The Witcher: Old World – Crowdfunding

So let’s start out why I didn’t back this one at first. There were two things that stood out to me, the first being that it is not a cooperative game. You play as Witchers who are learning and fighting over bounties, feuding with each other, basically trying to get to be the most famous Witcher of all time, or at least until Geralt comes around.

The other reason is that I knew someone else who backed the game. But I try not to let that influence my backing decisions too much. Game groups shift over time, I’ve found historically. And while some gamers stick around throughout it all (I suspect this one will continue to), it is a question mark. Plus, a game owned by more means that it’s more likely to get played because it doesn’t need to be lugged around to get played.

The Prototype

But let’s give you an idea as to how this is played. Because I don’t believe the game has changed a ton since the original game plays were done. There is just a lot of content to the game with stretch goals and expansions, so it took a while for a new company to get it out.

But as you can see, it’s a pretty big and sprawling experience. And I think it’s worth noting that a thee player game on camera took almost two hours. Which I expect for a larger epic game. But let’s talk about that because on camera, games like this take longer. They say the camera adds 10 pounds, well in an game play, the camera adds probably 10-15% to game length.

Competitive and Maybe Confrontational

Let’s talk about what I mean by this. There are elements of the game that can be confrontational. You are able to fight another Witcher and knock someone down a peg while raising yourself up. At least in the original game play. But is that the best plan of attack? From what I remember the rewards for that were less than you’d likely run into by doing other things.

So instead, let’s talk about the competitive nature of the game. Because you are still competing over monsters and who can defeat them first. So there will be those moments there when you race, do a riskier battle, and all to defeat a monster that someone else is going for. That’s an element that I don’t mind in games. And with The Witcher: Old World, thematically it makes sense. And a new monster will pop up on the board fast, so the prep to fight a monster likely won’t go to waste.

In fact, this reminds me of another game that I need to play again: Zona: Secrets of Chernobyl. Again you can mess with a player, but it’s really about doing that to slow them down so you can get to the secret first. But also, if you spend too much time on that, the game is counting down to a radiation blast that will take you out, so it can’t just be your focus. It’s about the opportunity and the cost.

The Setting

The setting is one of the biggest draws to the game. Yes, you aren’t playing as Geralt. But the world of The Witcher is a fascinating one filled with a ton of lore. And to see that brough into a board game is cool. While they don’t bring the setting through a ton of story, they do bring it through the monsters and the world itself. Which, I like as a nice balance.

Kind of as a subtopic on the setting, this type of story, I like to call an emergent story. I tell the story of my Witcher as I go out and learn and adventure. At the end, I’ll have a pretty epic tale. To me that’s the big part of a game like this. Developing my epic tale as I go along because I do want a story in a game, but I don’t need that game to always tell me a story. Some great experiences are the players telling a story through the game.

Final Thoughts on The Witcher: Old World

I have a sneaking suspicion that it won’t matter too much if you missed the Kickstarter campaign. This is a game that I think should come to retail and retailers would be glad to have on their shelves.

But more so than that, the theme is one that will bring in a lot of people who might not game otherwise. They see the Witcher, they are curious, they buy it. It might not work for them. And it’ll bring in a lot of people who are speculating on scarcity, so they buy more to resell. So I don’t think this will be the strongest secondary market. But it’s hard to know because of the IP.

I am really excited to get my hands on the game though. And I haven’t gone over player count, but it is a 1-4 player game. So I can decide to play it solo. I wonder how well that will work, right now most people like it at 2-3 probably because of length at 4 players. But to be able to try it solo, I am always down for that.

So did the world of The Witcher draw you into this game? Are you awaiting a copy like I am?

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How to Play Slay the Spire?

Slay the Spire is a rogue-like dungeon crawling, or spire crawling game where players take their hero(es) up the spire to fight monsters through card play, get money, buy cards, get cards, and get relics and potions. All in an attempt to beat the different level bosses and move further on and further up.

What that looks like on the table is that Slay the Spire is a deck building game. Each character has unique cards and powers that allow you to build up a deck that combos off of itself. These cards offer two main things, attack and defense. Attack is how you kill the monsters and defense prevents damage if the enemy gets a turn.

