Episode 99

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Published on:

26th Jun 2021

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

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

If you want to be part of a community of peers on your business journey to share ideas with and continue learning, you can become a member of the Manaverse Network by going to manaversesaga.com/join. That's where you can get access to all the seminars from the recent 2020 LGS Success Summit as well as additional exclusive members only content, marketing reviews, and training.

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About the Podcast

The Manaverse Podcast: Magic: the Gathering Business / Game Store Entrepreneurship / LGS Professionals
Grow your business, sell more games.
The Manaverse Podcast is a podcast created for you, the gamer with aspirations of building your own local game store (LGS), the entrepreneur running an LGS who wants to grow their business, and the player who wants a behind the scenes look into their favourite hobby. If you’re looking for inspiration, new ideas, and interesting perspectives then Tom Traplin has you covered. Learn the business of selling some of the best games in the world including Mtg, Warhammer, Warmachine, Dungeons and Dragons, board games and Euro games from some of the best retailers in the industry. Once a week, Tom talks with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the game industry and pulls out the strategies, tactics, and systems that make their businesses so effective. With a special focus on Magic: the Gathering, you will learn how to level up your LGS and build a better community with Tom Traplin and the Manaverse Podcast.
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Thomas Traplin

Tom Traplin has been involved in the Magic community for the past 18 years in a variety of roles. As a player he played competitively in cities all over North America. As a tournament organizer he's managed hundreds of events and given away thousands of dollars in prizes. As the owner of an LGS he built up a local community and made a living selling Magic cards.

Tom is also the host of the Manaverse Podcast where he interviews some of the best game store entrepreneurs in North America including Pete Hoefling, John Coviello, Lynn Potyen, and many more. He is also a husband, father, business strategist, digital marketer, Dragonball Z fan, and philosopher. Not necessarily in that order.

His mission is to encourage more people to become game store entrepreneurs by giving them the tools and skills they need to succeed.