Are First Print Run Expansions a Good Idea?
I always find it interesting when publishers take different approaches in similar situations. I think it gives us an opportunity to delve into interesting topics and gives us insight into creators’ values, and how they think through problems.
Which brings us to pre-planned expansions – do you launch them alongside your first edition campaign, or hold off for a later campaign?
This isn’t an extensive list – just my thoughts on why a publisher might take a given action. I’d love your thoughts in the comments.
Why offer an expansion alongside a first edition campaign?
I think this choice is less common, although there are a number of first print run games on Kickstarter right now offering expansions (examples: Dumpster Fire Party and The Flood).
Price Discrimination: A popular strategy on Kickstarter is to use deluxification and premium add-ons so that backers self-select according to their spending preferences. That is, consumers who are less-price sensitive will opt for premium-add-ons that the publisher earns a wider margin on (or just more revenue at a similar margin).
Alternatively, it allows publishers to offer a product with less content at more affordable prices.
Assuming a campaign has appropriate scale, expansions can serve the purpose of premium component add-ons, offering another option for price insensitive backers to buy more. This would especially be the case for expansions that are excuses to deluxify components (unlock this boss figure and gameplay) are more likely to serve as deluxification options to capture wallet share.
Niche Content that is High Value for Some Backers: This is a little nuanced relative to the price discrimination, but some games want an offering (such as higher player count), that would make the base game un-economical for many backers. They can offer an expansion that meets that demand, without increasing the price of the base game.
Low Likelihood of a Second Kickstarter: Maybe the most obvious reason to offer an expansion with the initial crowdfunding event is if a publisher doesn’t expect a subsequent crowdfunding event. This could be for any number of reasons: from not planning on investing in substantial community building after fulfillment (there’s nothing wrong with a one off project), to an expectation of solid retail presence that will meet most demand.
Planned Expansions Don’t Offer Enough Content to Warrant a Campaign: A lot of expansions can offer minor content that might not excite backers in a second campaign. If that’s the case than a publisher’s options are either to release them later as a standalone (in which case shipping could be cost prohibitive), or bundle them with the base game.
It Makes Your Project Look Big: Part of succeeding on Kickstarter is about signaling competency and demand. Low funding goals (that fund quickly) make projects appear to be in high demand, which draws more eyes to the project. Similarly, a hallmark of some large campaigns is stacks and stacks of add-ons, and sometimes content expansions. I’m not sure how powerful a tool it is – but I could imagine some publishers including add-ons and expansions to increase to the scale of the project so that it feels like the campaigns from large companies with histories of big complex releases.
Broader Marketing: [Updated 05-13-2022] After publishing this article, I had a conversation with, friend and fellow indie publisher, Kervin at For Why Games. They aren’t crowdfunding their first game - so it isn’t directly analogous - but they are including an expansion concurrent with the game release. His reasoning is that the expansion opens up marketing to different groups, and gives them more varied content for platforms like TikTok. Their game is a party game with a social tilt, and their primary form of outreach is social media - so I think their reasoning makes a lot of sense, and just goes to show how varied reasoning and motivations can be.
Why Delay Pre-Planned Expansions to A Later Campaign?
If you want to make Kickstarter your life then a successful Kickstarter means another successful Kickstarter. It’s the second campaign, that funds a reprint, that makes you money. - Seppy (Fight in a Box)
Engage Fans to Build Momentum for a Second Print Run: The dream scenario for indie games is that the first print run is so loved and in demand that it warrants additional runs. If the demand is high enough, this could warrant an additional round of crowd funding.
Holding off on an expansion is a great excuse to hit the crowd funding platforms for a second round. It also gives your enfranchised players and fans a reason to be excited, to get involved in the campaign, and talk about it in their circles.
Uncertainty Around Demand and Scale: Economies of scale are very real in board game manufacturing. It is hard enough selling a few thousand base games so that you start benefitting from scale, let alone a few thousand expansions on top. So, offering expansions with a first edition Kickstarter is a big risk. A campaign that would have been profitable off of just the base game, could lose money because the publisher does not hit scale to produce sold expansions at an economically viable level.
Added Systems Complexity: Expansions and add-ons ad complexity to a release. You need to plan for manufacturing and fulfillment for multiple items, and sometimes separate SKUs in the same box. Any additional complexity increases the risk of something going wrong.
It’s Not Quite Ready: Even if an expansion is pre-planned, it takes a lot of work to develop a product. Not only playtesting, but illustration, graphic and component design are all expensive, time-consuming undertakings. Often it’s not worth fully developing an expansion ahead of the first print-run funding of a game – especially if demand is uncertain.
My gut is that delaying an expansion for a second funding round is the right choice for most projects. I understand some of the reasons why a publisher would include expansions in their first round funding – but I think the largest argument for it is that you have low confidence in your game having the staying power to warrant coming to market a second time (or it’s a niche expansion like a high player count).
Then again, maybe I’m missing something. Why would you include, or not include a pre-planned expansion in your first round crowdfunding event?
