The Game Whisperer

Funding the Dream Ep 34 VivaJava with Chris and Cherilyn from Dice Hate Me games

Probably the single greatest thing about being able to do Funding the Dream is sitting and talking with amazing people. Chris and Cherilyn from Dice Hate Me games fall into that category. This episode of Funding the Dream is 20 minutes long, but that was in the middle of a 2 hour conversation of a wide range of topics, all concerning the state of the board game industry.

My podcast is about Kickstarter. Chris and Cherilyn have a bit of a unique perspective, only shared by a handful of board game designers/publishers. VivaJava is their second game project on Kickstarter. Their first, Carnival designed by Cherilyn, was successful enough to make it to the top 10 all-time funding list for Kickstarter. It was on the list until the successive projects continued to drive up the pledge levels to crazy levels.

Now, with their second game on Kickstarter, VivaJava, they bring an interested perspective about how Kickstarter has changed over the past six months. How things have become more professional and more sophisticated.

You can listen to this episode of Funding the Dream here

Be sure to listen to their own show, The State of Games here

And be sure to support Funding the Dream Kickstarter project here. Ends March 3rd

Funding the Dream Ep 33 with Kim Vandenbroucke from The Game Aisle

Think you know what it takes to invent games for a living? Meet Kim Vandenbroucke, the brain behind Brainy Chick, Inc. Kim is a professional game designer who cranks out new ideas sometimes as much as one a day. 

As an award winning game designer, Kim brings some great insights into the game industry and what it takes to pitch your game to the big boys. She has been successful for nearly a decade navigating the world of game design.

Listen in as she shares her secrets on how to be successful.

Funding the Dream Episode 33 can can be heard here

Don't forget to show your support for Funding the Dream Kickstarter campaign that runs until the end of February. Every little bit helps us reach out goal. 

Funding the Dream Kickstarter Page

Kickstarter funds a $1 million towards a video game in 24 hours. What does this mean for the board game projects on Kickstarter.

If you blinked you missed it. On February 9th Tim Schafer and Double Time Studios launched a video game project on Kickstarter. Their goal was $400,000. Under normal times and circumstances this wold be a crazy unreachable goal. 

They gave themselves 33 days to hit the goal. It took them 8 hours. Then they hit $1 million in less than a day. And the numbers just keep going crazy. At $1.4 million they had 40,000 backers. 

What does this mean to the video game industry. What does this mean to the board game projects on Kickstarter. Is all this money flowing into the video game and being sucked out of other projects? That is an easy answer. No, other projects are definitely not suffering from the exposure that Double Time is creating for all these other projects.

40,000 backers means that a tremendous amount of people who have never backed a project in the past are now extremely aware of Kickstarter. They will start looking for other cool projects to back.

This will bring a lot of new people to pledge their money. Also, $1.4 million divided by 40,000 means that backers are spending an average of $35 each. They are spending $35 on a game that would normally cost $50 in the store. This means that they have $15 left over from that normal purchase to spend on other projects. 

This also means that there will be a flood of projects coming into Kickstarter. My guess is that the 46% failure rate is going to spike up. There will be so many rushed projects that will not have enough adequate exposure and will fail to launch.

For the board game space it will be a terrific boon. Currently video games and board games are semi-lumped together by Kickstarter. People looking for a game project will stumble across board games in addition to video games. Good news. Also, this legitimizes mainstream projects going the Kickstarter route. The good news is that small indie publishers can still get in a dance with the big boys. 

What we are learning is that Kickstarter is putting a dollar amount on the vague idea of reputation. There will be scammers and crooks attempting to exploit the gullible but Kickstarter has some built in mechanisms tied to human nature that will make it tough for nefarious types to take advantage of the system.

Kickstarter is going to change. Real money is beginning to be thrown around and Kickstarter is disrupting nearly every industry and market it touches. Someone is going to realize that is worth a lot more than the amount of income the company is currently generating.

Also, next big market to be upended by Kickstarter. Local politics and special funding. When a neighborhood says they will just do it themselves instead of working through the local government, people will start to ask why they are paying taxes to ineffective politicians.

