How To Create Your Own Card Game | Kickstarter or Gamefound?

Summary

In this video, the host explores the decision-making process for launching a board game, focusing on the pros and cons of Kickstarter versus other platforms like Gamefound. They discuss the challenges faced by indie game designers competing with big publishers and highlight strategies for success, including starting small and keeping costs low. The host also interviews Ben Danson, who shares insights from his successful Kickstarter campaigns for his game Micro Dojo, emphasizing the importance of low production costs and effective marketing.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The video discusses the decision-making process for launching a game, specifically weighing the pros and cons of using Kickstarter as a platform.
• 🎲 Kickstarter is a popular platform for game designers to launch their products without the need for upfront costs, but it's not always the best fit for everyone.
• 📈 The speaker received valuable feedback from various individuals on a Facebook forum, highlighting the importance of community input in decision-making.
• 🤔 The video raises the question of whether Kickstarter is the right choice for an indie game developer, considering the competition from large publishers with bigger budgets.
• 🆕 An alternative platform, Gamefound, is mentioned as a newer option specifically designed for game designers, which may be more suitable for certain projects.
• 💡 Ben Danson, a successful game designer and publisher, shares his insights on Kickstarter campaigns, emphasizing the strategy of starting with a small, low-cost game.
• 💰 Ben Danson's approach to keeping costs low by setting a £5 price point for his game, making it an easy decision for potential backers.
• 📦 The importance of considering shipping costs and production simplicity is highlighted, as these factors can significantly affect the feasibility of a Kickstarter campaign.
• 🔑 Ben Danson details the process of his successful Kickstarter campaigns, including the challenges of doing much of the work himself without external partners.
• 📈 The video discusses the exponential effect of each backer on a Kickstarter campaign, as they can lead to more backers through social proof and platform algorithms.
• 🛍️ The option of using Gamefound or other methods like Game Crafter is presented, each with their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost, production, and marketing.
• 🔍 The video concludes by encouraging viewers to consider both short-term and long-term strategies, as well as the value of directing internet traffic to their own website versus a platform like Kickstarter.

Q & A

What is the main topic discussed in the video script?

The main topic discussed in the video script is the decision-making process for launching a game, specifically whether or not to use Kickstarter as a platform for crowdfunding.

What are some of the benefits of using Kickstarter for launching a game?

Some benefits of using Kickstarter for launching a game include the ability to realize a product without upfront costs, the platform's large user base, and the opportunity to gain support from backers for the project.

What challenges might a small game developer face when using Kickstarter?

Small game developers might face challenges such as competition from large publishers with bigger budgets, difficulties in gaining exposure and reach without substantial marketing funds, and the risk of not meeting funding goals despite having a great game.

What is Gamefound and how does it differ from Kickstarter?

Gamefound is another crowdfunding platform designed specifically for game designers. Unlike Kickstarter, which has expanded to include a wide variety of projects, Gamefound focuses solely on games, potentially offering a more targeted audience.

Who is Ben Danson and what is his experience with Kickstarter?

Ben Danson is a game designer and publisher from Prometheus Game Labs. He has successfully run two Kickstarter campaigns for his game Micro Dojo and its expansion, selling tens of thousands of copies and licensing his game to other distributors.

What advice did Ben Danson receive from a fellow game designer about starting with a small game?

Ben Danson was advised to start with a small game to minimize the financial risk and to learn the entire process of creating and launching a game. This advice came from his friend Dan, the creator of the game Lander.

What was Ben Danson's strategy for pricing his initial game on Kickstarter?

Ben Danson priced his initial game at a round number of five pounds, aiming to make it a no-brainer purchase for people, comparing it to the price of a cup of coffee and ensuring it was affordable even if the game turned out to be less successful than expected.

How did Ben Danson approach the manufacturing and budgeting of his game?

Ben Danson approached manufacturing by keeping costs low, opting for a punch board and a rule book, and printing locally. He also planned to print more copies if the campaign was successful, which would reduce the cost per unit.

What was Ben Danson's experience with marketing and advertising during his Kickstarter campaigns?

