I am very fortunate to have a full-time job in the tabletop game industry as the president, lead designer, and developer at Stonemaier Games. I’m 40 years old, and this is both my third career and my longest career to date.
I’m particularly grateful for my job because I know how rare it is to have a full-time job in the game industry. Most game designers and publishers have other full-time jobs, and most companies that can support a staff manage to succeed with only a few people (e.g., Stonemaier Games has a total 3 full-time employees).
However, there are many, many contract positions for freelancers in the game industry. For example, it’s rare for a publisher to need a full-time artist. But there’s often enough work from multiple publishers to keep amazing artists like Andrew Bosley and Jacqui Davis busy year-round.
An author and game designer contacted me recently about a book he put together, The Board Game Designer’s Guide to Careers in the Industry, that dives into the variety of freelance, part-time, and full-time positions in the game industry. I invited Joe to share some of the insights from his book with you in case you’re curious about some of the opportunities available in the game industry and how to access them. I’ll rejoin you at the end for my top recommendation for getting into the game industry.
***JOE***
For the book, I reached out to over forty people in the industry, from publishers to rulebook writers to content creators to other ancillary businesses to find out how they landed their jobs, what helped them get there, and what roles they feel are really needed and are the hardest to fill.
Some jobs in the industry will be full time roles working for a publisher, while many of these jobs are done freelance (and some can be found in both). Then there are still other board game-adjacent roles as well, in manufacturing, retail, shipping, content creation, video production, game reviews, and more!
The most common part-time and full-time roles found within publishing companies include:
- Product developer/project manager
- Marketing/communications manager or director
- Sales
- Art director/creative director
- Game developer
Here are some typical roles for freelancers:
- Marketing/social media consultant
- Graphic designer
- Artist
- Game developer
- Rulebook editor/creator
Speaking of rulebook editing and creation, let’s look at an example of this from the book [edited by Jamey for space]:
Jeff Fraser was working in the field of journalism but decided to leave it in 2017 to pursue a career in the board game industry. Initially, he wanted to be a full time game designer, but he wasn’t finding success in getting his games signed with publishers. However, he was able to make a lot of contacts within the industry and realized he had an opportunity to pivot.
Jeff’s Master’s Degree in Journalism combined with the following assets put him in a great position to become a freelance rulebook editor and creator:
- graphic design skills
- strong command of English grammar and style rules
- skills to break down complex concepts
- commitment to hitting tight deadlines
- ability to juggle lots of different projects at once
- gaming experience
Basically, you can give him a Word file or Google Doc, and you’ll get a printer-ready rulebook in return.
Jeff built his reputation by finding a poorly served but much-needed niche, and convincing publishers that his experience was very relevant to rulebook editing. He charged a lower rate when he first started so he could get his foot in the door, and then was able to raise his rates once he had more experience and connections. He started out at $25 per hour, and has been able to increase this to $40 per hour (and is probably due for another rate increase soon) for his professional services.
Jeff, like many others, finds most of his work through word of mouth and at tabletop conventions/events. He has now serviced projects for Pandasaurus Games, WizKids, Academy Games, and Everything Epic. You can learn more about his work at www.jwfraser.ca.
If you’re interested in discovering more about the critical jobs that need to be filled and how you can use your own experience, education, and skills to become a part of the board game industry, check out The Board Game Designer’s Guide to Careers in the Industry here.
***JAMEY***
My top recommendation for getting into the game industry is as follows: Identify a few companies you’re passionate about and volunteer your aid (officially if they have a volunteer program or unofficially if they don’t). Find a problem they’re facing and make an improvement using your skills and expertise. Then, using that experience, find paid freelance opportunities. Don’t quit your day job during this process. Eventually a company might find you so indispensable that they might hire you part-time or full-time–this is how many people in the industry (including folks at Cephalofair, Leder, and Stonemaier Games) found their full-time positions.
If you’ve found paid work in the game industry, what was the path that led you there?
Also read:
- Hiring in a World of Volunteers
- Flatter Your Way into a New Industry
- A Different Approach to Job Applications: A Stonemaier Experiment
If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content!
16 Comments on “Jobs and Careers in the Tabletop Game Industry”
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Reading this article was very eye-opening to the world of board game careers. I am a recent college graduate and want to pursue something that deeply interests me (board games) rather than pursue a day job just for the money. Many jobs these days need experience to get hired on.. what do you who are in the industry say are the most important hard skills needed by someone who doesn’t have any art experience, and wants to be hired on in the marketing/sales side, or the development/rules side?
It’s really hard to prove skills, but it’s easy to prove experience (and demonstrate competence through experience). So if you’re looking for a job marketing games, I would find a way–volunteer or otherwise–to gain experience marketing games.
Thanks! I’m sure the end goal for a lot of people is designing new games, but that feels like it would take time to be in a position surrounding game creation for a company. Would you say the best way to be noticed by companies is through channels such as these on official forums, or is there another better way to get noticed?
I think by the time you see this response you may have already read some of the other articles where I talk about volunteering and just being generally active for the game companies you feel passionate about (in one or more of their social spheres). Like you’re doing right now–it doesn’t take much to engage with a company these days. :)
Hello Jamey,
My name is Lenny, I am running a board game publisher in Asia. We have been publishing several nice family board games. Currently we are working on some strategies to enter the US market. We figure out that we are lacking knowledge about the market and industry in the US. Do you think is it possible that you know someone who might be interested in working as a short term consultant with us? Thank you!
