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22 August Update
That Was the Fortnight That Was
Retailers Wanted!
As Alan Emrich has so eloquently described in various articles, from its inception, Victory Point Games has operated on extremely tight financial margins. One of the consequences of this was that VPG was unable to offer any sort of significant discounts to retailers and thus our games stayed away from store shelves and retailer catalog listings. A few retailers have carried our products despite this, and we will be eternally grateful to them.Enter yours truly, Joshua Gottesman, and his cost cutting business manager’s sword. We have revisited a number of things around the office, and found some ways to (hopefully) make things more efficient (for Alan and Vince DeNardo, hitherto, “business efficiency” here at The Little Game Company That Could has not exactly been a first priority). We have also decided to take the leaps of faith to look for a formal office space and hiring an honest-to-goodness employee. As a result of these ripening plans, we are now able to offer to retailers and etailers a discount on our products sufficient for most of them to stock our games and sell them for enough of a profit to justify the miniscule amount of shelf space they consume.
Of course, a business paradigm shift like this is bound to hit more snags than a burlap sack in a cat catching contest, and we’ve had our share. Negotiating the lease, business insurance (where they keep trying to classify us as Satan’s Toy Company selling big boxes of spiked choking hazards to toddlers and base our rate costs accordingly), computer networking, telecommunications, alarms and security, furnishings, supplies… the list is endless. But we have patience, good people on our team, a sense of humor, and your many emails and phone calls of support and encouragement. Together, we’re soldiering on!
Uncle Josh Wants You!
To find out more about this, our new game releases, and so much more, follow the link below:
VPG Business Model 1: Value
About the Victory Point Game Business Model
This is a five-part series of articles explaining how Victory Point Games and its products compete in the business world and marketplace. If you want to understand why our company and business model is so... different, then your answers are right here:
This About VPG Business Model article series:
Part I: The Value of a Good Game
Part II: Welcome to our Euro/Family Gamers!
Part III: Explaining Our “Boutique Publishing” Business Model
Part IV: Saluting our Wargamers
Part V: The Perils of Postage, Handling, and Shipping Software
Make a VPG: 15: Charts and Tables
Part 15: Game Charts and Tables
If you’re interested in trying your hand at designing a game, then this Making a Victory Point Game series of articles is written for you. It provides more information on specific subjects about designing games for VPG. By reading them, you should be well on your way to reaching your goal of becoming a published VPG game designer!This article considers matters of creating good player aid sheets and mats, as well as charts and tables. Orginazing data for ease of player use means that the game deisgner must do all the work before the game is ever published, so that the player can have all the fun after the game is released. It is important to give these information display matters the utmost care and consideration, for bad ergonomic and data design can ruin the gameplay experience.
What is involved in the nuts-and-bolts of good data display in board games? Find out in this installment...
Zulus on the Ramparts! - The Making of a Game
The Making of a Game: Zulus on the Ramparts!
By Alan Emrich
If you want to make games, or you’re just curious about this subject, it helps to know the process of how games are made. This article looks at one Victory Point Games title, Joe Miranda’s Zulus on the Ramparts!, and shows you the evolution that it went through from concept to post-release.
If you want to have your great idea for a game published by VPG, it will go through a similar process – and it is the purpose of this article to let our future game designers know what they’re getting into and how things work on a game project.
States of Siege Solitaire Game System
Solitaire Game Systems Analysis
In this article, game designer Darin Leviloff explores his States of SiegeTM solitaire gaming system and why is has an appeal to both the most hard core wargamer and the novice student in a Jr. High School classroom.
Learn about the secret origin and intriguing design theory behind this wildly popular line of VPG games.