How Crowdfunding Transformed Tabletop Board Games (npr.org) 24
The board game Frosthaven has become Kickstarter's "most-funded board game on the site ever, with nearly $13 million pledged toward funding the game's development," reports NPR. "Only two projects have ever crowdsourced more funding on the site."
NPR sees a larger trend: Frosthaven's success seemed to exemplify a shift that has been happening in the tabletop gaming community for years: toward games that are not only focused on strategy and adventure, but also a new type of funding model where fans have more say than ever in which games move from the idea stage to their living rooms. And hobbyist tabletop games are a different breed of entertainment altogether. For many of these smaller games, funding from fans has proved essential... These makers have become part of one of the country's most popular quarantine hobbies, but they've done so through a mini-economy that relies on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter...
Creators use Kickstarter like a social media site, an advertisement and a fundraising tool all in one, and they use it more successfully than nearly any other game creators on the site. In 2019, fans pledged more than $176 million toward tabletop games — up 6.8% over the previous year, according to Kickstarter data gathered by the entertainment site Polygon. In all, more than 1 million people pledged to games on the site last year... "For the board game community, there's a culture of looking on Kickstarter ... and being more willing to fund things," said Isaac Childres, the CEO of Cephalofair Games and creator of Forge War, Gloomhaven and Frosthaven. "It's like a larger avenue for board game creators to use that automatically picks up a following."
This is what makes Kickstarter so attractive to individual makers and less attractive to other gaming industries — like video game makers. It takes a lot of startup value to create your own video game, for instance, but for board games, you only need a good enough idea and a well-placed Kickstarter page to gauge public interest... [T]here are drawbacks to the funding technique, too. Creators are responsible for everything if their goals are reached. They have to print the games and send them to their customers on their own — a process that can be grueling, time-consuming and even detrimental. One board game creator miscalculated the amount of money it would cost to ship games and lost his house due to the unexpected financial burden.
But, for many creators, the positives outweigh the negatives. Childres said it's hard to imagine where he might be without crowdfunding. Offering his game Forge War as an example, he said had he "somehow found the money to publish it on my own and get it into stores, I don't think anyone would have paid attention to it."
Now, he's one of the most successful hobbyist tabletop board game creators in the country.
NPR sees a larger trend: Frosthaven's success seemed to exemplify a shift that has been happening in the tabletop gaming community for years: toward games that are not only focused on strategy and adventure, but also a new type of funding model where fans have more say than ever in which games move from the idea stage to their living rooms. And hobbyist tabletop games are a different breed of entertainment altogether. For many of these smaller games, funding from fans has proved essential... These makers have become part of one of the country's most popular quarantine hobbies, but they've done so through a mini-economy that relies on crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter...
Creators use Kickstarter like a social media site, an advertisement and a fundraising tool all in one, and they use it more successfully than nearly any other game creators on the site. In 2019, fans pledged more than $176 million toward tabletop games — up 6.8% over the previous year, according to Kickstarter data gathered by the entertainment site Polygon. In all, more than 1 million people pledged to games on the site last year... "For the board game community, there's a culture of looking on Kickstarter ... and being more willing to fund things," said Isaac Childres, the CEO of Cephalofair Games and creator of Forge War, Gloomhaven and Frosthaven. "It's like a larger avenue for board game creators to use that automatically picks up a following."
This is what makes Kickstarter so attractive to individual makers and less attractive to other gaming industries — like video game makers. It takes a lot of startup value to create your own video game, for instance, but for board games, you only need a good enough idea and a well-placed Kickstarter page to gauge public interest... [T]here are drawbacks to the funding technique, too. Creators are responsible for everything if their goals are reached. They have to print the games and send them to their customers on their own — a process that can be grueling, time-consuming and even detrimental. One board game creator miscalculated the amount of money it would cost to ship games and lost his house due to the unexpected financial burden.
