Reply To: Where to begin?

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

I think these days probable backers look to a KickStarter with a lot more of a critical eye then they did a couple of years ago. We’ve had many, many KS with beautiful miniatures, yet a game/ruleset that been barely fit for purpose. A bucketful of PVC mini’s just doesn’t sell like it used to.

Rules however form the “backbone” of any game system (along with the background/fluff), and a warning sign is usually seeing renders of miniatures but the rules are still in “alpha” and/or there’s no playthrough of the rules on the campaign page.

I think you’d probably be more likely to be able to sell a set of rules via kickstarter (look at the recent Clash of Spears KS) using already available miniatures these days (as the buy in is a lot less for backers, and they are more likely to “risk” a pledge than spending hundreds of dollars/pounds UNLESS you are one of the big players in the KS market (like CMON for example), or have a recognisable IP from books/films etc.

Perhaps once you have a product you could take to KickStarter in a set of rules etc, then you might look at releasing a set of miniatures to go with it. But these days (thanks to companies like CMON) backers expect a LOT of unique sculpts, almost the entire possible catalogue right from the start. And they want to see PRODUCTION minis during the campaign before splurging out (we truly have been spoiled over the years). For the majority of backers they tend to treat the KickStarter as a discount/pre-order store rather than a project to get something off the ground.

It’s a bit of a nightmare these days as people tend to feel they have to do a kickstarter and be massively successful or it’s nothing. There’s a lot to be said for self publishing via sites like DrivethroughRPG Now (look at Joseph A. McCullough’s Rangers of Shadow Deep self published via the site with a lot less risk to the author than going with a KS, and Mr McCullough is a bit of a veteran now at such things and went that way rather than trying to do a Kick Starter).