You'll note that most of the links aren't in alphabetical order. That's because I tend to add them to the top of the list as I get them, which makes life easier for me, but harder for you. Then again, sometimes I add them to the end of the section. So, just peruse everything, and you'll probably find what you want.
Manufacturers of Games Parts, Cards and Boxes
Board Game Design.comIn addition to supplying a variety of game components, they also can quote you for your whole game. Lisa Marie Dale, 1-775-751-8989
Spotlight on Games
Game prototyping parts and manufacturing resources.
A plethora of resources from blank cards to printers to playing pieces and so on. Lots of good information. Before you look anywhere else, look here.
Fast Service Printing
These folks do print-on-demand services for lots of different things, including but not limited to paper maps (to 11x17), hardbound and softbound books, art prints, etc. You can also call them at 601-695-2740.
Avalon Innovations
Another Print-On-Demand outfit, they advertise that they can do hardbound and softbound books, card games, board games, post cards, business cards, magnets, window clings, etc. Their prices look reasonable. They say "No job is too big or too small, from 1 to 1 million, we can handle it for you." They've also got a "partner in China" to keep their costs down. You can phone them at 740-695-3530.
www.spielmateriel.de
They say; Offers a wide range of products regarding board- and card games. You will find all kinds of pawns, gaming figures, dice, blank playing cards, counters, gameboards, sandtimers
and many other items. We also feature a spare part service and sell new and used
games. Furthermore we have solutions for customizing your games (i.e.
customized cards, dice, boards).
Game Parts, Inc.
Dice and game parts for the game industry
6 Westchester Plaza, Elmsford, NY 10523
Phone: 914-593-0403 / Fax: 914-593-0405
Email: gameparts@aol.com
Rolco Games
Molded game parts, lots of them. They also have a game-designer's kit with a blank game board and all that was very cool.
Judy Lloyd - Product Manager at
Rolco, Inc, 946 East Hill Street, Kasota, MN 56050
Phone: 507-931-4525 Ext 11 / Fax: 507-931-6264
P.O. Box 8, Kasota, MN. 56050-0008
507-931-4525 / 507-931-6264 fax
U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
179 Ludlow St.
Stamford, CT 06902
1-800-544-2637 / 1-203-353-8431 fax
They make custom decks for folks, and they made "Wyvern". Last
time I talked to them, minimum quantity was 5000, at over $1 a
deck. Don't know what it is now.
DeLano Service
1300 Lincoln Rd.
Allegan MI, 49010
1-800-748-0318 or 1-616-673-2171, Fax 616-673-3749
They printed the "Trilogy" card game (from the "Set" company) and others.
Nice work. I've heard they are a bit rough on getting registration alignment on their token cuts, so that could be a problem, and some people won't use them because of this, but if that's not an issue for you, there they are. I've also heard that they are willing (for a price) to do fairly small print runs on decks. Email;Delano.
Custom Game Products
12271 Industry St.
Garden Grove, CA 92841
714-894-4707, Fax 714-894-4708
Flash cards, trading cards, game cards, playing cards, packaging
and warehousing. I just got a advertising postcard from them (May 99). They also advertise "sheet sizes from 17x23 to 28x40". Complete packaging, and accurate bleed cutting. Well, I hope so! Their advert looks good, anyway, but I haven't tried them out yet.
Steketee-Van Huis
Printing and Packaging
13 West Fourth Street
Holland, MI 49423-2886
616-392-2326, FAX is 616-392-9041
email; svolkert@svhgroup.com
These folks do some very nice cardboard printing and cutting, good heavy stock. I saw their stuff at a GAMA Trade Show and was impressed. Steve Jackson Games used them for his Illuminati card game, too.
Dice and Games Ltd, UK, -- Dice, plastic pieces, custom.
Chessex
They make custom dice, and can laser-cut designs into them. Their color selection is pretty amazing.
A Notion
Custom dice, maybe wooden pieces.
Mr. Chips
Nice plastic game pieces at a reasonable price, easy to deal with.
Toy Directory
An interesting general info source that includes a link to Mr. Chips, above. Haven't completely checked it out...
Brown Wood Products
Wooden game pieces, custom and stock.
Steketee-VanHuis
Printers of the Settlers of Catan game board, and does die cut
tokens, trading cards.
Paragon Packaging
They make games and parts of games for other people. Beyond that, I don't know anything about what their pricing is like.
Playing Cards of India
Obviously, these guys make playing cards. They printed "Gother Than Thou" and "Chez Geek", so their site implies. Decent quality, request a quote from their site. Don't know their minimums. They are, of course, in India.
Freelance Artists
This is a good site to go to if you are shopping for a freelance artist for your game. There are many sites like this one available. If there is any interest in my posting artist listings, feel free to let me know. I've got quite a collection of business cards. Oh, look, here's one; Hoody Hoo Cartoons.
Making Custom Card Boxes
Nice little site in case you want to make a custom flip-top card box for your prototype. Download a PDF, print it out, fold and glue and shazam! you've got a card box for your playing cards.
