So it's just about done - my over one-year journey to get my educational card game published is about at an end.
Things have been unexpectedly good here - in a previous diary, I described a scientific career completely run aground, withering in the face of our Lesser Depression.
Turns out the rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated, though it's still on life support. After I fled the NIH and Maryland with my tail tucked between my legs, I found a technician-level job here in Michigan. It's vast underemployment for a 40-year old Ph.D., but it's something I'm grateful to have in this market, and may lead to a second chance.
But this diary isn't about that. It's about a very different sort of David and Goliath situation: an independent designer vs. corporate monopolies. It's one I'm once more hoping for assistance from the Kos community with. Follow me below the sigil if you might be willing to lend a hand...
So what exactly is it I'm trying take to market here?
It's an educational game called Dr. Arch's Mutations (a bit of an awkward name, but necessary to get around trademark issues with Viacom). It was originally inspired by a now-dismantled exhibit at the Koshland Science Museum concerning the evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. It's a 94-card game designed both to be fast and fun to play for high-school to college-aged kids, and to teach some basic facts about microbiology. Each of it's base 'bacteria' cards contains a fact about microbiology in four categories: Historical, Biological, Experimental or Practical. The game mechanics have been playtested exhaustively for over a year, and the art was done by a professional card artist and game designer husband and wife team.
It seeks to strike the hardest of all balances: to be both fun to play and to be a teaching aid. My game testers certainly seem to think it is the former. The latter still needs to be proven.
So where does the David vs. Goliath part of this come in, and how can you help?
There are a few things that I'm in desperate need of:
1) Some advice on marketing the game to the target audiences: museums and schools. A few large corporations absolutely dominate those markets, so getting a hearing all by itself is going to be a mountain to climb. Any advice you have would be very, very welcome.
2) Related to the above: Marketing in the Internet age. I'm pretty internet literate, having been around on it since before the Web (quite literally). I'm trying to scare up a videographer here in Ann Arbor to make a quick video for me to post on YouTube and Kickstarter. But there's so much I don't know about making something like this "go viral", and going viral one of the only ways I know to equalize the corporate advantages in 1) above.
3) An assessment of some of the game's art. I have persistent worries that the art's inappropriate for the target audience, and someone that's used to teaching and/or seeing educational materials for high school kids might really be able to help here.
4) Assistance with putting together a website. I'm primarily a graphic artist; I'm not a coder. Someone who could help me set up a website / online store would be invaluable to me right now. I don't want to use a template - those are just too recognizable as such, and they don't include even simple online stores. This doesn't have to be pro bono, but I ain't Hasbro, either - just a very recently employed, grossly underpaid research tech.
In the end, I know how deeply the odds are against me, but I'm hoping that the Kossacks can help make them a bit less steep. Thank you very much in advance for any advice or information you may provide!