Thoughts from a first-time self-publisher Part 18: Lessons so far.
Welcome back!
Best Part of my week (so far): Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday and I had a nice break with plenty of food and family. I also just closed my first licensing deal with a Chinese Publisher for 1000 games to be printed in China! I also really enjoyed my follow-up interview that I did with Matt Rodela for his Kicksaga series. Keep an eye out for when it releases.
Most stressful part: While in the process of getting some updated quotes, my manufacturer discovered an error on their part with a previous quote where they’d assumed the printing process for the acrylic pieces would be silk-screen but realized that UV would be necessary for the patterns that we have. This is a .03 cent difference for every acrylic piece. For the current version of the game, that adds about an additional $1 per copy (not great, but survivable). But, when you consider that I had previously extended the stretch goal of upgrading the polyominoes to acrylic into the pledge manager…I could be on the line for an additional almost $2 per game on top of that (not to mention the already increased costs of having them in acrylic). That would be fairly disastrous overall and would cause me to have to raise my MSRP. Given that, I have communicated this with my backers and that I will no longer be extending that stretch goal but am looking into offering the acrylic upgrade as an add-on with a deep discount for current backers. In a campaign that has been so strongly about keeping promises and delivering, this is not a feel-good moment, but I’m hoping it goes over okay. I’m very lucky I didn’t hit $20,000, as that extra $3,000 in funds would have cost me even more than that in extra manufacturing costs (and way more than that in terms of the long term viability of the game). Lesson learned! And that’s what this blog post will be about….
Lessons so far….
With a little bit of distance from the Kickstarter, I’m going to take some time to talk about what I did right, where I made mistakes, and what I will be doing differently when I run my next Kickstarter. I have almost certainly already talked about many of these things, but I will be collecting them all together here. Due to time limitations, I’m just going to cover what I did right this week. In no particular order…
What I did right:
Hiring for Marketing to build my email list: I absolutely needed the help getting my email list built up and it was instrumental in the success of the campaign. Marketing while the KS was live had less amazing results but was still important. I also received some excellent consultation and help from Sean along the way. In any case, trying to do this on my own would have completely stressed me out. I used the Crowdfunding Nerds and was very happy with them.
Communication with my email list: I kept my email list updated and it delivered for me in multiple ways. It helped build up my community by moving people to the FB group or Discord, it brought the critical mass needed to help the campaign fund in the first 2 days, it provided me with the insight and info I needed to make my successful mid-campaign shift, and it reliably provided additional backers every time I sent an update blast during the campaign (do this sparingly, but do it!).
Communication with my Backers: I updated my backers very regularly (14 times in 30 days), stayed active in the comments section, reached out to give personal thanks to as many people as I could (I couldn’t manage messaging every backer. Kudos to those publishers who do), used a survey to pinpoint some issues with the campaign and then used those results in addressing the issues, made some new friends, and generally stayed a real and accessible person throughout the campaign. It was challenging, but ultimately one of the most rewarding parts of doing this.
I invested in high quality professional art and graphic design: My KS page isn’t perfect, but it conveys professionalism and a great looking product. The art and style of Super Snipers is a major selling point.
Adding high priced pledge tiers: I received great advice from Holt Gray (44BCE) to not put a ceiling on what your backers can spend. I priced my prototype pledge level at $300 and got 4 backers. I priced my “Make your own Super Sniper” level at a purposefully ridiculous $1,500 and got a backer for it. Overall, those two pledge levels added $2700 to the campaign. $1400 of the $1500 level goes directly to the artist (that was, I assume, part of the selling point for it being so high).
Writing this blog: One of the checklist items from a a couple of the books I’ve read on Crowdfunding was to find a way to contribute back to your community. When I started this blog, I wasn’t entirely sure how I would differentiate what I was offering from what is out there already. But I have certainly found my niche and regularly get feedback how helpful this is. It also gave me a weekly reason to post in multiple groups and remind people about the Kickstarter!
Adding the Super-Saver pledge tier: As I have mentioned before, I was struck by another publisher (Bez Shahiri) offering a reduced price pledge tier for folks with financial barriers while also giving all backers the option to add to their pledges to subsidize those copies. I started with 10 copies available for $25 and added more as I received support from other backers. For backers that did add to their pledges to subsidize, I provided a free sticker pack add-on. Financially, it was effective in getting the game to folks who otherwise could not have afforded it, and definitely moved some folks from $1 backers to pledging at this level. I did have a few reductions in pledges when these opened up, but overall I consider it a win-win (I did a total of 30 by the end of the campaign). I also got great “press” from doing this which resulted in a number of people discovering and backing the campaign, including one $300 backer who expressly said that they were backing at that level because they were inspired by the generosity of the campaign.
I invested in a great Kickstarter Video: After watching the Stalingrad Z KS video, I reached out to Ori Kagan to do the video for Super Snipers. I may be biased, but it is one of the best KS videos you will ever see. It is also unique as there is no voice over at all; it is a purely “show” instead of “tell” video that perfectly captures what to expect from the game. As with many of the things on this list, I am not saying that it financially delivered more than I invested. I’m just saying that it did its job: psyching people up for the game and providing a professional feel to a first-time publishers game and page.
I cast a wide enough net to get multiple glowing previews that appeared throughout the campaign: Reviews and previews will be making an appearance on all three lists. I took my shot with reaching out to a number of bigger reviewers and reviewers that I respect and landed a good number of them. Far and away, I received positive reviews that underlined what is fun and unique about the game. I also coordinated them so that they were showing up throughout the campaign.
I made a major mid-campaign shift in response to backer feedback: In the middle of the campaign it became obvious that I had a problem with my price versus the perceived value of the offering. I took a big chance by adding a new pledge tier at $13 lower than the one that was there while also adding to the value of the current pledge tier to try to entice current backers to stay there. You can read more about this decision here. Undoubtably, having gotten this right at the start of the campaign would have had a much bigger impact (maybe doubling or tripling where we landed) but this shift did result in the campaign coming back alive and contributed strongly to its overall success and the happiness of my backers. I also believe it is best for the long-term health and prospects of the game; but we will see.
I asked and paid for help: Boy did I ask a lot of questions; publicly and privately from all the people I have met along the way. I unashamedly copied the homework of everyone that I saw doing something that worked (and I will be tickled pink if someone wants to copy my homework). I got an amazing amount of free help. I also paid for consultations which were focused and extremely helpful in getting this right (in so much as I have). I am technically a one-person publishing company, but I did not arrive here or accomplish this alone.
I made a great game: At the center of all this is the game that I invested so much time, love, and effort into. It’s polished, fun, and unique, and all of that showed through. People are excited about getting it.
I approached all of this as an opportunity to learn and invest in my future success: Not that I didn’t want to or try to get it right. But I took a lot of stress off of my shoulders by focusing on what I was learning and taking a longer view. I paid for a lot of things that I might not next time. I also took on some things that I might pay for next time. In every case, I learned something valuable. If I was solely focused on this Kickstarter delivering more than I put into it, it would have been a much tougher journey and probably wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.
Next week: Mistakes I made!
As always, thank you so much for reading. Let me know if you have any questions!
Galen
