Dice Hate Me

I’m Chris. I play games. Lots and lots of games. I created Dice Hate Me as a place where I can talk about and review games, preview upcoming titles, write ridiculous and (sometimes) humorous things, and generally spread some paper and boardgaming love. Dice Hate Me is more than just a title, though – it’s a gaming lifestyle. You see, I have really bad dice karma. I’m pretty lucky in life, but hand me a pair of dice in a game and I’m dead meat. I’m the guy that always lands on Boardwalk when somebody owns it. I’m the guy that never gets a Yahtzee. Yeah, I’m the guy that avoids the craps table in Vegas as if it were a minor demon. Still, even though dice hate me, I love them. The little bastards.

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The State of Games, Episode 9 - The One About Getting Kickstarted

Posted by Dice Hate Me

06 Jun 2011

Dice Hate Me

(ckirkman)

United States
Durham
North Carolina

The boardgame blog with worse luck than you! dicehateme.com

The State of Games, Episode 9 is fitted, fueled up and ready to fly as we talk about the "magic formula" for success on Kickstarter, as well as take a look at some cool gaming projects that everyone should start kicking... into high gear!

Kick the tires and light the fires: http://dicehateme.com/2011/06/the-state-of-games-episode-9-t...

You can also subscribe to our podcast through iTunes! http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=Smq3RC8yf5I&offe...

8 Comments

Mon Jun 6, 2011 5:39 pm

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W David MacKenzie

(CleverMojo)

United States
Edmonds
Washington

Thanks for all the Alien Frontiers mentions...I feel like the old man of Kickstarter now.

Posted Mon Jun 6, 2011 6:20 pm
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Dice Hate Me

(ckirkman)

United States
Durham
North Carolina

The boardgame blog with worse luck than you! dicehateme.com

CleverMojo wrote:

Thanks for all the Alien Frontiers mentions...I feel like the old man of Kickstarter now.

Pshaw. You are simply the giant upon whose shoulders many others stand.

Posted Mon Jun 6, 2011 6:55 pm
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Philip duBarry

(pdubarry)

United States
Cincinnati
Ohio

Thanks for the great coverage on your podcast! I feel like the little rat-dog of Kickstarter, nipping at the big boys' heels!

Posted Tue Jun 7, 2011 4:25 am
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Tristan Convert

(tristanconvert)

United States

California

Thanks for the live monkey reaction!

Posted Wed Jun 8, 2011 4:54 pm
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Michael Mindes

(DrMayhem)

United States
Tucson
Arizona

I finally got a chance to listen to this podcast, I thought there may have been some talk about me. Thanks for the kind words, and I hope my head will still fit through the doorways around here. Now for some commentary:

Re: Being Prepared - I think that this is more about having a plan and many of the initial pieces in place for success on Kickstarter. We were not as prepared going in as we would have liked, but it was time to launch the project.

The good news is that if you ask people what they want and then provide it, then you will find that you at least look prepared. We do have a small laundry list of preparations for next time and with our significantly increased fan base, maybe we can reset the bar even higher.

For example, we did not have cover art when we launched, but we knew step 1 would be ready within a week of launch. Also, we were not planning on having the print and play files available.

Re: Reasonable Cost - This is a very fine line to deal with. You need to have a cost that is in line with what remains to be done for the project. For Eminent Domain, we needed artwork, full production, etc. For a game with existing artwork and few components $10,000 might even be too high of a target.

One thing you did not mention on the podcast. A higher funding goal provides an incentive for early adopters to actively promote the game. A goal that is too low, and they might support and tell 1 or 2 people. A goal that is too high, and they might support and not "waste" their time promoting for you. A goal that is high but reasonable allows those that take ownership in a project to really promote and spread the word.

This was especially good with the print and play availability of Eminent Domain, since it allowed the dozens of very excited fans to spread the game in the most beneificial viral way... BY PLAYING IT WITH OTHERS!

Re: Mentos in Diet Coke - Loved it... Starting with a good product is essential. Especially one that will be popular with a nice of "rabid folks". The more "rabid" for the theme, the more likely they will spread the word.

Re: Other Stuff - I liked hearing about some of the other projects that I had not yet heard about. Thanks for that! The Road to Cantebury video is really good. But it is missing the charm of some live action human interaction and lost my interest personally.

When you are ready to put somethng on Kickstarter, I think you will have a really good fan base. While the fan base prior to Eminent Domain was sizeable, we had less then 100 supporters after the first week. Those 100 really pushed the project forward.