There are a few minor twists. The first being that you don’t automatically heal after every battle. The Ironclad, they heal one after every battle, but other characters do not heal. You only heal, and fully, after you defeat the level bosses. The other minor twist probably comes from the potions and the relics. The relics are powerful, but often has a drawback. But they are always in play which means they are always active. Potions are one time use cards but they can be used any time and are not in your deck.

Why Back Now?

Let’s start out by asking, why back it on Kickstarter now? And I am not sure there are a ton of great reasons to do so. The price and shipping are good, but Contention Games hasn’t said what MSRP is. The game right now is $100 for the base pledge and $12 shipping. When you look at all you get, it seems pretty reasonable for what you are paying. But if it’s $120 MSRP, you’ll be able to get it for basically the same price as the Kickstarter later.

How Does It Compare to the Video Game?

Let’s talk about the video game vs the board game first before we get into what works and doesn’t work. Because, yes, this is a video game that is a deck builder before it is a board game. I think one thing to note about it is that the board game is scaled lower. Enemies, characters, attacks, defense, all of them have lower numbers. You and the enemies are easier to kill. Attacks and defense deal or block less damage respectively.

Also, while relics and abilities might offer similar things, some of the more complex ones doesn’t seem to be in the game. Right now, I haven’t seen stuff like get an extra energy after playing 10 cards, or your eighth attack deals double damage. Basically, it looks like the board game is streamlining some of that out so that the game doesn’t become too complex versus the video game that can handle it.

What Doesn’t Work?

I don’t have too many complaints about what I’m seeing in the game. The one thing that caught me off guard to start was that every pledge level comes with sleeves. They actually added a bit of detail to the page to show why that is the case. In Slay the Spire you can upgrade cards. The upgrade side is on the flip side of the card, which is nice and easy, but that means that the cards are double sided and need to be sleeved.

This works really well, but it also means that at the end of the game, you need to unflip all the cards you had previously flipped. For set-up of the game, it won’t add much time. But tear down of the game now requires that as you sort out your starting cards, you are also flipping cards that you’ve upgraded.

What Works?

Firstly, I think this looks like and does a good job of emulating the video game. Like I said, it scales it down, but watching game play, you can see The Brothers Murph play it below, it looks like the video game. There are some differences, but one of those I’ll put down next as a positive.

The next thing is that this offers cooperative play. Slay the Spire, the video game is completely solo play. It means that we can team up on monsters to take them out or help stop damage that is coming through. It’s a different experience than the video game, but it’s a fun bit to be added into the game. I like that it is there because it means that the board game is different than the video game. And I like to play solo games, but I also like with some games to have the option to play multiplayer as well.

Finally, I like that the core of the game is the same as the video game. It is about deciding when you want to push your luck and go for an elite boss to get more relics. How you want to power up, how you want to build your deck. Each character still has their main thing that they do, but because it’s a board game, it is now social.

Back or Brick – Slay the Spire

Right now this is a Back for me. I like the video game, and I think this will offer me the same experience. But for me, if I can play a board game over a video game I will. And if this gives me the same Slay the Spire experience as the video game, or near that, then I am really interested in it.

However, I will say, I am more on the fence than I thought I might be. Mainly because of the price of the game. $100 is not cheap, and I was not pleased when I saw that it required sleeves. However, the sleeves makes sense, you need it for the upgrades. Otherwise you’d probably need to add in another 400 cards. And I do think that Contention Games wrapped in some of the shipping costs – $12 is very cheap – to the price of the game. But I also know that $100 plus $12 shipping will price it out of a certain part of the board gaming audience.

And for that, I am grateful there is a the video game. The video game is about $15. So if the board game is too steep, well, I expect it to come to retail so you can get it later. Plus you can play the video game until that comes out. In fact, I think I’m going to play the video game tonight.

How about for you, is it a Back or Brick?

For better or worse, and really better and worse, crowdfunding is really hard for small creators. Bigger ones are even running into issues. But for small creators, it’s hard to get noticed. That means, for better, that people with ideas that have been done before or reskins of Monopoly can’t get their game made. On the downside, creators who really have put a lot of passion into a game and turned out something great are having a harder go of it.

But that’s got nothing to do with the question for today.

