So, I’m going to whine. Brew yourself a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and let’s begin. The life of a board game publisher is unfair. A comic book publisher, a book publisher, or even a YouTuber—they all have it easier. How they have it easier? When it comes to covers. Yes, I’m whinening about covers.
Officially, my job title is „board game publisher,” but those of you who know me well are aware that I’ve spent the last decade primarily as the head of the marketing department. In that department, everything revolved around A/B testing, analyzing reactions, and doing experiments. It was all about running three ads and seeing which performed better. About uploading a video to YouTube, then changing the thumbnail after two days to see if it improved click-through rates. About sending out newsletters with two different subject lines to see which achieved a higher open rate.
In marketing, nothing is taken for granted. Thanks to extensive and precise analytics, everything can be tested, measured, and adjusted to achieve the best possible result. For over a decade in marketing, I’ve been able to test and tailor everything to match customer preferences.
How does this relate to publishing? Well, book publishers often release books with two cover variants (or, as with the latest Witcher book, four!) and observe which performs better. The same goes for comic book publishers, though things get a bit wilder there. It’s less about analytics and more about tapping into collectors’ instincts. One cover is drawn by one artist, another by someone else, one has silver lettering, another is black and white. A single comic can have ten different cover versions on the shelves.
And then there’s me, the complaining board game publisher. There was one famous experiment with Bruno Cathala’s excellent game Abyss, which hit the market in five different box versions. But generally, no one operates this way. No one prepares A/B sets. Few can afford such experiments—to release a game in several different boxes. It’s just too expensive because a board game cover is also its box. Changing a box is expensive.
So, we don’t change covers. Even though we know that people buy with their eyes. Even though we know Scythe wouldn’t have been a success without Jakub Różalski’s artwork. Even though every single piece of analytical data shows that people click on a YouTube video not because the speaker is engaging but because the thumbnail is appealing! You have to test. You have to find out which image resonates most with people!
We buy with our eyes. I know this, and that’s why I whine, I whine, because I send to print a game with a cover I like, knowing that it would be better to release a small print run with three different box designs, test which one sells best, and then proceed with the most popular version for reprints. I don’t want to decide. I want customers to decide.
In a few weeks, on January 18, at Portalcon, we’ll announce new titles from Portal Games. And while the plan is for these to be the final, definitive, and the only covers, I have to admit that, for the first time in history, the head of marketing, Ignacy Trzewiczek, might tell the board game publisher, Ignacy Trzewiczek, to stop diving headfirst into the deep end. That it’s high time for an A/B test…
I strongly believe that good board game is the one that tells a good story. You play it and suddenly you are sucked into it, you feel chills on the skin. Emotions grow. In a moment you defend castle. You hear roar of warriors. You smell boiling oil. You are into it.
That's how I design my games. I always want to tell a good story. I want players to be into it. As deep as possible.
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