Recently I’ve been fascinated by a series of “day in the life” videos from a street performing/YouTuber magician named Steven Bridges. In each 9-minute video, he takes the audience through the experience of busking (street performing) in the UK. As I watched the fourth video in this series (all four are highly recommended viewing, though […]
Has a Kickstarter backer ever threatened you? I’ve seen this quite a few times, both on and off of Kickstarter. In fact, just a few weeks ago a creator wrote to me to say that a few backers were threatening to cancel their pledges if he didn’t improve his stretch goals. Now, let’s be clear […]
I actively seek opportunities that create a direct return on investment. Kickstarter was great for this: Invest X amount of time and Y amount of money to gain Z backers and funds. Clean, simple ROI. Conventions provide a more difficult calculation. Sure, if you bring games to sell at a convention, you can determine the amount you […]
I’m at a convention today, so this guest post is brought to you by Daniel Zayas. I’ve been in contact with Daniel through various Kickstarter communities on Facebook for a while now, and I thought he’d have some helpful insights for my fellow creators. *** My name is Daniel Zayas, and I am a Kickstarter Expert. […]
The most popular option on my recent poll about upcoming blog posts was for “the current state of Stonemaier Games.” This idea was inspired both by the Tasty Minstrel Games equity crowdfunding project and the Steve Jackson Games stakeholder report. I particularly like how Steve defines stakeholders as anyone who has an impact on his […]
In early March I received some shocking news from our accountant: My company’s tax payment for 2016 totaled nearly all of our current cash flow. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of dollars we needed for manufacturing costs were being funneled into checks to the federal and state governments. It sucked. Big time. So last week I […]
5 months ago, I announced that Stonemaier Games would no longer be using crowdfunding or pre-order campaigns. This was a notable announcement because I have Kickstarter to thank for my company’s inception and growth from 2012-2015, plus, well, this blog is about crowdfunding. Today Richard Bliss released a new 20-minute podcast chat with me about […]
I keep a running list of topics to discuss on this blog. On Monday and Thursday I look at that list and find something I’m excited to write about that I think will be invaluable for you to read. Usually I’m able to quickly figure out which topic to write about, but today was different. […]
I recently began an extremely difficult 8-month process of not watching the trailer for Star Wars: Episode VIII. There’s a long road ahead, and I’m not sure I’ll make it, but I’ll do my best. The reason? Spoilers! We all have different definitions, tolerance levels, and grace periods for spoilers. For me, it depends on […]
I’ve written thousands of words over the last few years discussing the merits of content marketing, but a few days ago I listened to a a discussion between Chris Rowlands and Gabe Barrett on the Board Game Design Lab podcast that said it better than I ever have. Content marketing is attracting and building an audience […]
