A detailed example: kickstarter

[grendeljd]

just as a note: I am involved with a convention (TempleCon) which is held in Rhode Island and has a huge, dedicated miniatures track.
WarHammer and War Machine/Hordes take up many spots, but there are a dozen or so other games running as well.

if we could get it started, crowd-funding and a location to demo the re-game would be primo.

Yeah, it would be a smart part of the plan to try to get at least a rough '3rd edition' of the rules out, and then have people with enough original mini's to run LoS at as many gaming Con's [big or small] as possible. This would help spread awareness & interest in the game, and perhaps a solid kickstarter campaign could then spin out of that.

[Dave Chase]

Most of the games that I have seen on Kickstarter is the start up cost to produce a run.

Most are making more copies than the number of backers.

I can not say that for all of them just the dozen or so that I have looked at.

Dave Chase

[bobloblah]

From what I've seen and discussed with people who've done Kickstarters, backers are usually getting a cheaper than retail price on the product itself, but may well be paying a premium well over production costs for add-ons. The add-ons are a carrot to get people to throw money at you for which you have very little over-head, hence those dollars are profit, or funneled towards primary production. The main bulk of the pledges (non-add-on) are effectively a loan or advance that allows you to set up production, and is then repaid in product (instead of money). This means that as long as you're charging backers more than your costs of production (i.e. ongoing production costs, not initial capital outlay), you are still making money. You can then pay off the initial capital outlay with profits from ongoing sales, or additional funds from the Kickstarter (e.g. add-ons, pricing of pledge-levels above production-cost minimums, etc.).

I am both very tired, and very sick with a cold at the moment, so I hope that made sense.

[grendeljd]

Is everybody paying close attention to the Robotech Tactics as it winds up? It's ending Monday - currently about to break $1 million in funding! Unbelievable.

Dave Chase - didn't you say elsewhere you have pledged in for it? What level did you go for, if you don't mind my asking?

[Dave Chase]

Well, I started out fairly large into it but then reality had to take a bit out of me and I had to lower my pledge (will do that officially on Monday before it ends, so we can try to keep the extras rolling in)>

Another reality bite that got me is, who am I going to play with in miniatures in this small rural town and county. I can't drive that much this year and possibly next year (cancer and broken knee cap for now) so trying to travel 1 to 2 hours just to game for a few hours is out.

My current plan is to buy in to the basic set and a few extras so that I can get one of about every figure that they are making.

Heck if I could afford it, I would drop $15,000 and get the complete SDF-1 set and 2 Zentradi sets (which would only be 1/2 to 2/3 of a complete Destroyer set TO&E.

Dave Chase

[grendeljd]

I have been getting caught up in the excitement of getting  the Robotech game, especially with watching the campaign so closely and seeing all the stretch goal extras being packed into the 'Battle Cry' pledge level.

I am seriously having a hard time resisting the urge to get one - and I am in the same situation as you, Dave... If I bought one, I'd have no one to play it with. But, I am a massive Robotech fan & I'd love to have it regardless...

[Dave Chase]

Battlecry is the way to go then,

The only thing it will not have is the monster and space craft

Awesome looking figures

Dave Chase

[Dave Chase]

Part of my problem (addiction to games) is that I want some of these figures too

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-the-sci-fi-miniatures-board-game

If it wasn't for this kickstarter game of Deadzone coming up so soon, I would probably sink more money into Robotech, even if there is no one to game with.

Dave Chase

[bobloblah]

Wow. I'm seriously considering pledging on the Deadzone Kickstarter. It's definitely an interesting one to look to in terms LoS.

[Dave Chase]

Not trying to get to spend more of your money, but check out their (the deadzone company) other Kickstarter games and look at those figures.

Dave Chase

[bobloblah]

I'm already familiar with Mantic, unfortunately for my wallet. Fortunately, I have resisted their siren-song thus far. Unfortunately, Deadzone's melody might finally be too much for me. Fortunately, the metaphor is so strained at this point that noone knows what I'm talking about anyway.

[grendeljd]

Wow. I'm seriously considering pledging on the Deadzone Kickstarter. It's definitely an interesting one to look to in terms LoS.

Its a very interesting looking game to be sure, but it doesn't quite fire my imagination enough to buy into. There are some really good looking figures, like the giant plague carrier, but some of the others are a little generic looking for my tastes. Not to say they aren't nicely detailed or professionally sculpted, just not hooking me personally.

I like the idea they have for the modular building game pieces - they look really good, and the re-play factor is high with the ability to make a different tabletop each time you play. Its also a great idea to help sell a game that doesn't require you to make up all your own terrain [a daunting task for some].

