BGG (BoardGameGeek.com) may be intimidating for new designers and publishers, but the parts you actually NEED to use are pretty straightforward once you learn where to look and how they work. Navigation is a bit of a nightmare on BGG… Read more ›
People are regularly wanting to hire me to do consulting work for them… But, I’m semi-retired now and don’t really enjoy that kind of work. When told that, most ask who I’d recommend to help them out. While I don’t… Read more ›
A pledge manager (PM) is a type of shopping cart and survey website that will help you manage your backer’s rewards after your crowdfunding campaign has completed. Not only will it help you deal with the logistics, tracking orders,… Read more ›
Ok, so I’m not a Vampire and I’m not as good looking as Brad Pitt… But apparently some people felt it worth their while to interview me over the last few years – and hey, I needed a catchy title. This… Read more ›
Recently a friend of mine said he had the pre-launch jitters and while confident with the product, was unsure if he did everything he could to make sure the launch was a success. Given that the first 2 days of… Read more ›
I have not written on this specific topic before because I use a consolidator which in turn gets me into distribution. They charge extra, but the warehousing, shipping, accounting, and regular contacts they provide with dozens of distributors around the… Read more ›
I’m found myself asking for a videographer, audio, and voice over talent again. I also see others ask these questions from time to time. I wasn’t really wanting to take on this task of assembling a list of talent as… Read more ›
“Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.” – Henry Ford I recently had the chance to churn through some data of recently Tabletop Game Kickstarter Campaigns thanks to Roger Hicks – though I worked with my own dataset, he… Read more ›
On my site, you’ll find many posts about the tabletop hobby game industry. From how to run a Kickstarter campaign to things to avoid when designing a board game to where to find manufacturers for your game. My blogs tend… Read more ›
I have half a dozen Kickstarters to work on this year and I need to keep things on track and straight in my head… so I have this checklist worksheet for tracking all my project milestones. If I need something… Read more ›
Kickstarter has made several great improvements to their systems over the last year. From being able to ask for a shipping amount to a specific country, to providing more useful survey options, to a new post-campaign landing page, to being able to… Read more ›
This blog is my attempt to help shed some light on all the options (typical thicknesses and paper grades, pantone, etc.) and terms (GSM, Grey-core, 4/4c, etc.) you’ll need to know to talk the business of tabletop game manufacturing with… Read more ›
Recently we created a couple surveys (see data below) to help us understand the value of a print and play version of our games with regard to how people back and purchase our games. But first let’s cover a few basic things:… Read more ›
Well I’m not dead yet, so I have a tale to tell… We recently completed our 14th Kickstarter campaign for Dead Men Tell No Tales (DMTNT) and we did some things differently this time. Our campaign was a huge… Read more ›
Every month or so I run across another miss-guided designer making a CCG (Collectible Card Game or Trading Card Game). So again, I’m writing a blog so I don’t have to repeat myself all the time. Let’s be clear,… Read more ›
This post is going to be part documentary, part educational, part advice, and part apology to our Kickstarter backers. Minion Games was utterly unprepared to fulfill the logistics and customer service needs of the numerous Kickstarters we successfully funded… Read more ›
So your Kickstarter is over and it was successful… now what? DO IMMEDIATELY Hopefully right before your campaign ended you remembered to update the story page with your home page URL and last minute info on how to order your product… Read more ›
There are other places to get help on the internet like the BGG design forums or the BGDF, but I’ve found this year that Facebook has served me well. I personally run 3 or 4 groups/pages but there are… Read more ›
There comes a time when you realize your Kickstarter campaign isn’t going to make it… realizing that point and dealing with it is what this article is about. I have studied and talk to many campaigns that had failure in… Read more ›
IndieGoGo.com versus Kickstarter.com UPDATE: At bit under half way we are treading toward $60k and have earned over $26k with over 700 backers so far – how can anyone dispute the power of Kickstarter over any other site? There are… Read more ›
Don’t Pee in the Sandbox… I have worn many hats in my days, from retailer to publisher, from designer to project manager, from e-book distributor to Kickstarter fulfillment, from trainee to consultant. I decided I’d share some of the knowledge… Read more ›
The Enlightened Path to Virtual Popularity I’ve seen many great looking games or great ideas just languish on Kickstarter and they really did a good job with their campaign page. So what went wrong? In almost all these… Read more ›
Myth Busters – Kickstarter Referrer Page? UPDATE: Kickstarter added google analytics at the end of April 2015 which really help track referrals. A good primer was posted here: http://www.spellforgegames.com/kickstarter-and-google-analytics-a-guide-for-kickstarter-campaigns/ REFERRALS I am in the unique position of having run many… Read more ›
(Copied from the Arcive.org entry as this page on CrowdFundingRoadmap.com is dead now): We recently had the privilege of interviewing James Mathe, one of Kickstarter’s most successful crowdfunders. He shares a lot of useful insight on crowdfunding campaign best practices… Read more ›
Kickstarter Advice Guide This checklist was created to help people avoid the pitfalls of, and run, a successful campaign for a card or board game through Kickstarter. Kickstarter is like a mall, the worlds biggest, they bring the customers… Read more ›
Kickstarter Best Practices group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/138469072961355/ Card & Board Game Designers Guild https://www.facebook.com/groups/320445024722916 Eduardo Baraf – Kickstarter Basics http://www.baraf.com/league-of-gamemakers-videos/ Crowdfunding Google+ Group https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/118380390691616458392 BoardGameGeek Kickstarter Forums: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/forum/915012/kickstarter/general http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/746926/kickstarter-announcements-thread Quora kickstarter category http://www.quora.com/Kickstarter Funding the Dream podcast: http://www.buzzsprout.com/4646 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epvJtKthsCo&feature=youtu.be KickstarterHQ… Read more ›
UPDATE: I was also featured on Funding the Dream podcast ep 247 & 251 here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/4646/268446-ep-247-kickstarter-vs-board-game-stores-with-james-mathe https://www.buzzsprout.com/4646/268448-ep-251-james-mathe-kickstarter-survey-results As well as a video interview with Meeple Syrup Show: Below is a copy of an interview I did with Kickstarter Conversations:… Read more ›
