Board Game Marketing and Safety
Making a custom board game is time intensive and often difficult. So, we want to make sure you have the knowledge to get your board game to market if that’s your goal. Here at PrintNinja we want to make sure you have a great experience creating your custom board game. That why we created the free, one-of-a-kind board game quote calculator. This is always a great step to check-in and make sure your board game costs are correct.
The first step to getting your board game out onto the market is making sure your cost is as low as it needs to be. If you are having a hard time getting your costs down, check out our cost reduction guide. Once your game is at the price point of your liking, you can continue.
The funding of your custom board game is also a concern. If you are not sure where to get started raising money, make sure to look at our Kickstarter and crowdfunding page. This page also has lots of important info about getting your game into local game shops specifically.
As a manufacturing company, we don’t have any safety rules for your board game. However, board game distributors will likely have rules in place for things like safety testing and general dimensions. You should keep this in mind during the design and production process.
Making sure your game is up to industry standards can be difficult. So if you want an idea of the industry standards for your specific type of game, check out our industry standards page.
Board Game Safety Testing+
Board games often include small pieces that enhance gameplay, but are also potentially hazardous to kids. The US requires that all toys meet certain safety standards. According to these standards, a game is a toy if it is designed for children age 13 or younger.
Therefore, if your board game is designed for children 13 or younger, you must clearly label any hazards on the box. To find out what the hazards are, you must submit your game to an independent laboratory for safety testing. PrintNinja can take care of this testing for you with an independent laboratory in Hong Kong.
This testing costs several hundred dollars. If you’re looking to save as much money as possible, you can avoid safety testing by marketing the game to ages 13+. However, this will decrease your potential customer base, especially if you’re creating a game for a younger audience.
Retailers won’t accept games that don’t have a specified target age on the box because of these safety standards. So, if you’re not marketing your game to children under 13 years of age, make sure “AGES 13+” is visible on the box.
Safety testing your board game can increase your turnaround time by about 1 week. However, obtaining the paperwork necessary for board game marketing to kids under 13 is well worth the wait.
If you’re producing your board game for sale in another country, please contact us so we can work together to determine the best way to alert customers about the potential hazards in your game.
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