What’s Gone Up In Price?

So, I think we need to start by talking about what is costing more. The simple answer is that everything costs more. Shipping across the ocean, costs more. Getting a container, costs more. Shipping across the US (or anywhere in the world) from local hubs, costs more. Buying wood, plastic, cardboard all of those things costs more.

There is not really any area of the board game hobby that isn’t costing more. That is why we’re seeing even companies who don’t use Kickstarter or Gamefound increase the price of their games. An example is that prices for the packs for Marvel Champions, both heroes and villains has increased. I also think that the prices likely lead to the rework of the Arkham Horror LCG distribution model.

Reducing Crowdfunding Costs

One thing I want to say is that I think too many gamers are trying to ignore the rising costs. The expectation for a game is that it will cost as much as it did at the start of the pandemic or pre-pandemic. And while prices likely will stabilize and possible reduce some over time. I expect that gaming prices and what you get for your dollar or euro will not return to that point. That is true for games or for almost everything.

But there are things that game companies should consider doing, in my opinion. Some is because their fans deserve their best effort. And you never want to alienate fans. And for better or worse, as prices increase, fans will be alienated if they get too much less for the same price as before.

Remove Deluxe Pledge Options or Simply Options

Firstly, one way to save is to get rid of your deluxe pledge level or simplify the options. If you produce three different versions of the game, one with minis, one with upgraded metal coins, an insert, and things like that. Instead, limit it to a single level of the game. You can even do a deluxe one that is all you can get via Kickstarter, and do a separate retail version later with funds raised.

By limiting the different versions, now that means the print run can be simplified. You need not machine for as many mini sculpts, or work with as many locations to get the work done. The downside is that it reduces some of the appeal of getting a game on Kickstarter. What is the advantage if my version is just going to be like the retail version? Though, it also returns crowdfunding to what it should be, about helping get a game made.

No Mini Pledges

To follow up, offer levels with no minis. If you think that minis matter so much to your game, I’d question that. It might be a selling point, but offer an option without minis. I know I do not need a game to come with minis always. For example, I backed standees for Oathsworn. I love the minis, but it increased the cost so much.

Plus I want to paint, but I do not paint. So for me, standees are often nicer. And if you make acrylic standees, those are basically always going to be preferred to minis, at least for me. I get a more vibrant pop than just cardboard. And I like that aesthetic a lot.

Print and Play

Now, this is not an option for some games. Frosthaven, ISS Vanguard, Oathsworn, none of those will ever be able to offer a print and play. But Fliptown, which I am not backing at the print and play level, but I could, makes great sense. If you produce a roll and write game and it does not need custom cards, or dice, so something like Welcome To… wouldn’t work as a print and play easily, offer a print and play level.

I keep on backing games at a $5 level for a print and play copy. I think it is something like 5 thus far. But that level makes it easy for me to back it. And it costs you nothing more to send out that PDF. Obviously, legal disclaimer that it is not to share, but most people won’t. And it is going to be fairly obvious if someone is selling your game on Etsy or something like that. So I understand it might be a concern for some developers and designers, but it is a good way to attract more gamers as prices are high.

Fewer Stretch Goals

Finally, offer fewer stretch goals. Again, this goes against everything we know for Kickstarter and Crowdfunding in general. It is why CMON always does so well, they give you so many stretch goals. But that makes your game more expensive. And I think we see that too many stretch goals, adding to shipping costs, can cause games to be priced out of where some backers are comfortable at.

But how do you keep funding moving? One important thing for a crowdfunding campaign is to keep your forward momentum. Stretch goals getting unlocked helps with that. I think that now add-ons, for the people who want will be equally as important. They are important now, but doing staged reveals of those is going to drive up interest in your game throughout the campaign.

Downside is that some people will be annoyed they don’t get as much without raising their pledge. I mean, for a CMON Kickstarter, there will always be a ton of add-ons that raise the price a lot. So it might not be that different than normal. But to get less for “free” will annoy some backers. But also allow backers to pick what extra they want to pay for.

Crowdfunding Production Location

Now, I put this in it’s own section. I think a lot of people believe this is going to be the biggest way to save on costs. And it might eventually be the case. But do no hold your breath on any changes soon. It’d be amazing to produce the games in the United States for the United States. Nothing travels across the oceans, shipping is much simpler. But how feasible is it?

