#1 - The Train Game intro blog post

May 29, 2021 2 min read 2 Comments

When people hear that we created a card game, there are a few questions that we immediately get asked:

What inspired you to make a card game?
How did you come up with the idea for the game?
How did you know that people would want to play your game, let alone buy it?
How did you... you know... do it all?

Creating a card game isn’t something that just happens - Not overnight, not in a few weeks or months, sometimes not even in a few years. It takes a lot of hard work, persistence, late nights, tears (of sadness and happiness), making mistakes and learning from them.

The reality is that most people who ever think about making a card game or a board game, are a lot like you or me - maybe we’re studying or working, trying to balance having a social life with a myriad of other commitments and getting enough sleep, fumbling through our daily lives as best we can. Thoughts of making a game are often abandoned as we come to terms with what’s required to bring them to life.

There’s the idea for the game, the concept, the game mechanics, the development, the hours upon hours of play-testing and continuous refinement, the artwork design, the printing and sourcing materials for your game... the list goes on. And that’s just to get to the stage of having a working prototype.

On top of this, there’s the market research, competition analysis, funding options, deciding whether to self-publish or launch a Kickstarter project or similar. In our case, we chose to go down the self-publishing path, meaning that we needed to think about things like sourcing a suitable manufacturing partner, marketing, website development, order management and fulfilment, postage, customer service, brand development... again, the list goes on. And all this needs to be in place before you’re ready to take your first order.

We’ve learned a lot over the last 4 years as we’ve slowly brought The Train Game to life. It’s been nearly two-years since we sold our first copy of The Train Game. Today, our game is being enjoyed in living rooms and around kitchen tables in more than 10,000 homes all over Australia. In this blog, we want to start sharing as much as we can about our journey - starting with some of the questions that we’ve mentioned above, and extending to some of the fun, funny and heartbreaking moments and realisations we’ve had along the way.

As we slowly peel back the layers of The Train Game and our small family business, we promise to be open and honest. We hope that our learnings help you in your own endeavours and that you enjoy our story.

Toot toot!

Lauren, Mark and toddler Oskar

The Train Game 🚂🚂🚂

www.thetraingame.com