Before you Start

• Resources. How much time are you willing to commit to putting your feelie packet together? Are you willing to spend any money on it up front, and if so, how much? Anything that requires complex graphic design, for instance, will need either time or money or both.
• Value. What are you putting into your packet that will make your game substantively more fun or valuable for the people who order it? Humor? Backstory for the game world that doesn't fit in the game itself? Hints? Attractive physical props?
• Research. Often feelies contain imitations or parodies of publications or objects that already exist. A good websearch will often turn up lots of information. What are you going to need to look at?

Virtual Feelies

In planning virtual feelies, you should bear in mind that people may be sad if you use a document format that isn't widely readable or that requires a commercial product to interpret: for instance, not everyone has a copy of Microsoft Word with which they could read a .doc file.

Resources

• Vintage ephemera on eBay and elsewhere. A quick search will turn up images of vintage menues, postcards, train schedules, and lots of other interesting things.
• Antique handwriting samples at dohistory.org.
• Freeware fonts as listed at freewarefonts, and paid-download fonts at fontguy.
• Collage and craft supplies, including rubber stamps, unusual papers, paper dyes like walnut ink, and add-ons for collage work: Manto Fev (small, one-person business that sells whatever she happens to have on hand at the moment; swift and friendly service); Stampington (site run by a company that also produces a crafts magazine); Michael's (national chain with numerous real-life outlets, which supplied the newsprint paper for the LYG feelies).
• Cheap stock photography at iStockPhoto.com. Ordinary stock photographs can run you tens or hundreds of dollars apiece for royalty-free printing rights; iStockPhoto is a cooperative photo place that allows the users to upload their own photos and download those of other users. The collection includes a number of texture shots, which might make appropriate background "paper" for virtual feelie documents, for instance.

  Price per photo download is currently 50 cents, though you must buy a bunch of credits at once, at a minimum of $10. We already have an account here, though, so if you want just one or two images downloaded for you, we could probably arrange it. Downside: the quality is variable; you have to pick and choose. Upside other than price: there are nearly 40,000 images, and the number grows steadily. The range of options is far larger than you will find on most professional stock photography sites.

Internal Packaging

External Packaging

Physical Package

• Envelope. This is the simplest way to go if you're presenting mostly paper and undamageable feelies. Feelies.org will provide manila envelopes, if desired. Some authors have chosen to make their own custom envelopes, with a color label sticker. (See Label Sticker, below.)
• Padded or lined envelope. We will default to using a bubble-lined envelope if your package includes a CD-ROM that is not otherwise protected. If you would like to make explicit arrangements about this, you're welcome to do so.
• Box. If you want to present your game with a little more protection and finesse, you can get generic white or kraft-colored boxes. These are available in a wide variety of sizes; Papermart provided the boxes for City of Secrets, which were (in my opinion) satisfactory. These boxes tend to come in batches of 25 to 50, and you should budget for shipping as well as the basic price. For CoS, the average price of these was 56 cents, including shipping. I customized mine with a label sticker.

Label Stickers

• Inkjet printed on sticky paper. If you want to go this route, you should either a) provide the stickers yourself; or b) provide print-ready art, and factor in the cost of the sticker paper. This could run anywhere from a few cents (for a matte label a few inches square) to $1.50 a package (for a full-page-sized glossy sticker).
• Professionally printed. If you really want to go the extra mile, you could get the sticker professionally printed for you by someone like PsPrint.com. [Usual caveats about professional printing apply.]

Custom Printing Jobs

• Business cards, event tickets, various types of merit certificates, glossy color brochures, bumper stickers, CD-ROM inserts, and even refrigerator magnets can be printed on an inkjet printer on paper from Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, or a similar supply store. There is a wide range of options available. You can see a quality sample of some of these items in the paper sample package, if you're interested.
• All these things and more are offered by professional print companies as well: for an impressive spectrum, see PsPrint.com. PsPrint does good work, at least as evidenced by the samples I've seen, but their minimum print runs are (usually) too large to make sense for the typical feelies bundle; you'd need a couple of hundred orders to justify it. There are some exceptions where they will do short runs, however. [Usual caveats about professional printing apply.]

Manuals and Booklets

• Booklet-style 5.5 x 8.5 inch manuals, with black-and-white internals and a black-and-white or color cover, are easily produced at a local copy shop. A minimum reasonable run is 10 or 20, because it's not worthwhile to do fewer than that at a time. For a 10-20 page manual, you should expect the price to run to about $1.50-$2.00 apiece; add a dollar if you are contemplating a color cover. (Color laser printing must be done on a glossy cover cardstock, and costs roughly $1/page.) The other thing to bear in mind if you choose this option is that you will need to prepare the layout yourself, or find someone who can do it for you, because it requires a certain amount of work to place the pages correctly so they will print as desired.

