I try to tell people about the tools I’m using fairly aggressively, which is in part to make sure people around me can make measured, reasonable responses and judge whether they’re good tools for their own projects, but it’s also because my memory is just awful. Yesterday I received my art-proof copy of Skulk from The Gamecrafter (hence TGC), and I wanted to put some info down here on that front.
First of all price. TGC say they make their money on manufacturing, so the profits per unit are mostly mine. Skulk is a small game with a few mats, a pile of tokens and a small deck of cards, and it cost me ~$21 to get made, and ~$12 shipping. This is broadly speaking, a good rate; Australian shipping prices are a bit rough, but by comparison, a copy of One Night Ultimate Werewolf in my local store is about $40.
Second, time frame. TGC shipped me the game in nineteen days total: this is too slow for a one-month turnaround (for me), but if you plan ahead and aren’t on a schedule like me, this is a robust option. After manufacturing it took two weeks to arrive, so there’s a basic breakdown of the time distribution.
Third, quality. the box, mats and tokens are all very reasonable quality – definitely standard for a mid-level board game. Nothing seems cheap, but at the same time you don’t get the indulgence of things like embossed inlays like Ra or custom trays like in Lasceaux. I am however pretty happy with it, though I will continue to use DrivethruCards for all my pure card games; their card quality feels subtly better, though I can’t put my finger on why.
Fourth, user friendliness. The interface for TGC is pretty good for me; it behaves reasonably intuitively. I did make a project with a lot of replication in it, though: Skulk has a large number of tokens with repeated designs, and not a lot of matter to the orientation. It’s certainly a decent website for me as someone who primarily generates flat images with GIMP rather than using some fancier exporting program service like I’m sure other, better programs can do.
Also included here is this, a little video of my unboxing the product, so you can see how it looks in hand. Sorry about the judder, hanging camera and all:
