Submitted by DwD Studios on Sun, 07/12/2015 - 9:09am.
Well without going into any detail, we have people in the publishing business looking at the game. At some point in the future we will be able to be more specific. We also are investigating a publisher for one of our role playing games.
We had one publisher turn us down because they said the game did not break any new ground mechanically. While I can not deny this is true--that can be said of hundreds of games which get published every year. Our game is different in that the "workers" you place are all unique characters with their own individual powers, which if you build your agent team well can increase their effectiveness. And our game is very strong thematically, which is a big plus.
Other publishers do not accept submissions, which makes me wonder where they get their games from. But we have some folks that are currently looking at the game, so fingers crossed.
Submitted by DwD Studios on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 3:27pm.
My son TC disagrees with me, he believes the fact that each "worker" has its own unique power qualifies as a new mechanic. He makes a compelling argument. Though the publisher who turned us down apparently disagrees, though who knows if he even got so far as to realize just how different each worker is. You read stories about authors who had multiple rejections before getting a story published and it gives you hope, you get a rejection and it gives you dread. We are buoyed by the great reception the game always gets at conventions, the positive feedback, and folks like you Robert, who want the game without even getting a chance to play it.
We know it is a good game, so it is just a matter of finding the right fit, who knows maybe one of the companies looking at it right now will be THE ONE who invites us in.
Submitted by Bill Logan on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 8:25am.
Some of the mechanics which I believe makes the game unique and interesting:
1) Each worker is unique and interesting, with its own abilities. Managing your effectiveness begins with managing your team, and complimenting that team with shady deals you make with dangerous people and services you offer to the other players. I've never seen this kind of engine building in a worker placement game and it evolved into this one because we tried to stick to a solid theme.
2) Resource card dual usage; they comprise your budget (hand of cards), but to direct one of your spies to perform certain actions it costs resources from you budget, so you have to discard cards. However, each card also represents something useful you can DO with a budget, so you can instead have one of your spies perform the action related to the cards in your hand. So it's part of the tactics of the game to control what you do with your budget, abstractly simulating the difficulties of a real Director of agents, without making you have to do math lol
3) The manner in which the theme is applied is ingrained into the game play. In some worker placement style games, it's easy to lose sight of certain aspects of the theme... for instance, once you've played for a half hour, you no longer think of the things as corn, wood, stone... you think of them as yellow cubes, brown cubes, and gray cubes, or whatever. In this game, there is never a time when you lose hold of the theme. Effort was made to do that, and in doing so it evolved into a unique player "portfolio" for each player. You don't collect colored items, you direct your spies to perform actions in the field to grow your combat, stealth, and intel, assets... and send them on missions to use those assets they or other members of your team accumulated which result in success of the mission.
4) Sabotage. Worker placement style games are normally very friendly. The most competition you get is "hey I wanted that corn." In this game, players can (and DO) mess directly with one another with sabotage, directives, agent abilities, etc. in an attempt to steal victory from them.
Well, I'm sold! The theme looks excellent and I love the idea of resource and budget management as a major part of the strategy. One of the things I love about the Battlestar Galactica board game is the decisions around which resources to sacrifice and which ones to fight for - it may be a very loose similarity but any game that manages to force difficult decisions on the players is a definite plus in my books.
I really sincerely wish you good luck on marketing this game because I really want to get a copy :)
I think the companies who are rejecting the game over what they think are non-unique mechanics are overlooking these things:
1) You have done all the leg work so that they don't have to do anything but publish, (Meaning they save money on production,)
2) Your game is highly thematic and built around that theme; games often sell and even become blockbusters strictly because of maintaining a strong theme, though simply repackaged earlier games. Look how many MtG clones are out there and make good money. In fact, MtG started out as a clone of an earlier game. Certain themed versions of Monopoly sell the game better.
3) Your game, regardless of the familiarity of mechanics and may even remind someone of other games, is unique in its arrangement, and that is all that matters. It's not just like any other, though may share similarities.
