For each of these, there might be one person that does 10 different things or is only focused on one major area. It really depends on the size of the company and the skillset of the person.
Design Related
The first major category of jobs I’ll go through are all related to the design of the game!
- Designer: The designer of the game is the person that had the initial idea for the game.
- Codesigner: Similar to a designer, except that there’s more than one person that has designed the game. Usually someone is only considered a codesigner of a game if they’re with the game from the initial idea stage OR if they’ve done a significant amount of design work on the game before the game gets signed by a publisher.
- Solo Designer: This is the person who has designed the solo version of the game.
- Developer: The developer of the game is the person who has taken the designer’s idea and made the game into more of a product. They might make balancing, theme, or component changes. They can have a great impact on the game, as the final product might be significantly different from the initial idea presented by the game designer.
- Playtest Organizer: Someone has to make sure that the game is getting playtested! This can be the same person who is developing the game, but sometimes there’s also a person that’s organizing mass playtesting and organizing all the feedback together to pass on to the developer and/or designer.
- Unguided Playtest Organizer: I separated this out, as unguided playtests can be run in a completely different way from normal playtests and can happen at a different time in the process. Unguided playtests make sure that everything from the graphic design to the rulebook and everything in between is understandable, so this person might also coordinate between the graphic designers, rulebook editors, and developers, to make sure that everything gets updated appropriately.
- Pitch Organizer / Game Outreach: If a game company signs games, they also typically have a way for designers to pitch a game to them. This can be via on online form or email, where the submitted games must be evaluated to see if they get further in the pitching process. It could also be through in-person pitching events at conventions or having a person from the company go to playtesting events to scope out games that would fit their line. Regardless of how the games first come to the notice of the company, there must be someone that then makes the decision on whether the game appears to be a fit before setting up a meeting to evaluate the game further or asking for a prototype that is evaluated later.
Art and Assets
Now, on to all things art! Not that game design isn’t artistic (I would definitely consider it an art), but this category is more about the look of the game.
Art Director: This is the person that decides how a game is going to look, including choosing the art style, communicating with the people who are working on the project to carry out their vision, and creating lists of required assets. Usually, this person creates a brief on the game and assets, reaches out to illustrators and graphic designers, and gives feedback to them to make sure the final product is exactly like they envisioned it.
Illustrator: The illustration for the game is the main way that theme and feeling are conveyed, so this is super important. There are usually illustrations done for the box, cards, boards, and more!
Graphic Designer: Graphic design is everywhere in board games, from the icons, card layouts, the game’s logo, and more. Graphic design can also be broken into a few different specialized categories:
- Meeple Artist: This is the person who makes all the outlines for the meeples. This is a very board-game-specific job and not every graphic designer will be great at making meeples that both look good and also stand up well.
- Rulebook Layout: One of the most important parts of the game is making sure that it’s easy to understand and learn. Laying out the rulebook can also be a very specific skillset, especially since it’s a physical object. You must consider the page numbers and order, what pages will be seen together, and ensure the document is very readable with the wording, font choice and size, and more.
- Chipboard Artist: This is another more board game specific job, especially if you want anything complicated done with chipboard. A simple chipboard layout of similar sized tokens could be done by most graphic designers, but if you want anything complicated, like a dice tower or something you build together, you’ll want someone experienced that has worked with physical components before.
3d Miniature Artist: If you’re making miniatures, you’re going to need an artist to make the sculpts for the miniatures. You might start off with a regular illustration that is then sent to the miniature artist who then can take that image and make it 3-dimensional!
Photographer: Knowing how to show off a game can be the difference between a game being popular or not. Good photos can show off great art and components and also show buyers that the product is worth the cost. Photos are typically added to the back of the game boxes, but also used in media kits which are given to content creators, added to the website, and put on forums, like Board Game Geek.
Outreach
Just because you have a great game design and fantastic artwork doesn’t mean that anyone will know about the game unless you have a good outreach team!
Marketing: There’s a lot that goes into marketing, including anything that goes into promoting or selling of a product. It can include sell sheets sent to retailers, sending games to content creators, teaching people how to demo the game in the best manner, reaching out for interviews, making and sending out press releases, maintaining a company blog or mailing list and much more. This position is a very social job, as the marketer has to know who to contact for each product. It’s also a very demanding job, as marketing a product well means that you’re very up to date on the current state of the industry, including knowing which content creators and events are worth the cost that they bring.
Social Media: This can be seen as an aspect of marketing, but is also a beast of its own. There are so many different social media channels that a company can use, from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, BGG (Board Game Geek), and more! As there are so many different ways to reach out on social media, this is a commonly found job in the industry.
