Playing her cards right: Miranda Dumas launches first game
Date posted: April 2011
Miranda Dumas
BDes (Hons) Graphic Design 1997
What began as a ‘random idea’ for a story led to an unexpected career twist for Swinburne alumna Miranda Dumas whose new card game When Did It Happen hit Melbourne stores in November 2010.
The self-publishing venture was the culmination of a five-year journey for the Arts and Design graduate (BA(Hons), 1999; BDes(Hons), 1997), who discovered a fascination for the design and dynamics of games while researching and writing an article for a local newspaper.
“It's funny how something half-incidental can redirect one's life,” she said.
So enticed was she by the lure of having her own game on the shelves, she abandoned further postgraduate studies to explore the possibilities.
The experience was not without heartache and challenge, however. Miranda’s first project lies languishing on the intellectual property shelf, after she patented it at considerable cost to herself only to have an interested game company renege on its agreement.
“That was a treacherous learning curve; I made a lot of mistakes with the first game.”
Undaunted, she pursued ideas for a more economically viable and less risky alternative.
“It’s relatively cheap to self-publish a card game. A board game has to be published overseas and the minimum number of units is around 2000, whereas Australian printers can manufacture card games and will print fewer units.”
Miranda undertook all aspects of the writing, design and production of her second game, switching to part-time in her administrative/customer care role, so she could devote three days a week for six months to its completion.
With a new twist on the trivia theme, When Did It Happen can be played by one to thirty people, as an individual pursuit or team-based activity, and you don’t have to be a general knowledge whiz to enjoy it—in fact wild guessing is encouraged.
Miranda says the game is also proving popular as an ice-breaker activity for team building situations.
With all the hard work behind her, Miranda said she congratulates herself every time she sees her game for sale.
“It does take persistence and determination—and possibly a bit of obsession,” she said.
“Not every game becomes a bestseller, but the satisfaction of selling something you’ve created is immense.”
Miranda advises other would-be game creators to read the several books available by game inventors.
“Think of it as you would any other type of small business venture.”
Miranda is keeping mum on her next game project, but will reveal that it was inspired by a book on philosophy.
When Did It Happen is available from Mind Games (Melbourne/Malvern/Hawthorn), Readings (Hawthorn/Carlton) and Dymocks (Camberwell).
When Did It Happen Prize Draw
Swinburne Alumni has sets of When Did It Happen to give away to three lucky readers.
Simply list the following three events in chronological order and send your answer to alumni@swin.edu.au with When Did It Happen in the subject line before 5pm, 31 May 2011. Don’t forget to include your name and postal address.
A) Australia’s population reaches eighteen million
B) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is released
C) Audio compact discs (CDs) are introduced commercially
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