Thinking about it, those companies may be wanting you to put more into the sell. Acknowledge their points and then point out that this game would be perceived as new, refreshing, fun and replayable. Note the things that Wil Wheaton focuses on when he touts a game on Tabletop. He focuses on the replay value quite a bit as well as the fun of the game. He highlights whether it is cooperative, competitive or both. He gives energy to explaining how it can be played so as to make it exciting and fun. He emphasizes games that induce or call upon nostalgia. Coming up with nifty examples of how someone would make jokes about things that happen and even role-play opportunities as the players apply what's happening in the game to visual entertainment and applying iconic visual entertainment moments to the game.
In other words, the companies may simply be perceiving your pitch as dry and thus thinking the game is likely stale. They want you to work for it and be enthusiastic and involve them in the idea that the game is fun and involving.
I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this game. I was lucky enough to demo it at UCON last year, and was amazed at how much fun I had. It was the highlight of my time there. I loved the theme, the art was pretty good, but the strategy shined! I've played a number of worker placement games, many of the big time blockbusters, and I would still rather play this one. I'm a big "theme" guy, and this one knocked it out of the park.
Submitted by DwD Studios on Wed, 09/02/2015 - 6:54am.
Johnathon,
You will forgive me if I do not place your face with your name right away, we demo'd the game to a great number of folks at the cons we went to last year. We are glad you like it. Since you were there I am sure you know how much we enjoy the game ourselves. Someday (hopefully soon) when we get this game published we will relate to you all the trials and tribulations of what it is like to actually go through the process. I am headed up to Bill's this weekend for Labor Day and we will discuss what cons we can do this fall with Bill's schedule.
Submitted by DwD Studios on Sat, 12/05/2015 - 6:00pm.
The game is done, tested, and we're very happy with it... it's even fine and sell-able with the temporary art we made, really. Publishers don't seem very interested in accepting outside submissions, though. We had it in the hands of a couple and had awesome feedback and encouragement, but sadly they passed on it, each for different reasons (and none because they actually disliked it... which is the most frustrating thing imaginable). Not sure what the next step is.
Maybe a kickstarter, with stretch goals to get custom art done? Maybe just release it on thegamecrafter, knowing it's overpriced there due to their high POD costs?
Come on! I really want to buy this in a hurry! :) The game looks great - any further progress on getting a publisher for the game?
Well without going into any detail, we have people in the publishing business looking at the game. At some point in the future we will be able to be more specific. We also are investigating a publisher for one of our role playing games.
We had one publisher turn us down because they said the game did not break any new ground mechanically. While I can not deny this is true--that can be said of hundreds of games which get published every year. Our game is different in that the "workers" you place are all unique characters with their own individual powers, which if you build your agent team well can increase their effectiveness. And our game is very strong thematically, which is a big plus.
Other publishers do not accept submissions, which makes me wonder where they get their games from. But we have some folks that are currently looking at the game, so fingers crossed.
Mark
My son TC disagrees with me, he believes the fact that each "worker" has its own unique power qualifies as a new mechanic. He makes a compelling argument. Though the publisher who turned us down apparently disagrees, though who knows if he even got so far as to realize just how different each worker is. You read stories about authors who had multiple rejections before getting a story published and it gives you hope, you get a rejection and it gives you dread. We are buoyed by the great reception the game always gets at conventions, the positive feedback, and folks like you Robert, who want the game without even getting a chance to play it.
We know it is a good game, so it is just a matter of finding the right fit, who knows maybe one of the companies looking at it right now will be THE ONE who invites us in.
Thanks for the support--it helps, sincerely.
Mark
Some of the mechanics which I believe makes the game unique and interesting:
1) Each worker is unique and interesting, with its own abilities. Managing your effectiveness begins with managing your team, and complimenting that team with shady deals you make with dangerous people and services you offer to the other players. I've never seen this kind of engine building in a worker placement game and it evolved into this one because we tried to stick to a solid theme.
