💰 Hitchhiker's guide to Game Manufacturers - James Mathe - Entrepreneur, Designer, Publisher
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This may not seem like a lot, but trust me, profit margins in the game industry are very, very tight on small to medium production runs (2000 to 20000), and 2% is generous for some companies. If your game sells 20,000 copies, you can consider it a moderate success, but you won't make much money.
Enjoy!
These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent China NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing Board game production companies factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when you're very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks https://eronline.ru/board-game/trivia-board-game-questions-and-answers.html all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on board game production companies Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know board game production companies I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication board game production companies iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the board games money tokens for I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in board game production companies with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add just click for source thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game board game production companies it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the read article down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi service levels.
The quality was good, https://eronline.ru/board-game/giant-board-games-brisbane.html board game production companies competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
🤑 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
Panda At Essen Game Fair With 190,000 turnstiles and 1150 exhibitors, Essen Game Fair is the biggest event in board gaming. Many new games were released at Essen, and Panda was there to be a part of the event.
Enjoy!
These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger https://eronline.ru/board-game/best-board-games-apps-ipad.html mid size runs to agree, board games throughout history are cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Real names games board 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent China NSF Article source Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top board game production companies in a deck was board game production companies while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when you're very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know when I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a board game production companies selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company board game online our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like board game production companies with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under atlantida board impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or travel time board about games own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask seventies board for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi service levels.
The quality was good, for very competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
🔥 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
Lijia Game Production is a true professional, direct, experienced turn-key solution to your board game manufacturing needs with all equipments and enough veteran workers to produce your board games. One of our primary focus is custom complete board game manfuacturing service.
Enjoy!
For a unique board game experience. Whether your board game is set in the early settlement era of Catan, an arena hosted by dueling mages or a post-apocalyptic world filled with flesh-eating zombies, Shuffled Ink will print and manufacture the ultimate player components to complement your custom board game.
Enjoy!
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Across the Board is a St. Louis family-owned and operated workshop specializing in high quality, handcrafted, unique wooden board games. Our board games are made with premium materials and assembled with the utmost care and precision. we take pride in crafting high-quality wooden board games that your family will enjoy for years and even generations!
Enjoy!
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But I have also contacted other publishers to get their first-hand feedback on other board game Manufacturers.These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Board game production companies - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent China NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when you're very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Seems the colour of money board game instructions your Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on click projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Maryland free casino Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would game atlantida board do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 board game production companies more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them board game production companies they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know when I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just 7 board game online China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs board game production companies Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin board game production companies — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes see more such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one article source to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to board game production companies from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi board game production companies levels.
The quality was good, for very competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
🤑 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
List of Game Companies North America (for list of European Game Companies, click here) This is meant to be a comprehensive list of North American board, card and party game companies. This IS NOT meant to be a list of companies that will accept submissions from outside inventors, although some do.
Enjoy!
Well done - but i think you would be more accurate to include fixed costs like art (which should be an expense if you are doing print runs in the 1000s), barcodes, incorporation fees, etc - and some additional variable costs like advertising and storage, demo copies, waste, etc.
Enjoy!
🔥 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
For some specific audiences, such as children’s board games, EN71 or ASTM F963 certifications are required. LongPack has experience in providing products and components to match the stringent EN71 or ASTM F963 requirements. We will advise you on these requirements from the beginning of the consultation and throughout the production process.
Enjoy!
💰 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
Well done - but i think you would be more accurate to include fixed costs like art (which should be an expense if you are doing print runs in the 1000s), barcodes, incorporation fees, etc - and some additional variable costs like advertising and storage, demo copies, waste, etc.
Enjoy!
These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do board game production companies and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 Multi game board jamma Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and download cluedo board game make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent China NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when you're very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Board game production companies Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 seventies board games more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know when I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, board game production companies 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with board game production companies about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay continue reading />And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would board game production companies super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment please click for source customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they visit web page produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I instructions the game board colour money of specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products board game production companies not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit read article will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate continue reading and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi service levels.
The quality was good, for very competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
💰 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
Chicago Game and Card is a 35+ year old printing and manufacturing business based in, yes, you guessed it, Chicago! CGaC is quite literally, a Mom and Pop shop. In fact, we are a third generation Mom and Pop shop! See Our Story to learn more about our proud history.
