Gaming-related kickstarters raised over 1 billion dollars. Tabletop games make up 69%

[TrueSloth]

https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/16/...illion-with-tabletop-making-up-69-of-pledges/

Here's the full breakdown of where that $1 billion went to, according to a representative from Kickstarter.

• Tabletop games: $686,696,897
• Video games: $236,598,100
• Playing cards: $25,376,895
• Games (no subcategory selected): $22,028,478
• Gaming hardware: $21,368,200
• Mobile games: $7,230,806
• Live games: $2,942,176
• Puzzles: $1,868,466

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I'm not surprised tabletop games beat video games, but I didn't think the margin was that wide. I worked in board game retail and it was incredibly hard keeping up with all the kickstarters, What with people requesting we get certain games in- it often was too much of a gamble and burnt us a few times. Regardless, it's cool to see how much of an influence Kickstarter has been on these industries and allowed people to make their dream games.

 

[Books]

Tabletop gamers must all be rich.

 

[Reversed]

nice record

 

[TrueSloth]

Tabletop gamers must all be rich.

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Have you seen people's home collections?

 

[Skade]

Not that surprising, the new highest television related kickstarter is based on D&D so... Yeah. Seems logical.

And it's probably the more affordable possible type of kickstarter you can make. So even if theses projects don't ask for much, there's a shit-ton of them.

 

[Acorn]

nice record

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Damnit beaten

 

[apocat]

I'm certainly a small but steadily contributing force in favour of this. There has been some awesome kickstarted board games. And quite a few miniature laden clonkers too.

Have you seen people's home collections?

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I thought I had a big collection. That is crazy.

 

[Popstar]

.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

How many of these actually come out?

 

[Galkinator]

How many of these actually come out?

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[mclem]

Video games got me to notice Kickstarter, but I've been heavily on the tabletop games of late, too.

 

[apocat]

How many of these actually come out?

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There are and have been quite a few board games on kickstarter, so it's kind of hard to get a good overview. From my experience most are released, sometimes with delays. I have personally kickstarted around 15 boardgames, and have recieved all of the ones that have passed their date of delivery, though I'm still waiting for some of the stretch goals to arrive. Overall I've been happy with the quality of the games.

 

[mclem]

How many of these actually come out?

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Just glanced through the list of my pledges, and I don't think any have failed to be released, although some are still in production:

Tammany Hall
Cornish Smuggler
Kill Shakespeare
Boss Fight
Mint Delivery
Dinosaur Island
Fireball Island
Sprawlopolis

Not arrived yet; not concerned (not due just yet, or they've been reasonable about keeping us informed)
Penny Lane
Vast: The Mysterious Manor (They've fulfilled the delivery of the first Vast game, at least)
Fantastic Factories
Spirit Island
Root
Key Market II
7th Continent (Base game delivered, expansion is due soon)
Alhambra Designer's Edition

Mild concern
Coma Ward (Need to look into this, it looks like it should have arrived. Other people have had it, so it may just be a shipping oversight)

 

[dragonchild]

Because board games totally need funding to finance the prohibitive R&D costs of the product.

 

[Deleted member 2507]

Board games or miniature games? Or both lumped into one?
I'd imagine the latter tend to cost more to develop.

 

[Deleted member 32374]

I believe it about the board games. I know people who have bought a lot of board games on Kickstarter, many of them pretty damn good.

 

[BassForever]

How many of these actually come out?

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Damn near all of them, kickstarter is so prevelant in board gaming that people often play games without realizing they were originally kickstarted.

From my collection alone the following were kickstarter games (* means I kickstarted it)

Blood Rage
Pixel Tactics Deluxe
Pixel Tactics Mega Man*
Thunderstone Quest*
Dinosaur Island*
7th Continent*
Battlecon Devastation
Gloomhaven*
Exceed season 1
Exceed season 2*
Resident Evil 2 the board game*
Medici the card game
Tiny Epic Galaxy
Tiny Epic Quest
Tiny Epic zombies*
Star Realms
Temporal Odyssey*
Fireball Island*
One Night Ultimate series
Werewords Deluxe*

And that's just from what I can see sitting in my living room and what I know off the top of my head. There are probably more games in my collection that started as kickstarter games that I'm simply not aware of.

