Indie Game Alliance Media Guide

Welcome! We're always happy to engage members of the media to discuss IGA and the amazing projects our members are putting together at any given time. Here's a few tools to help you get started covering the IGA in print or digital media.

Background Information

Board gaming is undergoing a renaissance in the last few years, as families and groups of friends look for more social activities that involve spending time with each other as opposed to everyone having their noses in a smartphone. Players tired of the same old Monopoly and Candy Land are looking for new and exciting games to play. As a result, the hobby game industry brought in $880 million in 2014 alone. The advent of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter has greatly democratized the publication of board gaming, allowing anyone with a game idea to launch and produce a game without the need for a third-party publisher. Crowdfunded board games raised nearly $200 million between Kickstarter's 2009 launch and August 2015, and over $137 million in 2017 alone.

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However, this sudden boom means that individuals with little to no experience publishing board games are now doing so. From manufacturing and graphics design to international import laws, these new entrepreneurs face a tremendous learning curve before they can successfully produce and deliver a game. As smaller-scale publishers, they don't get the benefit of manufacturing price breaks for producing large quantities, which can be reflected in the bottom-line price of a game. Additionally, assembling the kind of national and international effort it takes to successfully market a game in an increasingly flooded market can be a serious challenge for the hobbyist game developer in terms of time, finances, connections, and experience.

That's where the Indie Game Alliance comes in. IGA was founded by Matt Holden on April 25, 2014 with a mission to help independent tabletop game designers and publishers to design, fund, produce and market games. We accomplish this by pooling the experience and resources of all of our member publishers, allowing the Alliance's members function as an entity greater than the sum of its parts. Examples of this include a centrally staffed and managed demo team of volunteers and negotiated group discounts for members on everything from printing to legal services. We also secure, staff and share convention booths and event spaces, which are open for publishers to showcase their own games or for IGA staff to showcase them on the publisher's behalf, acknowledging the challenges associated with keeping a convention schedule when game design and promotion isn't the publisher's full-time job.

The founding member of the Indie Game Alliance was Brotherwise Games, publishers of the hit card game Boss Monster. During a 4-month ramp-up phase, IGA added 62 more member publishers before its official launch at Gen Con 2014. We're now proud to support designers and publishers on every continent except Antarctica.

Articles on the Resurgence of the Board Gaming Industry

IGA Titles and Terminology

  • Crowdfunding: The process of raising money through small-scale pre-sales, to be used to produce a product. Made popular by sites like Kickstarter.
  • Demo: Any event where IGA staff is teaching or showing off a game to the public.
  • Designer: Any person who designs games. In our organization, often the same person as the publisher.
  • FLGS: Friendly Local Game Store. This refers to any brick-and-mortar establishment that carries board games, other than big-box department stores.
  • Game Café: A restaurant that encourages board game play during customers' visits, usually offering a permanent game library for customers.
  • Loot Points: These are the reward credits earned by our Minions, which they can redeem for additional games to add to their collections.
  • Miniboss: One of the regional coordinators of our volunteer Minion program. (We think it sounds way cooler than "middle management.")
  • Minion: One of our volunteers that goes to conventions and retail stores and shows our member games.
  • MSRP: Manufacturer's suggested Retail Price. This is the price the publisher thinks the game should sell for.
  • Publisher: Any person or organization who publishes games, even if they only publish first-party titles.
  • Studio: An Indie Game Alliance member Designer or Publisher.
  • Tabletop: Any analog game, including board games, card games, dice games, and pen-and-paper role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.
IGA By the Numbers

These statistics are updated in real time.

  • Member Studios:
    0

  • Minions:
    0

  • Games Supported:
    0

  • Crowdfunding Funds Raised:
    $0*

  • Crowdfunding Campaigns Funded:
    0*
* Counts only funded campaigns supported by the IGA and run by its member studios while members.

Logo and Style Guide

You are hereby licensed to use our current logo in print or digital media for purposes of news, blogging, and promotion of the Indie Game Alliance and/or its member publishers and games. Organizers of events, including convention and retail store event coordinators, are licensed to use our logo and typography on flyers, brochures, etc. promoting the Indie Game Alliance's events, presence, or involvement with an event. Indie Game Alliance members are licensed to use the logo and the IGA Member Studio badge in their game manuals, game packaging, websites, and elsewhere.

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IGA's preferred fonts are Bank Gothic for titles and headers, and Open Sans for body text.

The Indie Game Alliance has had two previous logos, one consisting of a cyan triangle behind the words 'Indie Game Alliance', and the other featuring a blue blender with "IGA" written on its base. We ask that you please do not use these logos.

Photos and Media Licensing

You are hereby licensed to use any photos found on any of our social media accounts or here on indiegamealliance.com in print or digital media for purposes of news, blogging and promotion of the Indie Game Alliance and/or its member publishers and games. These images are not licensed for commercial use. Please credit all photos to 'Indie Game Alliance'.


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