Overseas Game Manufacturing Demystified (or How to Avoid a Disaster): Page 4 of 4

OK — you've approved preproduction samples, the game has been manufactured and you've approved a final production sample, it's been tested according to the appropriate standards, and it is ready to deliver to the freight forwarder. Well in advance of this step, the final destination of the games should have been determined and communicated to your project manager (a smart one will have asked long ago!). Do you need some games to be shipped via air freight in time for a critical trade show? Do the games need to be loaded onto pallets, or can they be "floor loaded" into the shipping container (this means the games are loaded in the container without pallets, and can greatly improve the efficiency of packing the games, and thereby reducing the freight cost per game)? Do the shipping cartons need to be labeled in a certain way for a particular retail chain (think planning, communication, and project specifications here!)? As you can see, even the smallest detail about shipping the games can be important for saving time and money.

All in all, having your game manufactured in China is not the risky and frightful experience you might anticipate. With finding the right organization that knows how to get the process accomplished, and with the right amount of planning and communication throughout, you can rest assured that the game you've put so much effort into developing can be produced exactly as you had hoped. And then the real work begins: getting it into the hands of happy consumers!

Michael Fisher is the President of Grand Prix International, Inc., with offices in the U.S. and Hong Kong.