken up a bit, but the standees never fell out of the sorting system. However, after the tenth transport or a flight, the shaking seems to become much more extreme. I learned this when one reviewer forgot that this wasn’t a fresh‑from‑the‑factory copy but a handmade prototype — and he made an unboxing video. The video was still lovely overall, but it’s something worth keeping in mind.

Do you have particularly good sources for reviewers? Is there someone you especially enjoy following? Leave me a comment — I’m curious!