Ben Danson found that organic traffic from Kickstarter was effective in bringing in backers, and while he did run ads, they did not significantly impact the number of backers. He also utilized the strategy of sending review copies to multiple reviewers for free, which generated buzz and chatter about his game.

What are some considerations for using Kickstarter or other platforms for a game launch?

Considerations include the platform fees, the cost of production and postage, the potential for a large print run to reduce unit costs, the quality of the final product, and the long-term versus short-term goals of the campaign.

What is the potential impact of directing traffic to Kickstarter versus directing it to one's own website?

Directing traffic to Kickstarter can support the platform's search engine optimization and authority, potentially ranking it higher in search results. However, directing traffic to one's own website can build the site's authority and may be beneficial for long-term brand building.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Deciding on a Game Launch Platform

The speaker begins by contemplating whether to launch a game on Kickstarter or not, acknowledging it as a popular yet not always successful option. They express gratitude to the community for their feedback on the board game design forum and highlight the importance of considering various options for launching a game, such as Kickstarter's benefits and drawbacks, especially when competing with large publishers with substantial marketing budgets. The introduction of Gamefound as an alternative platform is mentioned, which is designed specifically for games and may offer a more level playing field for independent creators.

05:02

📦 Starting Small with a Successful Kickstarter Strategy

Ben Danson from Prometheus Game Labs shares his experience with Kickstarter, having successfully launched two campaigns for the game Micro Dojo and its expansion. He discusses the strategy of starting with a small, low-cost game that fits in an envelope and is easy to ship, which can be a marketing tool to build an audience for future projects. Ben emphasizes the importance of setting a low price point to attract initial backers and the challenges of managing all aspects of the campaign without external partners, which also provided a learning opportunity.

10:02

🛠 Navigating Game Development and Budget Constraints

The conversation delves into the challenges of developing a game with a limited budget, such as not investing heavily in upfront costs for marketing or fulfillment partners. Ben details his process of designing the game to fit within specific size and weight constraints for low-cost shipping and the decision-making process for setting budgets, which involved starting with a target price point and working backwards to hit that goal.

15:04

🎯 Marketing and Kickstarter's Role in Audience Building

Ben explains the importance of marketing in a Kickstarter campaign, discussing his strategy of building an email list and leveraging Kickstarter's audience to bring in additional backers. He mentions the minimal use of paid advertising during his campaigns, instead relying on the platform's organic reach and the exponential effect of each backer. Ben also touches on the value of sending review copies to influencers for non-paid reviews as a cost-effective way to generate buzz around the game.

20:05

🚀 Considering Various Launch Platforms and Strategies

The speaker explores different platforms for launching a game, including Kickstarter, Gamefound, and Game Crafter, weighing the pros and cons of each. They also consider a self-launch strategy using a business model similar to previous successful ventures. The discussion includes the financial implications of platform fees, the value of internet traffic directed to different websites, and the trade-offs between short-term and long-term campaign strategies. The speaker invites feedback from the audience to gain further insights into the best approach for their game launch.

Keywords

💡Kickstarter

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform where creators can launch projects and raise funds from the public. It is central to the video's theme as the speaker discusses whether it is the right platform for launching a game. The script mentions Kickstarter as 'one of the biggest names' and discusses its benefits and challenges, such as the upfront costs and competition with big publishers.

💡Game Found

Game Found is another crowdfunding platform that is mentioned in the script as a potential alternative to Kickstarter. It is described as a newer platform designed specifically for game designers, which differentiates it from Kickstarter's broader range of projects. The speaker considers it as an option for launching a game due to its focus on the gaming community.

💡Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding refers to the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their resources to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations. In the script, crowdfunding is the method discussed for launching a game, with platforms like Kickstarter and Game Found facilitating this process.

💡Micro Dojo

Micro Dojo is a game designed by Ben Danson, who is interviewed in the video. It is an example of a successful Kickstarter campaign that the speaker uses to illustrate how a low-cost, small-scale game can be effectively launched and marketed on the platform.

💡Board Game Design

Board game design is the process of creating the concept, mechanics, and aesthetics of a board game. The video script discusses various aspects of board game design, such as the decision to start with a small-scale game and the challenges of developing a game that can be successfully launched on Kickstarter.

