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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What is Kickstarter?
Starting out with the basics here, but Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website. What’s a crowdfunding website, it’s a site where someone asks for money to help fund a project, that could be something like Go Fund Me with helping someone with medical expenses or whatever need they might have, but on Kickstarter, you’re almost always Kickstarting a project that is going to create some sort of end product. It might be a play, it might be a comic, a chair, a video game, or, as I’m going to be talking about board game or an RPG. Normally, when you help fund something, the company or creator gives you something in return for helping them.

How Does a Project Work?
I’m going to be tackling this from the consumer side, I’ve never run my own kickstarter, and I doubt I ever would or will. But, the creator makes their project, so they create a video (ideally), and write up information on the game, showing images of prototypes or of what they are planning on the components looking like. They explain how the game works, what sort of game it is, and why you should help them fund it. They also talk about what shipping costs might be and what they could see as risks for their campaign so the people who fund them know what they are getting into.

The final big thing they create though is the reward levels and funding level. These are how much they are asking people and how much money they need for it to actually happen. For example, if they think they can make the game that the whole cost of production is $20 but they need to 2,000 people to back them to get that production cost, they can make their funding goal $40,000. And there would be a reward level of $20 where people can back them and get a copy of the game as a reward. But what is more likely to happen is that production costs $20, so they offer a reward level of $30 for the game, because they need to pay themselves and kickstarter takes some of it, and they set their funding goal at $30,000. The reason for that is that while they want to hit 2,000 people, they can go over their funding goal, and if they do, more people are apt to back it, because they know the project is happening, and that’ll help them get to 2,000 people.

Then, with the Kickstarter up and running at kickstarter.com, they wait through their campaign, however many days it is, and that’s where we step in as the consumer. I look at the page, decide if it’s a game that I find interesting, and then if I do, I can back it. Now, maybe I just like the idea, but I don’t want the game myself or I know the creator of the game or like their company, whatever it might be. I can back it for however much I want without a reward, or I can select the option to back for $30, in our example, and get the game. So I back it, but I don’t get the game right away, this isn’t a store, they don’t have the games yet (most of the time, future Kickstarter lesson), they are getting the funding to then make the games. So they’ll send out updates to everyone who has backed them thanking them for backing and letting us know what their plans are and most often, letting us know about stretch goals. Stretch goals are extra things added to the game if it reaches a certain funding level. So in our cast, they really need the level to hit $40,000, but let’s say it’s doing well, and the game hits $50,000 or $60,000, they might add in some extra cards, a cool first player maker, an extra scenario, an extra character class (for an RPG), whatever it might be at certain points in the campaign based on how much they’ve made, because now they can afford to do that. This helps encourage people to back it because some of these things might be exclusive to Kickstarter (future lesson).

So, they’ve funded their campaign, now they get the money, but not all the money, Kickstarter is going to take some as well, because Kickstarter is a business and they need to make money as well. So even though they Kickstarter made, let’s say $80,000, the creator maybe sees around $72, 000 to $76,000. Now that it’s funded, they’ll send you the game, right? Not quite yet, they need to still get it made, so they get the money from Kickstarter, now they need to schedule with factories to get the game made, and most of the time, they also will be sending out a backer survey, this might be done through Kickstarter, but most often through another company, because $30 pledge for the game didn’t cover shipping. So you’ll have to pay a bit more to cover shipping, but the good thing is that this should basically just be the shipping cost because Kickstarter isn’t taking money from them for it. Though, the other site might be. Now you’ve paid shipping, let’s say $10, and for the game $30, it’ll get shipped soon. Almost, first, it gets into a production queue for some factory somewhere that is probably making a lot more and different board games throughout the year as well. So it might be 6-12 months before production begins, if not more. So production has happened, now it gets shipped, literally shipped on a boat, around the world, this can take a few weeks and up to a couple of months if there are delays at customs. From the ships it goes to a fulfillment company or to the creator to fulfill. They’ll be the ones sending you the actual game. So probably around a year after you Kickstarted it, you’ll get the game.

And that’s the general life cycle of a Kickstarer, it can take longer than a year, and it can be shorter than a year. But the cool part is that you can help small companies (or buy more of a sure thing from a big company) get their games out to the market.

I’m going to be talking about various things, such as what happens when a Kickstarter fails, what happens if it doesn’t deliver, what makes a good Kickstarter, what to watch out for, what stretch goals are, and how to avoid Kickstarter FOMO (if it’s even possible).

What are some of your best experiences with Kickstarter? Have you had any that have failed or not ever come? Are there any other topics I should cover around Kickstarter? Let me know in the comments below.

(All the images are of games that were brought to life on Kickstarter)

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