MVP099: Curt Covert From Smirk and Dagger Games on Publishing Games and What We Can Learn From Other Industries

The Manaverse Podcast: Magic: the Gathering Business / Game Store Entrepreneurship / LGS Professionals

Curt Covert is the founder, creative force and jack-of-all-trades at Smirk & Dagger. He’s worn all the hats including art director, copywriter, marketer and concept director, and in a past life he was also a creative director and marketing planner for promotion agencies servicing Fortune 500 companies and brands like M&Ms, Jameson, Dannon, Unilever, Disney theme park eateries, and more.

Today we're going to talk a little bit about the business of making tabletop games and then we're going to dive into the business of selling those tabletop games.

Publishing

• Why did you decide to get into game publishing?
• For those who may not know, describe the ‘house style’ of your line and who you see as the key audience?
• What does Smirk & Dagger provide as retail support?
• You mentioned demo copies and demo scripts, what would you say to stores that don’t have the manpower or retail space suited to doing demos?

Retail

• What are some best practices for merchandising games that help game store owners move more product? (I will spend a lot of time here, doing a borrowed brilliance exercise )
• How often should store owners remerchandise?
• As a game publisher, what is one thing you wish retailers knew or would do differently?

Links

• Retailer Resource Page: https://www.smirkandlaughter.com/retailer-resources
• SND Retailer FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/666949490455299
• Envoy: https://www.dexposure.com/envoy/
• Dized Interview: MVP096

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