Question by 85794743768: How do you license your game idea to an existing board game company?
I have come up with a board game to play using an existing board game product. I want to send my idea to that company so that they can add it as an alternative game to their product, increasing sales and paying me a small share. What is the first step I need to take? License? Patent? Copyright? And then what? What is the most time and cost effective way to go about making this game available to everyone while helping that company and myself at the same time?

Best answer:

Answer by pepsi4me2
I do not think you can copyright an expansion of someone else’s work. Since boardgame design is such a low profit venture, a change to the rules for a variation in game play would basically add nothing to the value of the game. I think it is highly unrealistic to expect a profit from the idea.

I’d recommend freely adding your expansion ideas at a place like BoardGameGeek.com. There are many game authors and designers who pop in there. Some games have dozens of contributions in files to complement games. For example, I have a game called Auf Achse which did not come with English rules or cards. They were homemade by a member of the website, and I downloaded them for free. For the same game, there is a USA-map version (the original is of Germany) available for download.

Keep sharing your ideas freely, and get enough feedback, until you are ready to create and market your own game from scratch.

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