FAQ

1. Who are you people, anyway?
2. What happened to Tom?
3. How do I get your games?
4. If you’re Print On Demand, how are games out of stock?
5. What about [game title]?
6. Where’s my order?
7. What’s the Hollandays Sale, and how do I get the freebie?
8. Do you accept submissions?

Who are you people, anyway?

Hollandspiele was created by Mary and Amabel Holland in 2016. Since then, we’ve published over a hundred board games and expansions.

Mary Holland (Games Commander)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mary handles many of the company’s day-to-day operations. When you place an order with us, it’s Mary who processes it. When something’s wrong with an order, it’s Mary who fixes it. She’s done the layout for most of our rulebooks and player aids, and is usually the one taking photographs for our product pages. An avid dino-fan, Mary’s the co-designer of Dinosaur Gauge, as well as the upcoming Dragon Pizza. She enjoys tea and science fiction, and is generally delighted by animals.

Amabel Holland (Games Weirdo)

Amabel has designed many of our most popular titles, and frequently handles graphic design – box covers, cards, counters, and what-have-you. According to the New Yorker, she “is widely considered one of today’s most innovative game designers.” Board game critic Dan Thurot says “Amabel Holland has always been a designer who stretches and strains the medium to its absolute boundaries.” In addition to all that, she is usually responsible for sorting and bagging the wood bits that come with our games.

Monster (the Hollandspiele Spokescat)

Monster is a cat. She likes sleeping, and also eating bugs. We tell her not to eat the bugs but she doesn’t listen. She feels strongly that she should get to eat bugs if she wants to, and furthermore, the bugs don’t mind. If they minded, they would say something, but they never do. They would say “please Monster stop eating us” but all she hears instead is “crunch, crunch, crunch”, because that is the sound they make when you are eating them, they are very quiet otherwise.

 

What happened to Tom?

It turns out Tom was a girl named Amabel this whole time! If you didn’t know, don’t feel bad – she was confused about it, too! With few exceptions, we’re not changing the credits on our older games. That feels like a lot of work, and we’d rather put our energy forward into new titles.

 

How do I get your games?

From this website! We generally deal only in direct orders. Our games aren’t available through normal distribution channels, and you’re unlikely to find them on store shelves or at a discount. That’s because our games are manufactured through Print On Demand. How this works is when you order a copy of the game, we take that money and pay to have it manufactured and shipped to you. With the money that’s left, we pay royalties to our designers and artists, and then we keep any remaining profit.

An obvious advantage of POD manufacturing is it means we don’t have a lot of upfront costs, and can take creative risks on unusual games. We only produce as many copies as we sell, so there’s no danger of over-production or warehousing fees. But because of this we also don’t benefit from economies of scale. The production cost of each game is greater than what it would be in a traditional print run. This often means a higher MSRP, especially relative to the components, and it prevents us from selling our games to retailers.

It also means shipping to Europe is untenable. We used to do this, but lost money on every order. Europeans can order our games through our exclusive partner, Second Chance Games. This is a shop based in the UK. They are offered at a higher price point – getting them across the ocean isn’t free, after all. Many Europeans have asked us about alternatives; we are happy with Second Chance.

 

If you’re Print On Demand, how are games out of stock?

Most game components are printed to order. The exception are cards, which are ordered in bulk from a US-based manufacturer, and wooden pieces, which are shipped to us from Germany. Those wooden pieces are then personally sorted and bagged in Michigan, and then mailed to our printer in Tennessee so he can toss them in each game’s box. If a game is listed on our site but out of stock, we’re either waiting on more cards or more wooden pieces.

 

What about [game title]?

Some games have been removed from our catalogue. Usually this is because our license to print the game has expired and not been renewed – you can find these listed on our “Out of Print” page. Some of Amabel’s games were discontinued for personal reasons, though we bring those back once in a while for special events.

 

Where’s my order?

Here we come to a disadvantage of POD manufacturing: it takes time to print and assemble each game by hand. Our printing partner, Blue Panther, provides services for several publishers within this space. Sometimes, a game will ship out the same day the order is made; sometimes, it will take two weeks or more. Usually it’s somewhere in-between. We ask that you be patient, especially during our November Hollandays Sale. If it’s been a couple weeks and you’ve not heard from us, send Mary a message through this site’s customer service portal.

 

What’s the Hollandays Sale, and how do I get the freebie?

During the last two weeks of November, we hold an annual sale. During this time, we offer a small discount on most of our titles, plus an additional 10% off large orders. If you buy at least two games during the sale, you’ll also get the Hollandays Freebie Game – a small free game. With the exception of the first couple of years, this has always been a card game. They’re usually not available after that though there have been some exceptions. The freebies are:

2016: Christmas at White Mountain*

2017: Napgammon

2018: Absolutely Aces

2019: The Toledo War**

2020: Reign of Witches**

2021: Republic of Virtue

2022: Watch Out! That’s a Dracula!

2023: Five-Dollar Words

*: Incorporated into Table Battles

**: Re-printed as a charity two-pack

 

Do you accept submissions?

Sort of? We don’t always do a great job of responding to them. Given our production capabilities and ethos, we’re often looking for something very specific. A better question than “is my game the right fit for Hollandspiele” is “is Hollandspiele the right fit for my game?” Our reach is fairly limited. You will almost certainly sell more copies and make more money with a traditional publisher, who will likely provide the game with a more sumptuous production at a cheaper pricepoint.

If you aren’t scared off by that, feel free to send us an email about yourself and your game. Just know that we might not always get back to you in a reasonable timeframe. Note that any of the following is immediately disqualifying:

• Do not send us a sell sheet.
• We will not look at games with AI-generated art.
• Do not link us a Tabletop Simulator mod.