So You're a Super Cool Publisher That's Interested in our Party Card Game

Why should you want to publish Shranks?

You want to publish a game with a potentially long life-cycle with booster packs, more characters, etc - which means more sales in the long run.
You want a game that can be brought to a party or played competitively in championships so you'll have more word of mouth and less marketing costs.
You want a game that can float above the seas of new board and card games by having a strong brand with fun characters people will remember.

Hi, I'm Tony - the guy dressed as a red dragon (which is supposed to be David Xanatos from Gargoyles). I'm the co-creator of Shranks with my brother Alex (the guy with a pumpkin on a stick). The way we came up with Shranks: The Party Card Game speaks volumes as to why this game has a place in the market.

Let's Talk About Publishing Shranks!

We created Shranks for us which means we created it for the target market!

It all started on a rainy night. We played every game we had to the point of video game exhaustion and we stumbled upon on our Pokemon Cards.

"Hey, we collected these but never really tried to play them", we said to one another.

We took out our Charizards, Pikachus, and Bulbasaurs out of their protective sleeves and began reading the text below the characters. We then set up a playing field on the ground of our basement and sat on the floor.

"So how exactly do we play this?"

After browsing through the internet to find out the instructions...

*sigh* "I wanted to play a card game, not search the internet for hours trying to find out how to play it."

And that's when we came up with the idea - "Let's make our own card game!"

"One that's easy to play and track!"

We cut out some paper, drew our own characters on them, and began developing easy to follow rules.

Pick a character - pick a character you want to attack - and flip a coin.

Then we started playing with friends and family, slowly introducing more easy elements such as having easier to count health points and easy coin flip item cards.

We then went on to make a professional deck, did some more beta-tests with people we did and didn't know - and arrived at a complete game!

We even created a companion app! Read bios on the characters you collected, keep track of character health, and have the simple rules in the palm of your hand! The app will definitely cause people to want to collect the characters they don't currently have.

Simple to Play-Difficult to Master the game that is also a party!

After playing our game for so long -testing-testing-testing- we realized something.

This wasn't just a collectible card game...

Shranks is a party game too!

We've played with up to 14 people one night, just to see if it'd work.

In fact, it worked incredibly well!

Because the game is so simple to play, everyone picked up super quick. But just because it was simple, doesn't mean it was easy to win. Oh no, it was difficult! Between alliances and last minute betrayals within the group, and the coin bringing luck into the game, led to an incredibly difficult match.

Sure Shranks is simple to play, but it is definitely difficult to master. Even when playing with your own decks you still have to take luck and random item card draws into account.

No strategy will ever work the same way twice!

That fact was a major draw for competitive card game players that tested our game. They were getting tired of Magic attacks and strategies that could be used over and over again.

Let's Talk About Publishing Shranks!

From Testing to Completed Game: Why didn't we publish ourselves?

We tried to publish the game using IndieGoGo and some marketing on Facebook, but we jumped the gun on the project.

The Crowdfunding Problem:

Shipping and Marketing Madness!

Deciding on how to ship it from the manufacturer was the first step. We decided the best way would be to ship it from the manufacturer to us but since we were shipping from a print on demand manufacturer, the cost would only be make sense buying in bulk.

This meant we couldn't really sell onesies and twosies and be as profitable as we could be.

Then we had to ship it from us to the customer which required us to be on top of orders, packaging/labeling/shipping them ourselves.

We decided on trying an IndieGoGo as that would allow us to order all the copies at once, in bulk, getting a bigger discount.

Next step was marketing. From Facebook ads to a newsletter Viral Loops contest - we thought we were well prepared to build the list a month before the actual IndieGoGo launch...

Clearly we were wrong.

We got lots of social proof on the marketing videos (likes, loves, shares, and comments), but a lack of link clicking. Ad testing and data analysis were not our strong suit and we didn't have the time to learn as the IndieGoGo would launch in a few weeks.

Plus between stressing over the email marketing, the facebook ads, the IndieGoGo page, and the shipping we realized something.

Creating the game, characters, and world were fun - all this self-publishing stuff...wasn't.

We are designers, not publishers - What eventually made us understand why it was so difficult for us was a video from Tom Vasel, a well-known board game designer and reviewer that has been referenced on MTV, The Escapist, and Wired.

Tom stated it best:

“A lot of you have a dream… Your dream is to be a board game designer... if you become a board game publisher, you pretty much have to give up the [other] dream because you will now have to deal with accounting. You will now have to deal with money. You will now have to deal with advertising.

Don’t give up one dream and grasp, what would be for you, a lesser dream, just to make the first one happen..because that would not satisfy you.”

What does all this mean to you as a Publisher?

A Quality Game with a potentially long life-cycle for your company.
We created a quality game, but we need help publishing it. With over 400 characters and items from 13 unique universes, there's a lot of themed randomized booster packs and starter packs that can be sold.
More Word-of-Mouth, lower marketing costs.
As a party game for college students or family get togethers there is plenty of people that can get into the game very quickly. Plus the ease of learning makes this a great game for casual players. It can also be an intense championship game with deck building, strategy creating, and card trading for the more hardcore gamers.
Strong brand with great characters to stand out in the marketplace.
Characters and stories are often the biggest selling point in games and movies. This game is filled with unique characters and stories that can glimpsed at with their attacks, character art, and bios on the Shranks app. We also have full blown ideas of stories that can be released as comics or animations that will help sell the characters.

Would you like to be our Game Publisher?

Contact us to see if we can partner up: Publish Shranks: The Party Card Game

If you're interested in publishing our game then we are interested in talking to you.

We have a game and a companion app that we know is a perfect fit for, and will stand out in, the marketplace - as well as stories to help market the characters in the game.

You have a game publishing company that has the resources and skills to market and ship the game and you need a standout game to increase profits.

Together we can make a win-win situation for the both of us as well as the customers that buy our game.

1
It can be played as a drinking game: It's a great way to reach the fun party crowd which means more people will come into contact with the game.
2
It's easy to learn and fun to play: By having simple instructions there will be less resistance to playing the game meaning more people playing and more sales.
3
You can play it with anyone: This game can be played with the older college crowd or the younger high school or middle school kids - which means it has a larger appeal. In fact, like Sega did with the Sega Genesis, by aiming for the older college crowd - it'll land into the younger crowd by proxy through siblings and family.

What Beta Testers are saying about our game

“One of the most entertaining gaming experiences...”

"Being someone that doesn't particular enjoy card games I can honestly say Shranks has been, without a doubt, one of the most entertaining gaming experiences I've ever had with a card game..."

Dan M.

- New York

“Great game to pass the time with friends..."

"...It's a great game to pass the time with friends and make some new friends one the way..."

Ian L.

- New York

“The rules are simple and straight forward."

"The rules are simple and straight forward. It doesn't take long to learn, it took me only a few seconds..."

Steve J.

- New York

Let's Work Together

Contact us to see if we can work together to get Shranks: The Party Game to the masses and have a win-win situation for everyone!

Let's Talk About Publishing Shranks!