I have a few quick links, videos, and Kickstarter innovations that I’ve been saving up, so I thought I’d consolidate them on today’s post with some commentary from me. War of the Worlds $5 Pledge-Manager Reward With an increasing number of backers pledging $1 to gain access to a project’s post-campaign pledge manager, Grey Fox […]
In spring of 2018, after much deliberation and debate, I quietly implemented an Amazon-specific minimum advertised price policy (MAPP). 6 months later, the policy was dead. Here’s what happened. Why MAPP? I’m a big believer in capitalism and the free market. I love that we sell games to distributors who sell to thousands of retailers […]
Over the last 6 months, I’ve increasingly been contacted via my personal Facebook Messenger about Stonemaier Games business. I have no hard feelings against anyone who has done this, but I’d like to propose a halt to this method of communication, as I don’t think it’s the most effective way of doing business. Here’s why […]
A few weeks ago, someone on Instagram took offense to a passage from my crowdfunding book: Your livelihood should not depend on a single crowdfunding campaign. You’re raising money to create something, not to fund your personal expenses. Most people will have tough financial times at some point in their lives. Those times suck, but […]
Distributors and retailers, we need to talk. First, though, let’s bring everyone else up to speed, because most of my readers aren’t distributors or retailers. Here’s a quick summary of how the system works in the board game world: A publisher (like Stonemaier) creates a game and pays a manufacturer (like Panda) to produce it. […]
I fondly look back on the days when I received an annual tax refund from the IRS thanks to the interest paid on my condo. Logically I know that it was money I had already paid being returned to me, but it felt like a bonus every year. With my income now tied to Stonemaier […]
Well, this went better than expected! The last time we accepted preorders for a new game, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, it was a bit of a surprise announcement. The game was well received, and we sold around 600 copies directly to consumers within a 1-week span. The experience set my expectations for […]
Recently there was a massively successful tabletop game project on Kickstarter called Tainted Grail. While I wasn’t a backer, I kept an eye on the project, and I admire the vast majority of their methods. Congrats to Awaken Realms! However, they did one thing that I think can be a cautionary tale for other creators. […]
In a few months, I’ll post my annual stakeholder report, which delves deep into the numbers for Stonemaier Games. Today’s post is much more about the content I discuss on this blog: Kickstarter, crowdfunding, and entrepreneurship. Let’s start with the 3 most popular articles I wrote this year: The Truth About Digital Board Games: Here […]
One of the first things I learned as a Kickstarter creator was the importance of having a project video. Since then I honestly haven’t questioned it all that much–while there have been successful projects without videos, and there’s a lack of A/B tests to really show if they’re necessary, it just seems to make sense […]