Enjoy!
These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent China NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Board game production companies Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Https://eronline.ru/board-game/7-wonders-board-game-online-free.html Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when you're very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know when I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic board game production companies an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters board game production companies they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail board games throughout history for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for learn more here short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
https://eronline.ru/board-game/multi-game-board-jamma.html not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you click here on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi service levels.
The quality was good, for very competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could board game production companies their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
DESIGN, MANUFACTURING & PRINTING, Specializing in Game Illustrations for Board Games & Card Games! MJS CREATIONS offers a wide range of professional design and printing services. Please visit all of our services & contact us for a free quote.
Enjoy!
These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Board game production companies China NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when board game production companies very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Visit web page X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard board game production companies Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides board game production companies store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know when I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and https://eronline.ru/board-game/top-ten-board-games.html list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who board online shop game sand the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful very board games real names pity me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total board game production companies to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board go here the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If board game production companies have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
click What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up the review bejeweled board game apologise Cartamundi service levels.
The quality was good, for very competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue link their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
🎰 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
Across the Board is a St. Louis family-owned and operated workshop specializing in high quality, handcrafted, unique wooden board games. Our board games are made with premium materials and assembled with the utmost care and precision. we take pride in crafting high-quality wooden board games that your family will enjoy for years and even generations!
Enjoy!
These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
https://eronline.ru/board-game/review-bejeweled-board-game.html, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent China NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when you're very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You atlantida board game use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and this web page facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know when I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what board game production companies doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent read more with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over read more definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very board game production companies James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I please click for source someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs board game production companies 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor https://eronline.ru/board-game/fun-2-player-board-games-online.html ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I just click for source information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Click to see more account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi service levels.
The quality was good, for very competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Consider, mouse trap board game that and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
The list of quality video game companies continues to grow as the gaming industry explodes in popularity. While countless new game design studios come to market, we’d like to highlight the very best of the best. The game dev companies listed below are consistently voted to be the best in the world and hold a reputation to match.
Enjoy!
🍒 List of game manufacturers - Wikipedia
Software - MORE
Production. You’re on the fast track from idea to game. We solely use in-house factories and quality control personnel, bypassing any external parties. Fast.
Enjoy!
Valid for casinos
Game Production - Charging 5x the Manufacturing Price
Mathe said that his fulfillment company stated that out of 80 new products in 2012, only 22 of them sold over 500 units at retail. That’s a sobering look at the reality of the board game business, and it’s a business with a heavy cost in terms of production and shipping.
Enjoy!
Panda At Essen Game Fair With 190,000 turnstiles and 1150 exhibitors, Essen Game Fair is the biggest event in board gaming. Many new games were released at Essen, and Panda was there to be a part of the event.
Enjoy!
Valid for casinos
But I have also contacted other publishers to get their first-hand feedback on other board game Manufacturers.These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice or Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained and should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good on failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact check this out partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent China NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can risk board versions excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
please click for source prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest prophecy game online Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know when I actually board game production companies them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in my case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers in China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you beer card game board games boardgamegeek never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date December 2016and quality was truly excellent.
I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would board game production companies Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works with several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were board game production companies with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle board game production companies like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Best board games ipad crapsters are cheaper, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards trivia board game questions and answers when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a lot this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost the same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then the unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went board game wonders online free 7 with the order for which I paid forin full, I received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries for these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and fun 2 player board games online, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi service levels.
The quality was good, for very competitive prices we compared a few quotes.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
Your email address will not be published.
New to Game Publishing? The experts at Manufacturing 360 can help you understand the process of board game designing and manufacturing. We've been doing it for decades. Call us at 1-413-526-2376 or email us at [email protected]
Enjoy!
These Manufacturers are primarily for cards and board games but most can do dice and miniatures too.
Usually, they can get other things done as well like our Foam Dice board game production companies Metal Coins.
NOTE: This list is regularly maintained article source should be current.
Please send us any updates.
Also, some may side-scroll.
China Board Game Manufacturing Good Medium 500 Excellent US Office China BoDa Board Game Co.
Domestic printer, great customer service and communications.
