Does your FLGS carry our line of games?

Do you have a favorite local game store that carries boardgames / wargames?  Since we're new to distribution, I would really like you to refer me to the store's owner. I'd like to personally call the owner and ask him/her to carry our line of games and also send the store some promo items and info about us!

Please let me know their location, website, and the owner's name in a comment to this post and I'll do the rest!

Thanks!

It's just cool to order 8800 dice...

Production of Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 is officially underway. I'm in pre-press on the artwork files and busy prepping them for print- even modifying the "final artwork" a bit based on some feedback- adding some Mark Mahaffey-supplied textures to the backgrounds of the various cards. One fairly easy component to take care of is the single non-custom component in the game- dice.

Most people probably don't put much thought into dice, but they're as important as the artwork, game mechanics, and box. The cost of the dice can really vary among suppliers based on what is available, what is popular, and other factors. I went with "good" dice for Spearpoint- a bit of a polished touch for the game- by "good" I mean a 'non-opaque' color, a standard size, and something that matches the card colors in the game.

In the game, the German cards are a (surprise) textured German gray color, and the US cards are a textured blue color. So for selecting dice, I wanted two D10 gray dice for the German player and two D10 blue dice for the US player. Talk about choices- there are hundreds of D10 dice out there in all styles and colors and a few different sizes.

I chose dice supplied by Chessex for this game (http://www.chessex.com/), one of the industry suppliers. Quite simply I got a better price from Chessex than other suppliers, and as a publisher, I have to shop around for good prices on components or I'm not doing my job. The savings get passed on in the form of a lower MSRP for customers.

I don't personally like opaque dice. Maybe I'm picky, but I wanted something a bit more stylish for the game. Opaques are certainly functional and would have done the job - maybe for a few pennies less - but I went with speckled dice instead. For the gray dice, I chose Chessex's Ninja style. The blue dice are also in the speckled line and are called Stealth. Both are pictured below:

Dice, like any component, are cheaper in quantity. To support the planned initial print run of the game, I had to order 8800 total dice - 4400 of each color. This supports the print run as well as potential overages.

They arrived at the printer the other day and I couldn't help but think, "It's just cool to order 8800 dice..."

Distribution in Germany + a second US distributor

Collins Epic Wargames is pleased to announce that Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943, Frontline General: San Pietro Infine, and other future games will now be distributed in Germany through UGG (http://www.ugg.de/).

In addition, our games were picked up by another US distributor, ACD Distribution ( http://www.acdd.com/) after discussions at the recent GAMA Trade Show 2010 in Las Vegas, NV. This is in addition to our current US distributor (Alliance Games) and our current Spanish distributor.

We're very excited to have our games carried by more retail stores across the globe and we greatly appreciate your demand for Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 at your FLGS which is partially driving these accomplishments as a publisher. We hope that you look forward to seeing Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 on the shelf in your FLGS and also hope that you will consider picking it up if you haven't already preordered! Release date is planned for sometime in May 2010!

Final Artwork Preview- Spearpoint 1943

I've posted a final artwork preview on the Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 gallery on Boardgamegeek.com. Here is a link to the announcement thread posted yesterday on BGG:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/486052/final-artwork-preview-frontline-general-spearpoi

I've also posted a few examples from the artwork preview below.

Please browse to the game's gallery to check out all of the images uploaded (29 total).

Spearpoint 1943 progress update

To follow up on my last blog post, a few updates are in order regarding Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943. It's always a good thing when you're waiting on others to get back to you rather than being the one on the hook for files, information, and *gasp* payments. Today I find myself pretty-well caught up, which is highly unusual.

• We are definitely running a contest with the help of Boardgamegeek.com starting February 1st 2010 and will be giving away 20 preorders of Spearpoint 1943 as prize support. I sent all of the contest materials to Chad at Boardgamegeek yesterday so their programmers can get a jump on setting the contest up.
  
  
• Frontline General News Issue 14 is written, but not yet formatted. This issue includes a feature article that takes readers through the entire game and previews a lot of final art.
  
  
• This past weekend I filmed a full game of Spearpoint 1943 with the help of my friend Brandon. I'm beginning to edit this video and will post it on our site along with FG News 14 as a supplement to the newsletter. I won't reveal who won the game, but let's just say that person's defeat was decisive.
  
  
• I've placed the order for 15 Print-on-Demand (POD) copies of Spearpoint 1943 to prepare for a tournament in February at Williamsburg Muster. Many of the POD copies will then go to PODcasters (PUN intended) for pre-release reviews. I've been in touch with several podcasters who have committed to doing a pre-release review of the game.
  
  
• I've ordered a new retractable banner stand for upcoming 2010 conventions in order to make my setup a bit more portable. I had been using homemade PVC stands to hoist our 3-4 banners, but they required transport by truck.
  
  
• Before February 1st I'll be posting artwork and DRAFT Rules to the game's BGG entry in prep for the contest. I'm trying to time this upload with my release of FG News 14.
  
