The first and only question you should ask yourself, when you think about running a Kickstarter campaign should be “Do I have at least an idea or do I see Kickstarter as a great opportunity to make a bunch of money?”
If you just the the bunch of money, then you should stop. Kickstarter is a great platform for almost anything. Especially tabletop board game can get a great support through Kickstarter. But if you have absolutely no clue what you campaign should be about, you may should stop and take a step backwards.
Product comes first! Always!
You might have an excellent, at least you think so, idea and you want to make it a board game to get all those board gamers out there to know about and maybe some of them would by your game. Do it!
Of course there is a BUT. Create the game, play the game and test the game first. You can image you game work perfectly, but when it comes to game play and game mechanics, everybody, even game developers, is still learning and learning.
So make a prototype and play it with your friends, by yourself, with your family and maybe you have a local board game store in your city. Especially board game stores, with all these board gamers, mostly offer game night. Use this! Do not be ashamed, do not be afraid and do not even think about “But what if my game sucks and they tell me”. YES they might tell you, but that´s what it is about.
When your friends, your family member and these guys from your local board game store are playing the game, you should take a step back. Watch them. See them interpreting your rules. See them understanding the game play and mechanics. If they get something wrong: Take a note and correct them.
These notes are essential when it comes to improving your game.
When we created CitiesUP it took us month. We played and watched. What these board gamers and friends discovered by playing the CitiesUP, were errors we never thought about. This really helped to improve our rule book and game play. Improving your game is also not just about how understandable are the rules and if the mechanics work work well, it is also about the esthetics. Think about the quality of your games components. Wood, cardboard or plastic or maybe something absolutely striking new. Think about the feel and handling of your games components. Are the tokens to small? Maybe too big for the game box?
When you leave the beta status of your game, you should think about the components and their price. In which quantity applies which price. How many games do I have to sell to produce the game for price X. This essential when it comes to the economic part of creating a Kickstarter campaign.
In our next post “Running a board game Kickstarter – Part II” we will take a closer look about manufacturing and Kickstarter calculating. Which costs will apply? How do I set up a campaign? What´s important? How do I find a manufacturer?
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