Crowdfunding Your Board Game: The Pros and Cons

you've designed a board game and it's good it's really good you've tested it with loads of friends family and strangers making tweaks along the way and now you're pretty sure it's ready to share with the wider world but you're not really sure what to do next you're new to all this but someone makes all these games right each of the hundreds of games released each year has a designer so why shouldn't your game join The Fray Kickstarter or publisher that's the question [Music] I'm Adam Porter I'm a game designer from Wales and I regularly share my game design experiences on this channel if you like what I do please subscribe comment and share the video I have a number of published games to my name three were published by Latvian publisher brain games two were published by the happy puzzle company out of London compromat was produced by Swiss company helvetique big Bazaar by blue orange in France and thrown by Wiz Kids In The USA what do they have in common well they were all licensed to Publishers and none of them were crowdfunded as a new designer successfully pitching your game to an established publisher can seem like an impossible task Kickstarter might look like the easy option the trendy option the obvious route to making a Fortune of course the reality is much more nuanced the decision of whether to self-publish your game through a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter or game found or allow a publisher to make the game for you is a personal one there's no right answer to this you do you in this video I'm going to tell you five reasons why you should self-publish and five reasons why you should license to an established publisher the first reason you should self-publish is to retain creative control when you publish your own game you're responsible for development of every aspect of the product you decide on the theme you decide which rules you keep and which rules you discard you decide on the artist the components the name the stretch goals the retail cost you write the rule book licensing to a publisher means giving up creative control and trusting that the publisher will realize your vision are you ready to accept that the publisher might change the theme of your game the name might change you won't get to choose the artist some components might be cut to reduce costs they might even change some rules the real question is whose judgment do you trust more it was your idea right you're intrinsically connected to the game you understand every Nuance but an established publisher has years of experience they know what works what the market wants they know what's affordable they know what sells the first reason you should license to a publisher is to tap into the Publisher's knowledge and contacts you could spend hundreds of hours researching the industry reading forums watching videos but you'll never amass the wealth of experience that an established publisher has garnered over years in the trade they know the business their experts are creating and selling games now that's not to say that an established publisher doesn't make mistakes or that their games never disappoint I've shared my own experience of Designing a commercial flop in the video above but your chance of success are higher when you work with a professional team where every member of that team knows the industry perhaps even more importantly Publishers have contacts Distributors retailers and international Partners there's a reason that retail stores are stacked full of games by the same familiar companies they know each other a first time Kickstarter Creator is going to have a real challenge getting product into game stores in the quantities that a larger publisher can achieve and they've got little hope of establishing comparable distribution channels worldwide wide the second reason you should self-publish is to keep more of the profits when you run a crowdfunding campaign it's your call how much is spent on components art manufacturing marketing and distribution and how much profit is retained by you as the game's Creator the finances are transparent you can see the cash coming in and going out again with some clever budgeting surely that amounts to Greater profit than you'd see from the traditional publisher route you'll also see the money a lot more quickly it takes many months after release for the first royalty payment to arrive from a publisher and it's not unusual to have to chase them a bit to make the payment it's also true that rewards from traditionally published games are small expect to receive five to seven percent of trade cost which equates to somewhere in the region of two to four percent of retail cost you could take a bigger cut from a Kickstarter project but that doesn't account for time spent pumping many many more hours into a project for a small uplift in profit is not good business it's worth reflecting from time to time on your hourly rate as a game designer using a traditional publishing route mine is pitiful suspected if I use Kickstarter it would be even worse the second reason why you should license your game to a publisher is time if you're a natural game designer you'll be brimming over with ideas they'll be popping into your head in the shower on the drive to work or while walking the dog you'll have more ideas than you know what to do with running a crowdfunding campaign means committing to one idea and investing a considerable period of time in that one project licensing to a publisher allows you the freedom to move on quickly as soon as that contract is signed you can hand the game off to the new production team and move on to your next big idea if you want to focus purely on game design and forget about all the logistical headaches then licensing is the way to go and if you want to develop multiple games in multiple Styles and genres then licensing is the answer running a successful crowdfunding campaign is a full-time job and yes I know that people do do it in their spare time but count the hours where do you want to focus your energy design or Logistics the third reason you should self-publish is to start your own business now I started working seriously on game designs in 2014 and in my short time in the industry I've seen a number of companies grow from a single Kickstarter campaign to a full-scale publishing house if you want to be a publisher then be a publisher if you have a knack for budgets if you get a thrill from negotiating costs and quantities if you enjoy communicating with customers and managing their consumer experience then publishing May well be for you the key message here is that publishing is a very different skill to the creative Endeavor of designing games undoubtedly for some individuals there is an overlap some game designers are also great Publishers I mean look at Jamie stegmeyer or Ryan Lockett but there are many creatives out there who would be much better off seeking out a professional production team to do the stuff that they do best and you should license your game to a publisher is to reduce your risk when you license your game to a publisher you don't need to make any initial investment beyond the cost of producing a prototype and attending conventions to pitch your idea upon signing a contract you'll often be paid in advance which will more than cover these costs so your Financial Risk is minimal gone are the days when a game creator could share a nugget of an idea on Kickstarter underdeveloped unillustrated and aspirational and still expect it to fund Kickstarter backers these days are