💡Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies are plans and tactics used to promote a product or service. The script discusses the importance of marketing in the context of a Kickstarter campaign, mentioning the challenges of competing with big publishers who have larger budgets for advertising and marketing.

💡Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing involves partnering with individuals or entities who have influence over potential customers. The script mentions the use of influencers in the context of sending review copies of the game to reviewers, which is a strategy to generate buzz and reviews without the cost of paid advertising.

💡Manufacturing Costs

Manufacturing costs refer to the expenses incurred in producing a product. The video discusses the low manufacturing costs of Micro Dojo, which allowed for a low price point and made the game accessible to backers on Kickstarter.

💡Fulfillment

Fulfillment in the context of the video refers to the process of preparing and delivering orders to customers after a successful crowdfunding campaign. Ben Danson mentions handling fulfillment himself with the help of his family for Micro Dojo, which is a cost-saving measure.

💡Game Crafter

Game Crafter is a platform mentioned in the script where creators can upload artwork and have single copies of their games printed on demand. It is presented as an alternative to Kickstarter, with no upfront cost but higher per-unit costs for individual production.

💡SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website in search engine results. The script discusses the impact of directing traffic to Kickstarter versus a creator's own website, noting that sending traffic to Kickstarter can improve its SEO ranking, which may not benefit the creator's own platform in the long term.

Highlights

The video discusses the decision-making process for launching a game, focusing on whether to use Kickstarter or other platforms.

Kickstarter is highlighted as a popular platform for game designers to launch their products without upfront costs.

The presenter mentions the challenges faced by independent game developers competing with big publishers on Kickstarter.

Gamefound is introduced as an alternative platform specifically for game designers, unlike Kickstarter's broader focus.

Ben Danson shares his experience with Kickstarter campaigns, having successfully launched Micro Dojo and its expansion.

Danson's strategy of starting with a small, low-cost game to build an audience is discussed as a smart approach.

The importance of keeping production and postage costs low to remain competitive is emphasized.

Danson explains his decision-making process for setting budgets and pricing strategies for his game.

The presenter explores the challenges of marketing and advertising on Kickstarter, including the platform's fees.

The value of organic traffic and its impact on search engine optimization is discussed in relation to Kickstarter.

Danson shares his experience with influencer marketing, opting for sending review copies to multiple reviewers.

Game Crafter is mentioned as another option for game production with no upfront costs but higher unit costs.

The presenter considers a self-funding model similar to previous business experiences, gradually scaling up production.

The fees associated with Kickstarter and their impact on indie game developers are examined.

The presenter asks viewers to share their thoughts and experiences with Kickstarter or other platforms in the comments.

