24 hours ago we launched our new game, Wyrmspan, from designer Connie Vogelmann, on each of our regional webstores (as well as our direct retailer webstore to ensure that local retailers get what they need to serve their customers for the retail release). It was a very busy day for the entire Stonemaier team as we tried our best to serve customers.
Creating Wyrmspan has been a labor of love for us over the last few years: We put a huge amount of time, creativity, and resources into producing 100,000 copies of the game (plus the accessories). We’re grateful for the opportunity to first sell and ship a portion of that massive investment directly to customers, with the other 75,000+ units of the game heading to distribution and retailers for the retail release in 8 short weeks (so much faster than crowdfunding!).
Over the last 24 hours we’ve sold a little over 16,000 copies of Wyrmspan, the largest single-day quantity for any product we’ve ever sold via crowdfunding or our webstore. The launch discounts will remain in place through Sunday, and our fulfillment centers are working to ship all games in optimized batches (first to Stonemaier Champions).
US Store | Europe Store | Canada Store | Australia/NZ/Asia Store
We always try to make incremental improvements to our launch-day process. Here are a few things we tried for Wyrmspan (or learned from the process):
There’s a lot of customer service required to modify orders after they’re placed, so we added some text to each of our launch newsletters to encourage customers to take their time during the order process to ensure that everything they want is in their cart when they check out.- We’ve also noticed that there’s a big uptick on busy launch days in existing Stonemaier Champions who run into issues with Shopify, so we encouraged them to log in on Tuesday (before the Wednesday launch) to make sure they didn’t have issues.
- We made demo copies available for some retailers to buy in advance, giving them a way to showcase the game to their customers. We also sent copies to TantrumCon and Whose Turn Is It Anyway, two conventions that happened right before launch week.
Our web developer, Dave, set up a super handy Google Sheet on which Joe and I could note webstore/website errors and fixes (instead of exchanging a flurry of emails on launch day). This worked really well.- We had enough people ask the language of the product they were buying (we only sell English-language versions of our products) that we’ve added “English” to our webstore listings. People can get other languages from our localization partners.
- Just an interesting data point: 26,000 people signed up for a launch notification (compared to 16,000 orders).
- We estimated that we’d need around 10,000 upgrade packs for our webstore (metal coins + wooden resources). In total, we weren’t entirely wrong, but we could have used more in the US and Australia (where they’re sold out) and a little less in Canada and Europe. We’re initiating a reprint right away that will be available this summer.
I hope we provided you with a good launch day experience! I’m happy to hear your feedback in the comments. And if you’d like to get Wyrmspan from us, the launch discounts will be available through Sunday.
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Also read: Wyrmspan: Lessons Learned from Our Biggest Announcement Ever
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23 Comments on “Wyrmspan: Thoughts and Strategies from Our Biggest Launch Ever”
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I pre-ordered and since I bought wingspan in a LGS I wasn’t a champion, but anxiously awaiting it’s arrival!
Wingspan is a household favorite that even non-boardgamers I know really enjoy and specifically ask to play plus I really love dragons, so Wyrmspan was a must get as soon as it was announced.
From announcement to store release I was really hyped to get it, so am thankful at the short turnaround time in how these releases have been handled.
I had a gameplay, with ordering the game (and upgrades) immediately on release. The reminder to log in a day early was a good one.
The website worked great like it always does, and I was surprised to see free shipping was now being offered ($100+). That’s new! Presumably a byproduct of having Miniature Market handle fulfillment.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! The free shipping threshold is $125 (or $100 for Champions).
Another plus of having MM handle fulfillment is the way they package good for shipping. I love getting an appropriately sized box with a good amount of packing material/bubble wrap. It is so nice to receive a package you are excited about, and have it actually show up in good condition.
Received my 2 copies, 10 mats, and 2 upgrades and both boxes were damaged in shipping… other than that very beautiful design and layout once… excited to play the game tomorrow…
I’m sorry to hear that, Jason. If you’d like us to look into it, could you send a photo of the packaging and the damage to contact@stonemaier.com, along with your order number?
I’m curious (if you’re willing to share) if you had a major uptick in Champion memberships? And those optimized batches… is it geographic quantity thresholds? What makes for optimal shipping? I’m feeling so impatient – when will it come?!?
