I’m a big fan of what Daniel Solis is doing over on the Happy Birthday Robot kickstarter (and for that matter what David Hill is doing at Maschine Zeit even if the game pitch isn’t necessarily for me).
But as Chris and I covered somewhat on the latest That’s How We Roll, they are also a little disappointing because they didn’t aim high enough with those funding goals. (I pick on these guys here because I like them and I like what they’re doing.)
There’s this funny thing about goals, especially goals that you enlist friends (and followers and family) to help you hit. Funny things, actually.
People love to feel like they’re part of the team, and goals are a good way to motivate that sense of teamwork. Tell people that you need to hit a goal and, assuming you know enough of them, and that enough of them know enough people that they can motivate in turn, and that goal’s going to get hit, eventually. We like to belong.
But there’s a flipside to that. Your goal is also the point at which people know they can relax. Once that goal’s hit … well, there might be a team, but how much teamwork is really needed? The goal was met!
So, that takes me to Happy Birthday Robot. Daniel was originally building his goal-target around 50 copies. (Daniel, it should be said, has no idea how good he is; and if you know who he is, you know how right I am in saying this. And definitely check out HBR’s funding site and video — I think you’ll see, as I and others have, that this little story game has the chance to be dynamite in a bottle.)
At any rate, the twitterverse did its level best to convince him to at least shoot for 100 copies, and so he did. Then his project went live and he and his team of friends (and followers and so on) went and hit that target in the first day of his planned-for-70-days fundraising window.
And then the donations slacked off. Even though continuing to contribute would help out, the goal was met, and so everyone relaxed. Some people even emailed him saying “aw, man, sorry I couldn’t get in”… despite it still being possible post-goal to get in.
Personally, I would rather he’d shot for a target based on funding 200, even 300 copies. To someone uncertain their idea has any merit, it sounds like too much — but in having such a higher target, I think more people would have risen to the occasion. The team would’ve been bigger.
I’ve been counseling Daniel on how to set new goals to continue to motivate contributions to the project. And it’s been working, if more slowly (because, hey, original goal met, right?). Now that he’s past the goal, every $150 more donated sends free books to kids who are learning how to become gamers. That’s a good motivation. I just wish it had been there up front — coulda, woulda, shoulda.
(And to bring it back around to Maschine Zeit, that project too hit its very modest funding goal in the first 24 hours. I’m betting it would’ve hit twice that goal in not much more time, had that goal been there to hit.)
My point, then, is that aiming higher than you think you should pays off. Don’t undervalue what you create because you don’t think interest will be there. If you are a participant in today’s social media, it’s pretty likely that the interest is there. There’s nothing wrong with getting your friends excited about what you do, and nothing wrong with selling what you do to them.
After all, they’re on your team.
8 Comments
Fred, I can’t agree with you more here.
I’ve done a similar project, and was STUNNED…STUNNED to see how many people got on board. And Happy Birthday Robot will be a killer Christmas present for my sister and her kids. Love this guy’s eye for layout and production values.
It’s strange that people think the industry is dying, and don’t ever try to…you know…sell stuff.
I tried. And it worked!
Good blog, sir.
Dan
My only concern re: Maschine Zeit was that I knew I could hit what I needed to cover my print run costs. I didn’t know if I could double it. I’m pretty confident. Unfortunately, the nature of Kickstarter and that manner of thing is that if you don’t hit the target, it’s all or nothing. The “nothing” would have meant a more expensive final product, less profit on my side, and an otherwise far more difficult process.
Oh, sure. I just think there’s a bit of under-representation there, to wit, I am not suprised you hit your target that fast.
I also agree. Both of those projects look really cool, and it is always great to see more people getting involved in creative efforts. A sense of ownership is something that takes a while to grow inside new fans, but give them a chance to invest and BOOM! Instant group of dedicated fans, advertisers, and feedbackers.
Of course, having “enough friends” who all “know enough people that they can motivate in turn” is the rub. This particular strategy is a great way to cash in on reputation and brand recognition, but it would probably be a little harder for that guy or girl who doesn’t have industry pals, contacts willing to write blogs about them, or a list of WW books behind them.
I think your title is very appropriate, though. People across the board should be shooting higher (especially when they have cultural capital to cash in on). There are plenty of people out writing novels, designing new games, starting up forums, etc., and it never helps to get a little kick in the pants. The technology has never been more available to whip up a new RPG and sell it on the web, or crank out a professional-looking supplement to your favorite game.
Thanks for offering a little boost to the pros and amateurs alike!
This is why I avoid kickstarter for Rite Publishing’s patronage projects, and do it just through Paypal alone.
It does not have the automatic updates of where we are when it comes to goal, but that delay actually helps rather than hurts.
What strategies do you employ to make sure you don’t get other paypal payments confused with your pool of patronage payments?
@Fred Hicks
Paypal lets you create item numbers so each project gets its own Item number, the item number appears in the email you receive notifying your of the payment, as part of the item number I include the amount the patron has paid so just from looking at the email notification I know what project the payment was for and what level of patronage they have signed up for.
I then use G-mails labels to further identify the project and level of patronage, so you can pull up every patronage with a simple click. I also have an excel spreadsheet to do the additional bookkeeping, so I have the whole project at a glance, I simply update the spreadsheet as I go.
….after 8 patronage projects I really need to write a guidebook.
Steve
I also had the advantage of attending Wolfgang Baur’s Seminar on Open Design at GenCon two years ago, and having Bill Collins who had edited Wolfgang on the early Open Design projects as the editor of our first patronage project Heroes of the Jade Oath.
The other strategy I use is that a patronage project is not just a product, its an ongoing service.