"Not to say I'm not interested in your ornate chess set endeavor. Science is expensive, and targeting an audience whose interest in your product is in no small part to show off their wealth means a nifty benefit can be expected from every sale.
Simply, my role would be mostly to design and manufacture the raw pieces. You'll have to find a good enchanter for the next part, and have to count mostly on yourself to fill your order book.
Though such a pageant indeed seems like a good start for such a task.
As for that arena thing... How many gold coins did you lose there already?"