What do Publishers Want?

First and foremost, most publishers are looking for games with novel mechanics, themes, and physical representations. They want a good game, but they also have to be able to sell it. Many have a box on their submission form, asking "why is your game novel?"

Radlands is a strategy card game. It originally had a generic futuristic theme, and it's not hugely novel. It was extremely hard to get this game published, despite being a great game. I almost ran out of publishers.

Publishers are not looking for

  • Variants of classic games like Chess or Poker, or anything that includes their components.
  • Collectible card games like Magic, with packs of random cards you trade with friends. Put all the cards needed to play into a box.
  • Deck-builders. (Games where you start with a bad deck, and add cards to it to improve it.) They can be very dry, and tend to be very high in work. Most importantly, there are just too many of these. Never jump on the latest fad, or even the fad before that.
  • Abstract games like checkers, which have no theme. No matter how hard they try, a publisher can't sell a game about cones hopping over cubes. This is easily fixed, however. Just paste on an appropriate and attractive theme for your game, and come back.
  • Sports games, trivia games, most word games. These games only have appeal to the mass market, and the mega-companies that make such games don't accept submissions. A few word games do get published, but it's a very small number. You'd better have something unique to offer. "Scrabble 2", or "Box of Quiz Cards #981345987" isn't going to cut it.
  • "Educational" games. These tend to be 90% education, 10% game. These are not games. Go to an education provider.
  • Roll and move. Roll a die, and move that many spaces. This type of game is obsolete, and will be dismissed instantly.
  • Zombies
  • War Games (outside specialist publishers. A very small number of publishers will accept war games. You're going to need to know your stuff, because this is a niche and hard-core market.)

Physical size

Secondly, most publishers are looking for "small box games". Only a minority will publish games with a significant number of components.

You shouldn't design with minimising physical components as your main objective, but it is one more reason to make light games.

A smaller game also gives the players, who don't have infinite money, better value.

Your game should use as few pieces as possible, and they should be the standard game pieces. This means regular dice, 4-20 sided dice, simple coloured wooden cubes/discs/men, punchboard (thick cardboard for boards, chits, and other flat pieces), and cards.

Things like custom dice (dice with faces that aren't numbers), and unusual resource tokens (fancy resource shapes, animal shapes) are still mostly acceptable.

Miniatures and other custom-moulded plastic pieces are very expensive. There is a huge caveat to this, however. Publishers crave novelty, as they're trying to stand out in a flood of games. Having some very novel physical presence is a huge plus. This may involve custom pieces.

Tzolk'in has giant connected plastic cogs on its game board, that all rotate together.
Colt Express has Wild West train cars instead of a board. They're made out of standard punchboard, however, assembled into a 3D structure.

You shouldn't have a scoresheet, because it's work. It also costs money.

Make sure that all components are being used regularly. Do not include components that are only occasionally used, like a marker that only goes with one card.

Artwork is expensive. Most cards in your decks should exist as multiple copies of the same card. There should be a few rarer cards that only exist as singles, but most cards should be doubles or triples.

Try to use the other side of objects. Boards, chits, and cards not in decks, can all have a second side. This is a great way to fit everything onto fewer components, or add variation. If you have two things that don't work well together, or do something very similar, you can just put them on opposite sides of the same component, so they can never both be in the game at the same time.