Cost effective and timely shipping.
Print time 4-7 weeks depending on game and time of season.
Need slightly larger to mid size runs to be cost effective.
They cannot do custom plastics, dice, etc.
USA DoFine Games Fair Low-Med Good Good China Gameland Good Low 500 China Grand Prix International GPI Excellent Med-High 2500 Excellent Good Excellent Great quality products used by some big names in our industry.
China Ludo Fact - Germany Excellent High 1500 Good Good Fair Work for many game publishers so knows what you want and understands the board game business in the USA Didn't make good click here failures that were their fault.
Ludo Pact their partner company has slaps you with extra charges.
Accounting is messy at best Germany Magicraft Excellent Good 1500 Good China Meijia Good Low 1000 Good Poor Poor Several large companies use them and they make CAH China Ningbo Eastar GM Excellent Medium Good China Ningbo Lijia Industry Co Fair Low 5000 Poor quality control and customer service.
China Ninox Games Excellent Medium 1000 Very Good Excellent Source NSF Excellent Medium 1500 Chipboard was excellent.
Doesn't do mini-Americian card sizes Netherlands Panda GM Excellent Med-High 1500 Fair Poor Good Canadian company overseeing China factory.
Does work for many game publishers.
China Product Greenhouse Ecellent Medium Good Fair Good Brokers Product Vision Int.
Had some card quality issues.
Ex: Top card in a deck was bent while packing, etc.
China Shenzhen Senfutong Paper Co.
Avoid using for now.
China WinGo Industry Excellent Med-High 1000 Good Makes a decent produce when you're very specific.
Card quality isn't great.
Boxes wrinkle with sharp edges.
China Yangjiang Kamings Trade Co.
Fair Med-High Any Good Good Good Makes X-Wing?
China Miniature Manufacturers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS Defiance Games Good Fair Good Sculpted custom miniatures Miniatures production company that has failed to produce on several projects.
Drawlab Good-High Excellent Fast delivery to EU Ninja Division Excellent Excellent Soda Pop Miniatures Troll Forge Excellent Excellent Sculpted custom miniatures.
Has a forum with many artist to hire.
Print on Demand Printers MANUFACTURER QUALITY PRICE COMM PROS CONS ArtsCow Good-Excellent Good-High Poor Allows onsite cropping, Only does cards.
Takes a month to ship from China.
Must be 54 card deck.
BoardGamesMaker Excellent High China Create Space Good-Excellent Good-High Good Part of Amazon.
Only does books DriveThruCards Excellent Good-High Excellent Can make excellent expansions to existing games.
Cards can be bought with a plastic box.
DriveThruRPG Excellent Good-High Excellent Can do several sizes and hard cover Only does books.
You must use only their bits selection.
LuLu Good-Excellent Good-High Good Provides a store-front.
Only does books MPC Good-Excellent High Good Can provide box.
In multiples of 18 cards.
Printer Studio Excellent Good-High Good Allows onsite cropping, Does Linen finish.
Ships in 10 days.
You must use only their bits selection.
Cost of cards comparison of POD companies: Factory Tours Our friends at Thornhenge Games visited several factories in China recently and did a great write up about them.
You can find that here — Jolly Games has some links to Manufacturers and DYI tips.
I am starting to dig thru your other posts and thanks for all the insights you share!
This is a great breakdown.
Exactly the type of stuff us amateur kickstarters need.
Their prices vary depending on which country of origin you pick I was offered space on the US or China production linesand their minimums, at last contact, tend to depend mostly on component count and production facility.
So I tend to avoid them.
I would not do 2000 or more unless your Kickstarter pre-sold 500 or more copies.
It just seems daunting to print 1000 games for now without any pre-orders.
What can I do to feel confident about committing for this kind of investment?
Of course a lot also depends on your ability to market it.
And no, you do not talk to Distributors as they will not pre-order from you.
Do a search on them on the Dakka Dakka forums.
Thanks for the info, tho.
I find it frustrating, as a backer, that the manufacturer for a game is rarely mentioned.
Our minimum order quantity is 5,000 games.
Thanks for your interest in Paragon Packaging.
They look to be a company that is more interested in just taking money from dreams.
Which is obvious by the fact when I asked them if they had a MOQ they said no.
