“Getting attention on a board game release announcement isn’t free anymore. It’s not news. At best it’s a bullet point on a long list of new release announcements for the week. The traditional method we’ve long employed of selling to distributors who sell to retailers who sell to players, sadly seems to be falling apart for us, and I suspect for most publishers.” –Colby Dauch, Plaid Hat Games

Over the last 2 weeks I’ve thought over and over about an article that Plaid Hat Games’ Colby Dauch wrote for Board Game Wire. Plaid Hat launched a Kickstarter in June for a new game (The Monolith). They pulled the campaign after a few days and have since relaunched. As of this writing, the project has raised $113,687 from 1257 backers.

In the article, Colby offers a transparent, humble, and vulnerable perspective about his crowdfunding philosophy, how it didn’t result in a successful first launch of The Monolith, and the adjustments he’s made for the current campaign. Today I’ll share my thoughts Colby’s initial goals and how they’ve evolved.

Original Goals (in Colby’s words)

• We will severely limit the use of exclusives. We don’t want people feeling like they HAVE to buy the product now or they will be missing out.
• We aren’t seeking to punish the people who have long supported their local board game shop by purchasing our products through them.
• Most of all we don’t want to manipulate our customers by preying on their fear of missing out.
• We will reduce the long wait between the time you back a game and the time you get that game by being fully ready to go to production at the time of the Kickstarter.

JAMEY: I love these goals, so it pains me that they didn’t align with a successful first campaign for The Monolith. However, there are a few important nuances in these goals, as I think they are all worth pursuing.

First, promos provided for free to backers and then later to everyone else at a set price are, in my opinion, just as effective in the short term and far more effective in the long term compared to exclusives.

Second, I believe it is reasonable for a publisher to offer a discount to direct-order customers, especially early adopters who are also paying shipping fees. [This paragraph was updated to represent my opinion.]

Third, I firmly believe that a publisher can best serve backers by offering a fully designed and developed game at the time of launch. This removes a significant amount of scheduling uncertainty, and design and development are well within a publisher’s control, even on a limited budget. However, the funds attained from a crowdfunding campaign may be necessary for a publisher to invest in art, miniatures, and other expensive sunk costs–Colby talks about how he may have prematurely invested in molds for The Monolith.

Future Takeaways (in Colby’s words)

• When possible, create a version of the game that focuses on lower price and a version that focuses on maximum bling.
• Be more willing to compete with the price point that we and everyone else knows online retailers are going to put on our games.
• Give the campaign a chance to communicate what the demand is. We will still be production ready, but I won’t be putting the cart directly in front of the horse again.
• Better leverage the community-based systems that already exist to support crowdfunding.

JAMEY: Fortunately, Colby is remaining true to his customer-first goals even while evolving as a crowdfunder…with one exception that has left me a bit torn.

Crowdfunding projects do seem to attract most backers to all-in deluxe pledge levels, so it makes sense that The Monolith’s $89 reward is the most popular (976 backers). However, that was an early bird price; for most of the campaign, that same exact reward has been available for $99. So while the early bird level was successful at attracting backers for the first day or so, far fewer backers have pledged to the project since then.

I personally think that a far more effective tool for attracting backers on day one (other than offering a great game at a great price) is to offer a significant unlock for free to ALL backers if you reach a certain threshold within the first 48 hours. If for some reason that threshold isn’t reached, you can add it as a big stretch goal later in the campaign. All backers are early adopters who are bringing the game to life.

I appreciate Plaid Hat for sharing their detailed thoughts with Board Game Wire, and I’m curious what you think about these goals vs how backers have responded to both versions of the project. What would you like other creators to learn from these insights?

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