Frequently asked questions from game designers concerning the White Castle game designers service:
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No. Not even if you have already published games with HASBRO via White Castle. Game designers who directly contact Hasbro are forwarded to us. The only exceptions are designers who are charged directly by the Hasbro to furnish a game or a toy, and designers who are already in contact with them.
World-wide, publishing companies are used to cooperating with agencies or else the amount of work for the publishing company would be beyond the measure of benefit. In Europe, working with agencies has still not become common practice. White Castle has done pioneer work here. Hasbro has decided to work with White Castle as their agency because we attach great importance to an individual and personal support for the designers. White Castle's longtime professional competence and success make it an ideal partner for its publisher partners.
Anita Landgraf has adopted the agency's concept of being an agency of game designers for game designers by its founder Ronald Hofstätter, who started as an inventor himself and is still developing games. We know all about the designers' problems and fears because of our own experiences. We support designers during the progression of games, as well as in improving their individual skills. This enables the designer to progress and to grow in order to recognize what makes a game a good game and what the market is looking for at the moment.
If a game is not adopted by Hasbro, although it has been accepted by White Castle, the collaboration needn't stop right here. In that case, White Castle presents the game idea to further well-reputated international publishing companies.
Yes! You can present them at following conventions in Germany, but only after having agreed on a date and paid the assessment fees:
Nürnberg Games Fair – every year in February
Göttingen Game designer Con - every year in June
Essen Games Fair – every year in October
If you have an idea: make a playable prototype. You should play it first with friends but after that also with other people. Another important point is to test with players from the your game's target group. Thus, games for children should be tested with children. If during this time you see that the game works perfectly and that it is fun, you are on the right way. An evaluation sheet will help to keep track of the different versions you might try. If the game does not yet work as it should, improve it until the whole game works perfectly. Now the moment has come to write an instruction which should be easy to understand and as short as possible. The best is to add photos or illustrations for game situations that could be unclear. You should also test the instructions. If people understand them without your help, the games flow smoothly and they are more fun to play. Then the idea can be sent to White Castle.
The game should be as innovative as possible and be fun for the players. Games that go beyond classic compositions like a board, some pawns and dice, are very welcome. Try to use the third dimension as well! Another important element of a game is interaction: The players should not play each for themselves, but they should be playing simultaneously. It should matter to me what the other players do. Creating emotion is also an important criteria. The more emotion a game creates, the better it will be perceived.
7.1 Hasbro has a broad portfolio, from sophisticated games for families and adults, to games for kids and all kinds of toys. As Hasbro promotes its games with TV advertisement, they should be good-looking on TV. Three-dimensional games with a lot of interaction are in great demand here. HASBRO is currently looking also for games which use modern (communication) technologies. What's most important is, that game proposals for HASBRO are fresh and easily communicated (without studying long rules). Visit Hasbro's Websites www.hasbro.de and www.hasbro.com and for a first self-check if your ideas fit into the Hasbro range.
Basically, every publishing company has certain licenses on film or toy brands. Mostly, publishers directly contract inventors whenever they need games fitting to a special topic. Therefore, it is not very reasonable to choose a topic as long as it wasn't demanded explicitly. Another difficulty concerning games based on certain licenses is, that their topics are often very short-dated. Publishing companies need a year or more to launch a game, so it's likely that the topic is already out of date. See the Hasbro Website for the latest popular brands and licenses.
9. Which other criteria are to be taken account of, so a game can be evaluated by White Castle?
General criteria
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The duration of the game should not exceed the maximal length for the target group of the game:
- children game: 30 minutes maximum
- family game: 60 minutes maximum
- game for friends: 90 minutes maximum
- complex strategy games: approx. 90 minutes
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- The game components should comply to the standard dimensions in trade:
- costs and complexity of the material should be adequate to the surplus they add to the game
- avoid heavy and breakable materials, if they are not necessary (example: a cardboard game board is preferable to a wooden game board, don't use glass pawns...
- The game components should be adequate for the target group:
- children's games - nor fiddly neither too big material, so children can grab it easily
- genre games - design and topic can be more or less politically correct, depending on the target group. Keep in mind that not every topic suits a family game.
Hasbro Briefing
We recommend to enclose evaluation sheets of test games (evaluation sheet) as well as playing age, number of players, game duration and category (e.g. family game, race game...), as suggested by the game designer. Prototypes which fit in a big envelope can be sent together with these documents.
Please note the following informations:
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The package you send shouldn't be bigger than a standard game box (45x35x10cm = 18x14x4 inch).
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The game box should be put into a packaging board.
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The game shouldn't weigh more than 3kg (=6.6 lb).
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Do not use toxic or health-damaging properties, sharp-edged or perishable materials.