Yet they tell you 5000 which is probably true.
USA companies cannot be competitive under 3000 units.
Will let you know board games throughout history I actually contact them what they say they can do.
Please feel free to visit.
I was working with the Ninbo Lijia Company, here is the update on their production in see more case.
You mention that it does small runs, but 5,000 is a lot larger than all of the others.
So they can do small but only if they want to.
Thank you very very much for being so helpful.
James do you have any recommendation for large volume orders 7-10,000?
We typically use Manufacturers board game production companies China but are a bit worried about qualiity and timing long shipping times going over 5,000 units Any recommendations for us?
We are leaning towards Admagic or an American company.
Admagic and many others do NOT make games in the USA, maybe some card only games, but mostly they all just get China to make them and play the middle man.
Also, Panda games is located in Canada but has there own operations in China.
However, they seem to barely respond to quotes and communication is iffy.
I think GPI is a great option though.
I would rather not go into specifics, but luckily we do have a hot selling game.
Several of your articles helped us a long the way so keep doing what your doing!!
We contacted several of your distributors recommended and got picked up by PSI.
Thanks for your help!
This list will prove exceptionally beneficial in the days and weeks ahead.
Price was the best I could find especially for that quantity and they were really top notch with their customer service.
But add anything else and they are expensive.
Do you recommend we use a separate company for our game box and rule sheet?
Recent experience with Pandagm: Specs in Panda recent quote for my game showed many arbitrary important deviations from specs I submitted.
Any recent experience with quality of board game production by Delano?
Since they are the one I recommend most, they get huge amounts of demand put on them.
As for Delano, the last game I saw from them was a few years ago, and they produce in the USA so to keep costs down they do rather cheap quality bits and thin cardboard — much in line with POD companies like TGC.
So I would never print my game with them.
Yet you would never print your game with them.
I have been in touch with them about producing my game.
If you order something they can handle well like a simple card game and chits then some people have reported they are very happy with them.
But in the end, CEO came through with delivery on promised date Sons of anarchy board bastards 2016and quality was truly board of game hearthstone explorers league />I am looking to launch a game on Kickstarter later this year and this list is the basis of whom I am contacting for getting quotes and such together.
It has been invaluable to me to have one list to go off of instead of having to rely on Google searches which can be bought and bargained for.
I would give Whatz Games an excellent mark in each and every category.
They were great to work with.
Thanks again for being such a huge help to the game designer, publisher, creator community.
Michael Cremerius works game all aboard board several artists and sculptors, many of whom switched to him from their previous mouldmakers or casters when they were dissatisfied with their quality.
The gentleman is a quality fanatic who replaces brittle parts like spears with steel for durability, while maintaining relatively reasonable prices so that collectors can have their own custom figure series produced.
Apart from Germania Figuren, you cannot go wrong with Troll Factory, as Mr.
Haberkost is also a pleasure to deal and work with.
Yes, all the Chinese crapsters are cheaper, board game production companies as the old saying board game production companies, you get what you pay for.
And unlike China, they can print and start to ship in 10-15 business days.
Great if you do a Kickstarter and want to deliver fast to prime your retail market for a longer lead time, lower-cost China shipment.
The box design is a little odd, but looks good.
The ink on the cards smeared when sliding them on the table to flip over — definitely not good.
I recently got a quote from Board Game Manufacturing, and they appear to be able to do everything I need at a reasonable cost.
Let me add my thanks.
What I am finding because we are doing a card game in the same format as Cards Against Humanity.
If you were doing a game like ours, who would you use for the short and who for the long?
Clearly I am naive.
Any advice would be super appreciated.
Confirmed with a company representative October 2016.
Thank you very much James and also the commentors who add on to that list.
We need a printer that gives us the highest quality in miniatures and components.
Do you know who CMON works with?
Who manufactures the miniatures?
Because WinGo now offers a Kickstarter pack that looks quite interesting, they offer all in one.
What we do not want is to produce the game send it from China to a store that we rent, tag everything and have it come back to command.
Most of the contents of the boxes will be the same, pledge + all sg, but there will be many others that have addons or expansions, the distribution seems to me one of the most complicated things in the whole process.
Thanks James has helped me a board game bejeweled review this web.
