Too Short to Post II
I keep a running a list in my phone of blog topics. Some of them don’t quite feel long enough for a stand alone article. Here are a few of those topics: AI and Art, and Quiet Quitting.
Behind the Curtain
I tackle a couple of topics that have been on my mind - mental health and working through anxiety, entrepreneurialism and the social trappings that come with it, and the importance of community.
Nuts & Bolts - How to Find a Manufacturer
Finding the right board game manufacturer can be a daunting task. The market is somewhat opaque, so especially for new publishers it can be a challenge to make sure you get the right price, quality, and surety of execution.
We break down everything you need to know in this step-by-step guide to finding a board game manufacturer.
Kickstarter in Review Part V: How Backers Discovered Our Project
We take a deeper dive into traffic sources for our Nut Hunt campaign, and survey responses for how backers discovered our project.
Mass-market & accessibility… aka your rulebook is too long
We take a deep dive into what it means for a game to be a mass-market, gateway, or hobby game. What that means for accessibility - and how we can increase our potential audience through clear rules and onboarding.
A Simple Model to Help Gauge Kickstarter Preparedness
Gauging whether you are ready to go live, is one of the hardest questions to answer as a new (or seasoned) creator. The team over at Crowdfunding Nerds put together a simple and intuitive model for funding based on email subscribers. We take a closer look and dig into its strengths, weaknesses, and uses.
Now Accepting Submissions… Again
We are once again accepting board game submissions. If you have a board game that may be a good fit, please send it our way, we’d love to take a look!
Nuts & Bolts – Best Practices for Convention Pitching
Whether you’re an indie designer, or a seasoned pro, eventually you’ll be asking strangers to check out your games. Maybe it’s in a playtest hall, maybe it’s at a convention booth, maybe it’s to a big time publisher, or distributor who meandered past your table.
Hot on the heels of Gen Con, we share our best practices for pitching your game.
Welcome to Booth 2151!
We’re excited for our first year as an exhibitor at Gen Con! Come hang out at booth 2151 where we’ll be showing off Sigil for the first time, and have plenty of room to sit down a play a game.
The Bizarre World of Speculative TCGs
The past 12 months have seen a deluge of Trading Card Game (TCG) Kickstarters raising over $10 million. 15 campaigns broke the $100k mark, and 2 games raised over $1m each. This is a sector that prior to the last twelve months had only seen 3 campaigns raise $100k or more.
Welcome to the bizarre world of Speculative TCGs.
Kickstarter in Review Part IV: The Mosaic of Organic Marketing
Nearly all of the success of our Kickstarter ($43k raised from 1,232 backers) is attributable to our social proof campaign, and organic marketing. Which is pretty incredible. We take a deep dive into all the channels we used for organic outreach.
As Seen on the Forums
I take inspiration from a few posts from Facebook & Reddit board game forums to delve a little deeper. What makes a game great? Can you trust cold queries for manufacture? And what is the role of board game design forums in community building around your game?
Kickstarter in Review Part III: Facebook Advertising & E-Mail Onboarding
We continue our deep dive into the Nut Hunt Kickstarter and examine our Facebook ads campaign, and onboarding lifecycle. What went right, what didn’t, and what can we do better?
How to find the right 3D sculptor for your project [Guest Post]
I’m excited to share a guest post from Ben Levy on how to find the perfect 3D sculptor for your game. It is an area of game development that I haven’t experienced first hand, but that fits well in topics we’ve written on in the past on illustration. Ben’s game Mantle of the Keeper is currently live on Kickstarter, with some great, eye catching miniatures. We’re sure to learn a lot from his experience.
Kickstarter in Review Part II: Mistakes Made
We continue our review of our Nut Hunt Kickstarter campaign. Today we take a look at our biggest and most costly missteps, mistakes & lessons learned: Facebook advertising, price, demographic focus, and timing.
Kickstarter in Review Part I: Success
Our Kickstarter wrapped up last week with $42,818 raised from 1,232 backers! I’ll have lots of content dissecting the ins and outs of our campaign. But, today we celebrate our successes.
Food & Community - Lessons Learned From My Favorite Restaurants
My favorite restaurants have two things in common - they have amazing food, and they feel personal. A strength we have as an indie publisher is that we can personally connect with our community.
I ponder how we can maintain that level of connection, and attention to each individual as Nut Hunt grows past 1000 backers, and each of our upcoming games expand our community even farther.
Nuts & Bolts – Querying Content Creators
Social proof through a review and preview campaign is vitally important for board game Kickstarters. We take a closer look at how to plan a campaign, how to find content creators who are a great fit for your project, and how to query those creators successfully.
Nuts & Bolts – Custom QR Codes
Attention to detail goes a long way in taking our games to the next level, and communicating to our customers that we care. Custom QR codes are a great way to set your game, table banners, and fliers apart. And, they’re easy to make.
Going Digital with Sigil
Different genres of games translate more, or less successfully to digital play. Abstract dueling games like Chess, or Magic: The Gathering, tend to port well to digital formats. We’re excited with the progress we’re making on the digital platform for our next game - Sigil. Complete with a tutorial, a punching bag AI, and ladder matches with ELO rankings.