EoE Devlog 1: Our Kickstarter Experience

This post is primarily as a way for us to reflect on our entire Kickstarter project, and to share our development experience. Who knows? Maybe it will help some aspiring designers who want to crowdfund their first project!

Before we started our Kickstarter project, neither of us had the slightest idea what we were getting into. Not only did we both have little experience of crowdfunding, but we also knew nothing about the board gaming world. The only things we had were our diplomas in game design and an idea that we were both enthusiastic about. In this Dev Log, we will write more about our journey with Echoes of Emperors and Kickstarter.

Finance planning

The first thing we had to do was carry out some financial planning to estimate the cost of a project like this. First, we looked for quotations from different manufacturers and logistics companies to get an idea of the average price.

After all the calculations, we realised that we would need at least $10k. This now seems quite small compared to the eventual budget. However, our plan back then was completely different. Instead of using a factory for everything, we planned to cast and paint the Emperor edition figurines ourselves if our sales were much lower. The option of a 2-player and 4-player edition was also quite a gamble. However, if we sold far fewer 2-player editions, we would simply assemble these boxes ourselves.

After all this planning and safety nets for our different editions, we felt ready to start focusing on the next stage. Getting the word out. Also something we had very little experience in.

Marketing

For the pre-campaign marketing, we decided to consult a marketing agency regarding our online marketing strategy. Our goal was to build a decent email list of people interested in the project, and we eventually achieved this. We’re glad we did this because we learnt a lot about online marketing. Apparently, it’s not rocket science! In the real world, meanwhile, we started visiting local board game conventions and clubs to spread the word and get to know the board game community better. We also got some valuable playtesting feedback that helped us make some significant final changes to the game.

Pre-campaign conclusion

So, what are our conclusions from these first two points? For the first point, we should really try to obtain a final quotation for everything instead of just an idea of the average prices. In future, we should also be a little less ambitious about the number of different editions we’re going to offer, although it might have helped with the success of Echoes of Emperors.

For marketing, we’ll probably do more ourselves so we can put more of the budget directly into marketing. We also know our community better now and know what to focus on. Of course, this is difficult for a first project as it’s something you really have to experience to learn about.

The Campaign

Next up: The Kickstarter campaign itself. We were very happy with the final result, it was pretty much exactly what we had hoped for securing funding for a larger initial print run. During the campaign, we also continued with online marketing and communicating with different manufacturers and fulfilment partners to find the right fit. We tried to post updates as often as possible to be transparent about the entire process, which was sometimes difficult as we didn’t know what would happen in the next phases.

Copyediting

After the Kickstarter campaign, we had a budget, so our plans became clearer. We started designing Echoes of Emperors further and planning the production. The design process went pretty smoothly. The only area where we misplanned was the copyediting and translation. Not only does our game contain a lot of text, but all the cards and the rules also require very clear and consistent vocabulary and phrasing. To this end, we collaborated with Boardgame Circus and one of our backers who works with them. They did an amazing job and we are very glad we took extra time for this, because otherwise there would have been many more misinterpretations of the game rules! For future expansions, we now know to take enough time for all copy editing.

Manufacturing

We worked with Longpack Games in China for manufacturing. They did an amazing job with communication and test prints. However, we forgot about Chinese holidays, which resulted in a delay of a few weeks. But yeah, now we know!

Logistics

Now that our entire game had been designed and almost finished production, we had to start the most difficult part of all: logistics. By the time we were ready for the final shipping quotations, a lot had happened in the world. And we could really see this in the quotation! We also noticed that our initial calculations had underestimated the weight of the boxes. We had calculated everything based on an estimate. However, as some of you may already know, our boxes, especially the figurine boxes, are pretty heavy. This made shipping a lot more expensive. This hit our finances pretty hard, but hey, we survived! The biggest takeaway here is to plan your shipping costs very carefully, bearing in mind the weight of all your boxes and the weight of the cardboard packaging, which can easily add an extra 200 grams and place your package in a different weight class!

These unexpected higher costs, as well as annoying international bank transfers, also resulted in shipping delays.

Overall, we are still very happy with the fulfilment partner we chose. There weren’t too many damaged orders or missing packages. There were just some bigger delays for packages going to the UK and Canada due to unfortunate timing with strikes and port congestion.

Pledge manager

Another aspect that we would change is the way we used the pledge manager. Backers can still use PledgeManager to adjust their orders, enter their address and pay for shipping. One issue we had was having to look at multiple websites simultaneously, which complicated matters for both us and the backers. In future, we will probably ask for addresses and shipping costs at the same time as the pledge, so that everything can be handled at once. The downside to this would be that there is a small risk that shipping costs might rise in the months before shipping, and people who change addresses would have to contact us personally to update them.

Conclusion

For people who are also considering creating a Kickstarter campaign. Make sure you do enough financial planning and pre-campaign marketing. Make sure you calculate shipping costs based on weight and allow for an additional 30% from your own funds, as well as doubling the time given by your shipping partner. Even if they promise to deliver everything within a few months. 😉

The last big question: Will we ever run another Kickstarter campaign? If our budget doesn’t cover the cost of additional prints, we might consider it. If we were to do so, we would approach it very differently, of course. Perhaps on a different platform and possibly with less different versions, as these make planning much more difficult.

We are really enjoying working on this project and hope to achieve much more with it. We could talk so much more about Echoes of Emperors, but we’ve already said enough for now.

Until the next newspost!
Niel & Stef