Did you know we’re running a crowdfunding campaign for Far Away: Corporate Espionage? Chip in today for a discounted game and opportunity to add something to the game itself.
Here is my proposed logic for the “Crowdfunding Paradox”:
Crowdfunding allows niche products to find market fit.
Crowdfunding sites benefit more from larger, successful projects than ones that might fail.
Products with broad market fit can still use crowdfunding sites.
Crowdfunding sites have no incentive to help niche products.
The FA:CE campaign is definitely not funded at a level I’d like. There are fair statements to make about our own marketing efforts. However, looking around on Gamefound right now, you’d be hard-pressed to say what’s trending needs distributed venture capital to be successful. A special edition of a game in BGG’s top 50? Seems like it would have done fine without a third-party platform raising money.
I know readers are rolling their eyes going, “Yeah, Kickstarter and its ilk have been preorder marketing for years. Are you just figuring this out?” No, I’ve seen a campaign from CMON. But what does surprise me is the unwillingness of the community to accept things outside of that level of major corporate investment. Pre-production copies of games are expensive to make and sending those to 10+ reviewers isn’t cheap either. Add in all the art assets, videos, and ads, and I would be surprised if the average game didn’t spend more than its funding goal before launch. If you don’t do that level of production, there’s no way your campaign is going viral. If the goal of crowdfunding is to help innovation, then this isn’t a healthy ecosystem.
Gaming absolutely needs a constant influx of new talent, voices, and ideas. The recycling of intellectual property, repetition of trendy mechanics, and mountains of plastic miniatures aren’t going to increase the amount of joy in the hobby; only stagnate it. Fall of Magic isn’t my choice for a game night, but I’m glad it exists – gaming is better by having a weird scroll game about nihilism. It’s also gut-wrenching to see a campaign that was considered highly successful a decade ago that probably wouldn’t be funded today (A mockup instead of detailed renderings? Text instead of infographics? No review videos for a game that’s not published? One-out-of-ten crowdfunding campaign.)
If crowdfunding sites are “victims” of their own success, how do we fix this? Realistically, you, the savvy consumer, need to help evangelize innovation and creativity. You, the intellectual reading this humble game designer’s blog, have a moral imperative to help guide this hobby to a place where a plucky studio with a good idea can find an audience beyond yourself. Same goes for the media: only sharing what’s popular to get clicks probably isn’t why you wanted to make videos about board games. I have the utmost respect for Stonemaier Games leaving Kickstarter. They didn’t need the platform to be successful and they made way for others.
CPG loves to zig where others zag. It’s a detriment to our funding goals right now. But as a consumer, I can’t watch another video where generic 3D renders move. I don’t buy games based on piece count. I backed 7th Citadel because instead of leading with what’s in the box, they told me I’d be a “slave gardener”. In the same vein, I’d rather make a video to promote a board game never say the word “game”.