Monday, August 11, 2014

Kickstarter Thoughts for A Monday

Some thoughts on Kickstarter and some projects I've backed:
  1. While I wish that both Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes and Coin Age were on time, I do NOT begrudge the good folks at Tasty Minstrel Games taking copies fresh off the boat to sell at GenCon this week. GenCon is the largest gaming convention in the U.S. and as a publisher, it just makes sense. There are some whiny folks out there... and, in the words of Lloyd Dobbler: "You. Must. Chill!"
  2. Running late is not the sole province of board game companies - I'm still semi-patiently waiting for the new CD ("Goliath") from Steve Taylor & the Perfect Foil. I will admit to being entertained by Steve's very humorous backer updates.
  3. If anyone at Gamelyn Games is paying attention to this, my son & I would be happy to playtest/print-n-play review Tiny Epic Galaxies for y'all... because we've backed both of the previous Tiny Epic games after trying the print'n'play versions. (Here's my thoughts on Tiny Epic Kingdoms, which should be showing up in mailboxes across the world this fall.)
  4. I think I'm most excited about Baseball Highlights 2045... I do so love Mike Fitzgerald's game designs.
Anyone want to chime in?

5 comments:

Terry Bailey Sr. said...

As to Number 1. That may be true. However, there are publishers that get there stuff out on time when they kickstart. Bezier Games for example.

Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

No argument, Terry - and Tasty Minstrel has been upfront about the delays. The grousing has been of the "they should sacrifice sales at GenCon to get my game to me FIRST" variety, which strikes me as both selfish & the gamer version killing the golden goose.

Terry Bailey Sr. said...

I posted this earlier on a Bezier Games kickstarter comment section.


Normal stages of a Kickstarter.
1. Lots of hype by the person doing the kickstarter. Emails, texts, updates galore, BGG ads
2. Excitement towards the end of the funding period.
3. Projects Fund.
4. Updates for a while.
5. Updates stop.
6. After lots of comments by the backers the person doing the kickstarter finally posts and update.
Nothing informative mind you just you finally know they are alive.
7. Due date arrives.
8. Updates stop again.
9. Backers beg for update.
10. Project 2 months late and we enter the excuses phase.
11. Long wait for game to arrive way past the due date.

OR

You can back a Bezier Games project and not need to mess with that foolishness.
Thanks Ted.

Terry Sr

Terry Bailey Sr. said...

I disagree the backers should get copies before anyone else. They are the ones that stuck their neck out.

Mark (aka pastor guy) said...

Though your comment may be correct for some companies, that has not been my experience with Tasty Minstrel.

I want good game companies to stick around - and in my case, I'll "stick my neck out" to let them actually sell their product so I can have more good games coming down the pipeline. Demanding my "right" to get the game early is just plain foolish.