How do you license your game idea to an existing board game company?

Question

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?

Answer 1

Go to www.copyright.gov and get the papers to copyright your game.Just to  be on the safe side.I have two games I'm getting ready to copyright.

Answer 2

Like a previous poster said, if it's just a variant of an existing game, you have to ask yourself how many more games would they sell by adding your variant to the rules?  

If it's an expansion,  there may be a market for it, but if the game involved was already a strong seller, then the publisher is probably already working on an expansion, and won't accept outside submissions for fear of getting hit with a plagiarism suit.

Unfortunately, I don't think you have much of a chance in seeing a dime for your idea.  

And before anybody says it... you don't need to copyright a game idea. Ever.

Answer 3

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.