But, for many creators, the positives outweigh the negatives. Childres said it's hard to imagine where he might be without crowdfunding. Offering his game Forge War as an example, he said had he "somehow found the money to publish it on my own and get it into stores, I don't think anyone would have paid attention to it."
Now, he's one of the most successful hobbyist tabletop board game creators in the country.
Re:It's the American way! (Score:5, Informative)
Any kickstarter that delivers is the exception. You pay for the entertainment of watching your money converted into drama in the most efficient way possible.
While that may be true for the average kickstarter, my experience with kickstarter board games has been very different. I have backed a little over a dozen games and have had every single one delivered. One survey [ssrn.com] I could find claims about 9 in 10 kickstarter projects deliver to their customers, so once again your claims don't seem to hold up.
I have two games right now which are a few months past their target delivery date but they are giving enough updates where I am still very confident they will deliver. I have had a handful of games which even had 1 year + delays, but they still delivered. I had one game I never received but I missed the pledge manager and was never able to successfully get in touch with the developer afterwards. Some blame on both ends for that one, but still frustrating.
I have also bid on maybe a half dozen other products like knives, a book scanner, etc. and only had one of them not deliver. While I'm not saying success rate is 100%, your characterization of projects which deliver being an exception is way off the mark from my experience.
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Comics are a good bet because many of the people involved are experienced in the industry and know what they need to produce a book. Even the ones who are not can show extensive artwork that just needs finishing and printing so the chances of them succeeding when the money is there is high.
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But out of those 19 that I should have reasonably expected to have in-hand, I have received all but one. A single game from 2013 that has dragged on and on in production. So 18/19 isn't a bad
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I too have had a few decent things off Kickstarter. Pluggylock has saved by phone a couple of times and I'll have to replace it with a bulky case if I "upgrade" to a phone without a headphone jack. Road Redemption was pretty good, definitely a budget game but that's what I paid for it so I'm happy.
Just avoid the obvious scams, the ones that violate the laws of physics, anything where they don't have a working prototype or demonstrate good knowledge and understanding of the subject.
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If it weren't really a great resource for this community and its creators, why would Stonemaier Games have a prominent "Kickstarter Lessons" section? This is advi
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Any kickstarter that delivers is the exception. You pay for the entertainment of watching your money converted into drama in the most efficient way possible.
That's flat out wrong. Many experienced designers now use KS to make the new game or expansion that a bigger publisher won't take on. These aren't starry eyed people who can make a good video but not a good product, these are people who have already made the games their backers love.
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Any kickstarter that delivers is the exception. You pay for the entertainment of watching your money converted into drama in the most efficient way possible.
I must be somehow exceptional: 15 of 15 drama-free products delivered? Have a few more out there that aren't delivered yet, but show no signs of drama yet beyond to-be-expected COVID-related delays. My purchases tend towards the tabletop/rpg/miniatures genre, maybe such geeks are just hyper-responsible or something?
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Is this paid advertisement? (Score:2)
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Collective (Score:2)
This appears to be design by committee; we all know where that leads.
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I've backed several games. Other than voting for optional add-ons the Kickstarter isn't designing, they're putting money down on ideas they like.
So the designers, instead of convincing a publisher, they convince the customer directly. So instead of designing games with features the publisher likes, they're making games customers will prepay to buy.
That is not really the case... (Score:1)
This appears to be design by committee
Despite the article kind of leading to that thought, that's not really what crowdfunding allows for...
Instead, what it does is allows the creative vision of a very small number of people, come to life if enough other people think it's a good idea.
Even though there have been some projects fail, on the whole it has led to some awesome stuff being developed that otherwise would never have come to be, because the heads of companies cannot see how people would like something
Too high-end for me (Score:2)
Many of these Kickstarter games have pretty expensive base packages. For example the linked Frosthaven, that's $100 for the game without extras and without shipping. Looking at what is in the box, it may well be worth that much in components, but I don't like the idea of putting that kind of money into a game that I've never played. No matter how high the production values, if you or your friends don't enjoy how it plays, it will just be sitting on your shelf.
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