Hack79.Create Packaging for Homebrew Games

Hack 79. Create Packaging for Homebrew Games

Make lots of money off your creations with slick package designs .

Many of the people that purchase homebrew games are just as much collectors as they are gamers. For a collector, the nostalgic feeling of opening a brand new game title is a tremendous rush. If you've invested the time to create a homebrew game that you're truly proud of, you owe it to yourself to spend the extra bit of time required to round out your product with good quality packaging and artwork. Collectors will love you for it!

In this section, I will cover some options for producing labels, boxes, and manualsfrom simple, do-it-yourself options to professionally produced packaging.

Now, maybe you're more of a programmer than an artist. That's okayall is not lost. There are services dedicated to helping homebrew authors create artwork, publish, and even market their productions !

Before we get started, I'd like to go over a few printing terms that you'll need to be familiar with:

Bleed

A term used to describe printing that goes right to the edge. Artwork printed full bleed will have no borders visible. Coverage

Coverage

How much area is occupied by printing. A sheet of paper with "test" written in 12-point font has a very low amount of coverage. That same sheet of paper with a photograph printed right to the edges has a high amount of coverage.

Weight

Typical measurement of the thickness of paper or cardstock. A more precise measurement is the grams per square meter, or gsm .

8.8.1. Developing Eye-Catching Artwork

Think back to the last time you stood in the store perusing the latest titles. Maybe this was back in 1982, or maybe it was last week. Either way, artwork plays a prominent role in grabbing the attention of the would-be buyer.

The question remains: how do you get great artwork if you're not an artist? It may be easier than you think. You can always ask an artistically inclined friend or relative, or if you're a member of an on-line gaming forum, you could hold a contest. Some homebrew production services may be able to design artwork to your specifications.

Many of the original fonts used for packaging are available for download. For example, Ergoe, Hammerfat, and MumboSSK were used on original Atari labels and are available from the http://www.AtariAge.com web site.

While you could devote an entire book, nay an entire collegiate discipline, to developing good package art, this chapter is more about materials and printing. However, I would like to include a few notes on the preparation of your artwork:

• When preparing artwork for print, try to err on the side of excessively high quality rather than low. If using a scanner to prepare artwork, the minimum for acceptable quality is 300DPI, but shoot for an output resolution around 600DPI.

• If using non-industry standard software to prepare artwork, try and export your final product as a PDF or other industry standard file type.

• Be sure to ask permission before using any copyrighted materials in your artwork.

8.8.2. Printing: Types and Benefits

The method of printing your artwork will depend heavily on a few factors:

• How many copies do you plan on producing?

• How much do you plan on selling the game for?

• What kind of quality are you looking for?

Inkjet printing

Price

For a small, low-coverage production run, inkjet is probably the best option. Inkjet printers are commonplace and inexpensive, and even large-format inkjet printers can be had for less than $300. If your artwork has a large amount of coverage, you'll find yourself changing expensive ink cartridges often. Beware of cheaper inkjet cartridge refillsthey often use lower quality ink that will fade more easily and produce substandard results.

Quality

Inkjet quality is highly dependent on the printer itself and the paper used. Inkjet prints have a tendency to smudge if exposed to moisture, so it isn't the best choice if you have a full bleed manual.

Overall Appearance

Appearance can range from poor to excellent depending on printer or paper. Inkjet prints will also take on the properties of the paper used; glossy paper produces glossy prints, matte paper produces matte prints.

Laser printing

Price

If your artwork has a large amount of coverage, it will probably be cheaper to have laser prints made. Print shops like CopyMax and Kinko's have high quality color laser printers and generally reasonable deals on bulk purchases.

Quality

Laser prints are sharp and high quality. They don't run or bleed onto skin or fabric. Modern color laser printers are of superior quality to all but the most expensive of printing presses.

Overall Appearance

Laser prints are acceptable for most tasks . However, color laser printers that use fuser oil will create shiny prints, and differing colors may appear to have different levels of reflectivity. These artifacts are usually only apparent when viewing the subject at an angle. Recent color laser technology has negated the requirement for fuser oil, and these reflectivity artifacts will not appear.

Offset, or press printing

Price

This is positively the most expensive route and should only be considered on very large product runs or when maximum quality and precise color are required. The bulk of offset printing costs are from the job setup; the price will drop exponentially as the production quantity increases .

Quality

Offset printing may or may not produce the highest quality output; quality is highly dependant on the technology of the press. Always ask to see samples, and if you can find out the model of the press, you can do some research to find out if it's a quality machine.

Overall Appearance

Offset printing offers a wide variety of inks and appearances . The results may range from mediocre to excellent. Offset printing does offer some features unavailable on inkjet or laser, like the ability to use precise spot match colors.

8.8.3. Material Selection

There are a lot of choices for labels, paper, and cardstock for producing labels, manuals, and boxes. You'll want to be sure to choose acid-free paper stock and acid-free adhesives for labels. The cost difference should be negligible, but the long-term storage implications of choosing non-archival quality materials will be disastrous. Manuals should be stapled with stainless steel staples to prevent rusting in humid climates.

8.8.4. Printing Labels

Printing labels is fairly easy. With full-sheet labels available, it is a relatively straightforward process to print your labels and cut them out, either with scissors or with a professional press-type cutter .

