Kickstarter Roundup, May 2018

by ThomasNo Comments

Recently there was good news in updates from two long-delayed Kickstarter campaigns I’ve backed and another thing I backed just ended, so why not do another review of projects I’ve backed that I’m waiting on?

One of the ways you can review your backed pledges is by going to the pledge page on your profile. It’ll have a list of your active pledges, all the things you’ve backed (“successful pledges”), and a really annoying section called “unsuccessful pledges”. I hate that last section — it “includes dropped pledges and pledges to failed or cancelled projects”. I hate that section because I have one, and only one, project listed there, a project I cancelled my pledge to because we had a financial crunch right at that time. So it just sits there, Kickstarter reminding me of that one time we had an emergency that caused us to cancel our luxury expenses because there was this Thing going on.

I suppose it’s like when you’re on facebook and they keep trying to get you to be friends that ex that cheated on you in college or how it reminds you that four years ago you had the cutest dog ever, not knowing it’s been dead for months and you were just about over the loss.

Thanks, computers! You’re awful.

Anyway.

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#RPGaDAY 2017, Day 29: Kickstarter

by ThomasNo Comments

For the 29th of last month’s #RPGaDAY entry, the prompt was about the best-run rpg Kickstarater campaign I’ve backed. When I work on layout — and I come under contract before or duing the campaign — I always back the project for one dollar so I can see what communication goes out to the backers.

So far, I’ve only come onto two projects that funded through Kickstarter after the campaign ended: Bluebeard’s Bride and Bulldogs. It’s interesting to see how both campaigns handle communication with backers: Bluebeard’s Bride has everything done publicly — which I think makes it a marketing opportunity for post-KS sales — while Bulldogs has had several that were backer-only. Just because I can see Bulldogs, I’ll use this as an example: why not make that 2016 “Current Print Status” available for anyone to see when they can purchase the game in stores? I don’t know, but some creators like to have backer-only updates. As a person on the creative side, I’d like to see what they’re saying to backers.

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#RPGaDAY2015, Day 2: Kickstarter Game You’re Most Pleased You Backed

by ThomasNo Comments

The second #RPGaDAY2015 topic is Kickstarter Game You’re Most Pleased You Backed. I would reword that topic to “Crowdfunded Game…” because there’s some fantastic stuff coming out on Patreon and IndieGoGo. Every three weeks at Purple Pawn, I write a Crowdfunding Highlights article (4-6 things that have caught my attention) in rotation with two other staff members, and there’s more to crowdfunding than just Kickstarter.

But Kickstarter has the best interface for finding things to throw money at, which is part of the reason why I’ve backed many more things on that funding platform than all others combined.

I’m going to go with a game that I worked on: Chill, 3rd Edition. I backed this at a dollar, which is something I do when I’m brought on board a project before the campaign ends. I really I want to see the backer-only updates and the backers’ comments. (And, if need be, respond to the comments if it’s cool with the campaign creator.) There are about seven of them in my backing history, and Chill is one of those one dollar backings.

chill-openI’ve played Mayfair’s edition of Chill and loved it. When I heard of a potential 3rd Edition, I contacted Growling Door Games, and after a little bit of discussion, there I was, creating the graphics for the KS, laying out the quickstart, and designing the rulebook. And by designing the book, I mean actually designing the book — I had just come off of Firefly, where I was working from Daniel Solis’ design. While Firefly was a fun gig, I wasn’t as free to lay down some design work for a full product. The physical book arrived just three days ago, and it came out looking even better than I thought it would. I’m still amazed — here’s this thing that I did and it’s right here. It’s so…awesome. It makes me smile. Chill, 3rd Edition, is the most pleasing game I’ve backed.

Honorable Mentions: Posthuman Pathways for the ENnie, Primetime Adventures because it’s my favorite RPG, and Play Dirty 2: Even Dirtier because John Wick is John Wick.

Aside: I also backed a book at a level that would have gotten me the PDF of the it. After the campaign, I came on board during production to finish laying out the book. After it was done — meaning, I had all the book files from here — I received a download code to get my free copy of the book. Crazy!