Hasbro
Interestingly enough, Hasbro sells spare parts for most of their games at a reasonable price. If you happen to be designing a game prototype, you could order a game board from them and paste over the artwork with your own. Game boards generally cost $5. Of course, you could by a game at a garage sale even cheaper and do the same thing...
IEC Mould Engineering Making Limited
Injection molding, plastics and metal. Don't know much else about them. They're in China. You could call Hebi Lan at +86-769-85336075 or email him at hebi@iec-mould.com.
Manufacturers for your whole game
Avalon InnovationsA Print-On-Demand printer based in Ohio. The back of Lance Williams' business card says; "Print on Demand and Short Run Production for the Gaming Industry and Small Publishers Everywhere! Card Games, Board Games, Perfect bound books, case wrapped books, saddle-stitched books, spiral binding, posters and banners, web hosting. Distribution to the Gaming Industry through Key 20" (listed below under "distributors"). The samples I saw looked very professional, really nice card decks available in a wide range of finishes. You can call them at 740-695-3530.
Board Game Design.com and
Board Game Manufacturing.com
The same company; "Specializing in Game Design, Packaging & Manufacturing."
"We Also Carry Game Parts!" Lisa Marie Dale is their "quote specialist" and manufacturing rep. Give her a call at 1-775-751-8989.
ColorMagic Pte Ltd.
These guys apparently do everything. Their ad says, "Directly from our China Factory to your Door Step." I assume they are an agent to a Chinese mfg. Scupture, design of miniatures, other plastic components, graphic layout and design, even electronic components. But, I know nothing about them besides their ad in "Knucklebones" magazine. They don't list a website; email is cmagic@starhub.net.sg, or colormagicpl@yahoo.com. Telephone +65 6383 5608 or +65 6223 8303. Fax is +65 6383 5609.
Darrell Hardy
In addition to being a brilliant game designer and comic book writer, Darrell Hardy can also quote you what it costs to make a game in China through his contacts at "Inner Workings" and even assist you with the physical characteristics of your game design. Good guy to work with. Give him a call at 651-488-1870, or check out his website by clicking on his name above.
EOS Press
"Game Publishing and Manufacturing/Printing". They're in Seattle, WA. You can email them and ask for a quote at info.eos-press.com .
Game Builders
They make games to order with minimums in the neighborhood of 2500. They also offer distribution services, even if your game isn't made by them. Note that there are two different "Gamebuilder" companies, one is .net and the other is .com.
Gamebuilders, a division of Taitronics (no relation to "Game Builders" above)
Custom components for all game types, they've done stuff for the big guys.
1 Harris Street, Newburyport, MA. 01950, phone 978-462-7343 / 978-462-0197 fax
Email; chris@gamebuilders.com or sales@gamebuilders.com
"We presently build complete board games, card games, and game parts for many USA Game companies - big and small. Most of our manufacturing is done in the Far East. We work with only the best game manufacturers and have been doing so for over 30 years.
Gamebuilders have in-house printing, plastics, die-cast, tin boxes, assembly etc." They've done work for Milton Bradley and Hasbro, among many others. I got a favorable report from the folks who did Vanished Planet. The cost vs retail came out to about 1:7, which is a good ratio, but they made a LOT of units, too. The production values were very good; nice, thick tokens and board, but it also meant the unit weighed a lot. Anyway, they did the entire job for these folks, and they were satisfied with it (done in China, of course).
Game Source International
Based in Hong Kong, I met these folks at the GAMA Trade Show. I had a terrible time understanding them (English was heavily accented), but they did give me a flyer that says, "We are based in Hong Kong and our Company specialize in game design." And, "OEM is welcome for company with small quantity." Anyway, they seem to make dice, bags, metal game cases, card sleeves, boxed games, and cards, from what I got out of the flyer. You can email sara@hkgsi.com for more info. The flyer did not have an address.
Insight World Group
Located at 1548 Bond Street, Ste. 101, Naperville, IL 60563. You can phone them at 630-355-2685 ext. 320. Their description of what they do; "We are international board game manufacturers. We specialize in manufacturing games in Asia from concept to finished product. We are currently manufacturing games for University Games, RnR Games, Face 2 Face Games, Rio Grande Games, Upper Deck, Eagle Games." Based on their web site, it looks like they've done stuff for Out-of-the-Box, too. I've played many of the games they showcase on their site, and the quality looks good. Besides looking at their website, I haven't verified their existence in any other way, so if anyone has information good or bad on these folks, I'd be happy to hear it.
Keypak of South Africa
They say they "manufacture games for companies such as yourself. Due to our favourable
exchange rate we believe we can, after shipping, sell games into your country
very much cheaper than you are currently paying. Even if you produce some of
your games there still might be some games you may want to out source. We
will produce quantities from 1000 games." They also make some of their own games.
Email Keypak for a quote.
MeiJia International Company, LTD.
