College Football Board game update

[OrangeAfroMan]

The game would still sell and work and be great if there had to be a delay on teams until all players' on those teams exhausted their eligibility.  So as each year passed, a new season of teams could be created and sold, just 4-5 years after the current season (2017 season ends, so the 2013 season team cards could be produced).  

[OrangeAfroMan]

should do 09 texas and uf.

and i don't do fb anymore. you thinking of any other way we could do beta?

I could just mail you the game/components.

[ELA]

I don't know?  I'm getting a ton of interest just in this first day of posting it there.  Maybe it would need it's own webpage if I was going to sell it myself, but I couldn't handle any kind of volume, especially when August rolls around.  My ideal goal would be for some game publisher to buy it and then mass produce it.  

Although they'd have to worry about licensing and all that.  And I found an existing college football game that uses names and logos and all that, which looks like a small-scale operation.  I contacted them about such things and they just said they were so under the radar they didn't worry about it.  

But this would sell tens of thousands of copies throughout the southeast and midwest if it was packaged properly and didn't cost $60 per game.

Yeah the team logos is going to be the irritating part.  Those are managed on a school by school basis.
You'd be better off partnering with an existing licensee than trying to obtain your own.  The NCAA maintains a database of their current licensees, and I'm guessing a good deal of them already have deals in place with the individual schools as well.

[Drew4UTk]

echo'ing @ELA , I may have something for you..... 

there is a supplier out of Florida that has licensing for damn near every team. 

the way i understand it you don't get licensing for everything... let's say you propose to do medallions, and pay up for those- the schools look and see who else is doing that and assess a value for the licensing... the more the marketing value the more they'll charge. these guys do watches, and little medallions they use for everything from golf ball markers to little hat clips.  i thought of them because that is basically what you'd want for a physical playing board, right? 

these fellas were clever.. they use those medallions on everything.. from wallets to bracelets... and they never break the rules by doing so.  there were a few schools they don't have agreements with, and the biggest two if i recall correctly was USCw and ND.  there is a place out of Lincoln Nebraska that has stuff too- they do 'man cave' type stuff with logo's.  they may play ball as well. 

what I'm suggesting is you (@OrangeAfroMan ) is make contact with them and pitch your plan... w/o giving them game details. strike a deal and let them carry the weight of all the marketing and contracting.  walk away with a big chunk and be merry. 

[OrangeAfroMan]

I've shared the game idea w/ photos on many board game and sports groups on FB and now I'm getting hounded by potential play-testers, lol.  Good problem to have, I guess.  This is awesome.  

I'm calling it "Whoa Nellie" College Football.  

Drew, so if I contacted these guys and they're like "sure, sounds great, let's do it" - once our transaction is over, could they then market/sell it to someone else?  Or try to get it sold elsewhere?  

[Drew4UTk]

all that, @OrangeAfroMan , depends on the agreement you reach.... there are several attorneys here on the board- and i wager one of them will step up to assist you, as that's just the kind of crowd we have!  

[ELA]

The problem is that's a pretty niche industry.  My brother had a game he came up with, produced a few game boards and pieces, and I tried to help him up front, but it's just not an area you deal in, unless it's all you deal in.  From my research there, trademark protection with games is so hard to do, because the trademarks are so specific, that infringement suits are rarely successful.  You change one small thing and it's yours, because there's no real science behind it, so you don't really have to show much of a process as how you can from A to D like with other patents.  It's easy to see D, tweak it to E, and then backfill B and C.  There's no real proving you didn't do that.  What he kept hearing was he was better off marketing it as a cheap app, because the production costs were so high, but the problem was it was a tailgate game.  As a game by yourself, on your phone, it wasn't any fun.

[OrangeAfroMan]

That's why my initial vision of this has been:
1 - I create a college football board game that is better than what's out there
2 - taking it to existing game-maker companies
3 - one of them, with an NCAA license of some sort, producing the game and selling it at all available outlets

Doing it myself or trying to navigate the legal and trademark issues just isn't realistic.  I don't have a bunch of money to put into it, nor time.  It's just a good idea that may honestly be defeated by those legalities, because a major aspect of its appeal is the real player names and school logos.  It LOOKS great.  The game's engineering is sound.  It works.  It's pretty.  Thus, it's what a college football fan would want.  

[OrangeAfroMan]

all that, @OrangeAfroMan , depends on the agreement you reach.... there are several attorneys here on the board- and i wager one of them will step up to assist you, as that's just the kind of crowd we have!  

Ultimately, just the game getting out into the world would be my goal.  Whether I sold it to another company for a one-time price or retained all the ownership isn't important to me.  

[OrangeAfroMan]

I was searching around again, as I sometimes do, at football board games and what's out there and I do a google search.
"college football board game"
My game is the #1 entry, genuinely - the facebook page for it is the top entry.  This is incredible!  I've only sent out about 8 game sets for play-testing and only boosted the webpage once, but I'm consistently getting views/likes/adds every day. 



Is there a reason I shouldn't be elated/stunned?!?  I had a friend search from her computer to make sure it was legit, and it is.  WOW!!!  
Just wanted to share.

[FearlessF]

Whoa Nellie

[rolltidefan]

that's awesome. plug away and finish it up.

have you gotten any feedback yet?

[Drew4UTk]

i almost mentioned it, but refrained... 'college football board game' is a key-word phrase that triggers from this site, and gets us some hits too.  because of this thread and the affiliated threads.  if you would like, @OrangeAfroMan , I can track the metrics for you so you know precisely how to market it when the time comes?  

Hell, I can set you up here if you'd like. 

[OrangeAfroMan]

If it isn't any trouble, sure.  

The feedback I've gotten has mimicked my own play-testing...people having trouble finding someone to have a 2-player game.  The 2-player game is ideal, as you're actually active on defense while your opponent has the ball.  As of right now, playing solo, you're playing as both teams.

I'm going to make it so you sort of "sim" the opponent's drives and only know the outcome:  TD/FG/Punt/Turnover before taking back control of the ball.  I can work out the math to do that, based on their scoring per game, your scoring allowed per game, etc.