Which Is Better For Crowdfunding – Cheaper Game or Shipping

I know there might be some who disagree, but for a lot of games it’s just not possible to get the price down. Or the game would not be the same without those nicer components, minis, custom meeples, or metal coins. Does it mean that companies shouldn’t be looking to save money, no, they should be. But as consumers backing on Crowdfunding, there is a certain level that is expected.

However, those expectations now might not match up to what the consumer expects. Linen finish cards, I generally expect that. But more so, good card thickness, an insert that makes sense, stuff that really isn’t that common place in retail board games. It might be getting more common, but it’s not common place. So costs are going to go up for games.

Cheaper Shipping

Costs can go up in two areas. The first being that the game can cost more. The additional cost of a game, all of it, from materials to shipping can be added to the cost of the game. This will keep the shipping price more stable.

And in fact, this way can help cover more general variability in pricing. And it makes the most sense, between the two, for a business. But it’s less ideal for the consumer. Mainly because once a price goes up, rarely will it come back down. So even if shipping costs go down, or material costs go down, the price is still going to stay higher. But from a business side of things, it allows them to “hide” the costs more or the buffer more.

And I don’t mean this in a bad way, but being able to hide your margin somewhat means that people won’t complain about shipping costs. What I’m not talking about is taking on an extra $20 that would never get used to the cost. Something that would just purely be profit.

Cheaper Game

On the flip side, you could keep the price of the game lower. This means splitting out the costs over two things. First the cost of the game, which would go up slightly no matter what because of material costs and inflation. The other part would be the shipping costs.

From a consumer side of things this is a bit nicer. You aren’t actually paying less, but the payment is split over two. You pay once on the crowdfunding platform and then again with shipping. It also allows the companies to get the most accurate estimate for their shipping. If shipping goes up, they can add to the cost, if it goes down, they can reduce the cost.

But there is a downside for the consumer. If a company completely misestimates a the cost of shipping a game, now the new shipping estimate is higher. And that can erode consumer confidence. It shouldn’t, every company, new and established are needing to ask for more funds to help cover shipping differences. I do think that will become less common, but we still have early 2020 or even 2019 crowdfunded games shipping. Those estimates are no where near right.

So What’s the Best Answer?

Honestly, I do not believe that there is a best answer. I would be curious to know what people thing on it? If I had to guess, I think that more people would prefer a more expensive game and cheaper shipping. Mainly because they don’t get that big hit twice. Even though, in the long run, I think that methodology might be worse for the consumer. It locks in prices potentially more so.

But it’s an easier pill to swallow when it’s one bigger hit and a smaller hit to the wallet. And I think people are more apt to overlook that it might not be quite the same value as before. People should know that inflation and shipping crisis are a thing, though some lessening, and know to expect to pay more. It seems like a lot of people don’t though, so hiding that cost, might be best.

Final Thoughts

I know I cover the cost of things and shipping pretty often. Mainly because it’s a topic that keeps on coming up. And I get why it does. Inflation hits everything. That means the cost of everything is going up, and all those lousy things you need for your life are costing more. I run into the same issue.

And the desire is that board games stay at the same price. The things that we want to make us feel better should stay cheap so that we can indulge once in a while. Now, is that reasonable, no, but I get wanting it to be the case. I want to back more games than I do, I want to buy more games than I do. But sometimes things take a back burner. The people I feel worst for with it are the small creators who have a great project that is harder to get scene because of everything.

Do you find yourself buying or backing fewer games now?

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Sagrada Artisans Quick Overview

Sagrada Artisans is going to keep much of what you already know about Sagrada. It is a die drafting game where you are picking dice and placing them onto a stained glass window. But in this case, you are doing that by drafting a die and then coloring in and putting the number down on the spot. Creating your own permanent creation.

The better you do in the game the more that you can unlock. New powers or tools to use, as you advance in the game. And story that unfolds. I like that this appears to be setting it up, thematically as going through generations.

What Doesn’t Work?

The one thing that stands out to me as something that doesn’t work is a reason to back this game now. I look at the price point, with shipping, and it’s not that cheap. I expect that the MSRP on Sagrada Artisans is going to be $80-$90 which seems fair and in line for other legacy games. But with shipping on this campaign it’s $90.

Yes, I’ll miss out on some extra stuff, but do I need extra colored pencils? Not really. Is the pencil sharpener cool and same with the gold stickers, sure, but again not needed. Now, I’m not saying that I want an exclusive to be extremely important. I just don’t know that I see the exclusives or price point as telling me that I need to back it now.

