Thoughts from a First Time Self-Publisher Part 34: End of a Journey.
Welcome back. Apologies for letting the blog sit idle for so long. I’ve had so much else to focus on. Also, in many ways, I thought I was at the end of the Kickstarter journey and the purpose of this blog. Now that Super Snipers is delivering, I’ve got a few more things to relay about my first time experience.
Best Part of my week (so far): Super Snipers delivering! I’ll go into depth below, but suffice to say that it has been the most rewarding “summit” of this experience so far to see people receiving, playing, and loving the game I made!
Most stressful part: Haha. As I type, my kitchen is being remodeled. Last week was insanely hot (so much better today!) and I’ve been moving stuff non-stop as we re-arrange our house and lives to live without access to our kitchen or a third of our house for the next 4-5 weeks.
Financials:
I’m sure I’ll miss something since the last update, but here we go:
Freight: $3,533
I got quotes from several freight companies but Atron Global’s was the best and they came recommended by Matt at Bridge. My contact, David, was an absolute pleasure to work with and made everything about this part super simple and clear!
My totals were:
$2,666 for the US shipment (1212 games, 850 mini expansion, and 400 Acrylic Upgrade Packs).
$867 for the UK Shipment (288 games, 150 mini expansion, and 100 Acrylic Upgrade Packs).
So, $3533 total freight. While it’s hard to calculate the exact amount it adds to the landed cost of each individual product, it’s close to $2 per Game for the main game.
My total was also $900 less than the estimate! Again, highly recommend them!
Fulfillment: $3,317
I don’t have the final bills just yet, but I’ve paid Spiral Galaxy $2406.38 which was estimated at 90% of the final bill. This was for fulfillment everywhere except the US and Canada so it included some very long distance shipments. Total bill will like be another $300 or so.
I’ve previously paid Bridge Fulfillment 50% of the estimated bill: $2,308. Final Bill was an additional $3,017. This covers the bulk of shipments.
Gen Con: $4,000-5,000
I have not kept close enough track of this but it’s going to be expensive!
Between travel, accommodations for myself and my 3 volunteers, booth costs, promotional materials, and shipping my games to the convention: I’m looking at approximately $4-5,000.00.
Incoming Money: $815
Retailer Sales: I have orders from 2 local retailers totaling $375
Final Backerkit Total: $13,386.00. That’s another $440 since I last posted the total in September.
The End of a Journey:
Super Snipers. What started as a desire to simply create an awesome 2-player game with an arcadey feel, grew into a collaboration with Hwa Siang to create a game with actual art for a Gamecrafter contest. From there, I entered the Cardboard Edison contest and was selected as a finalist (I was a semi-finalist in the GameCrafter contest). At this point, the game had the bones of what it would become.
After these contests, and a lot of positive feedback from playtesters and other designers, I started to fall in love with the vision of the game in my head (and as interpreted through Hwa’s amazing art skills and advice). The crazy idea - that maybe I could self-publish this- wormed its way into my brain and took hold. The rest of the story is largely here in these blog posts.
I sometimes talk about this experience in terms of “summits”; earned moments that stand on their own and keep me motivated and moving forward. There have been several summits I’ve experienced along the way with this game:
Designing a game that people like to play.
Recognition in contests (especially the Cardboard Edison).
Getting my review copies with near final art and components from the GameCrafter.
Teaching my game at conventions and having folks get really excited.
Seeing my game in previews and reviews and making fans (pleasing Alex of Board Game Co and having the Hungry Gamer declare that Super Snipers may be in his top 3 two-player games were highlights).
Launching my Kickstarter and having it fund.
Receiving a pre-production copy from the Manufacturer.
But out of all these, I don’t think anything tops watching people get their copies, play them right away, and tell me how much they love them. Of everything I’ve done in the world of game design and publishing so far, this is the piece that feels most like “it”. I know why I do it now. :).
What’s Next?
There is still plenty to do. In terms of this blog, I think that it’s time to drop the “Thoughts from a First Time Publisher” title and maybe use this space differently. I need to think on it. I also think I’m done with sharing all of the math and the numbers. I hope they’ve been helpful (it was what I wanted to see when I was getting into this). What would be most interesting or helpful to hear about from here? I will come back to blog more, but it may be a bit. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey! If you want to keep up with Galen’s Games in the meantime, you can sign up for my newsletter . You can also sign up to stay updated on my next Kickstarter, a series of Mint Tin Games!
Thanks for reading!
Galen.
