Working with BRANDS in the board game industry.

0:00 do brands really matter in the board game industry what is a brand anyway and why should i care about this stuff as a board game designer i'm adam porter i invented the game's picoco doodle rush compromat quasal and several others a few years ago i was approached by a well-known publisher who wanted me to invent them a game they had heard that i made simple light games and i might be just the guy to create the product that they were looking for the publisher had secured the intellectual property rights for a well-known food stuff curry on a stick now everyone loves curry on a stick or at least they think that they love it most adults haven't actually eaten it for 20 years but when they were a student in the 90s it was all the rage now my client funky funsters was a publisher with a large back catalogue of well-loved games for children and their families some dating back decades and decades funky funsters saw potential massive sales in a range of carry on a stick products including a party game which i was to produce the strategy was to inspire nostalgia driven purchases for people who against their better judgment consumed an awful lot of curry on a stick in their younger years so i set about creating a party game which encompassed everything i thought i knew about curry on a stick so here's my interpretation of that brand number one it's disgusting nobody really likes curry on a stick but some people seem to claim that they

1:31 do so perhaps my game could be a bluffing game number two curry on a stick has weird little hundreds and thousands on it brightly colored sugar flakes these are iconic for the brand they've got to be featured in my game maybe they could be the scoring markers number three it's really difficult to eat nobody eats curry on a stick without making a tremendous mess so perhaps my game could be a dexterity game number four it repeats on you you can taste curry on a stick for days this game needs to create memorable moments some of them might even be a little bit uncomfortable so i honed my prototype a bluffing dexterity party game for families with some silly awkward memorable moments which might create a few laughs funky funsters thought the concept was great they presented curry on a stick the party game to the curry on a stick licensing team and i awaited their response i was on tenterhooks excited curry on a stick was massive this could be big the licensing team though they didn't like my design they thought it was too safe pedestrian they reckon that if curry on a stick was a board game it would be cards against humanity they have a strong sense of their product's identity it's edgy it's naughty it doesn't conform to social norms it's rebellious it's cool but funky funsters aren't edgy they're not naughty they do conform and

3:01 they're definitely not cool so i was caught in the middle trying to create an impossible product which merged two incompatible brands or more specifically trying to create a product which incorporated two opposing brand messages i walked away let's rewind a little we need to set about defining what a brand is so let's start with wikipedia a brand is a name a term a design a symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller's goods or services as distinct from that of other sellers now most modern marketers would dispute this definition it really isn't up to the publishing house or the licensing team to dictate what their brand is brands exist in the minds and hearts of the consumer so is this a brand there's a whole range of games and expansions it sells very well but where does the brand reside is it the name is it the typeface is it that yellow sun on a red background is it the promise made to players by catan studios trade build settle is this a brand or is this how about this or this the reality is that all of these things are brand identifiers they signal something to us about the product that we're purchasing they send us a message but they're not the brand the brand is not the message which is being sent out it's the message which is being received it's an emotional thing

4:32 as much as a rational thing it's an end result the brand is your product's reputation the way people feel about it and it's different for every user so zombicide isn't a single brand it's a different brand in the mind of every player purchaser enthusiast or detractor your brand identifiers or assets indicate your intent as a game maker but in a world of social media they're just the start of a conversation you can't control your brand you don't own it but you can influence it brand strategy encompasses all the things you do to influence the feelings of your audience when we talk about brand positioning we're directly relating our brand strategy to our competitors what are we doing that's better than them how can we differentiate our product a strong brand stands for something it's focused it's an experience it's something to be nurtured so let's take a look at stonemaier games when i think of that brand what comes to my mind well for me wingspan or more specifically the bird box and the eggs jamie stegmeier his youtube channel his facebook videos his cats charterstone viticulture my little scythe i think of transparency quality control customer service to me it's a very wholesome brand but for you it might be all about complexity and big boxes strategy mechs legacy campaigns

6:05 kickstarter advice and blogs look out spieler they've rarely let me down even my least favorite games in their catalogue have given me a really decent experience their quality is high and at this point the brand to my mind is inextricably linked to clement's franz's artwork i still connect that brand to intricate uber rosenberg strategy games but franz's artwork provides enough of a bridge that i don't hesitate to think of grand austria hotel or murano as belonging in the same catalogue as agricola and caverna despite their different creators as a designer it's really important to be able to identify what a publisher's brand is if you're going to target your own designs for that company and increasingly i do design with specific companies in mind from the outset understanding the company's principles their intent as well as their reputation and the perception of their audience gives me the best chance of creating something relevant for that publisher and for their consumers but even if i haven't designed with a specific publisher in mind it's useful to be able to identify brands where my game might fit before i waste my time reaching out to numerous inappropriate companies the massive asthma day corporation is consolidating the board game marketplace purchasing many publishing houses and products over recent years owning such a wealth of different properties spanning multiple genres asmodeus distributes its games across many smaller different brands each of which can focus on one