What Works?

I love that they keep the core of the game. Dice drafting in Sagrada is fun, and because they are making it so that you fill stuff in, you see windows that are not just a grid. That’s going to change up a game. If a spot is now adjacent to more tiles those placements are going to be trickier.

And I like that it comes with a pack, built into the Kickstarter but available later, that you can continue the game. I know that BoardGameCo talks about how often people play a legacy game that you can continue to play after the fact. He’s right, it isn’t that much. But with Sagrada Legacy, I could see continuing that. And while it seems like you might not be unlocking stuff, it might be more that you can still gain more access to things.

Who Is It For?

This is for fans of Sagrada. I really don’t know that it has much appeal beyond that. I doubt it’ll be a jumping in point for Sagrada. And I don’t think that people who don’t like Sagrada will like this game. Now, that said, Sagrada is really well liked. So it will do well, and I think it will do well at retail as well as solidly well on Kickstarter.

Back or Brick Sagrada Artisans

I’m split on this. I don’t really feel like I need to back it now, and that is a problem. So right now it is a Brick. My negative or the thing that doesn’t work is purely in me wanting to back the game now. I know that Sagrada Legacy is a game that I want to play. And I could even see playing it with my wife if I don’t get a group together. That sounds weird, I mean that it’s a legacy game that she’s excited and interested in as well, so I could see playing it just the two of us.

But, the way that I’m considering backing it right now is if I can get another couple to buy in on it. If I do that, then I can see backing it. But stuff like colored pencils, fine, but we have more and exact colors don’t matter. I have a lot in Cartographers because I got the big box. So I don’t feel like I’m missing out on much. On the flip side, I do like to support companies on Kickstarter because a strong Kickstarter means that they can do a bigger initial release of the game.

How about for you is this a back or brick?

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Pros

• Proven company
• Proven game
• Not a Big Campaign
• Upgrade Pack for Season 2 Included

Cons

• Box Price
• Dice Throne Adventure Content

The Page

Roxley has been around for a while in the Kickstarter space. And they have just started and are getting close now to finishing delivering Marvel Dice Throne. Which actually delivered I believe on time. So they have a really good track record.

The biggest Dice Throne miss, thus far, was Dice Throne Adventures, for some people. And it wasn’t even a miss for everyone. I sold mine without playing just because I like the head to head or King of the Hill style of the game enough that I didn’t feel I’d ever play it. Of course now there is a DTA (Dice Throne Adventures) bonus pack that comes with this pack.

And let’s talk about price a little bit. Roxley is giving a very cheap price for shipping. They say that they are subsidizing it, which I believe is true. However, some of that does appear to be coming in the cost of the single box. Granted, that does come with the DTA bonus pack and if you want the free upgraded boards for some Dice Throne Season 2 characters. It isn’t a bad price, but if you want to get the box later at retail, then you can just get that box cheaper then.

The Game

The game is one that I’ve talked about a lot. Dice Throne is always high on my Top 100 list. And I believe that this will also be high on the list. I like the idea of taking characters like Santa up against a Gunslinger or Krampus against Doctor Strange. That’s the great thing about Dice Throne is you always have that mix and match ability. And who knows, maybe one of these characters will make my Top 10, you can see my pre-Marvel list here.

But let’s talk a bit about how the game is played.

Dice Throne sometimes gets called battle Yahtzee. In this game you are playing down cards to upgrade abilities. Then you attack your opponent using Yahtzee style rolling rules. Three rolls and keeping dice as you go. You use whatever you end up on to activate abilities that either get you tokens or inflict tokens with your roll or deals out damage.

Then your opponent can possibly roll defense and either prevent some damage, deal damage back, or again get some tokens. The goal is to get your opponent down to 0 health and first player to do so wins the game. It might seem like a lot of luck, but there is strategy that goes into what you keep and building up to turns where you can mitigate the dice more.

Back or Brick

I love Dice Throne so Santa vs Krampus is an easy Back for me. Plus it’s just a new character box, so it’s less of an investment which is very nice. I think it’ll be fun to play with these two characters.

I also get if someone might not love the game. There is an element of luck. And while I don’t find the luck too bad in the game, I could see others not liking it as much. I do think learning how to mitigate your dice and when to keep back cards is important. But for some it might be too random. But let me know if this is a Back or Brick for you.

