Submissions Guidelines: Card Games and Boardgames

Last Updated: June 11, 2008

Important Note: This is not a current page. If you came here from a search engine, you should know that you are looking at an archive and the information here is not up to date. SJ Games is not accepting board and card game submissions. See here for why.

We publish several card and board games every year. Most of these are designed and developed in-house, but over the years we have published a number of outside submissions.

We reject the vast majority of the submissions we receive. Don't take it personally; we have limited resources, and lots of ideas of our own to pursue. But every once in a while, something gets our attention. If you follow these guidelines, you'll increase your chance of getting the brass ring!

What We're Looking For

• Fun, simple games. Ideally, a group of four to six can play the game in under an hour.
• Humor. Humor is good. Of course, not everybody agrees about what's funny. But we prefer games that are amusing.
• Family games. We prefer our games to be PG-rated, at most; the level of innuendo in Chez Geek is about as much as we're willing to accept.
• Something unexpected! The biggest thrill we can get is to try a new game and find something special . . . that's what makes sorting through all the others worthwhile.

What We're NOT Looking For

These are factors that may not kill your chance of success, but WILL reduce it:

• Great, undeveloped ideas. We have lots and lots of ideas. Turning an idea into a good game is the hard part. We may really like your idea and still turn you down, if it looks like we'll have to do all the development work ourselves. Make sure your game has been thoroughly playtested before you send it; don't tell us it works for 3 to 8 players if you've only tried it with 4 or 5 . . .
• Games with elaborate components. The more components (and the more types of components) your game includes, the less likely we are to do it, even if we think it's the greatest thing since chess. The more components a game has, the more expensive it is to produce, and we're trying to keep our games affordable for everyone. Occasionally we'll do a big game with lots of pieces, but NOT often. We have never done a game based on a gadget, and we don't plan to.
• Wargames. If we ever publish more wargames, we have a backlist of our own.

What We Absolutely Don't Want

Please don't propose any of the following:

• Supplements for existing lines. This crops up mostly in respect to Munchkin or Chez Geek. We already have plenty of ideas for these lines, and prefer to develop them in-house.
• Sports games. That is just not our market; we have never published a sports game and don't plan to.
• Children's games. Again, that's not our market. We do not sell into the educational or toy-store channels.
• Topical games. Our development cycle can be long. Sad but true. If your game hinges on today's headlines, we probably won't get to it before it's old news.
• Games requiring licenses. If we would have to purchase a license in order to publish your game, please don't submit it. It is a complete waste of your time to write us, for instance, to say "I bet you never thought about publishing a Star Trek game. You should do that and hire me to write it."
• Collectible card games, aka "trading card games." In the current market, these are both expensive and risky.
• Trivia games. There are lots of publishers for trivia games, but not us.
• Election games. We get a lot of those around election time, for some reason.
• R- or X-rated games. Not interested.

Query Letter

Start by sending us a letter describing your game. We don't need details; we do need to know something about the theme and components. "It's a card game about the election of Pope Urban III. It requires 168 cards and a working air horn." Or whatever.

Your query letter should start by saying that you have read these guidelines. If you don't say that, we will assume that you didn't read them, and we will write back to ask you to read them.

If you have previously created games which have been published, tell us about them in your query letter. Likewise, if you have some particular expertise in the subject matter of your game, tell us about it.

The query letter can go to our PO Box address (below), or you can email it to [email protected]. If you send a physical letter, it's a good idea to give us your email address or to include a SASE for a reply.

You certainly should NOT send us the whole game at this stage. The purpose of the query letter is to save everyone's time if we're definitely not interested.

Playtest Prototype

If we like the idea, we'll ask for a prototype. We want to evaluate complete games. Ideas are cheap; what we're interested in is whether you can turn your nifty idea into an equally nifty game.

Send a playable prototype; we can't evaluate your game unless we sit down and play it! Obviously, don't send your only copy. If you can send a disposable copy, that's best. (If you want your prototype back, please include a SASE of sufficient size, and with sufficient postage, or we'll discard it when we're through.)

All cards, counters, and so on must be cut out and ready to play. If the game requires generic counters like poker chips, you can assume we have plenty of those around . . . you don't have to send us more . . .

