Eric,

If you are going with kickstarter, I suggest you give the "Kickstarting the Dream" podcast a listen. A lot of insight from successful and unsuccessful projects and each episode is only 20-25min.

Also, make sure you have your numbers right on how much you will need for a print run and to pay kickstarter and amazon.

Finally, distribution. What level do you want this game out there? If you want to get the game into stores (FLGS and/or OLGS) you should figure out how you want to do that. Maybe look at Game Salute or a similar enterprise.

The best of luck to you,

Brandon

The Dice Tower review hurts. I understand that the review is one man's opinion and doesn't necessarily apply to the latest iteration of the game, but it's Tom Vasel and it's the most visible review on the game's page.

I think it would be great if you could get some more higher-profile reviews on the TactDecks page. Wytefang's review is pretty good, but a sale one review does not make.

When are you planning on launching the kickstarter campaign?
Are you doing something prior to Origins/Gencon?

Or I should say does your kickstarter campaign tie into having a booth/table at Origins or Gencon so you can re-launch and demo the updated game at either event?

Are you looking for reviews prior to starting the kickstarter campaign?

I would definitely talk to Richard Bliss about getting on his podcast http://www.thegamewhisperer.com/

You could talk to Kim Vandenbroucke as well she has a site for toy and game reviews www.kimvandenbroucke.com

As far as the campaign itself it’s all about driving traffic to the kickstarter page. I know some funding will come from people just searching within the game section on kickstarter for new games each week, but outside traffic can certainly have an impact. Are you set up for advertising outside of your own website through banner ads and using other social media?

What game/toy/comic cons are in your area?

I would ask Richard that, he could give you a better idea on what designers he has talked to and at what stage of their kickstarter campaign.

Kim is a regular on Linkedin, mostly in the toy groups

I am by no means a kickstarter campaign expert but as far as marketing in general, social media should be one tool that’s part of your overall marketing campaign and it does need to be an active process, but if used properly can drive traffic to your website or kickstarter page.

As far as plan, I would have a company page on Linkedin and join the related toy, game, design groups and talk about your project there. Facebook if you have a large network there already you could create a separate page for your company/game and then use your network to spread the word about the upcoming kickstarter campaign.

Twitter it’s all about adding followers, but not just followers, active followers and that does involve daily activity following people in the toy and game industry yourself and adding gamers as followers to your page.

1) Demoing at cons outside my area is pretty much impossible. I have too many family/work obligations and not nearly enough cash/spousal support to float the hundreds (or more...?) of dollars to do an out-of-state trip, multi-day hotel stay, and booth rental. I've voiced concerns about this in the past - wondered if there's guys out there that actually demo games for multiple publishers - but that doesn't seem like a viable option. I'm sure there's plenty other designers in the same boat. Solution? Maybe more local cons? But those seem to be hit or miss to me, and it feels like the connections I have made at these are fleeting. And again... my time outside of the desktop is extremely limited.

I maintain that you could outsource the demos with some success. Sell a "demo set" of, I don't know, maybe a dozen copies of the game at-cost to someone willing and able to travel to cons. That person can then pay for their own booth to demo the game and try to sell their copies at full price to make their money back. Not a perfect system, but I think you could find a few people willing to do it. It would get the word out, it shouldn't cost you any money, and those who try it can potentially make a bit of money, if they're good salespeople.

Yeah, I'll definitely check into that. The question is: How do I locate these guys? And would they pay "cost" for the game? If I do these POD, the price is pretty steep. Granted - if they sold them at MSRP, they'd make decent money, but IMO the buy-in is still pricey for a traveling demo guy.

If you are telling us that you are at the end and along with all your other stuff (hows the book coming?) is a little too much, then what you need your ass is a publisher! That's what they do!

....

What you can then do though, is submit your full working game to a publisher and get them to publish it - eg. Print it, market it, and maybe even take it to kickstarter themselves.

If you DO go to kickstarter, you have to be ready to (technically) create companies, sign tax forms, be prepared for returns, storage and international postage and all that hoo-hah. Especially if you are coming to the end of your tether generally with it - then perhaps going "superman" on it with kickstarter is not a good idea..

Publisher man. Send it to one. Send it to loads even. I would reccomend pitching to some publishers, let them do what they do best and you can sit back and enjoy some royalties....

...it will probably be VERY worth your time thinking seriously about submitting it tp pubslihers and saving yourself a lot of practical and organisational stress

p.s. You never sent me a beta-test copy - I'm a kick ass beta tester AND I write for purple pawn

best of luck mate!

Eric,

I've replied to your older thread about demo people in the past, and I wonder if you have any contact with any of the convention dealers who go to a lot of them.

Andrew from Foam Brain Games is pretty well known, for example, and goes to many conventions around the country actively. Having spoken with him in person at Pax East and AnimeNEXT, he has a library that smaller conventions can rent and if people ask about certain games, they can point them to the main dealer's hall.

Another possibility is to work with the conventions and have a copy sent to their loaning library (if they have one) with perhaps some advertising to a specific vendor. Steve Jackson Games advertises their games specifically with The Compleat Strategist at Pax East, but other vendors carry stock for non-exclusives for people who want one stop shopping.

At conventions I have staffed at, companies do often send a copy of a game to the convention where the staffers can point people to a vendor who may carry it on hand, or where they can order it from at the convention. That might be another possibility as well. I know that for this coming year, I intend to work with Foam Brain Games to help stock a few copies of games that will be in the loaning library for AnimeNEXT for sale.

Hope you can figure out some kind of way to get the game out there and selling!