Dragging a new board game to the table

Large toy manufacturers respond that they can take a chance on only a few new games each year because of the significant advertising costs associated with introducing fresh concepts to consumers.

"Shelf space becomes smaller and smaller for board games every year," says Bonnie Canner, vice president of marketing for Cardinal Industries, a major gamemaker in Long Island City, N.Y. "Without customer familiarity, it is hard to place a game on that shelf."

Retailers have little reason to invest in a new game, say experts, when established titles have endured for generations. "The biggest single resource a typical retailer has is shelf space," says Daniel. "They feel that they have to allocate that to what is proven to have sold. Everything else is a risk."

Not coincidentally, board games that have become classics, such as Monopoly and Sorry, are also cheap to manufacture. They need to be that way so national retailers like Toys 'R' Us and Kmart can sell them at low prices, a primary strategy for selling most of their goods. Games from independent designers, conversely, often cannot be sold on the mass market because they are too expensive to make.

Ask any toymaker in America what they are in most need of, say experts, and few will mention "a good idea." There simply are not many venues in which independent games can be sold. Bottom line: the supply of ideas for new games significantly exceeds demand.

"If God came down with a book of the 25 greatest games never published, I'd say 'God, this is wonderful, but I don't have the resources to publish these,' " says Mr. Daniel.

On top of that, many consumers' concept of a game has changed over the past decade from one that is played with a pair of dice and a piece of cardboard to one that is played in front of a television set. Annual board-game sales total about $380 million compared with $6 billion in video-game sales.

"Board games are no longer big kahunas, but small potatoes," says Gabriel Vega, owner of The Name of the Game, an independent game store in Camarillo, Calif., that carries Driveway Deals.

With major manufacturers largely ignoring products conceived by independent designers, several subcultures of small- and mid-size producers have emerged over the past decade to serve them. These middlemen of niche markets are particularly evident in the game industry.

One small board-game manufacturer, R&R Games, receives more than 30 submissions each month from independent designers hoping to have their game published.

But even here, the competition is tight. Last year, the Tampa, Fla., company published six games. Only one came to them as an unsolicited submission, says president Frank DiLorenzo.

After three years of rejection from different toy companies, Weiner eventually opted to go it alone. She invested $13,000 to produce 2,500 boxes of Driveway Deals, which she originally sketched out on a pad of paper on her kitchen table. She now spends her weekends trying to convince southern California game stores to carry it.

Weiner also set up a website on which she has made most of her sales, and she has given demonstrations of the game on morning talk shows in Arkansas, California, and Oklahoma.

Two books on the coffee table in her modest Hollywood apartment illustrate her current goals: Their titles: "Naked Marketing" and "The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah."

Weiner is unrelenting in her attempt to win her game star status. "I pester and beg and harangue and pester some more," says Weiner. "I'm what you call tenacious."

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