Transcripts

so today i'm faced with a massive

decision kickstarter or not what are the

available options when launching a game

and how do we know which is right for

hours and that's what this video is

about so in this video i'm going to be

talking about a number of different

options that are available when

launching a game kickstarter is

obviously the the most obvious option

that people go to it's one of the

biggest names and there's a lot of

benefits to it but it doesn't always

work out for everyone i posted a comment

on the board game design forum on

facebook and got a ton of comments

so before we get into it i just want to

thank everyone that's commented so james

baldwin mark mckinnon

uh that was a great conversation

actually mark thanks for that one that

was a good back and forth ross thompson

as well gave some great feedback uh

joshua madsen

matt wilson ben downton in fact ben's in

this video we've managed to get him to

interview him he's had a few successful

kickstarter campaigns so yeah massive

thanks to ben for that

james oiney richard cave stephen lockyer

nick sims lawrence

coulson jessica meatheringham

sam dean there's just so many people

that have commented um i could just keep

going there's more and more but thanks

to everyone that's commented uh on that

so as we go through this video i want to

respond to some of these comments and

include these in this video because they

were so so helpful in putting together

this consideration that for whether or

not kickstarter is right for my game

project

so without further ado let's get stuck

straight in and unpack this is

kickstarter right for your game my game

our game everyone's game being in

business for a long amount of time i can

transfer a lot of those business skills

into launching my product and it gives

me a good understanding of how to launch

your product in a general way so

kickstarter is touted as one of the

platforms where game designers can

launch their product and realize their

product without the upfront costs that

it would take um and that don't have the

power and the might of these big

big publishing companies that have a lot

of money behind them that can do these

huge campaigns and so kickstarter

initially was designed for that reason

so people could put their ideas online

and you could find backers and people

that supported your project

to fund that and you could get your

products and prototypes made sent them

out and and give final copies to people

as rewards for those pledges

but that's changed quite a lot over the

years and we've heard stories of people

that haven't funded very well despite

having a really great game

you're also coming up against massive

publishers that are using the platform

themselves now to launch their own games

that have huge budgets and huge campaign

uh budgets to promote their games and we

can often see these campaigns that have

done so incredibly well with you know

bringing in hundreds of thousands and

sometimes millions of pounds or dollars

um for their game and we can look at

that as an independent developer or

anything that's what i want to do that

that's how i'm going to get my game out

there but the the reality is we don't

have the funds and the budget to drum up

such massive reach and exposure for our

game in terms of advertising and

marketing strategies and things like

this

so we really have to ask the question is

kickstarter right for us today or are

there are there other options now

there's another platform called game

found that i've recently come across it

doesn't seem to have quite so many big

publishers on it it's a relatively new

platform designed specifically for game

designers to realize their products in

the same way that kickstarter was

initially designed for now obviously

kickstarter's all across the board and

you've got lots of different types of

products whether it's a video

company looking to fund their

documentary series or an art project or

um or games or whatever it might be

maybe a musician trying to fund their

first album whereas game found is

specifically finally home to be

specifically about games so there's

another option that we can go to so

obviously i haven't launched my game yet

so i can't personally speak from the

perspective of a successful launch

however today i've got with me ben

downton he is the designer and publisher

of micro dojo a game that i've

previously reviewed on this channel and

he has sold tens of thousands of copies

had successful campaigns on kickstarter

and has licensed and

sold his game to other distributors and

just done incredibly well he's managed

to avoid some of the pitfalls that so

many people face so i've managed to ask

him how did you do it what did you do so

we're going to go through some of those

as well to help us better understand if

kickstarter is the right platform for us

so ben uh let's introduce you uh who are

you and what do you do yeah um so i'm

ben danson from prometheus game labs

i've had two kickstarter campaigns uh

both funded um the first one being micro

dojo which was the game that fits in an

envelope and shipped out sort of

internationally very cheaply

and then the second was the expansion

for that which also included a

deluxified version of the original game

so nice boxed edition wooden meatballs

plus the expansion content

i'm currently gearing up for third

kickstarter launching early next year

which is microbots which is actually a

game i've signed from another designer

from simon beale so i'll be coming early

next year so ben your game you've made a

much smaller version uh for your initial

prod project and then expanded on that

and made a more uh

deluxe version i think that the term you

used tell us a bit about that how did

you get to that decision no i i started

with that in mind actually um i think

the first game i started working on was

for like a couple of months and it

wasn't going in the direction i really

wanted it to and i had a chat with a

friend dan who created the game lander

um i met him a few years ago and

it was the first time i'd met a game

designer and he was really sort of on

top of everything i was quite impressed

so i had a long chat with him about

saying you know what what's it like to

kind of create and launch a game

and he said look the best advice he gave

was to start with something small

um because you know you can spend years

sort of developing a game and then not

have any success on kickstarter and you

know you put a ton of money into it and

and i like that idea as well of sort of

starting and creating something quite

small um i actually had a game

from 2014 called province which was a

big inspiration for this i don't

remember if it came in an envelope i

think it may have done but basically a

friend gave it to me um it was like five

dollars on kickstarter back in 2014.