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The game material and the single components should be savely packaged (for example: put cards, figures... into little sacks)
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Do not use abundant or expensive game material (for example: hand-carved sailer boats, fragile ceramic figures, glass, etc.)
We are convinced that a game can only be evaluated properly by playing a prototype. Thus, send your game as a prototype to White Castle. Send game descriptions, videos or pictures by e-mail only when White Castle explicitly asks for it. White Castle has the necessary software to read all standard Windows formats. We advise you to send the documentation as a doc, xls, ppt/pps or pdf file. Pictures should have a resolution of at least 1024 x 768 and be provided as jpg, gif or png format. The picture file should not exceed the size of 2 MB. Don't attach videos to e-mails, but send a link to it.
It is essential to pay the charges at the same moment when the game is sent to White Castle.
White Castle checks the game idea only after we have received the funds. If the payment has not arrived one week after reception of the game idea, we contact the inventor to remind him of the payment. If the payment is still not made after the reminder, a return of the documents cannot be claimed.
In case of bank transfers from abroad, the sender has to bear all bank charges.
The procedure is the same. Mind that the correspondant fee is due for each individual game idea sent to White Castle for examination
(examination fees).
No.
After reception of the game idea and the fee, White Castle sends a confirmation (e-mail) to the inventor. After this, the game idea is evaluated within (at the latest) 12 weeks. Within that time period, the sender gets a notification about the decision.
Due to holidays and fairs, the periods can be transgressed eventually.
The designer gets enclosed to his returned documents, a detailed report on his game, as well as inputs for its improvement. We also provide information about similar games at the market.
(example evaluation sheet. pdf)
First of all, we inform the designer that his game idea was short-listed. Afterwards, White Castle offers an
agency contract to the designer. The designer can decide between two contracts: "Regular-Agency-Contract" (recommended) or one to present the game only to Hasbro. When the designer signs the contract, White Castle works on the game, and prepares it for the presentation to Hasbro. Then, the idea is presented and discussed in personal meetings, which take place three times a year with HASBRO's representatives. If the designer rejects the agency contract, we send him the game back immediately. White Castle only makes contracts on specific games that convinced us. These contracts do not touch any other already existing or yet to come games by the designer. We do not bind game designers as such to our agency.
In case of a successful outcome, White Castle informs the designer immediately.
White Castle represents the designer's interests during the handling of all formalities, negotiations and accountings.
White Castle does not necessarily consider the game representation closed. The fact that publishers reject a game is not unusual and often not related to the game's quality, but rather to the publisher's current portfolio. Usually White Castle goes on presenting the game to other international publishing companies. As a result of many years of experience, White Castle is in contact with all well-known publishing companies in European and non-European countries. White Castle handles the further presentation and negotiation with publishing companies without causing additional charges for the duration of the agency contract.
Whereas the negotiations are handled without any additional charges, the proceeds of a successful contract conclusion are split between the inventor and White Castle. The sharing percentage is always 60 to 40 in favor of the inventor, no matter if the company is one of our direct partners or another. Usual agency' shares in the games industry are about 40-50%.
All publishing companies, (including Hasbro) conclude a contract over the exploitation rights of the game idea with White Castle. The agency represents the financial, contractual and copyright interests of the inventor. Usually the agency and the designer get about 3-6 percent of the wholesale price of the game. These royalties are variable due to several factors and is always shared between the agency and the designer. The payment is usually effected biannually or annually (depending on the publisher). The accounts are made according to the sold number of items.
The idea is definitely subject to copyright. All ideas sent to White Castle are kept in confidence during the entire procedure. This is also warranted explicitly in the confirmation of the reception of the game and the payment which we send to the inventor. On designer's request, we also sign a Non Disclosure Agreement. Mind that we only sign our White Castle NDA.
Comment on plagiarism: The copying of a game idea can not be excluded in general, but it is not conform to game designers' and publishing companies' gentleman's agreement. Designers or publishing companies who adopt an idea that is not their own would get into troubles with their partners - other publishers and game designers. This business sector is just too small to allow such actions. The SAZ acts as an arbitration board - it is the trade union of the game designers – and White Castle appreciates their efforts for game inventors.
24. How should a rulebook for White Castle respectively their publisher partners look like?
An good rulebook shoudl include the following points:
Indication of:
- playing age
- duration
- category / genre
- number of players
The instruction manual should be structured as follows:
- game material (complete list with picture)
- game idea and game objective
- game preparations
- view of the course of the game
- detail of the course of the game (with illustrations / pictures / photos)
- game scenarios / examples (with illustrations / pictures / photos)
- end of the game
- optional: game variants (children version, expert game, etc.)
