We bought a lot of colored paper in order to test our Print and Play and we don't know what to do with it all. So we thought we would print some copies of Düdle and reward our laziest fans! Enter here for your chance to win a copy of what you could do yourself!
Giveaway ends Tuesday, August 12! So enter now for your chance to win!
Winners will be notified when they get a mysterious envelope in the mail.
Or maybe when they get a mysterious email in their inbox.
I don't know, don't complain, its a lazy contest for lazy people trying to get rid of some paper.

After months of research and development the free trial of Düdle is ready for you to download! It's not the entire game, it's only 15 adjective, adverb, and verb cards and 30 noun cards; but that's plenty of cards to play with. Our goal is to make the full game available as a free print and play, but we wanted to release this trial version first to iron out any issues before we invest a ton more time into the development. So Go! Download! Print! Cut! Düdle! And Share!

Click here for the free download!

So after a few days off from Düdle, we’re ready to get back into gear! Just yesterday we completed the application to have Düdle trademarked. That way no matter how long it takes us to get our idea out there – it will be OUR idea.

We are also hard at work on the Print-and-Play version of the game. We mentioned this in our last Kickstarter backer update. Our goal is to create a printable .pdf that will be free to download and serve as a sample or demo of the game. That way all the people who backed us blindly will actually get to try the game they supported. We know that people will fall in love with Düdle when they get to experience the fun first hand. Then people will be even more willing to share and (hopefully) back our next Kickstarter campaign.

We are also working on a survey to send to our backers to get some feedback on the first Kickstarter campaign. So be sure to keep an eye on your inbox for those links.

Thanks again for subscribing! Share with your friends, the more the merrier! (Send them to www.DudleGame.com/newsletter and get them to subscribe!)

As a final note, I’m including one of the informational videos from the US Patent and Trademark Office website (www.uspto.gov) It is delightful. I wish every government agency made videos like this. There are a dozen more like this one if you can't get enough.

Thank you again to all of our backers! You guys are our best friends for life :)

In other awesome podcast news, I was featured as a co-host on Not A Real Job this week! The episode just came out today and I think I did a pretty good job. So if you want to hear a little more about the behind the scenes of Düdle and enjoy a good laugh or two with Chris, Joel, and me you should give the episode a listen. Episode 37: Düdlestravaganza!

The Kickstarter is still chugging along. We are now about 1/3 funded with 11 days to go. Yes, that’s quite a hill to climb, but I am optimistic! Earlier this week Düdle was featured on the subreddit page Sketch Daily. Every day that site posts a theme and the community members submit their sketches for the day. Tuesday April 15 they featured Düdle as the theme! Lots of people participated in Düdle A Day that day! People scrolled through previously posted phrases and chose ones to illustrate. And I will say... they were amazing! I’ve included a few at the bottom of this post, but you should really check out all of them. I added them all to our Düdle A Day page and you can also find them on Reddit.

In other exciting news the online marketing and small business podcast Not A Real Job has asked me to be a guest podcaster this week! I’m going to call in and record the episode with them! I’ll get to talk more about Düdle and answer Düdle related questions. If you want to send a question of your own you can do it here: www.NotARealJob.com/questions

If you want to send a question about Düdle make sure you send it in this morning (we’re recording early this afternoon), but you can send them any types of question any time.

And as always, we are forever grateful for all the people that have helped us share and get the word out about Düdle! And a huge thank you to all of our backers! We’ve had many more since I last posted!

It has been a crazy week at camp Düdle! Last week we launched our Kickstarter campaign. We are beyond excited; this may actually work! The initial response has been incredible. At the end of the first week we are at about 20% of our goal.

We have also been having a lot of fun with the Düdle A Day campaign. Every day we have been posting a Düdle prompt on our website, Facebook, and Twitter inviting people to participate. A huge shoutout to Mrs. Lindsay Knight Rath and her students at Middletown High School North! Without the daily düdles of MHSN students our Düdle A Day page would be super boring.

Check out all the Düdle A Day’s we’ve posted so far and submit your own here!

www.dudlegame.com/duumldle-a-day.html

Also, please keep sharing the Kickstarter link with your friends and family! We can always raise more than our goal, but we can’t raise less... even if we raise $9,999 the project will be considered unsuccessful and we won’t see any of the donations L

A huge thank you and virtual hug to everyone that has donated so far! (If you want a real hug and you’re with 5 miles of Lambertville just let us know, we can work something out.) You guys helped us launch this the right way!

April fools day has come and gone and a lot has happened in the world of Düdle. For one, the Kickstarter launch was delayed due to Amazon not being able to verify our federal tax ID number. And of course they wanted me to FAX them some form that the IRS had EMAILED me (it was April fools day after all). But they were pretty quick about getting back on track (AFTER I went to Staples to fax them the papers on my lunch break). With that bump in the road behind us we were able to submit our campaign for Kickstarter approval. So all that's left is the waiting...