Depending on the game system and cartridge shells that you're using, you may desire rounded corners for your labels. If you have a lot of patience you can round them by hand with scissors, but the work is tedious and the results will be inconsistent. If you want a professional appearance, you may have to do a little research and see if you can order labels in the required size or have them die-cut. Talk to a local printing shop and see what kind of options they offer.

8.8.5. Printing Manuals

The simplest booklet-style manual uses an 8.5 x 11 sheet, folded in half. This creates a simple booklet that uses center stapling. Printing, folding, and stapling by hand would be possible, although you should add a few small marks to indicate the stapling area in the center of your manual booklet. If you have more than a few pages or are using a heavy paper stock, the edges will begin to fan out and require trimming to look professional.

Many copy/print shops have a booklet-making machine that can fold, staple, and then trim the edges to produce a consistent, clean-edged manual. It shouldn't cost more than $1 per manual for the service, and you'll save yourself a lot of time and headaches .

For paper stock, the bare minimum weight you should use is 24lbanything lighter and text on the opposite pages will show through, or if you use inkjet printing, you'll see the ink bleed through the page. A 32lb bright white stock should provide a reasonable base for any printing method and be strong enough to hold up through repeated readings . If you decide to print manuals on colored stock, be sure to limit the color selections of your print or prepare to spend a bit of time viewing proofs to ensure the results are acceptable.

8.8.6. Printing Boxes

A game box is going to be the most difficult part of the packaging to produce. You'll need to decide on the dimensions of the box and if you want to cut, fold, and glue them yourself.

Use a ruler and a sharp hobby knife to cut the box out of the cardstock. Buy a lot of extra blades and change them at the first sign of dullness. You can try scissors, but you may end up bending the edges and corners of the boxes.

Before folding an edge, hold a ruler against the edges and score them on the inside of the box with a butter knife or other dull-edged object. This will help create a smooth, straight fold. Don't score too hard, though, or you might mar the outside of the box. If your boxes are being printed professionally, they may have a service available to pre-score the fold lines.

A local or Internet-based print shop may be able to provide a complete box producing service. Be sure to get several quotes since prices may vary considerably. If you're only planning a small run of games, producing boxes can be an expensive option, but if you're making 100200 games, the price per unit will drop dramatically.

An appropriate minimum weight for cardstock is 67lb, but an 80lb or 110lb may be more suitable. If your paper supplier lists the weight in gsm, aim for stock within the area of 200gsm. The heavier the stock, the more resistant to damage it will be, but the more difficult it will be to produce clean, straight folds. If the boxes are laser printed, you may experience some flaking at the folds if the stock is too heavy. If possible, have some proofs made up at varying weights and see what works best for your production. Pre-scoring will help prevent edge flaking.

8.8.7. Alternatives and Exemplary Examples

Not everyone that has released a homebrew title has walked the conventional path . There have been some wonderfully creative and unique ideas used for homebrew game packaging. For example, keeping with the harddrive-adventure theme of Joe Grand's 2600 release of SCSIcide, the game cartridge was packaged in a static-free baga simple yet clever idea. Other clever packaging concepts are shown in the following figures.

Alex Herbert's Vectrex release of Protector was shipped in a heavy, textured box, shown in Figure 8-28. A foil- inlay "Baiter" graced the front of the box, and a small numbered sticker was placed on the back to indicate the unique production number (100 were made, sequentially numbered). Included inside: a single-sheet instruction manual, a colored translucent plastic screen overlay with reverse-printed text and graphics, and a white cardboard insert to hold the cartridge securely in the center of the package. The original selling price was 31.18 (around $50, including postage , at the time). These days you'd be hard pressed to find one selling for less than $200.

George Pelonis's Vectrex release of "I, Cyborg" was packaged (see Figure 8-29) in a hinged, black plastic box just slightly larger than the cartridge itself. A label was affixed to the box lid, and a mini instruction manual was included inside. It is a great example of simple, tasteful, and unique packaging.

All of Eduardo Mello's Colecovision releases have included offset printed boxes, manuals, and labels. Mello has even had new cartridge casings made with his handle "Opcode" embossed into the back, as shown in Figure 8-30.

Figure 8-28. Protector's box design

Figure 8-29. I, Cyborg's cartridge, manual, and case

8.8.8. Final Recommendations

While some of you may be hardcore do-it-yourselfers, you can really save a lot of time and money and add to the quality of your work by sourcing your printing to a print or copy shop. If you're looking for color laser prints, the cost/quality edge clearly lies with those that have professional equipment. If you add up the price of a color laser printer, toner, and paper stock, you'll find that most print shops are quite competitive. Plus, if you do the work, then you'll eat the cost of misprints, proofs, paper jams, etc. If they produce it, you only pay for what they deliver.

Figure 8-30. Opcode's embossed cartridge design

Always produce around 10-20 units of overage (e.g., if you're producing 100 games, have 110 boxes/manuals/labels produced). That way you have something to fall back on should a box or manual become damaged, either during assembly or after shipment to your customer.

Regardless of who produces the packaging, always spot check inkjet prints for smudges , lines, and fading. Check laser prints for smudging and overall consistency. If you run a heavy cardstock through a laser printer and the fuser isn't hot enough, the toner can brush right off of the page (and onto your hands and clothing).

With a little effort, you're sure to produce a game that sells fast and becomes a point of pride with collectors around the globe. Good luck!

Luke Sandel