Board games or miniature games? Or both lumped into one?
I'd imagine the latter tend to cost more to develop.

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Both, there are a lot of expensive games that either are miniature games or have a ton of miniatures like kingdom death monster, zombiecide, or bloodrage. Then there are also games that cost anywhere from $10-50 to back on kickstarter that can range from all manner of board games. Social deduction games (one night ultimate series), deck builders (star realms), deduction games (awkward guests), worker placement games (dinosaur island), card combat games (pixel tactics), and adventure games (7th continent) are just a few examples that either don't have miniatures or have maybe 4-5 max in the box to represent the players on the board.

 

[Edward]

I have backed a mega ton of board/tabletop games and not a single one failed or stunk. I think it's not only that board game/tabletop games has a huge and great following but it's easier to execute the idea you are pitching especially board games because most of it comes from the rules which most are done by the time they are pitched. You get the overall idea of how they work and then they develop and create the pieces etc.

I have far too many board games.. Or not enough.

 

[Rover]

Because board games totally need funding to finance the prohibitive R&D costs of the product.

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Well, a good game does take a fair amount of development time, like at least a year or two to be playtested and improved.

But there are other reasons why KS has been such a boon for board games. The way stores and distributors have operated (to this day) make gauging demand for a game difficult, and KS has stepped in as a modernized pre-order system.

Many of these publishers are very small. If they drop 100k producing a game that they overestimated demand for, that can sink them. Likewise, if they underestimate demand, they lose a lot of sales because the turnaround time on a second print run is pretty lengthy (months, if not a year).

Also the margins of profitability are really thin since the cost to produce a modern boardgame is so high.

 

[TrueSloth]

Damn near all of them, kickstarter is so prevelant in board gaming that people often play games without realizing they were originally kickstarted.

From my collection alone the following were kickstarter games (* means I kickstarted it)

Blood Rage
Pixel Tactics Deluxe
Pixel Tactics Mega Man*
Thunderstone Quest*
Dinosaur Island*
7th Continent*
Battlecon Devastation
Gloomhaven*
Exceed season 1
Exceed season 2*
Resident Evil 2 the board game*
Medici the card game
Tiny Epic Galaxy
Tiny Epic Quest
Tiny Epic zombies*
Star Realms
Temporal Odyssey*
Fireball Island*
One Night Ultimate series
Werewords Deluxe*

And that's just from what I can see sitting in my living room and what I know off the top of my head. There are probably more games in my collection that started as kickstarter games that I'm simply not aware of.



Both, there are a lot of expensive games that either are miniature games or have a ton of miniatures like kingdom death monster, zombiecide, or bloodrage. Then there are also games that cost anywhere from $10-50 to back on kickstarter that can range from all manner of board games. Social deduction games (one night ultimate series), deck builders (star realms), deduction games (awkward guests), worker placement games (dinosaur island), card combat games (pixel tactics), and adventure games (7th continent) are just a few examples that either don't have miniatures or have maybe 4-5 max in the box to represent the players on the board.

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Some games only do print runs through Kickstarter and don't distribute after it's success. I didn't learn this till last year when I started looking for ways to get my hands on 7th continent. Lol.
some also have extremely limited print runs like Kingdom Death monster, since they're so expensive to produce.

Well, a good game does take a fair amount of development time, like at least a year or two to be playtested and improved.

But there are other reasons why KS has been such a boon for board games. The way stores and distributors have operated (to this day) make gauging demand for a game difficult, and KS has stepped in as a modernized pre-order system.

Many of these publishers are very small. If they drop 100k producing a game that they overestimated demand for, that can sink them. Likewise, if they underestimate demand, they lose a lot of sales because the turnaround time on a second print run is pretty lengthy (months, if not a year).

Also the margins of profitability are really thin since the cost to produce a modern boardgame is so high.

