Love 2 Hate: The Kickstarter Experience

Love 2 Hate: The Kickstarter Experience

 

Green Ronin (GR) and I decided to go down the kickstarter route to raise $15,000 required to print a few thousand copies of Love 2 Hate. 

The main reasons for this choice were:

 

1.       GR were relatively new to card games and possibly may not have had as many ready avenues to support card games as it did RPGs (preivous RPG kickstarter launches with GR were very successful).

2.      I was an unknown quantity in terms of games designer, though a little bit known in some quarters as an individual.

3.      It presented an opportunity of free marketing.

4.      To give GR printing capital up front.

 The usual desire is to hot about 40% of your target in the first few days of the kick-starter as the graph follows a bathtub design – that is hits high at the start, dips to almost static during the middle and rises to a peak at the end.  Hopefully.

 The start hit just under 30%, which was a little concerning, but it was early days. 

The middle bit was tough.  It is a tough balance to ensure it is life in peoples feed and mind without, frankly, p*ssing people off too much and seemnig too pushy.  I hope that we got the balance right.  There were a couple of small peaks after cons and publicity shots, but the middle was pretty static.

It is quite emotionally tough to log in every day or a few times a day and see no bids.  One tends to lose faith in oneself, the product and it is difficult to remain positive.  I had great friends around me and continuous encouraging words from GR, friends and the Irish Gaming Community at large, which was entirely invaluable.

 My kickstarter experience became a back issue in the middle of it as a personal family tragedy hit and hit hard.  I am not going to provide details here, but suffice to say it pretty much took me out of any monitoring of the kickstarter and related issues.  GR were fantastic in the support they offered here.  It means I cannot talk much about the science of updates, but I am sure there is good stuff out there on that.

Cutting to the end, we were actually approaching target.  As it was going to be a nail-biting finish, GR decided to run with the larger game (which had been a stretch goal) to get it over the line, which was very good of them and meant they would have to absorb a good whack of cash.  I think I spent about 6 nervous hours of refreshing that page, right up until about 2am (it finished at 3am my time.

 What I will never forget is the wonderful support of dear friends into the final hours, who were with me on various forms of social media, and the rush of dozens and dozens of messages and notes of congratulations once it was funded – which told me that there were at least 20 other people watching the bids as closely as I was.  I cannot over-emphasise the power of this support.  Put simply, I will never forget it and it truly meant the world to me.

We funded, which was great.

The main thing left open was those people who bid to have cards made and, several months after the close of the kickstarter, many have yet to contact me with cards!  I hope to resolve this delay shortly, but it is tough when one is depended on any quantity of other people :)  (anyone reading this who has a card outstanding, contact me).

The game release date has been pushed back to March – which I think is something people expect form kickstarter these days.  But there is good reason for it in terms of costs and also in terms of being able to get it ready and fresh for GAMA!

I am 98% sure I will be at Gencon Indy as well to actually have a game in my hands and sell the heck out of it.

 So, what I learned from the kickstarter experience

1.      It's tough to get a balance between publicity and annoying people

2.      It's a tough emotional journey.

3.      Nothing happens in the middle bit, which does not help the emotional level

4.      You may have to add more towards the end to boost it.

5.      Other people's signal boosts help exponentially and always remember to thank people when they do boost the signal.

6.      The end is exciting, but hold off drinking too much coffee to stay awake as you will NOT sleep at all that night.

7.      Post bidding delays happen, especially with things outside your control.

8.      Some bidders will be slow sometimes to add their bits, should they have bid for something to add.

Next time – the Game!