Thoughts from a first-time self-publisher Part 20: Lessons Part 3.
Welcome back!
Best Part of my week (so far): It’s been a great week of designing games that aren’t named Super Snipers, lol. I’ve been back working on Ratatoskr - a viking squirrel bag-builder/ pick up and deliver game- with my co-designer, Tanner Simmons. Really excited with how that game is shaping up and it’s looking like it will be getting picked up by the publisher we’ve been working with. I also designed something for the GameCrafter’s one card challenge. You can see my idea here if you are interested. On Sunday I got to do some in-person playtesting with my local group and brought Chicken, Fox, Corn, back out and am feeling a renewed interest in pushing the design forward. I’ve resurrected Dice Dogs after having some middle of the night revelations. Hoping to get both games up to snuff in time for a Cardboard Edison submission. Lastly, I’ve got some advice around some aspects of the pledge manager that I’ve been struggling with that has been a relief.
Most stressful part: Trying to figure out whether I should be charging sales tax or not and otherwise continuing my adventures in setting up the BackerKit Pledge Manager. As I stated above, I’m feeling some relief around this and realizing that pushing it off a little ways is actually a smart move.
Lessons Continued….
This week I’ll be talking about what I will be doing differently next time.
Less pre-marketing, more community development: 3 months of pre-campaign marketing to build up my email list and community was a solid and vital investment for my first campaign. It was also a really big part of my budget ($600 ad management per month and $600-$900 a month in ad spend, plus a $1000 start up fee that included building the landing page). Now I have an email list (still need to maintain it and grow it), a ton more knowledge about running ads and building a landing page, and a community I can tap into. Next campaign I believe I will be able to get away with 1.5-2 months pre-marketing and building the landing page for cheaper. I also have learned a ton about engaging backers and building community and believe that I can do a better job with investing my time in organic growth. I will probably still pay to have my ads managed, but I may choose to create them/ collaborate with others to create them. I’m not totally sure.
Do better market research: I’ve written about this a lot, but I will be sure to better identify my audience, my competition and place in the market, and the price point(s) that will allow me to be successful.
Run a shorter Kickstarter: 30 days was torture. I’m glad I did it because it gave me time to adjust and learn. But from a financial standpoint, I don’t see that 30 days does anything for you that 14 days doesn’t. The start and end of the campaign is where most of the funding comes in and is the space where most folks will discover your game. I still think a first time creator should probably do 30 days, but never again for me.
Give backers more reasons to “Back now”: If there is one thing that I have learned from all of this it is that you can not possibly please everyone and there is no shortage of contradictory advice out there. There are some loud voices out there that rail against things like early bird pricing and KS exclusives or anything else that stokes FOMO. But here’s the thing: your backers are special. Your campaign is worth nothing without them. They deserve special treatment, and most of the ways that you can accomplish that are - by necessity - the same things that stoke that FOMO. I started with a campaign with only one exclusive: the digital art package. The adjustments I made from there were all about rewarding people for backing now: Reduced price “no extras” pledge level only available during the campaign; drawings for $15 pledge manager credit that would only go to people with physical pledge level rewards, and add-ons that are free for backers. I feel great about all of these decisions and they did help motivate people to up their reward levels/ commit before the campaign ended. While I will always strive to be ethical about it, I won’t shy away from incentivizing folks to support my campaign over waiting for late pledging or retail.
Previewers and reviewers: fewer, better timed, more diverse. I went pretty big on my previewers and reviewers. I had 9 prototypes and many of them saw 2-3 previewers. Overall, I’m happy I did it because I met so many amazing people and have been introduced to so many content creators in the process. Next time I want to get my game to a more diverse set of content creators: more women and BIPOC folks. My initial wall of reviewers was solely white males (amazing and wonderful white males!) and I can do a better job of bringing in more diverse voices and their audiences to my game. I am also going to time my bigger previews to hit on launch day instead of before. I will still try to connect with new and smaller content creators, but I will be more cautious about vetting folks after a couple less than stellar experiences. Overall, a ton of my limited bandwidth was spent on this process and the return on investment doesn’t really justify it. Quality over quantity next time.
Go in with a self-care gameplan: I had a business gameplan; but I did not invest enough time and thought in how I would stay mentally healthy through the campaign. It’s really a rollercoaster and the highs are high and the lows are lower than I would have thought. Next time I will be way more regimented about my “on” and “off” time and how often I will allow myself to check the numbers.
I will have inclusive contests, social stretch goals, and a number of stretch goal contingency plans ready to go: My social stretch goals and incentives will be in place day 1, easy to find, easy to understand, and fun to do. My contests will be as inclusive as possible with the fewest possible barriers to entry. My stretch goals will be hit every couple of days (because I will be ready to adjust them based on how the campaign is going).
My Pre-order store will be up a day or two after the campaign ends: I will have somewhere for folks who missed the campaign to go right away while the game is still fresh in people’s minds.
I will have a presence at Cons: This was the weakest aspect of the Super Snipers campaign and I plan to try to start having a presence at bigger cons in 2023 and going forward.
I will stay focused on the success of the Kickstarter and my backers: As I have said before, I became a little too invested in the “possibilities” at the expense of the realities. While I absolutely want to have success with retailers and licensing, my plans and energy will be more focused on the success of the campaign (backer numbers and money raised). I will still be thinking about margins for retail and distribution and leveraging Galen’s Games for future success; but it will be a secondary consideration next time.
That’s all I’ve got for now. This list will grow, I am sure. Thanks for reading!
Galen
