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Announcing Swamped on Kickstarter! My first professionally published game.

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Wed, 05/13/2015 - 14:44
trollitc
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swamped base game.jpg

I am very proud to announce that exactly one week ago today my game Swamped was brought to Kickstarter by Bellwether Games.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1839615594/swamped-a-game-of-advent...

The game funded after 5 days running and now we're looking to hit some stretch goals.

Swamped is a 2-4 player, which takes 20-30 minutes to play for ages 13+. It's a semi-cooperative game in which there is a shared goal to win. However, once that shared goal is met, each player has a character with their own hidden goals to ultimately win the game.

"You’ve been hired to collect a rare herb found deep in the heart of one of the world’s most deadly swamps. Together with your newly acquainted team, you must navigate this dangerous environment in a tiny boat to find the legendary plant before night falls or something more sinister finds you first…"

I'd love it if you would take a look! The game runs $12 plus shipping ($2 to the states) and even though I'm biased, and have played it a ton, I still love it and think it's a wonderful little game.

Thanks!

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Thu, 05/14/2015 - 19:27
#1
DennisHoyle
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I'm Here To Answer Your Questions

Hi, I'm Dennis Hoyle from Bellwether Games, the publisher for Swamped. Please let me know if you have any questions about the game, the Kickstarter campaign, or publishing in general.

Thanks!

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Fri, 05/22/2015 - 10:21
#2
trollitc
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Almost to some stretch goals!

Woo! We're 27 backers away from unlocking the Create Your Own Adventurer cards and 39 backers at the $12 level away from unlocking the boat meeple!

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Fri, 05/22/2015 - 14:41
#3
The Professor
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Congratulations!

It's great to hear a success story! There are a number of hardworking game designers out here but less than 1% will actually ever get a game published so it's great to see your success over a Kickstarter.

Cheers,
Joe

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Fri, 05/22/2015 - 15:32
#4
Soulfinger
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The Professor wrote:It's

The Professor wrote:
It's great to hear a success story! There are a number of hardworking game designers out here but less than 1% will actually ever get a game published so it's great to see your success over a Kickstarter.

I'm curious how you arrive at that figure. Does it account for Kickstarter and self published games, or do you mean sold to an established publisher?

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Sat, 05/23/2015 - 09:24
#5
trollitc
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Thanks Joe!

Thanks Joe!

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Sat, 05/23/2015 - 11:40
#6
The Professor
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While I don't love math...

It's fairly straightforward, given the 1,200 (I stopped at 1,200) separate game entries I've reviewed during my last few months out here, coupled with my monthly review of Games on Kickstarter since 2011. The number of games published from this site yields less than a dozen, while over at Kickstarter, 1 in 12 games actually meets its funding goal. The two numbers, roughly aggregated yield a total of less than 1% actually either reach funding or we hear from the designer as to its successful publishing.

I would love to see more success stories. I've asked Randy Rathert, creator of "The King's Abbey" who had a very successful KS campaign, following one which didn't make the goal.

Cheers,
Joe

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Sun, 05/24/2015 - 23:19
#7
Soulfinger
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Thanks. It's funny to note

Thanks. It's funny to note though that your 8% KS estimate gets dragged down to 1% when you include BGDF users. :) I would be curious to know how your figures would change if you estimated only according to those projects that were obviously viable at launch -- i.e. the projects that do "everything right" versus the stillbirths like:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1412548814/the-chase-the-nascar-boa...

or

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/206182637/galactile-supremacy-strat...

to name 2 of the majority of projects on KS. The good news, as I see it, is that professionally managed projects seem to perform fairly well -- maybe not the first time around, but I've seen plenty gain traction the second time. The bad news is that the market is less receptive thanks to that initial outpouring from backers who received truly shoddy and uninspiring work from creators who were handy with the polish but short on brass tacks. I'm going to have a very hard time convincing one friend to give KS another chance after he backed his first project, the Lone Wolf RPG, only to receive a very watered down game book with loads of recycled, amateurish artwork. The consensus among my friends is that KS nerds are proportionately just as awful at managing a business as the nerds who open game stores, which makes the comparable rate of failure both inevitable and well deserved.

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Mon, 05/25/2015 - 09:30
#8
The Professor
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Very true

You'll get no argument from me.

On several occasions, I've reached out to the creators, inquiring where the disconnect may lie between their perception of costs associated with manufacturing a board game and reality. Some of them have proven quite amenable, many others...not so much.

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 04:59
#9
trollitc
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We finally have unlocked our

We finally have unlocked our first stretch goal! As of this writing we're also just a few dollars away from unlocking our next!