 

Funding the Dream Ep 29 $14,000 for Genegrafter

Genegrafter successfully funded with more than $14k. Erik Dahlman, the creative genius behind Genegrafter, sits down in studio with The Game Whisperer to discuss how a new person to the hobby with a new game idea can find success.

Erik's Kickstarter project faced many hurdles. Including running through four major holidays. This included Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Martin Luther King Day. This is significant because on days people are away from their computers at work they tend not to spend time backing Kickstarter projects. 

Erik was able to focus his message, integrate feedback and input from his fans, and deliver a successful campaign well beyond his funding level.

Visit the Genegrafter Kickstarter page here

Listen to Episode 29 of Funding the Dream here

 

Funding the Dream Ep 28 Going Cardboard with Lorien Green

Lorien Green had a crazy idea; To produce a film documentary on the board game industry. She begged her family for a video camera at Christmas, and then, without any formal training, set off on a 3 year adventure to document the board game industry.

Lorien sits down with The Game Whisperer and shares her journey. What prompted her to do it, how she paid for it, and how the $15,000 she raised on Kickstarter made it possible for her to bring the project to a new level.

Lorien's experience shows how you can use Kickstarter to fund a portion of your dream, breaking it up into manageable parts rather than attempting to do the entire project at once.

 

Listen to Funding the Dream Ep 28 here

Visit the Going Cardboard Kickstarter project here

Buy Lorien's DVD here

 

Funding the Dream Ep 27 Farmageddon with Phil Kilcrease and Grant Rodiek

Phil Kilcrease and Grant Rodiek sit down and discuss how Farmageddon has been brought to Kickstarter. This includes the process of playtesting, getting feedback from the game community, and finalizing artwork.

Farmageddon is similar to Farmville as a card game with a lot more competition between players. Grant, the game designer, speaks about how he went through the process of building the theme and the art work.

Phil covers how as a new game publisher, he feels that Farmageddon is a perfect fit for his line. He also feels that Kickstarter is changing the way games come to market. It is speeding up the process and allowing game designers to get their games to market a lot faster.

The final question is why San Francisco Bay area and Salt Lake City are two hotbeds for game developer and game design. Grant who lives in San Francisco Bay area and Phil who lives in Salt Lake City share their ideas of why this is.

Farmageddon launched as a Kickstarter project on February 1st 2012. Visit the Farmageddon Kickstarter page here

Listen to Episode 27 of Funding the Dream here

Funding the Dream Ep 26 - Steve Long from Hero Games

RPGs are having an increased interest on Kickstarter this year with many of the RPG game projects being successfully funded. One project has been The Book of the Empress from Hero Games. Steve Long, an owner of Hero Games and long time contributor to the Hero RPG system, sits down and talks about the success of Book of the Empress and how Kickstarter is changing the way Hero Games brings new products to market.

View the Kickstarter Page here

Listen to Episode 26 of Funding the Dream here

Funding the Dream Ep 25 - Discussion with Michael Mindes concerning launch of For the Win

Michael Mindes from Tasty Minstrel Games sits down with the Game Whisperer to talk about strategy of bringing products to market and a new strategy with For the Win where the game is offered at a extremely low price.

Michael explains his thinking on why and how they are bringing For the Win to market.

The Kickstarter project For The Win

Listen to Funding the Dream Ep 25 with Michael Mindes here 

Funding the Dream Ep 24 Jumping into Kickstarter with Mark Baker

In Ep 24 we chat with Mark Baker, creator of 5 to Close, a word lover card game. Mark brings an interesting insight to his Kickstarter experience. He read about Kickstarter, looked at their website, and launched his campaign all within a few weeks. For 20 minutes we talk about the full experience of Kickstarter to someone new to the market.

You can find Mark's Kickstarter project at 5 to close

Listen to Funding the Dream Ep 24 here

Funding the Dream Ep 23 Kickstarter growth in 2012

2012 Kickstarter campaigns are off to a fast start. Already funding at $128,211 in the first few weeks. For comparison, last year it wasn't until May that Kickstarter games passed this mark.

Laurence O'brien and I discuss Kickstarter growth in 2012, the year of the RPG. 

Only 20 minutes long and a great conversation. Join us for Episode 23 and the 7th Ep of Season 2.

Listen to Episode 23 here