Brandon the Game Dev

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the future of Kickstarter. Many of the game developers I work with have expressed hesitation about the platform that I didn’t see in 2015 or 2016. Anecdotally, the platform seems to be getting harder to succeed on. The great irony being that their whole claim to fame was that it would help creative small businesses get started. So what’s going on?

They say Kickstarter is not a store…

Kickstarter Is Not a Store. At least, that’s what this seven-year-old article on their blog says. The idea of Kickstarter is that they would help you raise, through backers, enough funding to make your creative project come to life. The subtext being that you wouldn’t be able to raise the funding without this very special crowdfunding site.

Companies like CMON go to Kickstarter, raise funding for games they would be able to make even without the platform, and use the site in a way that’s very close to a pre-order system. Granted, that’s not quite pre-ordering since they are raising manufacturing costs, but there’s a degree of certainty to it that really small businesses can’t provide or compete with. Now, while this may go against the spirit of Kickstarter, I still consider this fair game. CMON makes pretty good games, and it’s hard to complain about that.

What I find a lot more alarming – at least for first-time game developers – is that, yes, some campaigns on Kickstarter actually have started taking pre-orders. That means the games already physically exist and people are effectively buying them from Kickstarter as if it were a store. If larger companies on Kickstarter follow suit and raise the standards to where manufacturing must be complete prior to Kickstarter, then that’s it. It becomes a de facto store.

Kickstarter has good reasons to become a store.

“But that’s against the whole spirit of Kickstarter, Brandon, why would they become a store?” The simple fact is that Kickstarter has a ton of really compelling reasons to become a store. First of all, Kickstarter gets paid 5% of every successful campaign’s funding. They get paid more when people succeed. You’ll notice that the most successful campaigns tend to be ones that aren’t risky. They tend to come from people who know what they’re doing. Kickstarter could absolutely lean into this and only accept finished products for campaigns.

Kickstarter has come a long way since 2009, and many successful projects are nearly complete once the campaign starts. When a campaign is successful, pages wind up looking pretty close to storefronts. Aesthetically and functionally, Kickstarter is creeping toward being a traditional online store like Amazon.

Kickstarter doesn’t have to change much to become a store either. They can either amend their rules to allow people to sell already-created goods as rewards or they can simply stop enforcing their moratorium on pre-orders which, by the way, they’ve already begun to do.

Negative reinforcement is a factor, too.

Consider also that our favorite crowdfunding has a lot of negative aspects to it that would go away if it became a more traditional store. At the end of 2015, nearly 10% of campaigns did not even fulfill their rewards at all. If you only had a 90% chance of receiving a product after purchasing it from Amazon or eBay, you wouldn’t purchase it! Simple as that!

On top of that, in late 2012, as many as 84% of projects shipped late. If we consider this separate from the 10% that don’t fulfill at all, that leaves a mere 6% of campaigns that arrive on-time. That’s an awful user experience, and you have to wonder exactly what compels people to keep coming back. Is it really about helping creators bring their projects to life any more, since Kickstarter has been regularly creeping toward becoming a store? Or rather, is it about purchasing things that fit into a certain “indie/creative” niche that Kickstarter covers better than anyone else. If it’s the latter, our favorite crowdfunding site could better serve that market need by becoming a store.

Did you know Kickstarter is illegal in Finland? That is because they have consumer protection laws in place that are intended to protect their citizens from websites that, I don’t know, fail to meet basic business standards 94% of the time. Honestly, it’s not hard to imagine these kinds of consumer protection laws taking hold in the US or EU. As much as I love crowdfunded board games, I get the logic behind these laws.

On top of that, I’ve seen a more negative attitude lately on social media toward Kickstarter. I know this anecdotal and personal. Nevertheless, I’m seeing people with “Kickstarter ennui” in far greater frequency than what I saw in 2015 or 2016. It could be because I’m confirming my own biases, but I really don’t think that’s the case.

What does this mean for first-time game developers?

First and foremost, everything I’ve said in this article is pure theory. Kickstarter hasn’t publicly announced an intention to become a traditional store. I still think crowdfunding is a viable path to publishing for a lot of game developers, especially those with the foresight to work in a team.