I'll be keeping an eye on this kickstarter campaign more now that the Robotech Tactics one is complete. They're doing very well with it.

Not trying to get to spend more of your money, but check out their (the deadzone company) other Kickstarter games and look at those figures.

Dave Chase

Very cool that they've been so successful launching all those games via Kickstarter. I see the 'Warpath' game is a bit of a pre-cursor to Deadzone.

I had a conversation with my neighbour this morning about current tabletop mini's on the market, and he mentioned that a lot of them are very similar, almost too generic with their troop type selections. He also said that he really liked the uniqueness of LoS. Interesting to note that the Warpath game from Mantic almost feels just like a take-off of classic 40k, with all the typical 'fantasy' races such as orcs, elves, dwarves and rat-people placed in a futuristic setting.

I ended up monitoring the Robotech KS campaign over its final two hours - they really shot up high, finishing with a staggering $1.44million! The key thing I took away from that was how well set up their stretch goals were, and the rabid mania that developed with the possibility of getting tons of freebies tossed in the higher it went.

Very good structure to it - set cash values attained would first unlock extra figures as 'add-on purchases' but if they then reached a higher set pledge total those items became free [at a certain individual pledge level] while other figures were then made available as add-ons. AND they kept it up to date, up to the minute.

They mentioned how impressed they were with the degree of comments people were posting, and they listened & adjusted as they were able to. The level of social-media sharing to spread the word was also immense.

[bobloblah]

Its a very interesting looking game to be sure, but it doesn't quite fire my imagination enough to buy into. There are some really good looking figures, like the giant plague carrier, but some of the others are a little generic looking for my tastes. Not to say they aren't nicely detailed or professionally sculpted, just not hooking me personally.

I like the idea they have for the modular building game pieces - they look really good, and the re-play factor is high with the ability to make a different tabletop each time you play. Its also a great idea to help sell a game that doesn't require you to make up all your own terrain [a daunting task for some].

This is probably the best part of that Kickstarter for me. I notice they have terrain-only pledge levels (with which you can include terrain add-ons), so they apparently realise that this would be the case for a lot of people.

I had a conversation with my neighbour this morning about current tabletop mini's on the market, and he mentioned that a lot of them are very similar, almost too generic with their troop type selections. He also said that he really liked the uniqueness of LoS.

That is interesting. It does seem that most games have gone towards hyper-stylized miniatures, reminiscent of Manga. It's the same trend that created the concept piece that's in the gallery here, after all. I think there may still be a pretty significant market for a much less over-the-top sci-fi miniatures along the lines of LoS. Of course, that's just a gut feeling, but it stems from conversations with other miniature gamers.

Interesting to note that the Warpath game from Mantic almost feels just like a take-off of classic 40k, with all the typical 'fantasy' races such as orcs, elves, dwarves and rat-people placed in a futuristic setting.

I believe Mantic was formed by a bunch of ex-GW guys, and their original line of Fantasy miniatures (before they even had the Kings of War game) appeared to be intended to directly steal sales from GW by undercutting them. The designer in the Deadzone video was a game designer and White Dwarf editor at GW back in the 90s.

I ended up monitoring the Robotech KS campaign over its final two hours - they really shot up high, finishing with a staggering $1.44million! The key thing I took away from that was how well set up their stretch goals were, and the rabid mania that developed with the possibility of getting tons of freebies tossed in the higher it went.

Very good structure to it - set cash values attained would first unlock extra figures as 'add-on purchases' but if they then reached a higher set pledge total those items became free [at a certain individual pledge level] while other figures were then made available as add-ons.

I spoke to this in a reply I made to you and Dave in another thread. Basically, my feeling is that this kind of structure is crucial for any miniatures-based Kickstarter to really explode. It creates the environment for a "feeding frenzy" to occur as stretch goals become unlocked.

AND they kept it up to date, up to the minute.

They mentioned how impressed they were with the degree of comments people were posting, and they listened & adjusted as they were able to. The level of social-media sharing to spread the word was also immense.

Also immensely important is that sense of two-way communication; it's basically inexpensive marketing, as it taps into people's desire to be heard and appear to be listened to.

[bobloblah]

Excellent article by Matt Forbeck detailing a lot of what I've been mentioning about miniatures Kickstarters.
http://www.forbeck.com/2013/05/23/top-ten-tabletop-kickstarters-how-they-do-it/

[Brother Jim]

I can't get that link to work when I click on it, or when I copy/paste to google.


Can someones heplz me? I appear to be a bigger coputater-idjit than normal today.
Thanks.