Kickstarter

Overall, I want to create games. I don't want to do this to make money (although that would be a nice job), I want to do this because I really enjoy it. In my free time, instead of playing a game, I'd rather make one. I've created and self-published 4 card games to this point. I have a handful in the development process and new ideas each day.

The problem with making games is the cost. They are extremely expensive to produce, often an investment of $3,000-$10,000 based on the components. Most of the cost is the packaging. It's unbelievable how much a full color box costs. I've looked into it and it's the most frustrating thing ever. Boards are just as expensive. So I've decided to try an alternate route.

Using DIY methods I'm able to produce a limited edition run of about 100 games for $300-$600. Instead of a board, I may split the playing surface up into cards or tiles. For tiles, I can get square business cards printed for very little cost, but at a very high level of quality and detail. I'll need to buy 1000 of the same card, but I'll build the game around that. I don't mind these limitations because they keep me on my toes. If I want to make a game and share it with anyone, this is the only way I can do it.

I've found sources for components (dice, chips, tokens, etc). It's hard to cut costs here without really sacrificing quality, so I don't do it unless I have to. It's all about the overall project. If the project requires less cards, then we can get better tokens.

All money is for the actual production of the game. I am not going to take anything from it. If there is anything extra above the budget for this game, then it will be applied to the next game to bring the initial costs down, and in turn, progress the monthly game creation project.

Each month I will create a brand new game and use kickstarter, my own website, and local events to fund the games. This will keep me actively creating games and challenging myself, but also hopefully enable the games to be released in a limited edition run. Any extra money earned will be applied 100% to the release of future games.

We're finally getting to Lines of Fire! It's a quick game, played in about 10-15 minutes by 2 players. The game was designed by J. Tagmire and George Tagmire. The artwork was created by Jonathan Fisher. We started this game about a year ago and we're finally at the point where we can produce it.

The gameplay is simple. Each player has a castle and a 20-sided die. The die is used as a counter to represent the amount of damage the castle can take before it's destroyed. In order to protect the castle, each player will draw a card. Players will draw creatures with powers of 1 through 5. The higher the number, the more powerful the creature. The creatures are strategically placed in lines using one of 4 horizontal positions in front of the castle. If at any point an "Attack" card is drawn, the front line of each players army will attack each other in a head to head battle. The creature with higher power will destroy the other. Unused power will be applied to the creature behind the defeated creature. If a player is eventually able to successfully deal damage to another players castle, the castle takes damage. If a castle is brought to zero, that owner of that castle loses and the game is over.

The cost of production on Lines of Fire is going to be $350. We've already spent $175 on the creature cards. I still need to order the castle cards, dice, custom boxes (using foil printed kraft boxes to save lots of money), rules/insert and shrink wrapping.

If you've contributed to this project, or even read this far, I want to thank you very much. I'm not the kind of person who ever asks for anything. If I were to try and release these games on my own, I would go into more and more credit card debt and that's not a possibility with a 2.5 year old daughter, 3 month old twins, a mortgage, and everything else that comes along in real life. I'm also not the kind of person who can just settle for real life, so I'm hoping that Kickstarter is the first step in getting the creative ideas out of my head and into your hands.