friend gave it to me as a gift i was

back visiting him we were on our way to

go to a wedding and uh he said oh hey

i've got this game and it fit in like a

little plastic baggie it was a little

worker placement game we played it on

the train and then i put it in my jacket

pocket and basically forgot about it and

it was just brilliant to be able to play

this little

sort of full-fledged game

um one of the complaints i had about it

was that once you've played it four or

five times it's kind of the same game

every time uh which i mean for five

dollars you know if you've played it

once it's not a bad deal i've got games

i've certainly um had less less value of

per play but um

so i started with the idea of producing

something sort of fitted envelope um

then i looked at

planning to ship from the uk i looked at

royal mail's sizing guidelines and i

found like a c5 envelope was sort of the

biggest thing you can send as a letter

and up to 100 grams so i thought okay

great i'll

fit my punch board inside a c5 envelope

and then once i knew that was what i had

to work with everything else kind of

went from there like i knew it was going

to be envelope sized and

you know underneath that weight and then

yeah i just designed the components for

the game to fit in that so i started

with that end goal in mind

so obviously when producing a game

budgets play a massive role can you tell

us a little bit about the budgets that

you set and and how you sort of made

those decisions

uh i kind of started with the price in

mind actually and then worked to hit

that so i wanted to have a nice round

number of five pounds i felt

um

you know 10

uh is a little bit not exactly a tough

sell in the world of board games but

still five is sort of so cheap it's um

at least out here where i live in dubai

it's about the price of a cup of coffee

right so

i wanted it to be a

a no-brainer for people to pick up

because i hadn't had any successful

kickstarters before

um i wanted to make it basically easy

enough for people to pick up like the

whole plan was sort of

to have people go okay what's this game

you know never heard of it it looks kind

of cute okay it's five pounds plus you

know two pound shipping sort of

internationally or a pound in the uk so

you know what if i got to lose even if

it you know my thought process was as a

as a customer even even if it never

arrives or it turns out to not be a good

game or even if you play it once or

twice and go yeah it's all right then

you know you've still had good value

from it so i wanted to make it really

easy for people to kind of pick it up

and then the plan was for

um to sort of use that audience who

hopefully liked the first game to then

um sort of build on that and build

bigger games and

basically build an audience through that

so you could almost think of the first

game as a more of a marketing tool than

a game although

i think it is a really good game as well

so going through this process what was

the biggest hurdle that you faced in

developing your game because it's a low

cost game um it means there's a lot of

things that you just can't really afford

to spend a lot of money on upfront um

and that was kind of the plan right

which was not to invest too much to kind

of um

for one to try and keep the cost down as

low as possible so you know i didn't

invest a lot of money in uh you know a

marketing partner i didn't have a

fulfillment partner it was me and the

family stuffing envelopes um you know

for everything like sort of accounting

and stuff i had to figure that out

myself so

um for one it was

not spending money on on partners that

would help out

it was also sort of deliberate because

it was a good way to learn the entire

process like see

what parts i'm good at what parts i'm

not so good at what parts i enjoy what

parts i don't

so

it was still definitely a challenge

there's a lot of things that can be done

easier and quicker with having someone

experience do it than you know you

learning it yourself for the first time

um

i think that was probably the the main

challenge actually um most of the stuff

it just took a lot of time like i would

say developing the game

to the point where it was ready to

commission the artwork was about six

weeks um probably went to about 20 or 30

play tests at that point and had about

sort of 80 to 100 but by the time it

launched

um but if you think of six weeks of sort

of the design and i suppose some of the

development time and then it was about

eight months to launch the kickstarter

so that was definitely the majority of

the work

so when it came to manufacturing and

setting budgets and how you're going to

logistically put this together in view

of kickstarter and the demands of

kickstarter what did that look like

uh i mean it's still super cheap to

produce because it's it's basically just

a punch board

punch board and a rule book i did also

add in a sheet of cards for the solo

mode that was sort of added in during

the campaign originally it was a print

and play and because the campaign was

successful enough i was able to kind of

get those printed

but still the

the manufacturing costs are very low uh

i got them done locally at a print house

here um i printed 500 actually before

the campaign thinking

you know i wanted to be able to fulfill

straight away because the game was was

basically finished i thought if there's

more than 500 i'll do like a second wave

but you know i was i was thinking i'd be

pretty happy if it got more than 500