Business Building and Not Stopping With Kickstarter - Kickstarter hsould not be the end of the road. The personal preparation and choice of partners is essential to starting a successful business. 6 years ago, I thought that throwing a good product out there and saying, "come buy it" would be sufficient. Eek!

In the end it takes: planning, near-endless energy, passion, a great product, patience (not for time, but to listen and answer), intelligently concentrated effort, embracing technology, finding great partners (manufacturers, artists, designers, etc), and work!

Possibly most importantly, it take the willingness to go through/over/around conventional methods to establish your product. It s important however, to be willing to be humble and embrace those conventional methods once they have decided that they can embrace you. For example, establishing the brand of Tasty Minstrel Games with retailers and distributors required going through/over/around them. The only way I could put up the numbers to be significantly noticed was to not count on them for results.

Other Important Things To Say: - I am sure that there was something cirtically important, but I do not recall what it was... oh well!

Cheers!

Posted Thu Jun 9, 2011 4:42 pm
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Dice Hate Me

(ckirkman)

United States
Durham
North Carolina

The boardgame blog with worse luck than you! dicehateme.com

Michael,

Thanks for listening, and taking the time to add some copious notes to the "formula." I'm just glad that Monkey and I didn't cross our wires with what you had said; we joked after recording that it wouldn't be too funny if you happened to come across the podcast and went, "I said what??"

Re: Reasonable Cost - This is a good comment, and an issue we unfortunately didn't have the chance to get deeply into. You're right in that some projects need to adjust their costs dependent upon what the designer/publisher needs in order to provide the best product. In your case, you knew you'd need a lot of art since it was a deck-building game, so the $20,000 goal was reasonable.

Good point about early adopters being proactive with just the right funding mark.

Re: Other Stuff - Thanks for the kind words about the video. I hear what you're saying about the human element, particularly in regards to Kickstarter. I don't think some projects would have received the funding needed without a highly personal video.

The Road to Canterbury was a very different animal, though, and there was quite a bit of discussion about what to include, how to balance the amount of overall background on the theme vs. the actual gameplay, and its tone. The human element was discussed, as well, but in the end it was decided that Alf's literary voice - coupled with Michael Fox's considerably talented actual voice - would be the best way to present the game and impart the humor and personality. Working with Alf to produce the animation was a lot of fun, and provided a nice challenge.

I will definitely say that I don't believe that sort of presentation would work for every project on Kickstarter, but I do feel that it helped to set the project apart - a good match for Alf's offbeat and original gaming vision.

I'd really like to play around with some hybrid presentations that combine informative animation and personal video in the future, provided I get more projects to work on, of course! Just as Kickstarter continues to grow, so, too, will the way future project heads present themselves and their passion.

Quote:

When you are ready to put somethng on Kickstarter, I think you will have a really good fan base. While the fan base prior to Eminent Domain was sizeable, we had less then 100 supporters after the first week. Those 100 really pushed the project forward.

Thank you, I appreciate that. And that's an interesting stat - only 100 fans, and what an amazing growth!

Quote:

Possibly most importantly, it take the willingness to go through/over/around conventional methods to establish your product. It s important however, to be willing to be humble and embrace those conventional methods once they have decided that they can embrace you. For example, establishing the brand of Tasty Minstrel Games with retailers and distributors required going through/over/around them. The only way I could put up the numbers to be significantly noticed was to not count on them for results.

Excellent advice. I hope that many of the Kickstarter success stories embrace that methodology in order to bring their games to more people, and ultimately expand the hobby.

Cheers,
Chris

Posted Thu Jun 9, 2011 10:33 pm
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Michael Mindes

(DrMayhem)

United States
Tucson
Arizona

dicehateme wrote:

Thank you, I appreciate that. And that's an interesting stat - only 100 fans, and what an amazing growth!

Only 100 people bought into the project. My email list was about around 2,200 people strong, I do not remember the exact number. How the email list is 5,200 people strong and growing fast thanks to the current contest on BGG.

Edited Thu Jun 9, 2011 10:47 pm
Posted Thu Jun 9, 2011 10:46 pm
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Dice Hate Me

(ckirkman)

United States
Durham
North Carolina

The boardgame blog with worse luck than you! dicehateme.com

DrMayhem wrote:

dicehateme wrote:

Thank you, I appreciate that. And that's an interesting stat - only 100 fans, and what an amazing growth!

Ahh, gotcha. I figured that's what you meant - initial backers, not your email list.

And speaking of the contest, I'd better get cracking... whistle

Posted Thu Jun 9, 2011 10:52 pm
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The State of Games, Episode 9 - The One About Getting Kickstarted

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