The Game Crafter- CafePress for Boardgames
thegamecrafter.com
thegamecrafter.com
Also from: http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html
27. Hardware/software hybrids. Most hackers find hardware projects alarming. You have to deal with messy, expensive physical stuff. But Meraki shows what you can do if you're willing to venture even a little way into hardware. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit in hardware; you can often do dramatically new things by making comparatively small tweaks to existing stuff.
Interesting now that you've mentioned that with respect to boardgames. That kind of thinking really worked for Fantasy Flight Games who took a simple gaming mechanic they developed for one game and replicated it for many subsequent products and all of these games are always entertaining.
They now do lots of licensing deals to make boardgames out of some very hot brands, some of which are quite entertaining.
Looks awesome, I'm going to look deeper now.
This might help push me closer to that goal, since my homemade cards don't have the polish as those printed on better quality stock.
To give credit where credit is due, I found it here. Would link to this thread but there's the whole HN secrecy thing (is that still enforced?). Feel free to bash TC below :)
http://hackersandgamers.posterous.com/
Email me if you'd like to contribute.
The profit is split between you and The Game Crafter equally (50% each).
I would rather have this priced in to their production costs.
What really matters to me is how the licensing is handled. I.e., as long as I own full rights and can pull my game out of their system whenever I want (i.e., if I find that my game is popular enough that I think I can self publish or if I find an established company that wants to buy it), then I don't really mind that they take such a large %. It's still a cheap way to prototype and sell to real game players to get feedback. :)
Anyway, this sounds awesome, but now it means less sleep for the next couple of weeks while I pull all those random scraps of paper that make up my game ideas into something more formal. ;)
Keeping the rights, having full control on publishing/unpublishing your stuff, and non-exclusivity are the three most important requirements when using these kind of services.
Any of these services (with the requirements stated above) is just another outlet - another opportunity to reach more people - and there's no reason not to join.
So what other niches could somebody do this in? Where else are there frustrated amateur designers that would love to see their creations professionally produced (and sold)?
We already have design-your-own shops for books, CDs, DVDs, tshirts, skateboard decks, Lego sets, circuit boards, bobbleheads, metal machining, ...
What's left? Textiles? Clothing? Food? Wallpaper?
1. Textiles: http://www.spoonflower.com
2. Clothing: http://www.spreadshirt.com
3. Food: http://www.mixmygranola.com
4. Wallpaper: http://www.nakedandangry.com (not true customization, more crowdsourced)
Still tons of room for innovation though.
At least the body design, even if they're built on common platforms.
The real key here is the ability to print custom card decks. Most of the rest of it could be replicated on your own without too much difficulty.
Who's in?
Even just to create a game for yourself for playing with friends.
The website is a bit limited, though.
The games pages should have at least a picture of the board and a description of the included parts.
3D printed furniture and kitchenware?
Discussion was here http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/424272 and here http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/424309
Also, for those that don't know, boardgamegeek is an awesome resource for board game information.
Just wanted to highlight that for anyone who didn't see it.
BGG got me playing games like Descent (despite it's horrendous pricing when you factor in the price of all of the expansions... 4!) and Catan and I've never looked back, thoroughly enjoyed the social aspect of it.