I failed at my first and only Kickstarter!
In July 2021, I failed at my first and only Kickstarter.
I had a lot of good people working with me at the time. We did many things right, like the artwork, game mechanics, and playtesting. Yet, I failed at the business, social media, and popularity required to succeed. I did not realize that Kickstarter would not sell our game for use. Five minutes on the internet could have told me that.
We had a great game with beautiful artwork, but the people were not there to back us. I wish I had known about Jamey Stegmaier's Kickstarter Lessons. Lesson #68, You Don't Need To Launch Today, would have changed our plans.
Nearly three years later, I am ready to try again, but first, I will complete the steps Jamey outlines in the above-mentioned Kickstarter Lessons. Starting with... a Blog.
Here I am with a shiny new website on which I intend to post helpful or entertaining weekly entries. I will also post entries about my progress in relaunching our game through a crowdfunding platform. Thank you, Jamey, for the incredible and free advice!
You can view the Kickstarter here to see the game I failed at.
Here are the things that I failed at on my first Kickstarter:
I had a small following for the game. Kickstarter does not advertise your game for you. It is up to you to get the word out. I then had a fairy tale podcast and thought we could convert our listeners into board gamers. It was not a good idea. I should have done the work to create a following from the board game community.
The size of the game was too big for my price point. Those interested in my fairy-tale board game may not pay $59.00. I needed to decrease the size of the map tiles and the box, which would have lowered the shipping costs. I should have contacted manufacturers to get a realistic price for printing the game.
Speaking of shipping costs, I did not know what to charge. Therefore, I guessed on the high side and that scared people. They were looking at nearly $100 for a game. Research your shipping costs, package size, and customs. Set a realistic shipping cost with the warning that shipping will be re-evaluated closer to the fulfillment date.
Ugh! The name needed to be catchier. Again, I was trying to appeal to my fairy tale podcast crowd, so we came up with "Bedlam: The Board Game." Workshop your name; it will be the first thing people see.
Stretch goals should be unlocked after you reach your funding goal. Not before. I do not know what I was thinking here.
T-shirts! Most gamers are not interested in matching clothing for the game.
Reviews and playthroughs are essential. I had none. I should have contacted other creators and sent them copies of my game to review. Giving those interested in my game a look at the gameplay and an honest opinion.
I made many more mistakes, but it would take me hours to list them all, and my experience will be different than yours. Again, I encourage you to take full advantage of Jamey Stegmaier's free crowdfunding lessons.
I wish you the best of luck on your project. If you have questions about my mistakes, list them in the comments below or email me at bricklebritgames@gmail.com.