The answer is, right now it is not that feasible. Maybe for a smaller card game or a very basic roll and write it would work. But the infrastructure is simple not in place. And infrastructure is not something that ends up in place easily.

Now, at some point in time it might be in place. But for that to happen some company needs to build up a factory (or factories) that can handle this mass production. And that is a large expense itself. And in general production costs of most goods make them more expensive than making them in China. But, with shipping and overall costs, that might eventually reach a tipping point where that is not the case.

For this to happen, though, things need to get worse. And that means that shipping delays would need to get worse. Prices on everything would need to go higher. And there needs to be no end in sight to that. So do you really want all of your games to costs more in the time being? Do you want companies to potentially go out of business because it costs too much to fulfill?

That is likely what it will take for games to be produced consistently not in China. This might be a better thing for the world in general if that happens, it can be debated and I’m not going to do that right now or on this site. But it is important to understand the cost that getting to producing games in the United States or other locations might cost. At least on a large scale.

Final Thoughts

I think it bears repeating here. Crowdfunding companies, if you are going to put up a game right now, do not lock in your shipping costs. Either say, this is the current estimate but shipping will lock when the pledge manager opens. Or completely forgo them.

I know that a lot of people are mad because shipping is higher in pledge managers than stated on the site. And that is not fair, but also is fair. Communication often is not up to par. Communicate well, early, and often, and people will be more forgiving.

And for companies going forward, I know this is not an easy time. I want to be understanding with that as I look at prices, as I do previews, and as I write my Back or Brick articles. All consumer costs are higher right now, and most will likely stay higher, so communicate with me and with your backers, and we will be much more understanding.

What other solutions might you have for Crowdfunding campaigns to help offset costs or keep costs reasonable on upcoming Kickstarter and Gamefound campaigns?

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With FOMO, it’s about controlling a desire for what you want to back. But in this case, you know you want to back that game on Kickstarter or Gamefound, but what level do you decide to back it at, and what should you be looking out for?

What Are Common Crowdfunding Pledge Levels?

So, before we talk about what level to back at, let’s talk about common levels. Because there are a few that I would say you see fairly often.

Retail

This is going to be the version of the game that will hit retail.

Game Play

This is going to be a pledge level where you can get everything that might have anything to do with game play. So, more cards, this level, and expansion, this level of pledge.

Deluxe

At Deluxe, it is going to contain the fancy pieces. It might not have all game play but it’ll have upgrades pieces like metal coins, screen printed meeples, things like that.

Retailer

This is not the retail level, the retailer level is if you want to get access to the pledge manager and order several for a store.

Print and Play

Print and Play is going to let you get the game without getting the game. You get the files for the game that you can print off and use. This is pretty common for roll and write games, or small card games.

What To Consider When Picking A Pledge Level?

There are a few things to consider when picking what level you want to pledge a game at. But we’ll start with one of the big ones, how much game play content do you actually need? And then what will add enjoyment to your experience.

How Much Do You Actually Need?

This is a bit of a FOMO thing, but how much do you really need. At this point, you know you want the game but is it worth getting everything for the game? And not even at the side of FOMO, how much will you actually play. Do you feel like you’re missing out, or is this just going to be more stuff that you will have sit on a shelf?

I know that there are some games out there, where having more makes it harder to play. I believe it’s the Sator Box for Black Rose War that there is just so much to sort through that it’s almost impossible to get it to the table. So you don’t want to end up with too much stuff that it makes the base game harder to table as well.

So look at how much you get in the pledge. Let’s talk about the opposite of the Sator Box, Marvel United has a ton of stuff in it, but that doesn’t change how easy it is to play the game. You grab a character, villain, locations, and go. The only thing that might be slower is finding the minis. And the variety makes the game even more fun to play. So consider how much you actually need.

Will It Make The Game More Enjoyable?

This one pertains more to stuff like the deluxe version of a game. Metal coins are cool and all, but will it make the game more enjoyable? Minis are cool, but are they going to make it more enjoyable than standees would? The answer to those questions might be yes. It might make the game more immersive than it was before and give you a better experience.

On the other hand, much like all the game play content, it might make the game harder to get to the table. Do you pull three boxes off of the shelf now instead of when you pull one off the shelf? And is that going to make you more likely to pull it off the shelf?