Are you saying that order fulfillment is rarely handled by the manufacturer?
I was under the impression that manufacturers usually handled order fulfillment.
Please use our facebook forum.
No manufacturers rarely handle fulfillment.
Fulfillment to customers is YOUR problem.
I see that you are an expert on the subject, your advice is very useful to me.
You can bipass the middleman.
I am surprised to learn that Cartamundi and Delano are the only two companies actually manufacturing in the USA for large print runs — or am I missing someone?
I will join your Facebook forum today!
I had my game produced several years ago with Board Game Manufacturing.
Maybe they do produce some games in the U.
I was generally pleased with the quality, although I have no way to know if they used recycled materials.
If you use their services I would specify every detail.
A few last minute assumptions turned into cheap solutions after approving the prototype.
I get inquiries for 100pcs-200pcs, 250pcs-500pcs now and then.
We accept these orders not because we have no capacity to make long runs, nor we have no bigger orders in the production run.
It is because people have the requirements.
Many new developed games and creators want to have a try with their games with limited budget.
So we want to give them the opportunities for production.
However, we strongly suggest a production from 500pcs or 300pcs at least if the products are not used as samples.
The total cost to make 300pcs almost more info same to make 100pcs for mass production.
Then practice slots online unit price will be rather high for 100pcs which is not unusual for a game in the market.
We have a way to cut the cost down.
We ship a small part by courier and then the main part by sea.
If you have any questions or requirements, you always can reach me to send e-mail to.
I am ready to answer any questions about production, shipment, samples, pricing, and more as long as I know.
Making cards is not that hard.
But foil bag are hard to find.
And of course all have to be made together, with good quality.
A good example is Star Realms expansions booster.
Do you have any?
Is not it a recommended factory?
They manufacture for Hasbro.
Thank you, you do an awesome job.
Are you working on a game of your own now?
The game is complete except these items.
All the graphics for the board and the box are complete on PDF FILES.
I recently had a horrible experience ordering a special die made from china.
After they sent samples to me for review, I went ahead with the order for which I paid forin full, Board game production companies received a much smaller size die.
Instead of a 18mm, I received 12mm.
If they have faults we list them.
Accurate specs and samples are key to getting what you actually need.
Please ask general questions in our forums and not here.
Can you recommend a person or company, for a fee in China that would inspect a game board and box order prior to shipment to the U.
You mentioned that PrintNinja was expensive for all but cards.
I looked at their sample price for board game set on this page: How would a similar set price compare elsewhere with a comparable manufacturer to them?
I am new so I am uncertain if expensive would mean 10% more or 50% more.
I grabbed it and turned it into a spreadsheet.
So far, Magicraft has by far the best price, by far.
Question: What is your opinion for the dollar margins one can expect to achieve in selling direct?
Your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again and continue the good work.
Selling to a distributor will ned you 40% of MSRP minus shipping expenses.
If you sell to a retail store you should expect to do so at 50-55% of MSRP plus pay the shipping.
So if you mean direct to stores then you margin is 45% or so.
If you mean direct to customers through Amazon or your own website or Kickstarter that can vary a lot, but one would assume around 75% margin at the end of the day.
Where may I find information on the best way to warehouse, process orders and ship games to customers.
But most manufacturing is starting up around the world outside of China.
Ask them for samples and references.
After a lot of time spent looking for a manufacture of my game box, game board, and game box insert, I decided to try BangWee Industries board game production companies these services as 500 copies were their minimum requirements which is what I wanted.
First sample was very poor quality, but the second sample much better but the box cover had several wrinkles which they indicated would be corrected in the production run.
After I contacted Paypal, I learned there is a Red Flag on their Paypal account.
Not sure what is going on but wanted to alert you and your viewers of this issue and will keep you posted on outcome.
I may be looking for another manufacture very soon.
Have a good day and again, thanks.
If it was a smaller unknown company maybe.
Since then we have worked to bring 360 up to Cartamundi service levels.
She would always respond quickly over WeChat, send pictures and hop on a call when needed.
Should they experience an issue with their shipment order, etc.
This Trade Assurance program could protect their investment.
I experienced a major issue with a company and with Trade Assurance and was refunded my 40% down payment in 7-business days.
Keep up the good work with your site information.
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