Kickstarter has become a phenomenon with video game developers, but it has become even bigger with board game developers. I asked Michael Mendes, founder of Tasty Minstrel Games, about his Kickstarter experiences and his newest endeavor Dungeon Roll.
Nope. The game came from the designer rolling 2 different dice pools (with standard 1-6 numbered dice) against each other and then imagining a theme that made sense for the game that he made. From their we added treasures, heroes, and such.
The biggest challenge would have been making the mechanic, but fortunately for TMG that was already done when we signed the game. In fact, it is the reason we signed the game. Other than that it has been choosing which “broken” aspects of the game to fix and which to leave. Not that we are leaving anything that is broken, but there is a fine line between allowing randomness to happen and letting it get out of control.
It might be a little bit more expensive, but we did not do a cost comparison. I like to do what is right for the game, and then see how we can make the cost work with the target price. For Dungeon Roll, it meant that we needed to utilize Kickstarter to be able to justify a larger print run to reduce the per unit cost. Thankfully, this seems to be going quite well.
[singlepic id=10937 w=320 h=240 float=right]August 2013. We want to sell Dungeon Roll at GenCon, and to be able to do that, then we need to have shipped out the copies for all of the backers. We are on a super-tight schedule, especially with the artwork for accomplishing this. But we have a great art team which is working on the game that is ready to put in long hours, and we also have some additional artists lined up if we need them. I would like to keep all of the artwork coming from the same artist to have a consistent look, but it might not be possible…
I lose track sometimes. 8. 2 of which were unsuccessful, one which was for a children’s book and one for a game that really requires people to play it in person.
There are many keys, I think the most important are in order:
- Having an existing audience that trusts your judgment and that you can contact in a reliable manner. For me, this means having an email newsletter for TMG that we send monthly to fans.
- A generous offering. This is more important for TMG than many other tabletop game publishers because our games will be sold through distribution and people can and will be able to get them later. With other publishers, you might not be able to get the game later.
- A concise and clear project. Including the video and the reward tiers.
It really depends on when you and and in relation to what, but here are several:
- The funding level all flows to the pocket of the project owner and they are swimming in a pool of money. For example, if Dungeon Roll funds for $75,000 then I will be able to deliver all rewards and have an extra 5,000 copies to sell into distribution without taking money out of pocket. The revenue from selling those 5,000 would likely be put right back into making more product and supporting Dungeon Roll.
- International Shipping should be cheaper. Actually, I charge a lot for it, and I should charge more. I costs a fortune to ship boxes all over the world.
- If you put it on Kickstarter, then you will find backers. NOT TRUE.
- All games on Kickstarter are not tested. At TMG, we put a lot of effort into discovering and signing good games and then developing them to be the best that they can be.
- Kickstarter is bad for the game industry. Queue the debate, more choice for gamers is AWESOME.
- The design of a game is up for debate. Maybe others want to crowd source their final product in the design area, but not us. Influence can be made but if we have a game on Kickstarter, that is because it is ready to go.
[singlepic id=10942 w=320 h=240 float=left]It depends on the project owner. 21 days is probably ideal for TMG now for many reasons… We can fund that quickly, longer times are unlikely to provide more funding, less time concentrating on an active campaign, and the ability to get more campaigns in the early part of the year so we can deliver in time for major events like GenCon, Essen, or Christmas.
Dungeon Roll was fully funded in a single day, and considering that the game is $15, that’s not a bad deal at all. I highly recommend going to the Dungeon Roll Kickstarter page to find out more about Dungeon Roll and possibly back it yourself.
While not working as a Database Administrator, Keith Schleicher has been associated with Gaming Trend since 2003. While his love of video games started with the Telestar Alpha (a pong console with four different games), he trule started playing video games when he received the ill-fated TI-99/4A. While the Speech Synthesizer seemed to be the height of gaming, eventually a 286 AT computer running at 8/12 Hz and a CGA monitor would be his outlet for a while. Eventually he’d graduate to 386, 486, Pentium, and Athlon systems, building some of those systems while doing some hardware reviews and attending Comdex. With the release of the Dreamcast that started his conversion to the console world. Since then he has acquired an NES, SNES, PS2, PS3, PSP, GBA-SP, DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One S, Gamecube, Wii, Switch, and Oculus Quest 2. While not playing video games he enjoys bowling, reading, playing board games, listening to music, and watching movies and TV. He originally hails from Wisconsin but is now living in Michigan with his wife and sons.
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