I like when games, like Dwellings of Eldervale, give you deluxe components that fit in the main box. I don’t need to worry about grabbing anything more, just the one box. And I’m not sorting through deluxe and regular components to find what I need. I think that’s a smart way to do it. It does mean I have regular components I can’t use.

On the flip side with Dwellings of Eldervale, if you didn’t get deluxe, you end up with empty space in your box. And that’s an issue as well because I don’t want stuff sliding around. Now there are holder for the deluxe bits but they are empty, so to me that’s a bit odd, I’d prefer a smaller box in that case.

So, What Level Should I Pledge At?

For me, the place I start is at the game play level. I look to see how much it is going to cost to get everything for game play. And sometimes I’ll back at that level and other times I won’t. It depends on cost and how much there is.

But for me, game play is always the starting point at where I look. With game play, you know what you are getting the whole of what you can play around with. And some games don’t need everything, I can give some examples here.

Going back to Marvel United and Marvel United X-Men, I don’t need fancy tokens. The extra thick location tiles, not interested. But I do want all the characters because the game is easy to play even with everything.

On the flip side, when I backed Primal, I didn’t back extra monsters, I just got the base game. Yes, the different monsters will behave differently. So I am missing out on game play content. But I also get a lot. And I don’t think that I need that extra variety. I’d take it because the monsters are cool, but I don’t need it.

Crowdfunding Pledge Level Final Thoughts

The milage on what you pick might be different for you than me. I do think it’s important to look at what you get in the game play level and decide on how much you need. I will also say, don’t back the retail level. If they are planning on going to retail, get it there, and get free shipping if you go through an online retailer.

The only reason, I see, to back at the retail pledge level instead of getting it at retail would be to support the company. And I do approve of that reason. I back stuff from Indie Board and Cards for Aeon’s End and now Astro Knights that will come to retail, why, because I want to support the company and get it slightly sooner.

How do you decide what level to pledge at?

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Pros

• Aesthetic
• Deluxe Components
• Engine Building
• Simple Mechanics

Cons

• Deluxe only via Kickstarter
• Complexity

The Page

Floodgate Games has done a number of Kickstarters before. This falls into a category of Kickstarter company that knows how to create their page in a really nice way and how to lay out information so that you can see everything you want to see pretty quickly.

For big miniature games or games with a lot of confusing pledge levels I get showing off those first on the page before the rules. It is probably the information that people want to find most quickly, most often. However, Vivid Memories doesn’t have minis, they don’t have a ton of pledge levels, they just have the deluxe pledge available in English and French. So why are we showing that off first? I don’t get that, I’d much prefer to see them go with the game play first, which still shows off the components as well, than show me everything I’m going to get in my one option.

The Game

This game is interesting. They have put out a wide variety of games, including Sagrada which I love, and Vault Wars, which I have coming. When I look at this game, I feel like I should be getting Sagrada vibes from it. Though, that just comes from the drafting of the pieces and placing them on your board.

But there is definitely more complexity from Vivid Memories to Sagrada. In Vivid you are building up an engine of sorts with the cards you take, the memories you take, to get improved actions. Then you run that engine after the round is up to try and connect different paths on your board. So while I feel like mechanically this is simple, there are going to be interesting choices to make in the game.

But this is where I get into the simplicity and the complexity. I feel like the aesthetic and the basic mechanics of taken the tokens and cards is very simple. On the flip side, I think running the engine and managing those connections, that actually seems fairly brain burning. This can be a fun combo if it’s done well and the brain burning part doesn’t become the majority of the game.

Back or Brick

So is this a Back or a Brick for me? I am going to say, right now this is a Brick. I did watch the Dice Tower playthrough of this, or part of it, which I’ll leave below. And I thought it looked interesting. But do I need a deluxe version of this or can I wait for retail. Don’t get me wrong, the deluxe version looks cool, but I don’t feel like I need it. Now, if it looks good to you, Floodgate Games makes good games and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

I also want to try this game before I buy it, why, because of that simplicity and complexity balance. Sagrada, which I compare because of the company, is such a good family weight game. Vivid Memories, I wonder about that complexity of managing your board and engine if it’d take that out of the range for that. And I know the aesthetic would be appealing for my family, but would the game play be?

Is this a back or brick for you?

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