7:36 particular style of game so as monday's zygomatic studio looks after double and timeline and jungle speed and other simple games fantasy flight games looks after highly thematic games with high fantasy or sci-fi settings euro games are looked after by z-man or perhaps days of wonder or space cowboys each subsidiary of azmoday has its own reputation its own audience increasingly in the board game industry we're seeing the use of brand assets a strong name repeated over multiple standalone titles code names zombicide ticket to ride carcassonne pandemic we're seeing games making great use of intellectual properties like marvel star wars lord of the rings publishers will commission trusted designers when they have access to a specific intellectual property could be anything a film a book a tv series maybe a shop or even curry on a stick and if you're going to design something successful you need to understand what that brand means to people i remember a kickstarter campaign for a card game based on the 1990 sci-fi film total recall the campaign failed i haven't seen that film for many years but it has a high nostalgia factor for me it was popular just as i hit my teenage years it was one of those films which was intended for over 18s but i watched it when i was significantly under 18. so as a result i think of it as really scary really gory and over the top and i don't remember many details about the film but the strong images in

9:08 my head are of arnold schwarzenegger and sharon stone and a lot of violence to me that's the brand the publisher had secured the rights to the film but not to the likeness of the actors and hence generic artwork was used of anonymous people the product carried the total recall name but had none of the brand identifiers i'm sure there were other factors involved in the failure of this product but it has to have had an impact monopoly is one of the biggest brands in the toy world and it's certainly the biggest in tabletop gaming that brand has evolved it started out as a fun strategic game for competitive families a great cut throat way to spend an afternoon with your loved ones in the days before vhs or video games over the decades monopoly has become outdated his gameplay has become surpassed by thousands of superior new board games but none of them have the familiarity of monopoly none of them have the instant recognition the multi-generational appeal the brand assets are so strong and iconic that little metal dog monopoly money go to jail do not pass go free parking chance community chess get out of jail free mr monopoly it doesn't matter what monopoly world you're playing in these iconic brand assets are going to be present and correct but while the icons haven't changed the reputation of the game has that brand has evolved from a serious piece of entertainment for all the family to something of a parody of

10:40 itself hasbro recognizes what people identify when they think of monopoly cheaters games that go on forever sore losers they know that the brand has shifted and they're ready to adapt their marketing strategy to keep the product relevant do you follow certain designers i do so a new release from phil walker harding or bruno catala or trevor benjamin is likely to get my attention if one of those gentlemen's names is on the box i might purchase the game on that basis alone i've already mentioned the name uber rosenberg that name is a brand in itself to some it's going to be linked to polyamino games patchwork cottage garden new york zoo to others the name signifies medium-heavy strategy games usually with an agricultural theme to a third group he's the bean man almost universally though uber rosenberg's name is seen as a mark of quality the name rhinocnitia stands for intelligence indeed one of his signature games is called ingenious his games have simple rules significant depth of strategy or tactics and high replay value built into the basic mechanisms of the game rather than being tacked on for variability he's the master of streamlining games and creating diverse accessible experiences now i'm a game designer i have seven games on the market and i don't think there's anyone out there saying this is the latest adam porter release i must play it but i do know

12:10 that there are some publishers who recognize my name many of them through this youtube channel and they've got an idea of what to expect from me so i try to make sure that my interactions are respectful and professional i try not to waste anybody's time and when i feel insulted or insecure or irritable because we all have our moments i just suck it up and i smile through it i try to make things as easy as i can for my publishing collaborators now i'm not in control of my brand but i know how i want to be perceived your personal brand as a designer matters what do you want to be known for and i don't think this needs to be as focused as limiting yourself to a single genre of game or a specific theme or style your brand is your reputation it's the way people think of you the things they say about you when you're not around if you're interested in hearing more game design discussions please watch any of the many other videos on this subject on my youtube channel subscribe hit the bell to be notified of future videos like and please comment i really enjoy the comments most of all so until next time all the best