  If you'd like to use some of the boilerplate instruction text from the Beginner's Guide to IF, we may be able to accommodate you.

CD-ROMs

Content Burning Issues

• Data CD. You can burn your own data CD, or have us burn one, with your gamefile on it. Executables can be included, but only in the form of a zipped or otherwise packed file; otherwise, the CD will not be compatible across platforms. There is a chance that custom icons, window positions, file name lengths, and other choices will not come out exactly as you intended them on all platforms, but this format is basically acceptable if what you are looking for is simplicity and you mainly want to distribute your game.
• Hybrid CD. This CD type can be played on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, and can be customized so that what appears to the user depends on which platform he is using. It is also somewhat more difficult to prepare. You may need some software tools to put it together, such as Toast for the Macintosh. I own a copy of Toast Titanium which I purchased for the CoS mastering, and it works very nicely. For unix there are free utilities in the form of cdrtools, but they are somewhat more challenging to use.

Labeling

• Sharpie Marker. The ultimate in simple: buy a blank CD, write the name of your game on the surface with a marker, and you're done. Not very professional-looking, but it does get the job done for free.
• Printing on a label-able CD. You can buy some CDs with a coated surface on which you can print from your printer. I don't own a printer that can do this, so if you want to try it, you'll have to assemble them yourself.
• Printing on CD sticker. A similar option is to buy a CD labeling kit, which usually comes with round stickers and some layout software; some of them even come with an applicator that helps you put the sticker on without getting it off-center.
• Professional full-color labeling by a company such as Mixonic. This is what I did for CoS, and was favorably impressed with them. You get a water-fast, high resolution, full-color printing, with the option of showing through to the CD silver underneath; there is no minimum order size. The downside: ordering small numbers is more expensive than ordering large numbers, so while 50 CDs will run you around $4 apiece, the combined price and shipping for just one is about $9. They can do data burning for you, but will not do hybrid formats without special arrangements. You should also expect to have to get at least one sample CD printed before you commit to your full order; with CoS I went through several until I got the label exactly the way I wanted it. You will have to be prepared to provide them with an appropriate RGB JPEG of your desired label. Further details on the site.

Case or Sleeve

• Paper Sleeve. These can be bought in quantity at about 10 cents apiece. There's no insert and no label, just a clear window that allows the user to see the CD surface.
• Standard Jewelcase. This is the most classic form of presentation. The upside is that jewelcases are available in large quantities for relatively little; depending on the quantity you purchase at a time, the case should run you fifty cents or less. The downside: jewelcases are fragile, require extra packaging, and look kind of funny unless you also design a custom insert.
• Slimline Jewelcase. Like a regular jewelcase, but somewhat tougher, slenderer, and without space for a back insert. This is what I used for CoS. Prices are comparable to those for standard jewelcases, and they can be bought with a variety of pretty colored backs for added fun and flavor.
• Printed cardboard sleeve. This is kind of nifty; you can get them printed, for instance, at PsPrint.com, but the minimum print run is 500. Cost at that point: .60 apiece. [Usual caveats about professional printing apply.]
• C-Shell. These require no inserts, are made of tough plastic, come in several colors, and are kind of funky. Downside: if you want to add labelling of any sort to the cover, you'll have to get a sticker made.
• Digipak. A folding cardboard case that may have a pocket for notes, and is usually custom-printed on all panels. Expect to have to get a large print run made in order to acquire one of these, but it is what Peter Nepstad did for his large print run of 1893.

Inserts and Booklets

• Print your own on medium cardstock and cut to fit. The upside: it's cheap, and you can pick any color of cardstock you like. The printing quality will be whatever you can achieve on your printer. The downside: lots of labor. This is what Robb did with the Fallacy of Dawn CDs, however, and given that he had a color laser printer at his disposal, they came out looking pretty nice.
• Print your own on insert forms from Avery. The downside: these are not very glossy, come only in a white background, and tend to have perforated edges that look slightly fuzzy when finished. On the whole, though, the effect is not terribly shabby. The downside: these forms usually come with layout software to help you set them up, which is important because otherwise it's hard to figure out where to place your graphics so that they print out properly. However, this layout software works exclusively under Windows. If that's a problem, I may be able to set something up for you. These will run around 50 to 60 cents per item.
• Mixonic will print you an insert for a little extra if you order the CDs in slimline cases from them. This insert appears to be color laser-printed, and requires only RGB JPG or BMP files to set up. It is cut to size, folded, and inserted in its case before the CD is shipped to you. You couldn't do the same thing yourself for this price, because the laser-printing alone would run an extra $1 an item; Mixonic charges more like 50 cents. This is what I used for CoS.

Footnote on Professional Digital or Traditional Offset Printing