Do Kickstarter: The Next Phase

So when I prepped this morning’s post last night, the Do kickstarter was at less than half of its initial $4,000 goal. Right now as I’m writing this, the kickstarter is inches away from hitting its goal, and it will probably hit it before I’m done writing. Am I shocked? Well, maybe a little by the speed of it all. But I’m not surprised. Daniel’s ideas and aesthetic are some of the most exciting found in the small press games industry, and that’s why we’ve been backers and fans of his from day one.

That said, with the goal hit, it’s time to talk about phase two for the kickstarter.

Our initial funding goal was set on the idea of producing the Limited Edition of Do as a small run boutique item, at about 500 copies to be printed in hardcover and with color interior. But there’s a literal price that comes with printing such a thing at that level. Despite the book being a modest-sized affair (you’ll hear more about that from Daniel in the coming days), we had to set the minimum level for getting a printed copy at $40.

But (checking… yep) now that we’ve hit that $4,000 target, it’s time to think about what to do with any additional funding we get. The way Kickstarter works, you keep raising funds until the deadline. In this case, that deadline is May 24. Until then, you can keep pledging, pre-ordering the game and telling your friends to do likewise.

As I suggested before, we’ve had our eye on expanding the print run to 750, 1000, or even 1,500 copies (but probably no more) if we get more funds. With the economics of printing being what they are, at each new increment we’re facing a steadily lower unit cost. And to us, it doesn’t seem right to keep the cover price on Daniel’s crazy little game up at $40 if our costs are dropping.

So here’s the plan we’ve got in mind:

At $4,500 raised, we’ll increase the print run to 750 copies, making this gorgeous (but still limited) edition available to more people. But we’ll also drop the cover price to $35, and ship a copy to anyone who has contributed at least $35. (International customers will still need to bump up by $10 to cover the additional cost of non-domestic shipping.) And HOLY CRAP, we may hit THIS level before I even finish this post!

At $5,500 raised, we’ll increase the print run to 1,000 copies — and we’ll drop the cover price again by $5, to $30, and ship a copy to anyone who has contributed at least $30.

At $6,500 raised, we’ll increase the print run to 1,500 copies — and yet again drop the cover price by $5, to $25, and ship a copy to anyone who has contributed at least $25.

(At that point, we’ll have the price point more in a range that we’d like to see, and we’ll have enough copies at a good price point for getting this game out to more people. Once that print run runs out, we’ll transition to a black and white softcover standard edition of the game.)

In addition, for the high-end patrons out there who are sad about missing out on the Flying Turtle contribution level, Daniel is currently looking into the possibility of providing a few more high-end rewards at the $150 and $250 level, but it may be even as much as a few weeks before we can share that (conversations need to conclude, and stuff needs to move from point A to Z, before we can commit there).

Dan & I will also talk about what could happen beyond the $6,500 level, if it comes, but that’s a longer conversation and he has some travel planned a week from now. Possibly an exclusive benefit for all contributors to the kickstarter, at that point. But for that, you’ll have to stay tuned.

Thanks so much, everyone. It’s incredibly gratifying to see how many folks out there have the same kind of enthusiasm and faith in Daniel as we do here at Evil Hat.