The Game Whisperer

Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 52 Titans of Industry

A first time game designer and a fledgling game publisher come together to launch their project on Kickstarter. Gozer Games is the game publisher and Brian Lewis is the first time game designer and Titans of Industry is the result of their efforts. Launched at PAX East, Titans of Industry is doing well on Kickstarter. Listen in as we discuss with both how they reached this point of success. 

Sometimes it is a matter of a chance meeting and a display of passion.

Listen to Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 52 Titans of Industry Here

Titans of Industry Kickstarter Page Here

Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 51 PAX Revenge with Bob Allen

I went to PAX East with high hopes. I wanted to broadcast live from the event. To share with my fans the experience of the show. I even raised some funds and paid for an upgraded uStream account to make it possible. I purchased the uStream service but failed to deliver a live broadcast. It just wasn't possible with the limited bandwidth of the show.

But several people backed me to make it happen and I thank them on this episode and am giving them a shout out.

Laurence O'Brien known as @LWhisperer on Twitter.

Knock Down Barns. A Kickstarter project I am backing. You can visit Knock Down Barns here

Philosophy Posters with Max Temkin - You can view Max's Kickstarter page here

Dice Chuckers - A Documentary about RPG - Kickstarter page here

Titans of Industry from Gozer Games - Kickstarter page

Game Salute with Dan Yarrington - Game Salute Home page

LeyLinescomic.com - Online Comic strip LeyLineComic

Kickstarter Yearbook 2012 with Bob Allen - Kickstarter page

 

Episode 51 of Funding the Dream on Kickstarter

Funding The Dream on Kickstarter Ep 50 Richard Bliss Speaks Out

Welcome to the 50th Episode of Funding the Dream on Kickstarter. This episode is just you and me talking about the state of the industry and the tsunami that is coming. 

There are currently 90 active game projects on Kickstarter right now. Four games have broken the $100,000 mark and 2 have broken the $200,000 mark. 

And that is just the first four months of April. I'm estimating that there will be 400 to 600 successful game projects in 2012. And here's the problem: Where are we going to put them all? I don't mean where are we going to fit them on our shelves at home. I mean, what store has the room on their shelves to put 400 new games, not counting the hundreds they receive already through normal channels.

The system is broken and 2012 is the year the system breaks down. Take a listen and join me and you and I chat about the state of the industry and the new world order that is emerging.

Listen to Funding the Dream Ep 50 here

Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 49 Farmageddon revisited

Grant Rodiek, creator of Farmageddon, and Phil Kilcrease owner of Fifth Street Games join me to discuss the lessons learned for a successful Kickstarter project. Farmageddon successfully raised $25,000, overfunding 505%. 

This episode we talk about the challenges of a successful campaign.

Listen to Episode 49 of Funding the Dream on Kickstarter

Visit 5th Street Games at www.5thstreetgames.com

Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 48 Pulling the plug on $17,000

Jon Karis knows action figures. For more than a decade he has built up a substantial collection of 60mm figures. He even owns a hot website called www.littlerubberguys.com.

When he decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign for a new line of figures, he knew what he was doing. And his backers did too. He asked for $11,000 and raised nearly $17,000. And then, with less than five minutes to go to end his campaign he pulled the plug and canceled the entire project. $17,000 just slipped away and he let it go.

Jon has a lesson to share. A very important and expensive lesson. Listen to this episode of Funding the Dream on Kickstarter to find out how you can avoid having this happen to you.

Listen to Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 48 here

Take a look at Jon's canceled Kickstarter project here

Kickstarter Short Course - A 48 hour Project for PAX East

This weekend I will be broadcasting live from the Kickstarter booth at PAX East. At the last minute...and I mean at the last minute, I decided to try to broadcast the show via video over a service called UStream. 

It is a great technology but they support their free broadcasting with advertising. And in my early tests fans were irritated by the interruptions.

I jumped on Kickstarter and put out a project. I'm trying to raise $600 in less than 48 hours to pay for the broadcast to be commercial free.

I need 15 more people willing to donate $20 to make it happen. If you want to help out, take a moment and make a pledge to my Kickstarter campaign.

You can pledge here Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Live from PAX East

Thank you for your support

Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 47 Wasteland 2 Raising Millions and Kicking it Forward with Brian Fargo

Have you ever had a dream that you hung onto for 20 years? Have you ever pursued a passion relentlessly as you grew older, overcoming one rejection after another? How many times can you hear variations of the word No before you begin to doubt yourself?

Meet the reality of Brian Fargo. In 1988 Brian released Wasteland, a video game that would lay the ground work for generations of gamers to come. And then, after its success, he began his quest to produce a sequel. With concept in hand he went from one publisher to another. And one after another told him No, No Chance, Maybe Next Time, Sorry. 

Brian is a pretty passionate guy, but even for him, 20 years of rejection took its toll. He came to the realization that his dream was never going to happen. And with a sense of finality he put the project into a drawer and closed it forever, walking away from 20 years of fruitless effort.

