Designs We Tend to Love
The game submissions we tend to love often have these features.
Fun! We want to publish games that are fun to play.
Meaningful Strategy. Players make meaningful decisions that determine whether they win or lose. Diverse strategies are viable paths to victory.
Animal or Historical Themes. We are particularly interested in games about animals, especially insects and dogs, and games that are based on well researched historical topics.
Other Interesting Themes. Themes must grab gamers’ attention and help sell the experience.
Elegantly Related Theme and Gameplay. Theme and gameplay should complement one another.
Games You Can Learn From. We love games that teach you about some aspect of the world as you play.
Solid Mechanics and Rules. Thoroughly tested and revised games, with clearly written and well-edited rules.
Innovative Gameplay. Original concepts rather than thin variants of what’s been done before. We’re looking for exceptional games.
Solo Rules. We prefer games with solo rules but the lack of them is not a deal breaker.
Not every design can shine in all of these areas, but without a series of strong matches to these preferences, your design will probably be best served by another publisher.
No Thank You
We are not usually interested in:
- Games that already had a Kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign
- Abstract games
- Classic game variants (e.g., “chess variants”)
- Collectible games of any type
- Drinking games
- Games that are solely educational/edutainment, we like players to learn from our games but they are not meant to be exclusively teaching tools
- Trick-taking games
- Trivia games
- Roll-and-move games
- Sports games
- Pure social deduction, games with some social deduction elements are fine but please no Werewolf clones or similar
- Games requiring a licensed IP
We are also not interested in:
- Novels
- Roleplaying games (new core games)
- Roleplaying supplements
Submitting Your Design
To submit your game, first get your design to the point where you could mail us a playable prototype within a few days after we request it, and you are confident we could accurately teach ourselves the game by reading your rules.
If your design is at that point, follow these steps.
Send a Proposal
First, email a proposal describing your design and the below attachments to:
submissions@hitemwithashoe.com
Please tell us about any games you have previously created that have been published in your proposal.
Your proposal email must include the following three attachments. If any are missing, we will delete your proposal unread.
- Overview / Sell Sheet: A one-page PDF that describes your game and why it’s great. If this doesn’t grab us, we’re not likely to read further. Also, include all the relevant details of your game here: player count, ages, time to play, components required, etc.
- Prototype Photo: A single photo of your prototype arrayed on a table for play. Please, no digital mock-ups. This helps us understand your design’s table presence and it provides evidence that this is an actual design rather than a theoretical idea.
- Complete Rules: A PDF or Google doc comprising the complete rules of play.
You may optionally also include a link to a Gameplay video, 5 MIN OR LESS and in English, that presents the basics of your game. This is not required.
Our Review and Next Steps
Once we receive your proposal, we’ll do our best to review it within one month. If you don’t hear from us four weeks after sending a proposal, please send a follow-up email to the submission email address or our general email address, contact@hitemwithashoe.com
After our review, we’ll email you with our thoughts. If we think your proposal isn’t for us, we’ll do our best to tell you why, though we don’t always have the time to do that.
If we’re interested in playing a prototype, we’ll ask you for one and tell you where to mail it. We prefer the prototype to be playable out of the box; do not email us a “print-and-play” version without discussing with us first if we will accept such a version of your game. If you’d like your prototype back when we’re done, please include return postage. Do not mail a prototype unless we’ve specifically requested it.
Looking Forward
If we’re interested in publishing your game after we review your prototype, we’ll offer you a contract to license the design for publication. Our design licenses generally involve paying an advance against ongoing royalties, plus complimentary copies.
We generally develop designs further after licensing them, usually with the designer’s input and active participation.