Yeah right! Yesterday was also the launch of the official Düdle A Day campaign! Every day we plan to post a Düdle prompt for you to illustrate. Then share your düdles on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. And don't forget to @dudlegame1 #DudleADay

We also invested some money into an ad on a one of our favorite podcasts that will air during the Kickstarter campaign. More on that later.

Lastly, I've got a preview link for the Kickstarter link that I shared with the newsletter subscribers. Enjoy your sneak peak at the video and reward levels!

Looking forward to the next blog post! :) The one all about the launch of the Kickstarter campaign!!!

I visited an “entrepreneur” friend not too long ago. I was explaining the concept of the Düdle game to him when he asked me, “Do you have a UPC code?”

“You mean like a barcode? No... Should I?”

“Yeah! How can I sell your product if its doesn’t have a Universal Product Code?”

“How do I get one?”

“Same place we get everything, online.”

So the rest of the visit UPS and barcodes were all I could think about. When I finally got home I spent the whole afternoon researching the history of the UPC and the barcode. It’s pretty interesting. They first appeared in the US in grocery stores in the 40’s to make it easier to stock products and check out customers. If you really want to learn about the history of barcodes and UPCs, I recommend this article.

www.barcoding.com/information/barcode_history.shtml

So after researching how to get a UPC today, I found that I had two options.

One was to become a member of the GS1, the global organization in charge of international business standards like barcodes and UPCs. Or two, buy a pre-existing UPC from a third party company for a discontinued product. While it’s way cheaper to go with a third-party UPC provider, I wouldn’t have any control over it and major retailers wouldn’t carry my product. So I decided the best bet was to dish out the $250 to become a member of the GS1 and develop my own UPC. The nice thing about the $250 membership is that it includes up to 10 different UPCs! That way when I make the Düdle expansion pack I’ll have a new UPC ready and waiting!

Find out more at:
https://www.gs1us.org/
Or watch this delightful propaganda piece

All that’s left now is to update the package design to include the newly acquired UPC barcode! Man, it’s feeling like a real product now!

It was great to get this kind of feedback from a company after finding their name mentioned in a blog post! I did email him back and certainly will keep them bookmarked for future projects. Perhaps I'll have these guys in charge of a certain perk I have planned for the Kickstarter... but that's for another blog post!

With all the words picked and all the cards designed, its time to get some cards printed!!! After lots of online research we’ve realized that there are TONS of places that advertise “custom playing cards,” but only a few that could actually do what we want.

For instance, apparently there must be a much higher demand for normal playing cards with custom backs (getting your own picture printed on the other side of the king of hearts and the 4 of clubs.) rather than fully customized cards.

Then there is quantity. Some of the sites would not print custom cards unless you ordered 10,000 decks or more. Which would mean we would need to get 40,000 decks (one for each of the parts of speech). While we would love Düdle to be a smash hit and sell 10,000 copies, we are realistic!

So with those factors in place we were able to narrow it down to a handful of possible companies.
1. The Printer’s Studio (www.printerstudio.com)
2. Make Playing Cards (www.makeplayingcards.com)
3. Superior POD (www.superiorpod.com)
4. The Game Crafter (www.thegamecrafter.com)
5. Ad Magic (www.admagic.com)

The Printer’s Studio and Make Playing Cards were very similar sites. Their card editing interface was so similar in fact that we suspect they may be owned by the same company, or at least hired the same company to create their websites. Their prices were very similar (with Printer’s Studio being slightly cheaper) and turn around was very quick (with Printer’s Studio being a bit faster). The finished cards were almost the exact same quality, which was very good! The big draw back though was that both of these printers were based out of China and the customer service was a little hit or miss. They always answered our emails, but didn’t always answer our questions. They also didn’t really have any options for boxes.

Superior POD wasn’t really designed for what we were looking for. The info that was on their website led us to believe that while they did have options for custom boxes, they didn’t offer bulk printing discounts. Their prices were also much steeper than the first two companies (almost 7 times more expensive for a prototype). So they were out of the running pretty quick.

The Game Crafter is an awesome website and community of independent game designers. While they had all the options we needed (smaller runs at affordable prices and options for custom boxes) they are also game hosting site. If we wanted to use them it would be in our best interest to sell the game through their site’s shop. If that were the case they would take a cut. At 70% to us and 30% to the Game Crafter for every game sold we weren’t sure that was the way we wanted to go.

Ad Magic is a custom printing company based out of Netcong, NJ. What caught our attention was how prominently they featured print work they had done for Kickstarter projects on their website. After several emails back and forth with their reps we think they will be the best company for the job. They had competitive card printing prices, plus affordable options for a custom sized and printed box. The cost to prototype is a little steep (about $150), but it looks like the over all project will be totally affordable (around $15-$25 per game depended on the size of the run).

Now that most of the research is done, time to get prototyping! Once we’ve got a finished prototype we can start putting together photos and videos to use in a Kickstarter campaign! Whoo hoo! Things are getting serious now!

Also, feel free to leave us any advice or insights you may have on printing custom cards in the comments!