2) Resource card dual usage; they comprise your budget (hand of cards), but to direct one of your spies to perform certain actions it costs resources from you budget, so you have to discard cards. However, each card also represents something useful you can DO with a budget, so you can instead have one of your spies perform the action related to the cards in your hand. So it's part of the tactics of the game to control what you do with your budget, abstractly simulating the difficulties of a real Director of agents, without making you have to do math lol
3) The manner in which the theme is applied is ingrained into the game play. In some worker placement style games, it's easy to lose sight of certain aspects of the theme... for instance, once you've played for a half hour, you no longer think of the things as corn, wood, stone... you think of them as yellow cubes, brown cubes, and gray cubes, or whatever. In this game, there is never a time when you lose hold of the theme. Effort was made to do that, and in doing so it evolved into a unique player "portfolio" for each player. You don't collect colored items, you direct your spies to perform actions in the field to grow your combat, stealth, and intel, assets... and send them on missions to use those assets they or other members of your team accumulated which result in success of the mission.
4) Sabotage. Worker placement style games are normally very friendly. The most competition you get is "hey I wanted that corn." In this game, players can (and DO) mess directly with one another with sabotage, directives, agent abilities, etc. in an attempt to steal victory from them.
Well, I'm sold! The theme looks excellent and I love the idea of resource and budget management as a major part of the strategy. One of the things I love about the Battlestar Galactica board game is the decisions around which resources to sacrifice and which ones to fight for - it may be a very loose similarity but any game that manages to force difficult decisions on the players is a definite plus in my books.
I really sincerely wish you good luck on marketing this game because I really want to get a copy :)
I think the companies who are rejecting the game over what they think are non-unique mechanics are overlooking these things:
1) You have done all the leg work so that they don't have to do anything but publish, (Meaning they save money on production,)
2) Your game is highly thematic and built around that theme; games often sell and even become blockbusters strictly because of maintaining a strong theme, though simply repackaged earlier games. Look how many MtG clones are out there and make good money. In fact, MtG started out as a clone of an earlier game. Certain themed versions of Monopoly sell the game better.
3) Your game, regardless of the familiarity of mechanics and may even remind someone of other games, is unique in its arrangement, and that is all that matters. It's not just like any other, though may share similarities.
I agree with all your points, Ascent!
Thinking about it, those companies may be wanting you to put more into the sell. Acknowledge their points and then point out that this game would be perceived as new, refreshing, fun and replayable. Note the things that Wil Wheaton focuses on when he touts a game on Tabletop. He focuses on the replay value quite a bit as well as the fun of the game. He highlights whether it is cooperative, competitive or both. He gives energy to explaining how it can be played so as to make it exciting and fun. He emphasizes games that induce or call upon nostalgia. Coming up with nifty examples of how someone would make jokes about things that happen and even role-play opportunities as the players apply what's happening in the game to visual entertainment and applying iconic visual entertainment moments to the game.
In other words, the companies may simply be perceiving your pitch as dry and thus thinking the game is likely stale. They want you to work for it and be enthusiastic and involve them in the idea that the game is fun and involving.
I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this game. I was lucky enough to demo it at UCON last year, and was amazed at how much fun I had. It was the highlight of my time there. I loved the theme, the art was pretty good, but the strategy shined! I've played a number of worker placement games, many of the big time blockbusters, and I would still rather play this one. I'm a big "theme" guy, and this one knocked it out of the park.
Johnathon,
You will forgive me if I do not place your face with your name right away, we demo'd the game to a great number of folks at the cons we went to last year. We are glad you like it. Since you were there I am sure you know how much we enjoy the game ourselves. Someday (hopefully soon) when we get this game published we will relate to you all the trials and tribulations of what it is like to actually go through the process. I am headed up to Bill's this weekend for Labor Day and we will discuss what cons we can do this fall with Bill's schedule.
Mark
Oh, and welcome to the site.
Any more progress on Agents of SECTOR?
The game is done, tested, and we're very happy with it... it's even fine and sell-able with the temporary art we made, really. Publishers don't seem very interested in accepting outside submissions, though. We had it in the hands of a couple and had awesome feedback and encouragement, but sadly they passed on it, each for different reasons (and none because they actually disliked it... which is the most frustrating thing imaginable). Not sure what the next step is.
Maybe a kickstarter, with stretch goals to get custom art done? Maybe just release it on thegamecrafter, knowing it's overpriced there due to their high POD costs?