Preparing for a Kickstarter launch is an exciting yet daunting endeavour. In this blog post, we sit down with Mike from Huff No More to discuss his journey, the challenges faced, and the invaluable lessons learned. From networking strategies to playtesting insights, Mike shares his experiences and offers advice to fellow indie game developers. Join us as we explore what it takes to turn a board game dream into a successful crowdfunding campaign.
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Joe: It’s great to have you back on the blog. I thought it would be a good idea to catch up with where you’re at and get a sense of the preparations for your Kickstarter.
First question, how are you doing?
Mike: Hi Joe, it’s great to be back for another conversation with you! Things are really good, thanks. We’ve been really busy, but it feels like a lot of our hard work is coming together now. We’re so lucky to be surrounded by truly inspirational people from the UK Indie Publisher and Designers community, as well as the #BoardGameProtoHype community. They are a great source of knowledge and help when we need it.
we’re so lucky to be surrounded by truly inspirational people
How are things with you? It looks like Drop Zone Chocks Away has been progressing really well and you’ve had a lot of interesting blog conversations.
Joe: It’s all good here. I’m not sure I’m getting anywhere close to a Kickstarter-ready product. The to-do list keeps growing, and each new step is a whole other world to learn about. This week it’s costings and production, next week it’s safety testing. Each new topic comes with many unanswered and sometimes unanswerable questions! It’s quite the mountain to climb.
It looks like you’re getting pretty close to the top (if the top is a Kickstarter launch). Could you share some of the things on your to-do list at the moment?
Mike: Completely agree on the learning curve; we’re very much in the same boat. While we feel like we have a good grip on where we are and what we need to achieve by October, there is still an awful lot we are learning about every day.
The benefit we have is that Joss and I have a clear approach to splitting responsibilities for the project. My focus is very much on networking and promotion, whereas Joss has many more jobs than I do. Along with creating the artwork and graphic design, Joss is the publisher/developer and picks up pretty much everything else!
The key points on our to-do list at this stage are:
- Finding a manufacturer
- Deciding on a pledge manager
- Choosing our fulfilment/distribution partner
However, as we have more conversations on each of these points, it initially creates more questions than answers for us!
Most of our tips have been picked up from discussions and advice from other indie publishers. Have you found any good resources to support your next steps?
Joe: I started with Jamey Stegmaier’s blog and book, which are a great starting point but already feel somewhat dated, probably because the crowdfunding space keeps evolving.
The #boardgameprotohype group has been brilliant, and there are a couple of Discord channels that are really useful too. Honestly, it’s conversations like this and others on this blog that are really helping me develop my understanding. I feel like I’m able to grasp the process in real time and have the opportunity to ask questions that I can’t address in a book or blog.
It looks like you’ve got the game out to a few Instagram board game folks already. Do you have a strategy for that process – how do you ensure you capitalise on reviews?
networking is such an important part of developing any business strategy
Mike: I also read Jamey’s book and found it helpful on a few key points, namely the importance of launching when you are ready and building your community. I felt it was missing the importance of building your network, which has been absolutely crucial for us. My day job is in sales strategy, and networking is such an important part of developing any business strategy, so I have applied similar logic to building connections for Huff No More.
This has led to where we are in respect of getting Sakana Stack out to content creators and reviewers. Through our network, we have managed to connect with people, which really came together for us at the UK Games Expo. We had several content creators and reviewers pre-arranged to meet with us, spend some time getting to know us and what Huff No More is about, and of course, play Sakana Stack. We also had Tim Clare, author of The Game Changers: How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too, join us for a game, and it was great to see Tim tweeting positively about Sakana Stack.
We have taken a multi-channel approach. The UK Review Circle is a brilliantly organised group of Instagram content creators who have a copy of your game for a month, play it extensively and share their thoughts, along with nice pics, on their feed. The game then gets posted to the next content creator to do the same. This will help Sakana Stack gain visibility and feedback from experienced gamers.
We also have games going out for longer, detailed blog and video reviews. These can be connected to the Sakana Stack BGG page as formal reviews. Additionally, I am looking to arrange more interviews on podcasts and similar platforms. All of this content will be pulled together in the next few months to support our campaign leading up to the launch and form part of the Kickstarter page and campaign.
We’ve backed some excellent crowdfunding campaigns in the past few years, which are always a great source of inspiration. Have you backed any campaigns recently that have stood out to you?
Joe: I’m backing most things that come my way at the moment but usually only at the “£1 to show support” level. I wish I could back more, especially from the protohype group, but it’s quite a costly venture!
There have been a couple that I’ve loved and backed fully – Kugo being one, and Rebirth, which looks stunning. I’ve been chatting with one of the designers of the artwork and components of that game, so I was excited about the launch and was definitely going to back it.
By immersing myself in as much crowdfunding as possible, I’m starting to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. One important thing is that it feels like you need to know you have backers before you launch. There are two ways of achieving this: organically (slowly) or through paid ads.
Do you have a plan for advertisements? Many quotes I’ve received for building a mailing list are in the $3-4k range, which is beyond my budget.