backers which i mean absolutely smashed

it which was a nice surprise

uh

but yeah sort of printing locally and

sort of having those

500 copies it was still fairly cheap i

think the cost

at 500 was about like just over a pound

per copy

um so still because it's relatively

simple to do

um

you know most most print houses are

fairly comfortable with sort of doing um

you know punch board and die cutting

it's when you start adding all the other

components like you know wooden

components a box and all of these other

things it gets a little bit more complex

and a little bit more expensive

but paper components you know cards

rulebooks things like that are

fairly cheap to produce

so when launching a kickstarter campaign

we've got to send traffic to kickstarter

right otherwise you know our game's not

going to get found so what did your

marketing and advertising campaign look

like i know we've we've talked a little

bit before about sort of the you know

the five percent fees that they take but

i would say

going into the first campaign i had

about 500 people sort of on the email

list so that's that's 500 people i

suppose almost maximum you know that i

can tell hey this game's launching um

and the first campaign ended up with

around 2000 backers and i didn't really

run any ads over over that time um

i i ran a few ads during the campaign

but they didn't really sort of move the

needle that much maybe they got you know

sort of 10 or 20 extra backers so that

means kickstarter brought in around i'd

say at least 1500 possibly

more packers and you know each one of

those backers is

not just one extra sale it's one person

that makes the project look more popular

makes it look funded it's also one more

person that then kickstarter sends an

email to their friends saying hey your

friend just backed this so like one

backer actually can have quite an

exponential effect

uh so i would definitely do kickstarter

again um the second campaign

uh had around a thousand backers for the

second campaign i think around

based on my guess on the pledges around

four or five hundred were sort of

returning backers and about half were

new

i did run ads for that campaign

but

based on the adverts i've been running

sort of post campaign to pick up late

pledges and things i don't think the ads

really return all that much like at best

i think i've broken even or maybe lost a

little bit of money

just because it's such a low-cost game

it's much harder to use as to bring in

backers so again i think kickstarter has

probably brought in

um around half of the backers um for

that

that recent campaign so definitely i

would use kickstarter um even the sort

of the five percent is is quite a small

amount compared to

um

sort of the

the amount that they bring in in terms

of money raised and not just money

raised for

uh you know extra funds but also that

means if if instead of printing 500

copies i'm printing a thousand then that

reduces the cost per unit so actually it

makes those 500 backers that i already

bought cheaper to provide their game as

well if you think about sort of

segmenting it so yeah i would i would

definitely use kickstarter again

so aside from paid advertising and

marketing on that side of things have

you tried the influencer route and sent

out review copies and and how was that

i've engaged with influencers in the

sense influencers in the sense that i've

sort of sent review copies out um to

people the approach i took with the

original game and and in fact with

loyalty deceit was uh

to send it out basically to have more

copies produced and send those out to um

reviewers that will sort of

basically non-paid reviews um

one reason is

sort of because with paid reviews i

think you're sort of always expecting to

get a positive review if it's a

pay-per-view so i'm not sure they're

quite as independent um but

realistically the main reason that i did

it was it's much cheaper to send

you know copies of a game that's cheap

to produce out to sort of 20 different

reviewers and have lots of different

opinions and lots of chatter about it

than it is to send one copy to a big

reviewer and pay to have the review done

so for a low budget or low cost game i

think it made sense to sort of send it

to lots of different people

um and then of those reviewers that i

worked with that you know had a good

relationship with from the first game i

then reached out to them for the

expansion to kind of um do another

review um and it's it's basically you

know for the cost of sending a prototype

which the prototype costs and shipping

are quite expensive relative to the

actual game

and and then you know i like to send

them a nice proper copy when the the

final print runs done but still the cost

of that is much much lower than um

than sending it for a paid paid reviewer

so it's been really great chatting with

ben and getting a chance to ask him

about how he managed to get around the

competition of big companies with big

budgets with his own kickstarter

campaign and not having those budgets

himself one of the key aspects to this

was the fact that his cost of product to

sell it to the customer was so low at

just five pounds

this is very different from most of the

other

examples we see on kickstarter of these

big companies that have these big

budgets so that managed to get around

that issue the second thing that he does

is the fact that it's so small and the

postage cost is so low this also keeps

the cost down so he's able to get around

