"Why I Don't Do Kickstarters " Topic

"It's funny. When I tease a product one or two people usually ask when I'm launching the Kickstarter for this. The answer is always "I'm not." I don't crowdfund. That's not to say I never will in the future, but I can't imagine a circumstance that would warrant me doing so. Turning to Kickstater makes me feel uncomfortable, it makes me nervous. It's a great way to get your product out there and get support, but I don't think it's for me.

I did one crowdfunding, several years ago. I did an Indiegogo for Class Compendium, my largest project up to that time. But I didn't do it specifically to fund the Class Compendium. I did it because my computer was becoming unreliable and without a computer I couldn't publish at all. So, I did an Indiegogo with half the money going to art for the Compendium and the other half to a new laptop. Nothing fancy, just to keep myself writing. I made all this very clear in my pitch video.

I thought Class Compendium would be easy. It was almost done before I even launched. It was so close. But, to be safe, I gave myself an extra six months as padding for my deadline. That was a helluva lot of wiggle room, right? Wrong…"
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Amicalement
Armand

1. I have done 4 KS and 1/2 have been very late in delivery.

2. It hurts my Local Game Stores sales and Viability.

This is from the creator of a project point of view. Interesting thoughts.

They do tend to run late. Just got one today that was projected for April. But I did get it.

I do not think that they hurt the FLGS that much. If they don't get funded then they will almost never make to market. Yes they do take some money that might have been spent locally. Then again it might not have been spent in the first place on miniatures.

The internet while being a great way to find what you want and things you might never known of. That is what is killing the local stores. When I order online, I tend to get a 10% discount and most of the time don't have sales tax either. So that saves me 20%.

So when I go to the local store I do try to get something I need. I should spend more. They are nice folk.

The internet while being a great way to find what you want and things you might never known of. That is what is killing the local stores.

A lot of times it is not just "the internet" killing the local stores. Take a look at how some of them are set up, and you can see how/why they are dying.

In the old days people started projects because they thought they would be profitable.

A lot of times it is not just "the internet" killing the local stores. Take a look at how some of them are set up, and you can see how/why they are dying.

Couldn't agree more. One LGS recently went out of business and here's part of the issue…

Once I tried to order a box set for Dark Ages. I speak with the owner – no problem – it'll be here next week. I offer to pay for it in advance. No need he says. Guess what – after three years it never arrives.

On Wednesdays they offered a 10% discount on minis. But if you wanted to play with the minis in the store, the mini gaming night was Monday. I asked why not make the discount available on Mondays. The idea being that when I lose the game because I don't have the X unit I could buy it right after the game. Nope. You gotta come back on Wednesday for the discount.

Most store owners rally behind the "support the local gaming store" but all to often make it difficult to buy from them.

I only do Kickstarters from people I know or trust. I am still waiting on a rulebook from a well known company that is 4 years old.

I know of several creators who regret KS projects. They're very stressful, and things can go *very* badly for the creator if the project goes into cost overruns. But that doesn't mean KS isn't for everyone. Many creators do just fine with KS. My friend, in fact, is running his second one in a few months.

hmmm I've run 6 Indiegogo campaigns and all have been successfully funded and everyone received their miniatures in a timely manner. My first campaign in 2013 was only a set of three figures but since then my range and company have expanded over the succeeding campaigns to nearly 100 different sets of miniatures. I could not have done this without the support of my contributors through fund-raising campaigns. Overall its been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to running more projects

I guess I've been lucky. I've invested in a KS twice and gotten what was promised on time.

I miss being able to impulsively buy a couple of packs of this or that at my local hobby store, or more often see what a new product actually looked like before shelling out my bucks.

I back a few, but have never ran one.

Keep waiting for the fad to die out, but it seems new projects pop up every single day.

I just opened my Massive Darkness boxes from CMON a few days ago. It altered my way of looking at the industry. The quality and volume were far beyond what I was expecting. Now that I have gotten a taste of this, it is going to be very hard to go back to normal.