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Pros

• Theme – both horror and drop bears
• Components
• Cooperative Game
• One Pledge Level
• Fulfilled A Game Already

Cons

• Rulebook Issues on Previous Game

The Page

This is a really fun looking page and game. They lean into the absurdity of drop bears and how they look like koala bears. And they have a good amount of content on the game. They have a good amount on the rules and theme of the game right away which is nice. I don’t need to go digging for that information on the page.

I also like that they explain what drop bears are. I fear that most people would assume that they are just koalas and be in big trouble. It definitely helps the game theme come through. And for a game with a silly theme that is very regional specific, I think it’s a nice little nod to have that in there.

Price point and shipping seem in line with everything that I’ve seen. I like that they aren’t trying to make it too deluxe. The components look good, but I’m glad that the campers are just tokens. A lot of campaigns would make them minis but that adds tot he price. This feels like a game that doesn’t need that higher price point.

The Game

The game itself seems interesting. A horror survival game as you build out the map, deal with the drop bears, and get gear. What stands out to most about game play is that you have a pool of campers. You might have a camper die, but as long as there is another camper, you add them into the game and keep playing. You run out of campers, you lose the game.

It’s also interesting that this is a game where it’s more about survival than it is about beating up the drop bears. Another thing that I like. There are a lot of games where it is go in and beat up the monster and when you do you win the game. Drop Bears is about survival and I think that is what interests me most.

Back or Brick

I’m very torn on this one. I absolutely adore the theme, and if I saw this in a brick and mortar store, I’d immediately go over and look at it. But is it one that I’m going to back? Right now I think this is a Brick for me. Mainly because I’m just being a little bit pickier on what I back right now. And I know that there are some things coming up, I’ll talk about one next week most likely.

But everything about this game screams of one that I should back and I might end up backing it. I love the theme as I said. Not just the horror element but the drop bears as well. And the game looks amazing. My main concern will be if it has issues with the rule book. And that might be fine when all is said and done. I do have it saved, so I might come back and get this one yet.

How about for you, is this a Back or Brick?

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This happened to CMON who had to raise their shipping costs a lot. Granted, probably could have done better to start. But shipping a massive game like Marvel Zombies is exceedingly expensive. And then Oathsworn, they put in $100,000 of their own and still needed people to help offset the shipping costs. Thankfully, the community came around them, and besides the shipping cost offset people have donated probably around $60-70k to them, so they don’t need to spend as much of their own money.

All of that is to say, Kickstarter and Gamefound have been a bit slower. But I came up with 5 that I’m at least a little interested in. Though most are only on the “might” be on Crowdfunding in June.

June 2022 Crowdfunding

5. Cyberpunk 2077

CMON just released a trailer for this. Based off of the video game and more so off of the RPG, this is going to be a Cyberpunk board game in both senses of it. The game looks intriguing but I need to see more. Generally Quackalope gets the game to show off for CMON, but that hasn’t happened yet.

And for me, I am interested in Cyberpunk, it is a theme for board game, video game, and RPG that I am interested in. But it is another CMON game. I need to be careful with those campaigns. And I found, for example, with Massive Darkness, even though retail might cost a little bit more than on Kickstarter, and you get a little less, overall I saved myself money.

4. Aeon’s End: Past & Future

Plus, if Aeon’s End: Past & Future comes out, I’ll be getting that for sure. And I might even finally add on the cards so that I can keep all the characters set-up always. But this is the next installment in Aeon’s End. The past legacy game wrapped up the story arc that they were going through, so this is, I believe, a bridging story or bridging nemesis to connect what has happened, and wrap that up, kind of a third act, and then going for future.

3. Umbrella Academy

I don’t know much about this one. I think it might be a relaunch of a game that came out and then didn’t do that well on Kickstarter so they are coming back? Mainly I am interested because of the theme. Umbrella Academy is a solid comic book, and a better show. However, it isn’t my favorite show or comic, so I’m curious about it. But I suspect that Umbrella Academy won’t be for me.

2. Drop Bears

Next up we have Drop Bears, and this is the last of them that might be coming out in June. It could easily be later. If you are not familiar with Drop Bears, they are an Australian legend about bears that live in trees and then drop on you. Which, that is goofy and fun, and is a horror theme for a game. I like horror themed board games, so I want to know how this plays. Could be some goofy fun.

