Crowdsource Funding Questions

[KaneBunce]

Can a mod or admin tell me if linking to a crowdsourcing project in a post and/or my signature when I create it (I haven't created it yet) permitted on the forum?

Also, would anyone here even be interested in funding such a project? It is for an RPG me and a friend are making using the Pathfinder OGC.

Also, has anyone here successfully used crowdfunding to get a project off the ground?

 

[Morrus]

1) Yes, that's fine (although linked sigs are a subscriber feature). You can certainly post about it.

2) RPG related Kickstarters are stupidly popular right now. There are a dozen new ones each day. So many that we had to spin off a separate site to report on them to avoid being overwhelmed.

3) Yep, loads of folks here. Including me - I'm on my second. There's folks here who have raised tens of thousands of dollars of funding; some even more than that.

 

[KaneBunce]

Thanks. Were any of the successful ones that people funded large scale ideas? We plan to do a "studio" of sorts with many products being released gradually. We have 2 campaign settings (one mainly of my friend's design and one mainly of mine) with custom rules for each (though some/many rules can be used in both). We also want to do software that is compatible with our game, PF, and D&D. Eventually we also plan to add fantasy and sci-fi short stories/novels and maybe gamebooks.

But even for initial stuff only, we are going to need a lot of money for art work (not sure how much, but with an initial release of 3-4 full-sized books I would assume it is a few tens of thousands). Plus we need money for Apple hardware and software so we software development for their OSes. We also need advertising money and more. Not sure how much luck we will have getting tens of thousands overall.

Also, we are not using Kickstarter as it doesn't seem to allow NZ users. We are going to use another service that does (Rocket Hub and IndieGoGo seem to be the options so far). Does that website you linked to allow projects from services other than Kickstarter?

 

[Morrus]

Some of them have made tens of thousands, yes. Those ones tend to have big names or brands attached, though. Most seem to be in the $5K-ish range, with a reasonable percentage in the $10K-$20K range. The Pathfinder MMO technology demo got $300K.

Yes, Indiegogo is fine too. Gets much lower results on average, though.

 

[KaneBunce]

Well, I re-checked and Kickstarter definitely is US residents only, so it is not an option. IndieGoGo allows non-US residents, including those in NZ.

Thanks for your help. I just hope that the differences with our rules are enough to interest enough people for enough funding. I do think we have some very interesting ideas (for example I might do a large list of unusual cross-breeds (a dwarf-elf race maybe) in a book similar to the Pathfinder ARG, and the core rules will have sub-races as well as some interesting and unusual new races). We still have a lot of development work to do anyway, so maybe if we make it a long term project (120 days for example) it might help.

 

[Umbran]

You might want to consider a restructuring of your plans - I would expect a relative unknown to be unlikely to get enough to fund an entire "studio", when the quality of your output has yet to be seen.

Consider one product first, fund and produce it - then you have a basis and a demonstrated ability to deliver.

 

[Morrus]

Campaign settings are a hard, hard thing to sell.

 

[KaneBunce]

You might want to consider a restructuring of your plans - I would expect a relative unknown to be unlikely to get enough to fund an entire "studio", when the quality of your output has yet to be seen.

Consider one product first, fund and produce it - then you have a basis and a demonstrated ability to deliver.

We don't plan to do a whole studio. I worded it badly, sorry. I meant we plan to work our way up to a studio, not start as one right away. As for our initial offering, it it will simply be software, 2-3 rulebooks, and a campaign setting.

Our main costs will be artwork, development for a very feature rich website, and Apple hardware and software. None of that comes cheap, especially Apple hardware and software, which fetches a higher premium in NZ than in the US.

And we are considering scaling our goals based on how much we raise (such as starting with just the books or just the software initially if we fail to raise our preferred amount).

Campaign settings are a hard, hard thing to sell.

Well, we also have the rulebooks, as I said above, and the software we are making.

The software we will make will be a full suite of RPG related apps for Windows desktops, Windows Metro, Linux, Android, OS X, and iPhone.

 

[KaneBunce]

Ok, we have been discussing the advice given here and have made some decisions. We have decided to start off with just a book that offers just the rules rules to be used with any d20 game (mainly Pathfinder) but preferably the first of our campaign settings. However, now the campaign settings will not be sold. It will basically be, buy the book in physical or digital form and get the campaign settings free (though the initial release will have just 1 campaign setting; the other will come later). The software and other products will come at later dates.

Our goal will be $5,000. However that will only cover the physical copy having B&W art. However, if we reach the bonus goal of $10,000 we will do colour copies.

The other products will wait until a later date.

Is that better?

 

[Morrus]

Ok, we have been discussing the advice given here and have made some decisions. We have decided to start off with just a book that offers just the rules rules to be used with any d20 game (mainly Pathfinder) but preferably the first of our campaign settings. However, now the campaign settings will not be sold. It will basically be, buy the book in physical or digital form and get the campaign settings free (though the initial release will have just 1 campaign setting; the other will come later). The software and other products will come at later dates.

Our goal will be $5,000. However that will only cover the physical copy having B&W art. However, if we reach the bonus goal of $10,000 we will do colour copies.

The other products will wait until a later date.

Is that better?

Impossible to say without knowng the intricate details of your business model, planned distribution chain, planned retail pricing, and craploads of other stuff. It might be a viable plan, it might be an awful one. Good luck with it though!

Heh. This one (for some miniatures) has a goal of $1,250. It's just shot past $55,000.