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Good break down. Backing games for a store is risky since the business level backers usually have to commit to 5 or 6 copies of a board game. It May seem like a reasonable amount, If a game isnt good, you're left with a bunch of expensive product you cant move. The market is pretty saturated with good table top experiences, so most people will just get something else worth their time. People often told me to back a certain project, because "everyone is talking about it" but that doesnt mean that particular person will buy a copy from us- they probably already backed it themselves and are waiting for their own copy.
/rant

Board games have incredibly complicated mechanics these days, so designing takes time. If you want something with good quality components, kickstarter helps with that aspect. But yeah, as you mentioned the margins of profit are small. I've talked to a few designers and they mentioned you don't go into tabletop games looking to get rich, unless you're Uwe Rosenberg.

 

[BassForever]

Some games only do print runs through Kickstarter and don't distribute after it's success. I didn't learn this till last year when I started looking for ways to get my hands on 7th continent. Lol.
some also have extremely limited print runs like Kingdom Death monster, since they're so expensive to produce.

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Exactly, btw make sure you keep your eyes open for 7th continent it's really damn good. Only board game I can think of that I played for 10 hours straight and only stopped because we were tired.

 

[AaronD]

How many of these actually come out?

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99.9% of them, and most come out early or on time, unlike the vast majority of video game kickstarters. Most board games go to kickstarter when the game is essentially done and they need money to cover the production costs.

 

[Fancolours]

How many of these actually come out?

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In most cases tabletop games tend to be fully written and designed or at least very close to it before the Kickstarter page even went up. So they all come out eventually, if there's a problem it's often related to manufacturing as opposed to the game not being finished yet.

 

[TrueSloth]

Exactly, btw make sure you keep your eyes open for 7th continent it's really damn good. Only board game I can think of that I played for 10 hours straight and only stopped because we were tired.

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do you know if they are doing another print soon?

 

[Salacious_Rhino]

As someone who works in miniatures, not surprising. Very costly to make a game especially if you're making a game where people are only going to buy one copy of a miniature. I predict once 3d production printing gets where it needs to be in the future it will overhaul the whole market and potentially flood it with all sorts of miniature games.

 

[ned_ballad]

How many of these actually come out?

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The board games I've kickstarted were like 75% of the way done and the Kickstarter was just a pre-order system and to raise money for printing. I think most of the board game kickstarters I've seen come out in a year or so.

 

[Deleted member 17658]

Have you seen people's home collections?

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when you need a ladder, that's how you know they are serious...

 

[Stooge]

How many of these actually come out?

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We've delivered 100% of ours mostly within 60 days of projected. We have one outstanding.

Board Games have a pretty good delivery ratio. They are substantially less challenging to produce than videogames.

Edit: not to say that they aren't hard to make well. But there are less technical challenges or technical expertise needed compared to say a consumer electronic device or a video game which have worse delivery rates than tabletop

 

[mclem]

Because board games totally need funding to finance the prohibitive R&D costs of the product.

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Most board games have very modest funding goals.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

I've backed 326 projects according to Kickstarter, the vast majority which are related to tabletop gaming. So far I've received or expect to receive all of the pledges. The only project which was looking shaky for a while was Airborne In Your Pocket which the company producing went out of business, but the project was picked up by another company and should ultimately be delivered. Myth Journeyman is looking to be a similar situation. Several projects will have had multi-year delays (Dark Souls, Journey Wrath of Demons stretch goals) but they still seem to be working on these.

 

[dragonchild]

KS has stepped in as a modernized pre-order system.

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OK this makes a fair amount of sense. It bypasses the risk assessments of retailers so a game that otherwise wouldn't get made can just do its limited run, and publishers can shop for the ones getting the most buzz.

That doesn't explain RPGs though. These are just rulesets (hell SRDs of the top-selling systems are available on the web for free) so the only significant resource in development is time. I did see one project that was up front that the ONLY usage of the funds was for printing and to hire graphic designers to make the book pretty, so essentially the RPG analogue of the board game "pre-order" system. I might go that route myself -- release the ruleset and crowdfund the print run. But I've seen others that seemed downright shady, wanting tens of thousands of dollars to develop a stripped-down OGL knock-off, basically a D&D5 asset flip or for-profit homebrew. That's some Steam-level garbage right there.

 

[apocat]

Because board games totally need funding to finance the prohibitive R&D costs of the product.

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I know you're joking, but actually that's pretty much the case. There are games that would never be funded through traditional means that can be realised through crowdfunding.

Something like Kingdom Death, pictured above, could never happen within a traditional business model.