Furthermore, I don’t think a world in which our favorite crowdfunding site becomes a traditional store is actually all that different. It’s expensive to make games already, and manufacturing is just one of many expenses that you’ll run into. No matter what, you have to make products with product-market fit and build an audience. Our favorite crowdfunding website is nothing more than the venue. You’re bringing literally everything else yourself. You still have to build a business.

My final thought on this matter is simple. Don’t rely solely on the existence of a single website for your success. Kickstarter may or may not be around in its current form in five years. The world is a wild place and it continues to surprise us. As such, you need to make sure your business is strong enough to stand on its own feet.

If 2020 comes and the news breaks saying “Kickstarter has officially become a store,” you shouldn’t be in a position where that would scare you. You should be able to look at your computer, finish the article, and say “who cares? I have start-up capital, I have an audience, and I have a platform of my own. I don’t need their site.”

Board game fulfillment is really complex. In fact, fulfillment often determines how big games are and how many components can be included. Many game developers think about fulfillment only after their project is complete – and you can certainly get away with it! But today, this guest post by Michael of Fulfillrite will explain why you should think about board game fulfillment on day 1 on game development.

If you’re unfamiliar with the basic concepts of fulfillment, go ahead and take a few minutes to read other articles on the subject I’ve done:

• How Board Game Fulfillment Works at Fulfillrite
• A Crash Course on Board Game Fulfillment
• 3 Simple How-To Guides for Board Game Fulfillment
• How to Prepare for the Cost of Board Game Fulfillment
• Fulfill Your Board Game Kickstarter: Sending Products Outside the USA
• Fulfill Your Board Game Kickstarter: Sending Products Within the USA
• How I Fulfilled a Kickstarter & Bought a House in the Same Week

Anyway, that’s enough out of me! Over to you, Michael…

For all you boardgame developers, you know how much creativity and hard work is involved with getting started. From scribbling your ideas onto the proverbial napkin, to actually crafting prototypes, play-testing, redoing it all, and finally getting your game to reviewers, there is no shortage of details and learning curves. You rely on amazing communities like this one to educate, encourage, and inspire.

Once your game is finally in the manufacturing stage, whether you got there through crowdfunding campaigns like Kickstarter, or for the brave, through out-of-pocket investment, many creators rely on publishers to handle, or at least guide them, through the rest of the process. But aye, there’s the rub. “The Rest of the Process” is all about logistics, freight, customs, tariffs, shipping storage, and ultimately, fulfillment. These are not the terms that lit the fire that got you into boardgame development. In fact, they can make your eyes gloss over, and have you reaching for some Rolaids.

If you’ve read this far, it probably means you are an optimistic person, who is hoping this article will solve this problem for you and lead you straight through Logistics Confusion, and on to Tabletop Nirvana.

So, good news and bad news. The bad news is you are going to have to get educated and spend some time involved in an area of development you might not have wanted to. The good news is that this article will cut through the underbrush, machete-style, and focus on giving you the education you need to make the best decisions for successful game fulfillment.

So let’s dive right in.

Q: Who are you, and why should I trust you? And what have you done with Brandon?

A: I’m Michael, and I work at Fulfillrite, an order fulfillment company that has worked with Kickstarter for years, especially in the tabletop arena. We have fulfilled hundreds of boardgame projects for one-time and serial game publishers. We got into this business because of the passion and creativity of the creators we work with, and have built a business model that is all about the success of each individual project.

Brandon is fine. He is an old colleague of our CEO, Charlie Brieger, and has collaborated with us in the past. He will be returned to you unharmed. Promise.

Q: As a boardgame developer, when should I start thinking about fulfillment?

A: Before you think you should. When you are sketching out your early ideas for the physical game, thinking about fulfillment is already important.

Q: Why so early?

A: The simple answer is money. Ultimately, for your game to be a success, it will have to be lucrative. And, what many folks don’t realize is that aside from the actual manufacturing of the game, the supply chain logistics – freight & customs, storage, pick & pack, and, most importantly postage – will be the single greatest expense in the entire process. For example, when doing a basic profit analysis, lots of developers will approach it like this:

SALE PRICE

 –  COSTS (in order: manufacturing, art and design, marketing, misc.)

PROFITS minus a small amount for shipping and fulfillment.

In actuality, the calculation looks more like this:

SALE PRICE

–  COSTS    (in order: manufacturing, fulfillment, art and design, marketing, misc.)