1. Runescape Kingdoms

And finally, the only that for sure will be in June. Mainly because it is live right now, though might have gone live at the end of May, like May 31st. This is based off of Runescape and that world. The game itself hasn’t intrigued me that much, and I’ve looked at it. I have no plans to back it. But because of the theme, I was curious about it. I think that it might be a good game, but one that isn’t for me as I’m being very picking on Kickstarters right now.

Final Thoughts

Normally I’d expect Kickstarter to start ramping up again about now. With Gen Con two months away. Origins I believe this weekend. UKGE having happened the past weekend. It is a chance for Kickstarter creators to get their games out in front of people and time it up with the launch. But that isn’t happening right now.

Like I said, it has a ton to do with inflation, shipping, and generally prices on everything. Until stuff becomes a bit more stable, it’s really hard for companies to produce games. Or they have to switch so that they are getting a game on crowdfunding that is immediately ready to be produced so things are as accurate as possible. I hope by the end of the year that things will start to stabilize again. But I suspect that 2022 is going to be fairly slow on Kickstarter and Gamefound.

What are you anticipating that is coming to Crowdfunding in June?

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Are We Consumers or Investors in Crowdfunding?

I think this is the starting point of the conversation. Because, I believe that what we should expect is different between the two and often people don’t consider that. When I say people, I mean both backers and the project creators themselves.

According to Kickstarter, and I believe Gamefound as well, we are investors in the project. This is important to note because it does not mean that we deserve anything more than the project creators best attempt to turn out a product. If they fail, well, our investment failed and we don’t have recourse.

On the flip side, a lot of backers and project creators, treat the backing as being a consumer only. If we are consumers only, we deserve a refund if they can’t fulfill. We pre-order something and we should have the ability to cancel a pre-order if we decide that we want the newer shinier thing.

However, by the letter of the law, crowdfunding has us not as consumers, though we will – most likely – get a product at the end. We are investors in what the company is doing, whether it is a bigger company like CMON or a small company that’s launching their first game ever. By that, they do not owe us a product.

What Are We Owed Then?

This is interesting, because by the nature of investing, we aren’t really owed the product. The project creator is promising us one, but we aren’t owed it. And we might need to pay in more for our investment to get that return, the game, from it. And that is kind of lame. I want to get my product, so you do. Thankfully most board game projects deliver, albeit maybe late or costing more.

However, since we invest in the game and the project, we should expect some things. Mainly, I expect good communication on the status of the project. Jesse from Quackalope did a very good video covering this.

But I want to talk about it more as well. Because I expect good communication. And I think what that means can vary from person to person. And for a project creator, it might not seem that people are reading your updates. Here’s a secret, most people aren’t and that is a good thing.

Communication

I expect consistent communication once the project is done. Let’s make it simple, pick a day of the month, the 1st, last day, 15th, whatever day you want, and give me an update that day. Even if it’s just a thank you for backing message with a little of an update on development, that’s great. In particular, a thank you and some pictures, I will love that.

What I don’t want is no message for four months. Then a short message, maybe a picture, and letting me know that shipping has doubled. I want to know shipping has doubled, but that shouldn’t be the only reason for sending me a message. If shipping is doubled, I want you to link to an article about the shipping crisis. And I want to know what if anything I need to do about it. But I also want the benign updates that things are progressing.

But People Aren’t Reading My Content

Now, that is just fine that they aren’t. I know it might seem wrong but you don’t want people reading them, you just want people getting them. If people are getting an update, they will see the e-mail or notification for it. Then they will know that things are progressing and skip what you wrote. Sending out the communication is about what it says, for some people, but also to reassure people you are still working on the game.

If you send updates sporadically now people will assume either production is starting, shipping is starting, or something has gone wrong. And people will read those and be primed to be frustrated when something is going wrong. Also, more people read it and more people are frustrated. If you put it out normally, even if announcing a delay, people feel like you are staying on top of it.

But I Don’t Have Much to Say

Again, that is fine. I invest in your project because I like the idea of it. But also, I invest in your project and your company. The point of the message is to keep your investors happy. And you want to keep two groups happy. First is the group that always complains, it’s a loud but small group. The second, also small, is the group who will defend you.