Lenny: I think it’s great that you’re willing to put in the work to research new markets! My blog posts delve into that topic, so feel free to read through them; here’s information about advice and consultation: https://stonemaiergames.com/about/advice-and-consultation/
Hey Jamey! Thanks for sending me this way from your youtube video. I’m strongly considering grabbing Joe’s book, I’ve playtested with him a few times and he’s great at what he does.
This gives me a lot of optimism for presenting my services to publishers. I’ve spent a lot of time helping folk out for free, I’m not sure why I never thought to ask actualy companies to try and get a foot in the door.
Thanks again.
Thanks so much for the post! The book looks amazing.
I’ve been working in education for about 6 years now, but truly feel like my career should be in tabletop games. I’d be happy to work on games at any level!
I recently tried to release my own board game on Kickstarter, but failed. I think I may try that again, and have been applying to project manager and game designer positions while working on graphic design skills.
I hope for a break through soon! If not, I may have to get more creative.
This was a wonderful article Jamey and Joe!!! I am currently networking on Instagram to do reviews, rulebook edits etc and it seems to be a good way to get the good ol’ foot in the door.
Thank you Jamey for your continued love and insight that you give to the community!
I was fortunate to find Board Game Design Forum (BGDF) about a decade ago and at that time, I offered my service as a proofreader/editor pro bono to fledgling designers. Over the next year, I maintained a steady flow of new “clients” over the next few years. In 2012, I started Professor’s Lab, and like Jeff, I began providing service at very reasonable rates. In time, I moved away from solely assisting the BGDF community and have done work in the playtesting, proofreading and editing, and design analysis arenas for many publishers and designers, including Academy, Compass, Decision, RedImp, and Stonemaier Games.
Now, in addition to my primary job with the government, I’ve been able to earn a comfortable living doing what I love in the gaming industry.
I am lucky enough to work full-time (during non-Pandemic times) for an awesome FLGS: Epic Loot Games. I entered into my role here in much the same way you describe, Jamey. I absolutely loved shopping and playing in Magic events here. I looked at their website and saw a need (understatement) for improvement. I was trying to hone my skills in web design at the time and add some URLs to my portfolio.
The owners (visionaries) were excited to embrace my idea for the site but they also wanted someone on staff who could do Facebook posts and advertising. I was an adjunct college instructor in Graphic Design at the time. I thought it would be great to add about 10 hours a week to my schedule of teaching and get some real experience in working at my favorite place in the world. I didn’t care that I was getting paid very little.
As I worked at the store I kept finding more and more things I could do to improve things. This took more and more time and hours added to my schedule. I took over designing the in-store slides. I created signs and bag stuffers. In March 2020, the store closed for 6 weeks. When we reopened, the owners had already begun to switch to an e-commerce website which I took over. I have also delved into the point of sale software and learned a lot about database management. I manage the rewards program through a vendor who provides an app and integration with our POS system. I no longer teach college.
I’m not saying this to boast. I’m saying it because I now feel like I can confidently say that I understand about 75% of what the retail side of the board game industry needs to be successful. I still don’t get paid much… but I LOVE coming to work. If it was needed, I know I could jump off to another branch of the industry, bringing this knowledge and skill set with me.
Great post – and Joe’s book looks cool! I wonder if Joe can speak to whether this might come to Kindle – or is compatible with Kindle devices?
That aside, I do have (what I hope) is an interesting story to tell to my path. I was a professional designer in other industries (product design and architecture) for many years when a chance meeting with the CEO of a game and animation studio – who were looking to make their first board game – led me to a full-time, paid position with them. I’m now designing that first game for them, dealing with all the project management, KS strategy, manufacturing and other logistics.
On the one hand, this was an incredibly lucky opportunity for me – almost a once-in-a-lifetime chance. On the other hand, 20+ years of being a designer, bringing new products to market helped put me in a position to fit into this kind of role.
So what’s my take-away on this… well, I worked in areas I was passionate about for a long time and I feel doing the things you love can often open doors you never dreamed about. I certainly didn’t think I’d be designing board games when I first studied architecture… but in retrospect, those were the first steps to what I’m doing today…. And, yeah, a little (or lot) of luck helped too!
If anyone is interested in my story of how this came to be, they can watch the first episode here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfNnQwn9l4s). I decided it would be cool to film my journey and let other aspiring designings hopefully learn some things from my good decisions (and my mistakes!) and hopefully even inspire them to take some risks to make their dreams come true. In my case, it all sounds like the perfect opportunity but the flip side of this was I had to shut down my very successful business I had grown over 20 years and say goodbye to all my old clients, so I feel like I’m living without that safety net now. But sometimes that what it takes… believe in yourself and take a chance!
Hey Jamey,
I was curious if there are ever any Finance roles in the board game industry. I typically see sales and designer type roles but I’ve never seen a role for Finance or Accounting.
My initial thought is the size of the companies cannot afford an in house Finance professional and uses outside services or its managed by someone like you the President.
Great question! We outsource to a bookkeeper and an accountant, so for the right size company those roles could be combined into a part-time job.
Thanks Jamey and Alex,
This makes perfect sense to me but is too bad. I could see benefits of a financial analyst to help drive higher margins and develop financial strategies for optimal growth. I can also see the burden of a full time salaried position for what I assume is a modest margin product.
Hey James,
You’re absolutely right that most board game companies can’t afford and don’t necessarily need a full time Finance or Accounting role. For Stonemaier, we contract both an accounting firm and a bookkeeper and both Jamey and I handle different pieces of it as well.