Snow Day Fun - Game design

My husband had a cool idea for a game a few years ago.

He didn't do anything with it.

I started playing with the idea.  I made some cards with index cards (bad idea -- too big) and I've been happily playtesting.  (It helps that the game is designed for solo play, although it can also be multi-player.)

Today I went to www.thegamecrafter.com to do what my husband advised me to do weeks ago: check out prices and file formats for graphics.

The file formats for graphics isn't a problem.  I have a little sticker shock, though -- my initial design would be a $30 game, possibly more.

I'm trying to decide what I think about that.  (My initial thought is: make an initial deck of 108 cards instead of 300 and then do an expansion pack if the game is popular).  If it is just for me and just for fun, that's not a big deal.  But sharing the game with all of my nearest and dearest could get expensive, fast.

I'm also trying to decide about graphics. One of my husband's suggestions was to use The Game Crafter site to prototype the game, then see if I could get a manufacturer interested.  In that case, I just need placeholder graphics.  Nice ones would help, but really, let's face it, they would use their own graphic designers so stick figures would probably be quite adequate.  On the flip side, being able to draw would be good for my other art, and if this is a three-year project anyway.....