If you don’t send messages, you lose that second group. I am willing to go to bat for you and for my investment, because I invested in you, if you keep me informed. Instead of that, I will be critical of you if you do not send consistent messages. For example, I still kind of defend Grimlord Games, I understand it is not their fulltime job. But they do not send consistent updates, they are well delayed at this point. My willingness to defend them is reduced because they do not communicate.

On the flip side, when Nemesis Games sent out a message asking for more support for shipping, I will defend them. I understand that shipping is crazy, and because they communicate now I am willing to give them more grace. Same with Creative Game Studio. Even though they ran into issues with shipping and how things are being charged, they keep communicating.

So Is There More?

Honestly, it is all about communication. If you show that you are being responsible with my investment, setting aside money, building in margin, and communicating success and struggles that I need to know, I don’t need to know all of them. I feel like my investment is in good hands.

Yes, behind the scenes, you need to know what you are getting into. And I expect that before going into your crowdfunding project that you have a plan. If you don’t, if you don’t have plans for shipping, for production, if you don’t have estimates, you aren’t ready. And as Quackalope talks about, it is hard to make money on a first Kickstarter or Gamefound campaign. So plan contingency money, plan not for everything that goes wrong, but plan to communicate when it does.

It is important to keep it moving forward, and it is important to keep communicating. It might feel like added work, something you don’t want to stop work on the game for. But just a two paragraph message with a picture of playtesting, or an update that says what you are working on. I keep on harping on it, but that is what I expect as an investor.

Finally, yes, I expect to get a product at the end. And whenever that end might be. But if for some reason that can’t happen, I expect to know why. And if it is because everything costs 2000% more than when you ran your campaign, I will try and understand. It sucks, but things happen, and I want to be understanding, but that means I need to know through the process. And hopefully, eventually, I receive that product.

What do you expect from a crowdfunding campaign? Do you see yourself as a consumer or investor?

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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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Demonstrating The Problem

Why am I thinking about this now? Well, I just had my CMON Marvel Zombies pledge manager open. And I thought about getting Galactus, I really did. But when one wave shipping for what I got, and now it is a ton of stuff, is $90, and it’d be over $100 adding Galactus, I couldn’t pull the trigger on that. That is almost double of what the original shipping projections were. So, now can companies who were funded before the price hike make it work?

And I don’t want this to be a negative on CMON, Marvel Zombies any of these things. Shipping is completely crazy right now. And with parts of China being closed for chunks of time, including ports, because of COVID cases, it is going to get worse. And even though it might not make that much sense, anything that is getting worked on now or soon, you have to start to think about holiday shipping as well.

Basically, even massive companies that can ship a ton at once, Marvel Zombies had 29,000 backers and more will late pledge, shipping is still expensive. There is no volume discount. Then you think about smaller companies out there for shipping. What does something like Grimlord Games do with Village Attacks. Now, they messed up for another reason, they took too long and producing it. But what is a solution for them since they did?

Possible Solutions

Wait on Shipping

So, one option is for a company just to wait. I dislike this solution a lot. Backers rightfully do expect you to try and get the game out in a given time frame. Now, smart backers understand that the time frame is probably 6 months to a year longer than expected. And maybe even slightly over that right now. But as I said, I don’t think shipping is going to improve. It might stabilize or improve slightly, but not majorly. So waiting means that either it’ll cost you more, or it’ll ship for the same cost they are seeing now.

Eat The Cost

Next up the company could just eat the cost. There are massive problems with this one as well. The main thing is that some companies cannot eat the cost of $100,000 or more in additional shipping charges. So, let’s look at Grimlord Games. They are not printing right now because of costs, but like I said, the costs probably won’t go down. And they are a small operation that is not the designers fulltime gig, so they can’t eat the costs without going under. Shipping to 50% of the people and saying tough luck to the other 50% and shutting your doors is a horrible option.

Raise More Money

I have seen this option out there. Another one that I don’t love because it doesn’t incentivize the backers to join in. Setting up a GoFundMe might be what you need to do, though. And I think for a company that can offset some of the costs, but having that little bit extra to help, this is a solid option. Especially if you have good will in the community. A company that is always open and transparent, plus has delivered on time with products people like, you can probably get people to chip in.

