Why Kickstarter?
Thoughts on crowdfunding and why I'm running Kickstarter for Fire Noodle Eating Champs.
In two weeks I will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for my game, Fire Noodle Eating Champs: the Dice Game! I’ve deliberated for a long time over whether this was the right move for my project. More crowdfunding campaigns fail than succeed. If I had the capital, I don’t think crowdfunding would be the direction I take to bring my game to life. Let me explain a little bit about crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding and Tabletop
Crowdfunding is a way for creators to raise money from a large group of individuals. Many projects have been brought to life through crowdfunding campaigns like the Pebble Watch, Fidget Cube and Critical Roles Animated Series. Tabletop games is one of the most popular category with projects like Exploding Kittens, Gloomhaven and the Kingdom Death being some of the most successful crowdfunded products of all time.
Over the years, crowdfunding has become a staple marketing strategy for creators to raise funds and awareness for projects. Many games have only been made possible thanks to crowdfunding campaigns. Cards Against Humanities, Stonemaier Games: Viticulture and Exploding Kittens wouldn’t have existed without crowdfunding and have turned into the industry giants we know today. Crowdfunding is also the reason why modern-day boardgames from publishers like CMON, Steamforge and Starling Games can look so good with high-quality production values thanks to support from their community.
In the tabletop games world, there are 3 main platforms to build a crowdfunding campaign with their strengths and weaknesses.
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is one of the most established crowdfunding platforms. It is responsible for some of the most successful crowdfunded projects. The platform has a large and broad audience, great third-party support and an app.
Whilst you can run a campaign with just Kickstarter, it's often advised to use other tools to help manage and fulfil a project. Kickstarter does not have these tools built in. There are other third-party tools like pledge managers, email marketing and landing pages that are often used in tandem.
This is where these newer crowdfunding platforms come into play with integrated tools.
Backerkit
Backerkit started as a pledge manager for Kickstarter projects, but it now turned into a crowdfunding, management and fulfilment platform. It has all the tools needed to run a campaign from prelaunch to fulfilment. The some upfront costs and the audience is more focused than Kickstarter but there have been many success stories from this relatively new platform.
Gamefound
Gamefound is one of the newer crowdfunding platforms and they solely focus on tabletop games. Like Backerkit it’s an all-in-one platform to make the crowdfunding experience as smooth as possible designed with the tabletop game creators in mind. It has some great features like different ways of payment, an easy way to build stretch goals, open to more countries and it also helps with marketing via boardgameco. It’s a newer platform with a smaller and more focused audience but it already has 1 million people backing projects. In two weeks I will be launching a Kickstarter campaign for my game, Fire Noodle Eating Champs: the Dice Game! I’ve deliberated for a long time over whether this was the right move for my project. More crowdfunding campaigns fail than succeed. If I had the capital, I don’t think crowdfunding would be the direction I take to bring my game to life. Let me explain a little bit about crowdfunding.
Crowdfunding = Community Building
There are many great guides and books on crowdfunding. Kickstarter has some great articles, Jamie Stagmier wrote the book on board game crowdfunding and his Stonemaier blog along with sites like the Board Game Design Lab is an invaluable resource for any creator, not just people who want to fund a board game.
The basic idea behind crowdfunding marketing is building community prior to launch. The existing community is the most important part of any crowdfunding campaign. The general idea is that if you just launch a campaign out of nowhere, you’re chances of funding are slim to none because no one will know about it. If you build a strong community before launch that cares about your game you will increase your chances of getting funded.
Why I chose Kickstarter
For Fire Noodle Eating Champs, I don’t have the budget to spend on paid ads and marketing agencies. I’ve been focusing my efforts locally and telling my story in person and online through my organic social channels. I’ve been taking prototypes to conventions all over Australia for the past 6 months, building up a mailing list and getting people to sign up for the prelaunch page. Some of you reading this are the people I’ve met at these cons and I thank you so much for following my journey. Thank you to the 100 people who have signed up for the prelaunch.
Kickstarter was my choice of crowdfunding platform. As well it being a platform to raise money, Kickstarter is also another marketing tool to raise awareness about your game. I’m hoping Kickstarter’s broad audience and the success of casual games on the platform in the past like Exploding Kittens, Joking Hazard and Unstable Unicorns can help with my project. I also don’t for any extensive stretch goals or complicated fulfilment rewards requiring a pledge manager so Kickstarter features were right for me. Kickstarter is also the only platform with an app. I wanted to make it as easy as possible to back the game, especially at the IRL activations such as the launch night and when I show my game at conventions.
My Worries with Crowdfunding My Game
Crowdfunding is not the only way to bring a brand-new game to the market if you are a new creator. Stonemaier Games put out a great article on why they stopped using crowdfunding. In fact, the crowdfunding audience may not be the right fit for your project which is my biggest worry because my game is not a typical game that gets funded in this crowdfunding climate. The games that are successfully funded are usually games with grander production values for the modern-day hobby game market rather than a portable mint tin-sized party game. I don’t think my main audience are those who typically back crowdfunding projects.
In a perfect world, I would have my game on retail shelves where people can easily purchase a copy for their families. But I can’t just go up to Mr Retail and ask them to put my brand new game on their shelves. If I had the capital, I would have funded a print run of my game and started building up my brand and community by selling it at conventions and online so that people could immediately have the game without the barrier of entry. Since I don’t, crowdfunding feels like the solution to get started and carry on my momentum from all the conventions.
Crowdfunding and building a mailing list is a lot of work especially if you are doing it on a tight budget. Creators and marketers often spend their marketing budget to buy mailing lists and pay for ads to drive traffic to their landing page, increasing their chances of finding people who are interested in their product before launch.
I don’t have an extensive mailing list or ad spend budget. I’m betting on the momentum I’ve built up showcasing the game at conventions and IRL activations over the past few months. This is why I’m launching it on December 1st (One of the worst times to run a Kickstarter due to the holiday season) running a 14-day campaign. I will also be hosting a Sydney-based Kickstarter launch party to raise awareness of my campaign.
Crowdfunding can be a great way to raise money but if you don’t have a supportive community, it won’t work. And even if you are funded it does not mean you’re successful. You’ve made it to the grand finals and now you need to deliver. Many successfully funded projects have been unsuccessfully fulfilled and lost money because they didn’t factor in certain changes and manage their risks.
Ways I’m Minimizing Risks for My First Campaign
This is my first Kickstarter project. I’m hoping to break even and deliver a great experience to all my backers so that they will support more of my projects in the future. I have been burned by unfilled crowdfunding projects and have worked on many projects that have been successfully Kickstarted. I’m taking in all the lessons I’ve learned and applying them to minimize the risk of my first project.
My project is 90 per cent done and ready for manufacturing with established relationships with manufacturers.
I’m starting on a small with a mint tin-sized game with standard components.
I’ll be fulfilling and delivering to certain “safe countries” instead of worldwide to reduce the risk of unexpected taxes and delivery issues.
I’m aiming small but have a plan if things blow up.