I would have preferred to purchase the coins without the wooden bits. I will probably swap out some of those wooden pieces (the gems for sure) with different components, but I *really* wanted the coins so I bought the set. I might have gotten the playmats if I could have spent less on just the upgrades I wanted.
Also, I’ve done a couple a crowdfunding games, but this was so much more fun. The quick turnaround, the videos and blog posts, all of it. We love the Stonemaier games we already own and we’re beyond excited to get Wyrmspan.
Absolutely, we saw a big increase in Champion memberships.
Each fulfillment center optimizes in different ways and at different times. Sometimes it’s based on location or identical orders. I appreciate your excitement and your patience –fulfillment centers cannot ship 10,000 orders in one day (or one week). I’m glad we can serve you in this way instead of asking you to wait 1-2 years to get what you paid for. :)
I really was sad the coins were sold out in the US. Will the prices go up when you reprint the coins?
We’ll send a back-in-stock notification to those who have made a back-in-stock request, with the same launch price available for a few days after that notification. The upgrade pack is comprised of metal coins and wooden resources, but all components you need to play and enjoy the game are included in the Wyrmspan box. :)
Congratulations on a successful launch!
From my perspective the whole process has been seamless and, dare I say, exciting. From the the launch email and teaser trailer, the emerging detail and designer diaries and to cap it off a smooth shopping experience.
Now we are looking forward to the game arriving – can’t wait to play. We also took the time to purchase some upgrades for our other Stonemaier games too :)
I’m glad it’s been a positive experience for you, Paul!
I have no complaints, I ordered what I wanted, I went all in and I ordered 2 golden egg packs because, dragons… … golden eggs. Ordered yesterday, shipped today, great job everyone!
Thank you for the great idea of getting us to log in beforehand. I had a seamless experience at the shop in Australia, and I was even able to swoop in on the Wyvern disc, being both a boardgamer and a disc golfer. It can happen! It was also a good time to get the vision friendly cards for Wingspan.
Thanks for getting the disc! Let me know when you get an ace with it. :)
I’m so interested in the numbers on a launch like this. How did these first 24 hours compare to your second most successful launch? Did the rest of the launch period follow the same trends as previous launches or did it remain stronger than others through Sunday? (I will have to wait until after Sunday for an answer on that.) Did you and/or your team have predetermined celebration milestones you were looking forward to all day?
Our second-best first 24 hours was around 8500 units. I don’t yet know how the rest of the launch will go, but I’m curious to see! :)
While the numbers are fun (and useful for future formulas for each fulfillment center), our goals aren’t specific numbers or milestones. Our goals are to make each customer happy. We celebrate quietly whenever we do that. :)
Just as an FYI, I did log in the night before, but when I cam back yesterday, I had to log in again, That said, my experience was otherwise smooth, and I and my family are looking forward to playing this.
That’s interesting! Thanks for the heads up, Frank. I think the key is that you were able to log in (sometimes Champions try to do that and they get an error, one that we can easily fix, but it’s tough to do so quickly on a busy launch day).
I was one of the people who needed assistance after placing my order! (Your customer service is always top notch, though I did feel bad having to email the team!) I hadn’t thought through that one rubber playmat would be needed for each player and initially only ordered one. Your description definitely mentioned this, but maybe if it had been listed in the title or bolded, it may not have missed it. Or maybe if it had been sold as a 5-pack as well as a 1-pack that would have clicked? I also had trouble getting my order to go through. I received several network errors and I wasn’t sure what that meant. But eventually it did go through without me having to do anything to fix it. Perhaps the error message on that could have been more clear as to what it meant? I wasn’t sure if it meant I had a bad internet connection, my credit card wasn’t working, or the error was due to high traffic. But in the end, my order is processed and thanks to Dave’s help, I now have multiple copies of the playmat coming! I offer this feedback only since I know you are always trying to improve the customer experience. Congratulations on the successful launch! We look forward to playing Wyrmspan soon!
Thanks Cran! I appreciate that input, and I’m sorry about the network errors.
We try to offer individual player mats for those who typically play at lower player counts, though there’s probably a way we can better convey that it’s one per player, not one for the table.
I was also caught up in this. Bought the remaining 4 mats in a separate order.
Congratulations on Wyrmspan’s successful launch!