But when dreams are destiny they can't be walked away from.

Two weeks later, Double Fine went live on Kickstarter and set the gaming world on fire. Asking for $400,000, they blew by their goal in 8 hours, then $1 million in 24 hours, finally ending at $3.3 million for a final total.

Suddenly Brian's dream was alive. He pulled it out of the drawer and took it to Kickstarter. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to ask for $1 million dollars for his project. But he was willing to risk his own money on his passion and so he asked for $900,000 from backers and he promised to pledge $100,000 of his own money.

Wasteland 2 was the largest request for funding in Kickstarter's history. A number that a few weeks earlier had only been successfully reached by one company. But Brian still believed, and so did his fans. After a few days, Wasteland 2 shot past the funding goal and at the time of the writing of this post, is at $1.9 million dollars.

With his Dream's future firmly in hand, Brian set his sights on another project, Kicking it Forward. Brian remembers the futility of trying to get someone else to see his vision and share in his dream. His Kicking it Forward project is a pledge by Kickstarter project owners to give back 5% of their profits to the Kickstarter community. To be clear, he isn't talking about giving back 5% of their funds from Kickstarter. He means once a project is successful and the product is built and generating revenue, a project owner will take 5% of their profits and back future Kickstarters.

Brian sits down with me to talk about his journey, his passion, the succeess he is having after 20 years of trying and his passion for Kicking it Forward.

You can listen to Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 47 here

You can back Wasteland 2 on Kickstarter here

You can check out Kicking it Forward at www.kickingitforward.org

Be sure to follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gamewhisperer

 

Funding the Dream on Kickstarter Ep 46 From Kickstarter to Amazon Best Seller with Max Temkin

Amazon has more than 600,000 toys and games in their webstore. Each day they rank the best sellers in specific categories, Toys and Games, being one of those categories. To reach the top spot you have to have one hot toy. After all, you are competing with every toy, every game, every doll, truck, or flying shark that Amazon sells. 

In January of 2011, Max Temkin and 7 other friends had their card game idea successfully fund on Kickstarter. At the time, the $15,000 they raised was considered a lot of money and extremely successful. Cards of Against Humanity went to print, with about 800 copies going to Kickstarter backers. The rest were put on Amazon using Amazon's FBA system. After all, Max and friends all had real jobs and sitting around fulfilling orders off the web wasn't something they wanted to be doing in their spare time.

It took 3 months to sell the 1500 copies of the game. So they ordered a couple of thousand more...and sold out in less than a month. They upped the order by a few more thousand and then sold out in a week. Up above 6,000 was the next order and they sold out in hours.

In the meantime, Cards Against Humanity had climbed to become the top selling toy or game on Amazon...that is when they could keep it in stock. As of this writing, there is a ship heading from China with a really big pallet of games. So big, that they can't truck it to the warehouse anymore, it has to go by train. When the pallet gets to Amazon's fulfillment warehouse you will be able to get Cards Against Humanity. In the meantime, you can order from those who have bought their own copies and now are selling them for $60 to $90 online. 

Max talks about this experience of having a successful project and the difficulty of believing that something can just keep growing when you think everyone who wants a copy of your game has a copy of your game. 

We thank Max for taking some time to join us on Funding the Dream on Kickstarter.

Listen to Episode 46 of Funding the Dream on Kickstarter here

Check out Max at his website Maxistentialism 

Funding the Dream Ep 45 Kickstarter Worst-case Success

All Kickstarter money is not the same. On this Episode of Funding the Dream we discuss with Fred Hicks, from Evil Hat Productions, the idea of planning for your worst-case success.

A worst-case success project is the pledge level that costs you the most to deliver. A $40 pledge that costs $30 to deliver is not as attractive as a $20 pledge with near zero fulfillment costs.

Protect yourself against your worst-case success and listen to episode 45 of Funding the Dream

Episode 45 Funding the Dream Kickstarter podcast

Link to Fred's blog on worst-case success 

Funding the Dream Ep 44 with Sarah Palmero and Pizza Theory Mom

My most recent Kickstarter workshop was recently in Sacramento at ConquestSAC. There I had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Palmero who is wrapping up her Kickstarter project called Dragon Undone. A work of fiction that she wrote. Sarah's project doesn't look like it is going to make its funding goal, which is too bad. I enjoy her writing and invited her on the show to talk about next steps and how to find success from a project that fails to reach its goal. Please listen and give her your support. Her Kickstarter project is  here - Dragon Undone

In addition to chatting with Sarah I had the pleasure of meeting Greg and Brian, the creative genius behind Pizza Theory. But rather than interview them, I had the chance to speak with their mother, Mary Anne Powers, who shared her insights into the power board games have to teach us the lessons of life.

You can listen to Funding the Dream Ep 44 here