If you are submitting a card game, you don't have to have a set of cards professionally printed, but cardstock isn't that expensive, and is much easier to play with than scraps of printer paper. Similarly, if your game requires a board (unless it's a chessboard or something equally common), please send one along. It does NOT have to be mounted on heavy board.

It should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: the rules must be legibly printed. Yes, every so often we get a handwritten submission. Ouch.

The Waiver

You must include a Game Evaluation Waiver with your game submission. SJ Games cannot even look at games which do not include a waiver. Please realize that this waiver is not for your protection. It's for ours. It is absolutely and completely one-sided, and not negotiable. (Okay, one exception. If your game has previously been published and sold to the public, and you want to see if we might publish a new edition, you don't need a waiver. Waivers are for unpublished works.)

New writers sometimes ask "What protects me from having my ideas stolen?" The answer is (1) The copyright laws of the USA, which have sharp teeth and are written all in favor of authors, and (2) Even if you have no faith in our honesty, you should have faith in our prudence (stealing is bad business) and our egos (we're far too proud of our own work to publish someone else's stuff under our own name).

But having said that, if you do NOT trust our honesty, don't offer us a game.

Note that we will not, under any circumstances, sign an NDA to look at a submission. Don't even bother asking.

Where To Send It

Send your prototype to:

Steve Jackson Games
Attn: Submissions
P.O. Box 18957
Austin, TX 78760

If you prefer to use a shipping company (UPS, FedEx, etc.), our shipping address is:

Steve Jackson Games
Attn: Submissions
3735 Promontory Point DR
Austin, TX 78744

Waiting . . . Waiting . . .

Be aware that it can take several months before we make a decision on your submission. (Or more – Strange Synergy sat for around a decade, until we felt the market was ready for this excellent, but complex, game! Never lose hope . . .) Please don't send "nudge notes," although a single "Did this arrive?" email to [email protected] is not out of place. It's better to use certified mail or a shipping company which provides a tracking number, of course. Also contact that email address if your contact information changes.

If We Make An Offer . . .

. . . the terms will depend entirely on circumstances. A game that is ready to go and perfectly balanced is worth a lot more to us than one that requires months of development. If we really like something in your submission, we may make you an offer even though we know we'll have to do a lot of work to it . . . but we'll pay less.

We usually offer game writers their choice of a flat fee or royalties. If your game is a big hit, you'll do better in the long run with royalties. If there's a single press run, you'll do better by getting your money in front. It's your call.

Note that submitting a game to us does NOT obligate you to take our offer. You can always say no!

Development

When we buy a game, we buy all rights. We may change the rules, change the name, change the theme . . . It's possible that what we see in the game is not what you saw in it! These things happen.

We may send you a list of changes we want and ask for you to go through another round of development. Or we may just say "Okay, we'll take it from here."

We certainly will keep you in the playtesting and development loop. We'll listen to what you say. But we get the last word. If this bothers you, don't work with us . . .

Assorted Notes

• If you are designing a card game, multiples of 56 and 84 are easiest for our printer to work with. Multiples of 36 work for bigger cards, like those in Dino Hunt and Ninja Burger. It is unusual to put more than 168 cards in a game.
• It is our policy to put the designer's name on the front of the box. On rare occasions, usually because of graphic design, it goes on the back instead. If this is important to you, tell us . . . We always want to give the game designer prominent credit.
• We don't expect the designer to do his own illustrations. When a designer tries to do so, we are usually horrified by the result. (Sometimes we're amused – but not in a good way.) Okay, Tom Wham is an exception, but you're not Tom Wham. (If you are, in fact, Tom Wham, ignore that sentence. If you are not sure whether you are Tom Wham, check your drivers' license. If it says that you are Tom Wham, send us more games.)
• Likewise, you as the designer are not responsible for providing art. That's our problem. Your prototype does not need to have any art at all, and the maps and boards can be very crudely drawn as long as they're clear. If the rules require diagrams for explanation, include them but don't worry about how pretty they are.
• If you have the files for your game in electronic form, please say so in your query. We want a physical prototype to test, but if we know that the digital version exists, then we can ask for it when your game proceeds to development.