Bruno makes a good point there. Can you imagine how few games there would be at your local game store if you could copyright a rule..or a game concept/theme/genre?

....and paranoia only reflects badly on you and makes you seem distrustful.

Side note - I always found it interesting how many published games are available to play online for free.  In that same vein - publishers and designers seem to put incredible trust in the fact that gamers will want to whip out the cardboard when it comes down to it.  I know I always want to.

"Can I submit the same game to more than one publisher?
Yes, you can...”

This one isn’t as clear as Bruno makes it out to be. 

Publishers really dislike simultaneous submissions.  Bruno can get away with it because he’s a big name, but as an unpublished designer, I won’t.  Two game publishers have told me that they won’t look at any of my designs while another publisher has it.

In the meantime, I’ve learned that the best thing to do is to contact the publisher every couple of months while they have the game, and politely inquire if there’s anything they need from me.  I can’t be pushy or impatient about it, but I do need to maintain communications.  Otherwise, I won’t hear from that publisher for at least a year. 

Maybe if I get a couple of games published, I’ll be at the level where I can get away with simultaneous submissions.  But everything I’ve heard in my discussions with publishers has told me that it’s not a good idea for an unpublished designer to submit a game to more than one publisher at a time, even if they know they’re not the only ones looking at the game.

I should follow up by saying that I thought the rest of the article was typical Faidutti: thoughtful and well-written!

In my experience, Gil, that has not always been true.  The best thing to do is to be open with publishers--they are business people, but usually personable and understanding that you would like to see your game published.

There has only been one publisher who has told be that they did not want to invest the time to playtest a design if another company might beat them to a contract. All others did not seemed at all surprised that I was submitting it multiple times, and said they had no problem with that.

Excellent read from Bruno, as usual.  I like his point about rules.  Like seemingly everyone else in the game hobby, I have a prototype I am essentially too lazy to move on. 

But when I do, I am flat out paying our BGN editor, Eric Martin, for proofing and /or re-writing the rules set.

For those of you who don’t know, Eric wrote the rules to Winner’s Circle.  Those were some of the most understandable rules I have seen to date.