  
• I'm pushing forward with production plans. I'm still waiting on the printer to review the artwork files and tell me everything is okay.
  
  
• I've written two more Scenarios for this game, which I'm now calling "Situations" just to be different. Scenarios seems like an over-used name in the world of wargames.
  
  
• Collins Epic Wargames is now officially an LLC!

Final Artwork Complete - Spearpoint 1943 + Updates

It's been a while between posts, but I have been incredibly busy with game design. I can finally breathe a little...

This weekend, I completed final card artwork on all of the cards for Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943, my new WWII squad-level combined arms card game, which is available for preorder direct at $24 + shipping. The artwork is for 175 cards total (86 of them unique) and includes 50 German Unit Cards, 50 US Unit Cards, 50 Command Cards, and 25 Damage Cards.

I printed an update to my prototype on photo paper last night as I listened to some music in the Drum & Base genre (I find it helpful to listen to repetitive beats when I'm doing repetitive work like trimming out or sleeving cards). I had previously finished and printed the 100 Unit Cards and only needed to print the Damage and Command Cards, so it took less time than I expected and my Dahle rotary trimmer made quick work of the new cards. Once I finished sleeving the final Command Card, after months of extensive work on the game and testing, I finally had a sense of completion.

What's next for Spearpoint 1943?

• I'm currently preparing a small 15-copy Print-On-Demand run through superiorpod.com which will be ordered this week to support a pre-release tournament at the upcoming Williamsburg Muster Convention in Williamsburg, VA. I'll then send some of the POD copies off to reviewers and podcasters to generate some pre-release reviews and some buzz about the game and with luck, more preorders. Other POD copies will go to some external playtesters who are ready and waiting to do final testing.
  
  
• I'll be previewing the artwork and game rules in the upcoming Issue 14 of Frontline General News. 5 pages of the article are already written but a few more are required. The extensive preview will cover the game in-depth, and will be supplemented by Design Notes and a video walkthrough of gameplay.
  
  
• I'm having our printer look at all of the card artwork files to let me know what I did wrong before production.
  
  
• I'm considering running a contest through http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ to generate more pre-release exposure for the game.
  
  
• I'm working with Mark Mahaffey to finish the box back artwork in the coming weeks.
  
  
• Scenario development and testing continues. I've written 4 of the 8 scenarios that will be freely available for download from our website upon release. The game doesn't depend on scenarios- in fact- standard games will probably be more commonly played- but scenarios really enhance the game for those seeking objective-based games with a little more story. Issue 14 of FG News will go into this more deeply, comparing the various ways to play.
  
  
• I'm re-vamping our brochures, banner ads, magazine ads, and convention marketing material / signage based on the completed artwork.

Why do Video Previews of Boardgames work well?

I recently finished a video component preview of the map artwork and functional design in the upcoming Frontline General: San Pietro Infine game. A direct link to the video may be found here: Link (52mb .MP4 format, use Quicktime to view). The video previews the map for San Pietro in its entirety, shows the area of coverage, explains the functional elements (symbols) and how they are used to replace traditional hexagonal terrain types, and provides a brief intro to the game using period photos courtesty of sanpietroinfine.com.

The video creation and editing took roughly 15 hours for this 15 minute video- part of that time no doubt due to my lack of experience in video editing and learning new software. I used the 30-day free trial of Camtasia Studio 9 by Techsmith, the same company that makes Jing, which is a lower-cost stripped down version of Camtasia (with no editing capability and more limitations). I really like Camtasia for its editing features, but at $300 for a licensed copy, I may stick to the cheaper full version of Jing for future less-complex vids.

Why did I spend the time to do this you may ask? Well there are several reasons:

• Videos provide visual and audible communication all at once. I can clearly show you what I am talking about and point to it using screen capture.
  
• Videos provide motion and animation and the ability to focus your attention on a single element. With the screen-capture approach, I can zoom in to key points and features, get your attention focused on them with highlighting tools in Camtasia, and quickly move to the next point.
  
• Properly edited videos become polished productions that not only preview elements of games but can also be used as tutorials for players learning the game post-release, eliminating a lot of rules reading.
  
• Showing how something works and talking through it is often much easier than putting it into words, even if it takes a while to talk it through correctly.

I've already mentioned the software I used for this video which I do recommend if you're interested in creating video previews of your games. However, you may want to start with the free version of Jing before diving headfirst into editing, just to see how it works. Once you've used Jing to create a few screen capture vids with your own voice-over, check out Camtasia to see the wealth of features it provides beyond Jing's functionality. The free 30-day trial is fully functional, which is nice, but as I mentioned, the full $300 pricetag for the key to unlock it after 30 days is expensive.

Use of videos to preview boardgame elements works well for all of the reasons mentioned above and for the simple reason of quickly presenting your games visually to a potential customer in a polished format that could impact their decision to buy.