PROFITS

Q: Ok, I understand that the costs of fulfillment are high. How can thinking about it early help?

A: Good question. The more you know about which particular factors affect the fulfillment costs, the more actions you can take early on to create, market, and sell your game for maximum profits, and lowest fulfillment expenses.

Q: For example?

A: To start with, we’ll use the single biggest cost factor in fulfillment: postage fees. And the most important aspect of postage costs are the size and weight of the game. The smaller and lighter your game is, the lower your costs will be to ship. Now, while you are developing the look, feel, and physical properties of the game, understanding this fact can change what you create and how it is presented. Using a smaller board, lighter weight pieces, and fewer cards will allow you to ship the game for less. Mentioning your concern about economical shipping to your game manufacturer will give them an indication of which options to offer, and how you would like the game put together.

Q: So, lighter is better. But my game needs a larger board. And the cut-outs, meeples, and other inclusions simply need to be sturdier. Is there nothing I can do then?

A: You don’t want to compromise on the playing experience, and the right materials and size of the board are important. Still, there’s a lot you can do. There are fillers and trays that can be reduced or eliminated which won’t affect the playing, but which do take up a lot of space and volume. Sometimes there are more expensive and luxurious options like titanium meeples, which you opt out of because they cost more, but are in fact much lighter and cheaper to ship. Instruction booklets in their own compartment and extra packaging may feel like a nice, inexpensive touch, but when you factor size and weight, they might be a bigger expense than you think.

Q: You keep mentioning size. Aside from the weight, how does that factor in?

A: When carriers decide how much a package will cost to ship, they use a calculation commonly called “dimensional weight.” This is how they are able to charge you for more than just the absolute weight, but for how much “real estate” your parcel takes up in their trucks and facilities. Each carrier has their own version of the formula, but for now, just keep in mind that the larger the actual package is, the more you are likely to pay. The good news is that there are things you can do to lighten the dimensional footprint without changing anything about the boardgame experience. Fillers, trays, and the way the components are packed can be optimized for a smaller size boardgame.

Q: How much more is shipping, say, per ounce, or per centimeter?

A: I wish there were a simple answer to that question. It is more about which shipping tier the item fits into than an ounce here or there. For example, for an item to fit into a first class USPS postage, it needs to be less than 16 ounces. The difference between 15 ounces and 16 ounces is far greater than the difference between 10 ounces and 15 ounces. The same is true with sizes. There are certain limitations to less expensive shipping methods, after which the shipping becomes much more expensive.

Let’s say you mentioned the size of your board. Once you are somewhat familiar with the size limitations for all three dimensions, as well as the weight, you can actually have the same product produced, but since it is configured differently, you can fit it into a less expensive overall package, meaning a less expensive shipping method. A board folded into four or six sections might be a whole lot better when it comes to shipping than the same board folded in half.

Q: Wow. I can’t possibly know how all the sizes, weights, configurations go together and what the shipping costs will be. Nor am I about to learn them all, frankly. What do I do?

A: Don’t panic. We’re here to help. And by “we,” I mean the people in the fulfillment industry. Get in touch with a great fulfillment center early and tell them about your project. Give them some basic weights and sizes around which you can create a game. Also, reach out to your manufacturer and find out what the standard size game boxes are so you can inform your fulfillment partners. They will help you understand where the various cut off points are for the choices you are considering. We at Fulfillrite, for example, work closely with game manufacturers when they are putting together games so that the game is produced with shipping optimization in mind.

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As you can see, board game fulfillment is pretty complex. You have to consider factors such as size, weight, and cost without letting your product quality slip. It’s a tough balancing act!

By thinking about board game fulfillment early, your business is in a much better position to succeed. And of course, if you need help, you can always turn to Fulfillrite.

Azul has taken the board game world by storm. Like Sagrada, it’s a gorgeous and approachable puzzle game with emergent complexity that becomes ever more apparent with more plays. It has received accolades far and wide, impressively breaking into the Board Game Geek Top 50 and securing a spot as one of five 2018 Mensa Select winners. It’s also, somehow, always trending on social media and Board Game Geek. Clearly, Plan B Games is doing something right, so let’s talk about that!

In Azul, 2 to 4 players will collect tiles and tile their 5×5 grid in a way that allows them to get the most points. Once a player completes an entire row on their board, the game concludes. Players take turns drawing from factory tiles in the middle. Like in Sagrada, you usually are looking out for your own interests, but you are also given the opportunity to block others when doing this.