Based in Nantong, Jiangsu, China, they can do just about everything according to Mark Simmons (the founder of National Games Week and Games Expo); miniatures, board games, card games, spin casting, perfect-bound books, etc. And they will do quantities as small as 500. Mark says; "For quotations please email both Bian and myself: meijia@pub.nt.jsinfo.net
and msmgqc@aol.com." Mark (Meijia's North American Rep) is available at 303-469-3277. Or you can call Bian Hongshan of MeiJia directly at 0086-513-83587862.
Rapid POD Printing, Inc
POD printing based in Kentucky. Nice full-color printing for card decks, and everything else; rules, heatshrink, displays, tuck-boxes, and so on. Phone 502-212-6258.
Royalty Press
These folks did the whole package for Sucking Vacuum, in color, tokens and all, in a folding box. They don't appear to be able to go much above 24pt cardboard, though, so if you want thick tokens they might not be able to provide it. They're in New Jersey.
SOS Games and Media
These folks are based in England, and can help you make one-off prototypes of your game design for $100 to $400, more or less, depending on complexity. This provides you something you can demo for a potential buyer. They also make educational games.
Wa Fai Graphic Arts Printing Co.
Based in Hong Kong, these folks do books, boxed board games, card games, and a bunch of other stuff. Impressive brochure. You can contact Peter Ho at peterho@wafaiprinting.com for enquiries. Their phone is 852-2547-0650. I don't know what prefix you have to dial to get to Hong Kong, though.
EMMECI USA, LLC
76 Commercial Way
East Providence, RI 02914
215-540-8861
These folks make the EQUIPMENT that makes rigid game boxes, imported from Italy. Looks like impressive stuff, and generally runs in the $100,000 to $400,000 price range, depending on what you want the machine to do. Nice stuff, if you've got the inclination to open a printing business.
Distributors
Aladdin (612) 890-8700 Alliance (219) 482-5490 - Central Purchasing Area <4 locations> (note; Alliance is a merger between Chessex and The Armory) Berkeley (800) 424-4263 Black Hawk (800) 747-4263 Diamond (800) 452-6642 Esdevium (011) 44-1252-326116 - England Hobbies Hawaii (808) 423-0265 Jedko Games (011) 61-3-9555-1022 - Australia Key 20 (800) 277-0711 "Small Press Games Distribution", www.key20.com New Century (604) 596-4320 RPV Dist (714) 671-1270 Zocchi (601) 252-5615Here's a really nice link that gives you a lot more distributors with their addresses and phone numbers; Wizard's Attic. I'd advise making a copy for yourself.
When trying to "land" a distributor, it's best to send them samples of your products (or better yet, hand it to them at a convention) with a letter introducing yourself and either offering terms to them or (better) finding out what they offer as standard percentages. Following up with a phone call to their buyer a week later is a good idea, too, to see if they want to carry your product(s). Keep in mind that they deal with a LOT of product, and may not want to carry a new line. This is where "Fulfillment Houses" come into play. Fulfillment Houses carry many very small lines, and allow distributors to pick and choose just a few games at a time from their overall product lines. They act as a distributor to distributors.
Other Sites with Useful Information
Thomas RegisterThis is normally a 30 volume set (or more) you can get at your local library which lists just about every manufacturer you can imagine. The paper version is supposedly more comprehensive than the e-version, but still worth looking at.
Discover Games
An on-line magazine which specializes in small start-up game companies, very informative.
Envelope Games
In addition to pushing their own games, they've got a lot of info for the small garage-based publisher.
Contagious Dreams
Sells games by small companies on the net. This might be useful for small game companies looking for an outlet.
The Toy & Game Inventor's Forum
Useful info on licensing toy and game properties, very informative, and sponsors a convention every year that brings inventors and manufacturers together. There is also the convention website located at www.tgifcon.com.
GAMA
You can find out about the Game Manufacturer's Association, and their two conventions, here. If you happen to join for a year, they DO give out a very nice flyer on all the basics of getting through the distribution process, about 20 pages long.
T.M.A. (Toy Manufacturers of America)
Trade organization for toy and game manufacturers, runs the Toy Industry Association. Has something to do with the International Toy Fair, with links to it on their site. Their address is 1115 Broadway, Ste. 400, New York, NY. 10010 and their phone; 212-675-1141. Or 212-633-1429 Fax.
Chicago International Toy and Game Fair
A big convention. Toys and Games! This is intimately related to Discover Games, organized in part by Mary Couzin, a very pleasant and intelligent person who really gets into promoting games. Booth prices for retailers and manufacturers seem high, but that seems to be a trend for big cons nowadays, starting at $1000 for a 5x10 space.
Polycon
This small convention (250 people, usually) takes place in San Luis Obispo each year, and has been running for over 20 years. I always go, and it's fun. Dealer tables here are only $100, but then, you don't get a lot of traffic. On the other hand, the downside risk is small and you can promote your game in a friendly environment where most everyone knows everyone else.
Game Publisher's Association
An organization of small game manufacturers who've banded together to help promote their products.
Free Patents Online Apparently a free search engine for doing patent searches, with other services available for a fee. Allows you to download various patent-office forms.