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 05:11
#10
The Professor
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Congrats!

That's great to hear ~ wishing you continued success on the campaign.

Cheers,
Joe

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 09:33
#11
trollitc
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Thanks Joe! We just unlocked

Thanks Joe!

We just unlocked our $12k stretch goal of the boat shaped meeple as well.

I also wanted to thank you for your insight into the number of Kickstarter projects that actually get funded. Very interesting read!

We're just 44 backers away from Spot UV on the box and less than $450 away from a croc shaped meeple!

-Ben

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 11:13
#12
Soulfinger
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The Professor wrote:You'll

The Professor wrote:
You'll get no argument from me.

On several occasions, I've reached out to the creators, inquiring where the disconnect may lie between their perception of costs associated with manufacturing a board game and reality. Some of them have proven quite amenable, many others...not so much.

Hah! I know what you mean there. The "this figure just seemed right" and was "comparable to other KS projects" method of determining operating expenses. I imagine that they respond to you much like authors do to critiques or middle-management to employee initiative. The good ones invite it, the bad ones are threatened.

One thing I'd love to see would be some stats on how many people actually plan ahead for paying taxes and making deductions, and then how many are blindsided after pouring all of their money into production only to realize that they owe a hefty sum at the end of the year. The saddest thing to me is how KS was intended to foster sustainable businesses but that aim has fallen by the wayside in favor of these flash in the pan enterprises.

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 11:17
#13
Soulfinger
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Congratulations! The very

Congratulations! The very affordable $12 price makes it all the more impressive to have hit $12k, especially with people buying six copies at a go. I'm sure it is a great feeling to know that your game is getting into many hands and having such great exposure.

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 13:35
#14
trollitc
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Thanks! It's pretty cool

Thanks!

It's pretty cool watching those numbers climb! As it is, since the last monetary stretch goal was reached we're more than halfway to the next one! We're also pretty close to halfway to the next backer based goal.

I'm super excited to think that as we stand right now, over 670 people will have their hands on a game I thought up. That's... amazing! I'm hoping Swamped does an Antidote (Bellwether's first Kickstarted game), goes into distribution, sells out and triggers a second printing too.

Soulfinger wrote:
Congratulations! The very affordable $12 price makes it all the more impressive to have hit $12k, especially with people buying six copies at a go. I'm sure it is a great feeling to know that your game is getting into many hands and having such great exposure.

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 16:16
#15
DennisHoyle
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Kickstarter

Hi! Great discussion here!

Just to chime in about Kickstarter research. It is definitely something we take really seriously. We begin obtaining quotes and planning out the numbers long before we even start on things like art/design or promotion.

There are a lot of hidden costs out there that I think many people don't look for. Fortunately there are also a lot of great resources (thinking of Stonemaier Games Kickstarter Lessons) and stories of people who have lost big by raising too much, to help the rest of us learn how to do it.

For us at Bellwether Games, no matter how fun a game may be, if it can't be published without "losing our house" in the process then its not worth doing.

Ben Gerber's Swamped stuck out because of how much awesome gameplay is packed into a small package. That's a great ratio for building a project and we're excited to have gotten the chance to take a shot at it!

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 20:41
#16
Soulfinger
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Just to make sure, I wasn't

Just to make sure, I wasn't referring to you guys in my little side rant. Having an international award-winning card game under your belt precludes you from the "Derp! I'm the Defiance Games guy" category of incompetence. :)

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Tue, 05/26/2015 - 21:38
#17
trollitc
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Ha! Understood. Dennis did a

Ha! Understood. Dennis did a bang up job with Antidote, which just got the Dice Tower Seal of Approval, as an added bonus. I trust him with Swamped and the Kickstarter campaign. :)

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Wed, 05/27/2015 - 14:42
#18
McTeddy
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Wooo! Congratulations on

Wooo! Congratulations on getting the game published.

It looks great and I wish you the best of luck.

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Wed, 05/27/2015 - 20:59
#19
trollitc
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Thank you! I'm psyched to see

Thank you! I'm psyched to see it going this far! Four stretch goals down too!

EDIT: Five stretch goals down, and heading for a sixth!

McTeddy wrote:
Wooo! Congratulations on getting the game published.

It looks great and I wish you the best of luck.

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Fri, 05/29/2015 - 11:05
#20
DennisHoyle
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Understood

Soulfinger: Understood! Thanks for the clarification! Either way, we're OK with criticism/comments of all sorts - just want to do the best job possible with Swamped and any game we end up publishing. A lot of time that involves listening to feedback!

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