FUNDED! And Some Thoughts On Kickstarter!
about 6 years ago
– Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 01:55:36 AM
First of all let me pass on my sincere Thanks to each and every Backer that showed up for us in this very interesting campaign. This was not my first rodeo but often it felt like it was! Through a lot of ups and downs we finally got to where I anticipated we would get in the long run.
Second I would be very remiss not to thank some SuperBackers in my book for their constant belief, encouragement, help, assistance, advice and sometime outright cheerleading during this campaign: Alex, Joshua and ever inquisitive Dunbruha!
Seriously thank you to one and all.
I hope I did not scare anyone by going quiet the last 48 hours as I was loathe not to jinx anything as it seemed I did every time I posted an update or updated the project page.
With that being said I would like to share my thoughts on Kickstarter and the future for Journey To The Overland.
First of all I think it is evident to many small content creators that Kickstarter has changed and unless you bring a large and enthusiastic following with you getting funded for any significant project on Kickstarter today (i.e. 10K or more; pledges of $80 and up) is more unlikely than so. I believe this is for two reasons. 1.) The bar has been raised quite significantly for Kickstarter these days. It is no longer sufficient to merely present a list of hoped for stretch goals, Backers want to see actual content and more and more often this has to be content that adds real "value" to the pledge not just an item of appreciation, recognition or perk. As a SuperBacker myself I understand this. But where I try to differ is that what I expect of a large corporate content creator like Wizards of the Coast or Fantasy Flight totally differ from what I expect of small content creators trying to bring something truly new and unique to the hobby. Unfortunately because of the amount of money the typical Backer spends on Kickstarter projects these days the gap in expectation between the two has almost disappeared. Which brings me to the second and largest concern I have with Kickstarter going forward. 2.) Too many corporate releases being funded through Kickstarter. When Kickstarter was first conceived it was to fund those things that could not feasibly be produced and manufactured using traditional revenue. In the board game field for instance this typically meant games with lots of miniatures. At first these games would be sold for their usual market price of between $60 and $75 and then you would get miniatures added through stretch goals. Today these projects start at between $125 and $140 and what these companies have started doing is actually quite shrewd.
So let's say I make a board game and it will come with 50 miniatures. But I intend to Kickstart it. So I put it up and say it comes with 30 miniatures. Then what I do is add 1 miniature for the next twenty stretch goals! This works like a charm. Backers flood in and go into a frenzy to unlock one new $3.00 miniature by raising 10K or 20K more dollars for each one.
Now all things being equal anyone could do that. And you will see smaller creators try to emulate this funding scheme. But here is where it falls apart. With so many large corporations using Kickstarter now as their "first" and sometimes "only" platform like Batman: Gotham City Chronicles, Backers don't have an extra $100 to support an indie concept that may or may not get made or at the very least get delayed or scaled down. And these large corporate creators are not only doing 'one' large Kickstarter a year. Which the platform could absorb they are doing two or three a year! Which is why by March of each year there is no room for anyone else looking to launch to get a month to themselves. Since in order to get two or even three Kickstarters ran a year a company would have to do one in March, then again around July and then October or November. It would be bad enough if only one large company was doing this but today I know of at least four that use this cycle: CMON, Mantic, Mythic, Monolith, and Riverhorse! That's five but Mythic and Monolith just split from one Kickstarter entity. (CMON alone has launched 30 Kickstarters since 2011 or over 4 per year). Unfortunately as more and more new companies have success this trend will only grow. Companies behind games like Unbroken, HexploreIt and Arena: The Contest will use funds from those games to fund more games and launch more Kickstarters!
With that being said, I believe more and more small content creators like myself will have to move to platforms like Indiegogo. In the past Indiegogo was not as appealing as Kickstarter because the Kickstarter platform itself is still the single largest source of pledges for a Kickstarter campaign. That was not the case with Indiegogo where you really needed to push Backers to your project. Over the years however that has changed a lot and now Indiegogo has its own loyal brand of crowdfunders who specifically look for the 'more indie' content that is funded on Indiegogo. Also Indiegogo eliminates one of the worst aspects of Kickstarter to a content creator - canceled pledges! This campaign took big and repeated hits from canceled pledges. Which is understandable. $99 is a lot of money no matter what you are pledging for. But with Indiegogo you can still cancel your pledge but pledges are 'funded' every two weeks so the content creator has a chance to 'harvest' some of those early pledges and sort of 'bank' them. Plus once a Backer has actually paid for something the incentive to cancel it actually goes away since its paid for now.
I would like to say that I don't expect to do anymore Kickstarters for Journey To The Overland. But I cannot predict the future so I won't say that. I will say my next crowdfunding campaign will be on Indiegogo. While there is clearly not the opportunity to raise the kind of funds on Indiegogo that you can raise on Kickstarter if you are offering a product that only needs $5000 to $6000 to get created Indiegogo is more than adequate to get funding for it if there is any interest. Many of the items bundled in this Kickstarter could probably have gotten funded separately for $3500 to $5000 on Indiegogo like the JTO Townscape, The Expansions, and even the Hardcover Rulebook by itself. So I will definitely be breaking future expansions, modules, maps and miniatures for the game down into 'one-shot' funding campaigns that will have much smaller funding goals and be much shorter.
But all that is for tomorrow. Today I thank you all and look forward to working on getting you everything unlocked in this campaign within the times stated. Speaking of timing, based on past experience I tried to really "overestimate" the time it would take to get a lot of this out. I hope to give more accurate time frames in the week ahead. As it is I think I can get everything done and out myself by the end of the year. But I have been approached by some Chinese manufacturers who are able to do the game, box and components all in house. This would greatly improve the quality and packaging of the game but would also increase the time closer to those dates given in the campaign. I have really been proud that to date Journey To The Overland has been 90% made in America (I think IngramSpark who does my rulebook is in England). But a lot of Kickstarter creators have used this Chinese company and I have been impressed for the most part with the quality and speed of their work. But we will see. Journey To The Overland is somewhat unique in that the rulebook is much larger and more detailed than anything you would get in a board game so that may be a problem. Also we use a map not a board so that may be a problem. But as those of you who already have a copy of the game can see I am more than capable of getting it out on my own.
Take care and God Bless!
And Take The Journey Alone!