After drawing tiles, you have to place all of them on your board. Since there are restrictions on how you do that, any waste goes to the “floor”, which will earn you negative victory points. The way that you place tiles determines how many points you earn. The exact way this is scored is more complex than we need to go into for the sake of discussion here.

Long story short, it’s abstract tile placement par excellence.

1. Creating a great tactile experience like Azul is so important.

Clack! That’s the satisfying sound that the Starburst-colored Azul tiles make when they hit the table. They’re weighty and made of nice plastic, making people envious when just looking at them online.

Board gamers love the physical experience of games. That is, after all, one of the things that makes board games a good alternative to video games. While independent board game publishers often have a tough time affording the nicest materials, we can all learn a few lessons from the way Azul handled its physical presence.

Notice how the boards you place your tiles on are relatively spartan. You don’t touch these so often, so they don’t have to be the nicest materials. The one part that truly matters – the tiles which you touch frequently through the course of the game – have physical weight and smoothness to them. Azul shows us, in practice, how to optimize physical game experience around manufacturing costs.

2. You don’t need incredible art to make a gorgeous game.

Art is one of the key selling points of modern hobby board games. This little chestnut has been upheld as one of the key success factors in modern board game Kickstarter campaigns, including on this very blog. Yet Azul is remarkable because it doesn’t have much art. Sure, it has cover art, but that’s about it. All the rest is graphic design.

Saying that Azul is dependent upon graphic design might sound like I’m splitting hairs, but hear me out. Graphic design, unlike art, is specifically focused on conveying a specific message to a specific audience. Graphic design is art’s utilitarian cousin. The tiles and boards in Azul feel gorgeous and distinct, but they are really just simple – if pretty – geometric patterns.

With hardly any art, Azul has been photographed and shared more than just about any other game I’ve ever seen. It feels like I’ve seen more photos of Azul than I have of, say, Gloomhaven. People love sharp, contrasting colors that catch their attention. They love even more that you can look at them for longer and see lines and curves, curlicues, and ornamentation. The combination of bright colors drawing people in to stay and look at baroque levels of detail is perfectly in tune with the Instagram age.

This is truly remarkable. Art is one of the biggest costs associated with board gaming, and Azul shows a viable way to cut that cost without compromising experience.

3. Get the chores done quickly – simple rules, fast set-up, fast gameplay.

Azul is not a complicated game. Like other modern abstract strategy games along the lines of Santorini, Sagrada, and Photosynthesis, it’s easy to explain. On top of that, I think Azul has still another edge. It’s just a little faster to set up than any of the others I mentioned, especially Photosynthesis. For a game so defined by its components – its tactile experience – Azul takes remarkably little time to set up.

In my opinion, the 2 or 3 minutes less it takes to set up Azul as opposed to other games of a similar weight is part of what keeps getting this game on the table. Every single barrier you introduce that makes starting a game harder makes it a little less attractive. Azul comes with about the smallest possible amount of “chores.” In fact, the only modern hobby board game of a similar strategic level I can think of at this moment that has less set up than Azul is Onitama.

4. Let the complexity gradually become more apparent.

Azul isn’t simply pretty and learnable. The game is a good deal more complex than it initially lets on. This is the “emergent complexity” which I’d mentioned in the opening paragraph. Yes, the tile placement allows for players to minmax on a micro scale early on. You don’t pay attention to others much when you first play Azul, and that’s fine, because you’re learning the basics of the game.

Once you get the basic strategy of Azul down, though, you realize that there are subtle elements of “take that” that went unnoticed initially. You realize you can force players to pick tiles they can’t use. On top of that, you realize that you can force other players to place tiles in the negative point section at the bottom of their board. Your actions affect others.

Granted, it’s not like your actions can screw others over every single time so as to rob them of the ability to make meaningful choices. Instead, the game hits this perfect happy medium of “you happening to the game” and “the game happening to you” once all players understand how their actions affect others.

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Azul is a great board game with a fantastic physical presence. No longer does the premium tactile experience of board gaming have to be limited to games with minis. Azul takes that experience and brings it to a gateway game with real, lasting strategic weight.

For those of you who are fans of Azul, what else can we learn from this game to become better designers?