Advertising: This could also be seen as an aspect of marketing, but it also requires a very specific skillset. The ad images must be designed (either directly by the advertiser or by the advertiser describing what they’d like to a graphic designer), ad copy (written words that go with the ad) must be written, and then the ads themselves have to be run on the specific platforms at the best times. Some platforms don’t need much upkeep, but others like Facebook need to have someone regularly checking and monitoring the ads.
Sales: The board game industry is weird, especially with sales! There are not only direct-to-consumer sales, but there are also retail and distributor sales, as well. Having someone that knows the right people and can get the right person to look at a game can mean the difference between a game being in Target and selling thousands or the game being limited to Amazon direct sales.
Other
Editor: One of the hardest jobs for a game is the editor. They are usually brought on to edit the rulebook and make sure that the rules are clear, simple, and have enough examples, but they can also be given all the text of the cards, as well. Having an editor go through the card text is super helpful to make sure that there is a consistency in terminology and to make sure that the rules match the cards. Editors might rearrange the sections of the rules and break up paragraphs to make the rules more readable and easier to understand.
World Builder: Some games that are thematic might have an amount of backstory written for them. This could be simple things, like a set of terminology, or it could be long involved histories of a world or people. The World Builder will write as much as needed to properly convey the world and to get players engaged with the game. The world builder will need to write flavor text in such a way that it helps explain the mechanics of the game and not confuse the players further. Sometimes the world building that is done for a game isn’t even shared with the public; it can simply be a tool the development team uses to decide how a game is going to work and to allow the team to have a shared understanding of the background of the game.
Manufacturing Liaison: All the illustrations, graphic design, and everything else that makes a game must come together and be submitted to the manufacturer somehow, and that’s the manufacturing liaison’s job. This person will be making decisions on what thickness the cardstock will be, what size the box is, and a ton of other decisions that relate to all the components. They’ll also ensure that all the card images have the correct bleed and margins and are in the right color formats. They might also choose the Pantone colors for components or the number of games that will be in a carton of games.
Fulfillment Specialist: Once a game has been manufactured, it’ll need to get from the manufacturers, typically to a boat, then through customs, then to a variety of destinations. For Kickstarters, this might mean that the games are shipped to the publisher to be manually sent to each backer or this could mean that some of the games are sent to a fulfillment company, while the rest go to another warehouse. The Fulfillment Specialist will then have to format all the orders to send to the fulfillment company or order all the postage needed to ship out the games manually. This can definitely take a lot of spreadsheet knowledge, depending on what format the backer data is in and what format it needs to be in for the fulfillment company or to buy postage.
Shipping Expert: Once a game has been fulfilled, there’s still more work to be done! The shipping expert will handle all shipments after the initial fulfillment of a Kickstarter campaign or Preorder period. This will involve sending out shipments for direct orders, either from direct customers, retailers, or consolidators and distributors.
Customer Service: Things sometimes go wrong with shipments, parts can be missing, and people can have questions. Customer service takes care of all of these AND MORE! They might just respond via email, but they could also be in charge of forums, such as Board Game Geek, or handling messages over social media.
Contractors, Employees, and More!
One aspect that I haven’t really gone over is how these jobs actually get done and that’s in part due to the fact that every company is different! Some large board game companies have full-time employees for each of the above jobs, while smaller companies tend to use contractors, and some companies do the work in-house.
Royalties: Designers tend to get paid based on royalties, which means they get paid based on the cost of the game and how many units are sold. They might get an initial signing bonus, but this is usually for more established designers.
Contractors: A ton of work in the board game industry is done by contractors! This can include getting paid a set fee for a specific service or an hourly rate and doesn’t typically include any other benefits, such as healthcare, paid days off, etc. that you would expect as an employee. Contractors can either work on a per-project basis, where they are expected to work until a project is finished and then they are done, or on a regular basis, which could be a certain number of hours a week or until a task list is complete.
Part-Time and Full-Time Employees: Some board game companies have employees! That get paid AND have benefits and such! This is kind of a joke and kind of not, as only the larger companies tend to have actual employees instead of contractors.
Owners: These are the people that own the business! They might or might not get paid, but at least they get to make the decisions, right? That’s definitely something.
Did you enjoy this entry? What would be your dream job in the board game industry? Please let me know! I’d love to hear what you think and what kind of things you’d like to see from this blog. Feel free to send me an email or comment with your thoughts!
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Great read Carla, as always!
Thanks so much for saying so!