that as well this is a great approach

and something that we can all consider

when approaching our own game now if i

look at my own game

influencer

at the moment the box is this size so

that's going to cost me quite a lot to

post it

also the cost of the producing this

particular box has its own cost as well

however if i'm to put it into a

postage

envelope like this i could get it

through the door very easily

and it's not going to cost as much to

produce it so the question is do i take

that approach perhaps i could make

another version that i could sell

at just the card level print off a rule

sheet and just put it in an envelope to

keep costs down keep postage down and

that might be an avenue so that's what

i'm considering so that option i can use

for either kickstarter or game found the

other two options we've got is game

crafter now with game crafter you

essentially upload all your artwork and

you don't have to print anything so when

the customer comes to the website they

see the product they can buy it and the

game crafter company will print

that one single copy for that one single

customer there's no upfront cost and you

make whatever percentage each item sells

so there's no upfront cost whatev

whatsoever there's no campaign to be

held

none of that the trouble is the cost to

produce it is quite high a single unit

it's lower than

say some other companies if we were to

go and get a low print run um but then

there's no real margin to grow and build

if you get a you know a large print run

so that's another option is game crafter

the quality however of game craft

crafter compared to a big manufacturing

company isn't quite so high because

they're single units a lot of them are

made by hand and they just don't

look as nice or feel as nice and for the

cost that the consumer is going to pay

for it

that comes into question whether that's

the avenue to take or not for me i'm not

sure that's the avenue that i would take

the final option which i'm sort of on

the fence of between kickstarter or game

found

and this other avenue is with my

previous businesses i have created a

product so i've bought

10 12 copies of that particular unit

sold those 12 and then i bought 24 with

the price of the product and the profit

that's made and then i bought 48 and

then i've bought and i've ended up

selling 200 units a month of that

particular uh product so to transfer

that business model over there's no

reason why i couldn't do this with the

game as well so another thing to

consider are the fees that kickstarter

charge so five percent for using their

platform plus another three to five

percent uh for their processing fees so

that's ten percent of whatever you're

selling now typically speaking if you

hit fifty thousand pounds or fifty

thousand dollars

in your sales which uh would i imagine

would take quite a big campaign uh to do

that and not everyone can reach those

figures but if that was the case um then

the fees would be around 2 500 pounds

now you can't

in the grand scheme of things they've

suggested that's not a lot but for

someone that's an indie designer like me

that doesn't have that sort of a budget

to do those marketing campaigns that's

quite a lot so you've really got to

weigh up uh what position you're in if

you've got those budgets to give to

those sorts of campaigns or not

and what your product is what your sales

cost allows for so there's so many

factors to consider so ask yourself if

that

eight to ten percent is worth

sacrificing for the sake of using that

platform and the value that you get back

the final aspect that i want to add into

this is the

value of the

internet traffic that you would send to

a particular website now with a

kickstarter campaign you're obviously

sending all your family and friends and

followers and pledges and backers all to

that kickstarter page and the value of

all that internet traffic going to that

page supports the google search engines

and gives that

website an amount of authority when it

comes to the search engine optimization

so when google for example if someone

searches

influence a card game in google if i've

sent all my traffic to kickstarter it

will rank kickstarter higher than my own

website had i sent all the traffic to my

own website so there's a value in where

we point people in in the links that we

share

the backlinks that are pointing to those

particular websites so that's another

thing to factor in is do i want to

suspend myself on sending all that

internet traffic to their website or is

there more value to me in sending it to

my own website for you know thinking

further down the line

one of the big aspects to this is the

short term versus long-term campaign so

if it's a short-term campaign i'm hoping

to get as most the most sales as quickly

as possible in the short amount of time

and then following that whatever it

makes then that may work

if i'm more looking at a long-term

approach and printing you know

and selling

on a gradual uh gradual scale then that

may not work so again these are aspects

that we need to question and ask and

consider so let me know in the comments

what you think if i've overlooked any

aspects if there's things that need to

be considered

um what it work how it works for your

game what your experiences with

kickstarter or what platform you're

using help me understand so when i

release this game hopefully i can do it

and make it as available to as many

people as possible thanks for tuning in

and see you next time cheers