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Some kickstarters results puzzle me

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Hook
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Usually I think kickstarters that seem playtested, with nice art and a compelling theme have no problem getting funded. So I am wondering why this one
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1480584864/bucks-bullets-and-flower...
does not seem to go anywhere near its goal. My own guess would be

- Their top video does not tell you anything about the game or gameplay.
- They do not have any video reviews?
or their price is in euro?

What do you think?

Tedthebug
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My feeling is the target is to high

I suspect that a lot of people are looking at the high target & thinking that it will be unlikely to reach its goal. There's more & more games being put up on Kickstarter, all trying to draw from the same limited pool of funds. This basically means that except for those few outliers that do exceptionally well most games will be needing a smaller target to convince punters that they will be able to reach it.

Personally, I wouldn't back it as it looks far to large to fit on our table & has way to many fiddley pieces on that play space for anyone I game with to be willing to play it.

questccg
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I agree with Ted

The 50,000 Euros seems like too HIGH of a Funding Goal. It's a major turn-off if you have not priced the production of your game properly.

In my opinion, this game should probably have a goal somewhere around 20,000 to 25,000 Euros. And then maybe people might be more inclined to back their game.

But the designers should have planned for a more LIMITED distribution, say 500 games only. I bet the 50 Euros price tag for the game is because their production is a minimum 1,000 units, which is relatively HIGH for "indie" games on Kickstarter.

Makes sense 50 Euros x 1,000 Games = 50,000 Euros.

But most people won't see it that way ... and just think they are looking for way too much money. Typically you should hope to have about 250 backers on "unknown"/"indie" game efforts... And then squeeze out the next 250 backers with spread of word of mouth if people really like the game.

So it's a production issue = 1,000 Games at 50 Euros per game.

chris_mancini
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High funding goal + no

High funding goal + no concise gameplay demo + no trusted reviews + unknown designer/publisher = recipe for failure.

polyobsessive
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Ditto

I was going to come in with a load of comments but it has all been said already. Chris' summary covers it perfectly.

I assume also that there is not much of a community of fans out there on the internet for this game either. Building that community is so important.

It's amazing that nowadays, with the boardgame Kickstarter scene having been building for several years, and so much of the accumulated experience being freely shared (eg. Jamey Stegmaier's blog), that so many people are unprepared for their campaign.

ElKobold
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polyobsessive wrote: It's

polyobsessive wrote:

It's amazing that nowadays, with the boardgame Kickstarter scene having been building for several years, and so much of the accumulated experience being freely shared (eg. Jamey Stegmaier's blog), that so many people are unprepared for their campaign.

Well, you don't have to go far - http://www.bgdf.com/node/17878

I think one of the reasons is that running a KS might seem to be "easy", while the collected sum appears "big". Unless of course you have at least some understanding of how it actually works.

Hence people often get this impression that KS is a place to get easy money without much investment and effort.

And then they meet the stark reality.

Hook
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Thanks for the input

Thanks for your thoughts. It puzzled me but I think you are right.

polyobsessive
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Effort

ElKobold wrote:
Hence people often get this impression that KS is a place to get easy money without much investment and effort.

It looks to me that the project linked in the OP has probably gone to quite a bit of effort in the preparation of their game, but the effort has not necessarily been in the right areas. So often the case.

ElKobold
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Well, effort includes

Well, effort includes researching the subject thoroughly.

Heck, we did the very same mistake with our campaign :)

questccg
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Following the advice given

I decided to release several products instead of just one. Originally I was going to do one BIG Kickstarter and have backers wait over 1 YEAR for the artwork to be done...

Now everyone on BGDF (At least the honest people - like ElKobold) said that that was TOO MUCH time to wait. Backers are not going to want to wait OVER 1 year - just because my artist is busy with teaching 3 days out of the week.

And I took that advice to heart.

But I still wanted to GET THE GAME OUT... As soon as possible. So I did some analysis of the game to see if I could REDUCE the number of cards and have triples of each card. Now the artwork would still be *real nice* - but there would be LESS of it.

And if I could offer it at a LOWER price than the complete game - maybe we have an avenue to SELL the game in July 2016. And have the games delivered in August 2016... That's a WHOLE YEAR in ADVANCE (over the KS campaign).

Functionally people will be getting the SAME game - with less artwork. And IF we can get enough sales (100+ Game Sets), the price drops by 40%!!! We've already discounted the game by $5.00 for sale on "The Game Crafter". Combine with a 40% discount - the game is VERY AFFORDABLE.

And we are committed to SELL this game in ALL ITS GLORY - and that's why we will continue to deliver an "Art Bundle" which will feature 40 unique pieces of artwork to complement the original game. And again with 100+ sales, we are talking about another 40% discount. What this does is make buying BOTH the Early Release + Art Bundle the about the same price as the KS Version ($35.00).

This "Art Bundle" will be release in December 2016 and we will FEATURE a "Standard" Game set with all the unique artwork for sale at $29.99 on TGC. Again you will get the complete game EARLIER than KS Backers.

All this to ask: "What is the purpose of the Kickstarter?"

We hope to feature a CUSTOM game for KS Backers. This will include a foldable Game Mat, Custom Size box allow cards with Sleeves, place to store expansions (Vac-Tray), and an additional game Scenario ("Days of Glory").

And meanwhile, during this whole time (from today) to the KS in 2017, we are building AWARENESS about our game. Not only will we get in touch with our community - we will take time to solidify it. I'm not sure how successful I will be at this, but at least *I will TRY*!

So by the time the 2017 KS campaign is launched, we will already have SOLD Game Sets to Early Backers and tried to recoup some, if not all, of the money we have invested.

Hopefully we get some recognition along the way...

Cheers.

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