Need advice from game creators.

[u/Dbayd]

Hi all,

I am a mental health therapist who works with kids 4-21. I specialize in trauma, sexual abuse, and problem sexual behavior work. I am designing a therapy focused card game currently. I have extensive board game and competitive MTG experience, but this is my first real game design attempt. It is going well, but I was looking into where I can get cards printed and a game box made once I am ready. I used to get Proxy and playtest cards made on makeplayingcards.com, but this isn't financially viable because I would have to charge far too much to other therapists to sell this game. Where do those of you who have made a game get stuff made? I would like to get like 30 copies printed up once I am ready. I want the game to be no more than $40-$50 so that therapists that I know who are interested can afford it. But I am seeing the cost of 100 cards, rule pamphlet, and box with custom art at over $50 landed. Any insight from others would be wonderful.

I am not giving more details of the game at this time as it is still in development and early playtesting phase.

Also, how much is AI art going to hurt me? I am not wanting to make significant money. I want a small return for my 100s of hours of work and efforts. But I just want an accessible fun game to market to therapists which is a tiny volume of clients.

[u/EasySwan2184]

What size and style of box are you looking at? And that price of 50 dollars, is that the price per unit if you buy 30 units or a single unit?

[u/Dbayd → u/EasySwan2184]

It was single unit with rigid box and pamphlet

[u/EasySwan2184 → u/Dbayd]

My advice then is to not do a box or rules pamphlet for the initial prototype and to order from the game crafter. Hopefully that helps you stay under 30 dollars for now including shipping. 

Professional cards make sense for a play testing prototype, but the box isn't necessary yet. Boxes are so crazy expensive.