On the flip side, I do think that Grimlord Games is going to have issues if they want people to support for more shipping via a GoFundMe sort of things. I might toss in a few bucks to help offset new shipping costs. But their inability to do regular updates on their projects, plus then the massive delays on their projects, they don’t have the good will. And to be fair, this is on them, not the community having undue expectations. Delays are fine, but then you need to communicate, so what other options are there.

Ask For People To Buy Directly From You

Let me explain what I mean here. When I backed Roll Player Adventures as a late pledge and had backed Cartographers Heroes, Thunderworks Games reached out to say that shipping was more expensive than expected. But they could eat the costs, things would be shipped no matter what. However, they asked that if people wanted to help offset the cost, they order something directly from their webstore. Why, because that is product that had already shipped more cheaply and selling it at MSRP would give them some influx of cash for shipping the new stuff.

So I got a few things from them, not much, but some to help support them. Now, this only works for some companies. Some companies do not have webstores. That means that even if their stuff is at retail, they are seeing less of the money on an MSRP sale. Because whole sale to the retailer is already the price they get, a sale doesn’t do anything more for them. This can be a solution for some companies to help offset but not all of them will it work.

Offer Merchandise

So, then, you could do what Boardcubator did, which is offer merchandise, hoodies, t-shirts, things like that. And I do think that this is a clever enough solution, but not one without it’s flaws. The main flaw for me is that I don’t do too many branded t-shirts. And when I do, it is fairly specific. I have a Marvel one and Dragonball Z. And having Boardcubator branded gear didn’t interest me, nor did it look that great.

But I do think this is a decent solution. And using some of the more print on demand sorts of services for shirts or things like that could work. But, and I think this is important, offer more than just apparel items. Like I said, I don’t generally want a branded t-shirt or hoodie. And depending on the person’s figure, a print on demand t-shirt might not fit well. For me, I generally should wear a t-shirt that is a tall.

So offer other things. There was no Boardcubator coffee cup, but had their been one, I might have ordered that. Do I need more coffee cups, no, but it’s something I don’t need less of, so I might have backed it. Instead, they only offered apparel, so I passed. But merchandise is a solid idea.

Offer A Bonus

Finally, and this is my top option, offer a bonus item. Two examples of this, El Dorado Games is printing a pack of cards. Why, because for their games, like Legends Academy, shipping is about $240,000 more than expected. That is insane. So they are offering a pack of 10-20 cards of promos for their games. $20 for a pack of cards, or so, but you get something extra for a game you are getting, albeit two cards, and you can help offset the shipping. Similar to that, Nemesis Games, who did Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor, asked their backers to help the same way. I supported them by picking up their bonus pack of cards for $20.

Now is this a good way because cards are more cost? Well, yes, it is good, in my opinion. Firstly, you are giving the backers the option to get something more. This is an add-on basically but done outside of a pledge manager in the came of Nemesis Games. So printing cards is cheap, doesn’t add much cost for them. Air shipping 2000, let’s say, packs of 20 cards is also cheap. And then distributing those cards after the fact via post is cheap. So of those $20, most went to help offset shipping.

Final Thoughts on Crowdfunding Shipping

Like I keep saying, shipping is not going to get better. It might ebb a little and stabilize or spike once in a while depending on the time of the year. But pre-pandemic shipping prices are not reasonable. And I worry when I see shipping numbers that seem too low.

I see more and more games of Kickstarter and Crowdfunding that will give a very general ballpark for shipping. Or it will be stated as, shipping right now is $X, but it is presented not as a price for what my shipping cost will be. That is going to be determined later in the pledge manager when closer to the date for shipping. Chronicles of Drunagor did this. Edgeguard is doing this. And I believe all crowdfunding campaigns for the next year should do this.

Does that suck for me as a backer? Yes. I want to know what I need to set aside for shipping right now. However, I prefer that you give me that ballpark for what the shipping is right now. Then, not locking yourself into the price, calculate a more specific shipping at the time you open the pledge manager. I want to get my product, and I don’t want to wait or even lose my money, because shipping went too high and you can’t print without going under. I want more board game companies and more small ones. But setting your shipping can be the thing that puts a company under if they aren’t careful.

What is a creative solution you’ve seen, if you’ve seen any I haven’t mentioned?

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