Typically I would write a blog post about Gen Con, the largest tabletop game convention in the US, after the convention (like this one from 2018). But for the first time in 7 years, I’m not there. Why? Well, it’s an experiment. Some of you longtime readers have encouraged me to delegate more, so instead […]
What would you do if you received the following email? “Hey, I recently ordered a game from your website, and it shipped a few days ago. Unfortunately, I entered the wrong address, and it will either be delivered to a place I can’t get it or returned to you. What should I do?” This is […]
Ever since I started running Stonemaier Games as my full-time job in December 2013, I’ve spent nearly every day (7 days a week) in my home office. In my 20s, I loved traveling. My goal was to visit somewhere different and exotic every year–I have so many great memories from those trips. But as soon […]
Something special happened today at Stonemaier Games, and I’d like to share it in a way that hopefully relates to you (and may help me). First, some context: A long time ago in the year 2015, a game I designed and published did really well on Kickstarter. It was called Scythe, and at the time, […]
Before I delve into this tenuous topic, I should clarify a few things: One, as much as I try to stay on top of the evolution of crowdfunding, I haven’t actually run a Kickstarter campaign since 2015 (my company completely moved away from Kickstarter after that). Two, I’m a publisher, not a retailer, but the […]
[Update: Facebook now makes this super simple! After Facebook processes the live video, click on it so it fills your screen, then click on the three dots at the upper right of the screen. Select download, then right click on the new video that appears and choose “save as.” That’s it!] For 18 months now, […]
Have you ever succumbed to the sunk cost fallacy? I have, and I just barely escaped from it. If you’re not familiar with the concept, here are two excellent definitions: “Individuals commit the sunk cost fallacy when they continue a behavior or endeavor as a result of previously invested resources (time, money or effort) (Arkes & […]
I think this is going to be a bit of a weird (and slightly morbid) post, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m writing this because there are tons of companies (crowdfunding and otherwise) who are run by one person. That person is responsible for their backers, customers, clients, and independent contractors. They alone have […]
Today I have a few videos to share from my Dice Tower crowdfunding series. These short videos summarize the key points from my blog about post-campaign communication, the backer survey, and scheduling/timelines. You can find the previous videos on this website or mixed in with my game design videos on YouTube. What ideas in these videos do you […]
Here’s the latest collection of business-related strategies and observations I’ve noticed. Some are related to Kickstarter and board games; others have no direct connection to those categories. Magic the Gathering Previews Whenever there is a new Magic set, Wizards of the Coast reveals a few preview cards every day. For the last few years, they’ve […]