looking for polished campaigns that means investing your own money to pay for at least a proportion of your artwork your sculpted Miniatures perhaps an introductory video and production of enough working prototypes to share with the reviewers and influencers if your game fails to fund that's not money that you're getting back the fourth reason you should self-publish is to build a community sometimes that's a reward in itself I frequently mentioned in these videos that the main reason I make them is because I enjoy the interaction the comments the community kickstarterbackers tend to be engaged and active especially if you've run an effective campaign they're stumping up cash in the knowledge that they won't be receiving the game for many months or in some cases years they want to feel that they've impacted on the final product that their voices have been heard their preferences taken into account building a community is gratifying especially if they like what you're doing a Kickstarter campaign is an opportunity to speak to your customers directly and to get to know them and when you license to a publisher you often don't get that most of my games are listed on the board game geek website people who buy or play the games make comments and give a rating and there's no opportunity for me to respond to understand the negative comments to ask why even worse some games get very few comments at all especially if they're marketed more towards the mass Market consumer who's generally unaware of the massive online gaming Community my game zooligans doesn't get an entry at all on Board Game Geek because it's deemed a logic puzzle not a game so I've never seen a comment on it outside of the occasional Amazon review it's quite isolating the flip side of this is that Kickstarter communities don't magically appear from nowhere it takes a lot of work to build a following so I've been producing videos on this channel for nine years and I have fewer than 6 000 subscribers if I ever decided to mobilize this community to direct my viewers towards a crowdfunding campaign for one of my own games how many would come along for the ride I suspect the percentage would be pretty low many self-publishers invest a great deal of time in building their communities and it can be costly too with crowdfunders promoting their pre-release products at conventions and trade fairs so the fourth reason you should license to a publisher is to build contacts in the industry I've had so much fun meeting Publishers over the years over four days at Essence Spiel each October I often manage 20 or 30 meetings frequently meeting with the same individuals year after year I learned so much from these meetings they share industry insights their own strategies and Trends within the market if they don't want to produce one of my prototype games they Point me towards other Publishers who might so networks grow and new doors open year on year and it's not just me there's a whole community of game designers working the Halls at these trade fairs many others in the same boat and all Keen to share their experiences and contacts we meet in the halls for a quick chat we get together after hours to debrief on the day's activities self-publishers have meetings too of course they work with Distributors and artists and influencers but they also spend a lot of time working alone the final reason you should self-publish is for the sense of achievement whatever you made good bad or ugly you did it you own it I know self-publishers feel an enormous sense of pride in the products they create it's their vision from the moment of inspiration to the moment it hits the store shelves and the final reason you should license to a publisher is for the sense of validation when you self-publish your validation comes from the reaction of your customers when you license a game to a publisher you get that validation too a positive review from an enthusiastic player is really rewarding but for me nothing compares to the buzz I get when a respected publisher responds positively to one of my prototype games an industry expert looked at my game and thought it was worthy of sitting alongside their other products big Bazaar sat on the blue Orange Show Health alongside King Domino the Coco and Doodle Rush shared a stand with ice cool quasel and zuligans stood alongside the genius square and that's gratifying for me I love board games and there are many Publishers which I dream of working with I have a wish list and I'm a long way off completing it this is one of the drivers which motivates me as a designer there's a negative side to the validation though for every successful Buzzy validating pitch there are also tens of rejections now I used to be an actor so I've got a pretty thick skin rejections were even more common back then but it's never easy that said I can only imagine the disappointment of a failed Kickstarter or the torment of a daily stream of critical comments from entitled backers I'm going to close with two situations where you should never use Kickstarter number one you have not play tested your game how many times have I seen designers comment online that their game is finished they're almost ready to launch their campaign they just need to start some play testing I've seen so many designers attend play test groups with commissioned art sculpted Minis and a game which has never been played Kickstarter games all too often feature broken edge cases rules which aren't covered unbalanced Combos and game ruining scenarios which just haven't been considered these would all be eliminated by rigorous play testing you're a professional so do the work and the second instance where you shouldn't crowdfund your game is when it's been rejected by many Publishers I mean this might seem like The Logical route none of them want to make it so I'll do it myself I believe in my game but ask yourself why what made those Publishers reject it did they give you feedback was it the same feedback from multiple sources were they all seeing the same faults what makes you think that they were wrong if you ignore feedback and disregard the rejections and plow on regardless you're setting yourself up for a fall it's likely that potential backers will see the same faults as the Publishers and your project is likely to fail if it does succeed and finds itself in the hands of excited backers they're likely to have a similar reaction to the Publishers and the critical response will be negative which is never nice this is not absolute of course there may be some games which are more likely to do well on Kickstarter but I struggle to think of that many examples most would be about epic scale cost and unusual components this would present a real problem for a traditional publisher but if a publisher could produce your game and all of them have chosen not to then there's your market research listen to it if you spend any time among other game designers you'll find that the community is split many swear by crowdfunding and would never dream of giving up control many others myself included have little interest in self-publishing and enjoy the freedom to work on multiple projects at the same time handing all the logistical tasks to another party who are probably going to do a much better job of it than I am for more guidance on getting your game published follow the link above and until next time all the best

Channel: Adam in Wales

Views: 2,732

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Id: -ypL_B5S-sI

Length: 14min 48sec (888 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 18 2022