Mike: Same here, we wish we could back all the crowdfunding campaigns but we do what we can to share and promote them as well.
Paid advertisement is an area we are currently focusing on. Since Joss started the business in January, we have been trying to get out to expos and meet the community. This has been a journey, from taking playtesting tables at Handycon, Paradice, and Airecon to fully exhibiting at UK Games Expo. Meeting people, talking about the business, and playing demos of Sakana Stack has been amazing, but it would take a long time to meet enough people to achieve a funded Kickstarter. Plus, there are all the associated costs, including hotels, food, and inevitable game purchases!
Advertising costs can be really expensive, as you’ve pointed out. We do not have that kind of money available for a massive online campaign. Additionally, the margins on a small box card game are fairly low, so there’s not much to play with. We expect a certain amount of start-up costs in the first year that we won’t recoup, but we need to balance upfront costs in advertising with the returns from the campaign.
One slight advantage we have is that, with a small box card game, the quantities needed to fulfil are lower than a game with custom components. This will allow us to learn a lot about managing campaigns to get the experience for the next one.
Have you experimented with paid advertisements to boost posts on social media, and did you find it made any meaningful difference to interactions?
Joe: Yeah, I’ve tried Instagram advertising, spending a bit on a couple of short campaigns to see their effect. The result is that it’s hard to gain much traction and convert viewers into clicks and, eventually, subscribers.
You need to think of it in terms of alignment. You need to target the right group with the right content that is persuasive enough to move them to the next step. At each step, you lose some people.
Here’s an example from this week – I created a post showcasing aspects of my game to get more people following the Kickstarter pre-launch. Then I boosted the post, £10 over two days (not much, but it allowed me to test the process and return). The post was linked directly to the pre-launch page. Here’s what happened:
£10 → 1357 accounts saw my post → 24 accounts clicked the link to the pre-launch page → 2 new followers. Scaling that to get 100 sign-ups, the ad spend would be £500. And from there, well, let’s not think about the percentage of followers that turn into actual backers.
I’ve been watching your pre-launch page, and you’re steadily getting more followers. Can you share your strategy? What is working best to increase those numbers?
Mike: Those are some interesting stats! It would be interesting to see if there’s any improvement over a longer time period. We’ll find out over the next few months!
It feels like we have a nice steady flow of followers to our pre-launch page, which is really nice! Currently, I would say 90% of followers are organic and followed the page after direct interaction. We went live with the pre-launch page in March when we demoed at Airecon and picked up several followers there. But UKGE was the big one for us. We saw a real spike in followers since the event, which we assume is the many people who came to demo the game with us and gave great feedback.
The next stage is to ramp up the numbers more online where we can reach a larger audience. Sending preview copies of the game out should increase interest with some positive previews from content creators. We have seen some shares of Sakana Stack on content creator stories in the last few days, and our followers have increased, which is great! Hopefully, with more content created from a wider group, we’ll see those numbers rise.
We will also start paid advertisements soon and see how much impact they have. We’ll start small and look to ramp up as we get closer to the launch date. We’ve started creating a suite of campaign posts on Sakana Stack branding, and with the great feedback on the artwork, we hope this will generate good interest and click-throughs that convert to follows.
Finally, we have another couple of events lined up: Airecon North West and Norwich Games Con both in August. They will be great opportunities to meet people and run game demos. And at ACNW there’s always a hope we get to demo Sakana Stack with The Dice Tower team and garner a review!
Have you got any more conventions lined up to get Drop Zone Chocks Away out for more playtesting?
Joe: I’ll be attending ACNW in the summer, but just for fun and a bit of networking. Then there’s a new convention in Newcastle in the autumn, so I plan to get a stall there and start getting some face-to-face interest. I had planned an autumn launch, but I can’t see how the numbers would add up to make that possible at the moment.
As for playtesting, I joined the Newcastle playtesting group last month and went along. They’re a great group of people and offered some fantastic feedback on the game, which has really taken it forward. There are also a few playtest copies doing the rounds at the moment. My next step is to see if any Instagram reviewers would like to play – but I reckon that’s the scary bit!
Mike: Sounds like you’ve been busy! Getting as much playtesting as possible is essential. I look forward to seeing the latest version of Drop Zone Chocks Away at ACNW. What really boosted our confidence with reviewers was demoing the game with them in person. It was great to see their reactions first-hand and see them enjoy Sakana Stack.
Joe: Final question, you had a to-do list at the start of this conversation. Which bits are you most looking forward to and why?
Mike: Of the three jobs on our to-do list, the one we are looking forward to most is deciding on our manufacturer. We’ve had good conversations and recommendations from different manufacturers, and we are focusing on the many eco-friendly options available. Once we make our decision, we will have a clearer understanding of production costs and later other costs, which will give us better knowledge of our margins.
Fulfilment is probably the one we are currently learning the most about. Understanding the tax requirements for different territories, IOSS, cost of shipping, etc., is a lot to get our heads around. But I’m confident we’ll get there soon.
Huge thanks to Mike from Huff No More for his time, honesty and insight. You can find Huff No More on Instagram, and make sure to follow the Kickstarter prelaunch of Sakana Stack!
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