Here at Hive we strive to create the best tools to help all creators during their very difficult endeavour of running a Crowd-Funding campaign for a Tabletop (Boardgame) Project.
We focus only on Tabletop/Boardgame/RPG projects. We have run our own share of Boardgame projects using the Kickstarter platform, and after having walked through the entire process and learnt (the hard way) what actually needs to be done, we are now capable of sharing this knowledge and all the tools we have developed to make your life a little bit easier.
Depending on your needs we can help you out during any stage of your Crowd-Funding campaign:
1. PRE-Campaign
There are numerous things you need to account for when getting ready for a crowd-funding campaign.
- Prototyping - Play Testing: It is worth taking the time to create some prototypes and then have them play-tested by different communities, groups, even at big conferences. That will allow you to figure out any issues your game might have and address them before it reaches your backers. In addition to that, this process can generate a hype for your project! We have teams in both Europe and Canada, and we attend multiple boardgame conferences per year (GenCon, UK Expo, Spiel, Origins etc)
- Manufacturing Quotes: Get the price you want with the quality your backers deserve. Make sure the production will be done according to plan, and that your backers will receive a game you will be proud of. We have worked with several Chinese manufacturing companies and now we have a list of partners that we trust to deliver exactly what you need.
- Shipping Quotes: Figure out the best way to get your games to your backers. Low costs, tracked services, timely delivery. There are many fulfillment agencies out there, we can guide you through the process of making the correct choices.
- Marketing Strategy: Figure out how you will promote your game. You need to start with small teasers before the campaign, and then have a full blown strategy for during the campaign, including but not limited to: Newsletter, Give Aways, Contests, Social Media Marketing, Google Adwords/Remarketing, YouTube Reviewers, Ad placements etc
- Pricing: Picking the correct price for your project is one of the most crucial decisions you will have to make. There are different rules you need to know and follow depending on what you want to achieve after the end of the Kickstarter campaign. If you want the game to be able to hit the Retail market then it is a completely different strategy than if the game will be available only through Kickstarter and conventions.
2. Going Live and Keeping up the pace
As soon as you go live the actual work needs to start. From now on you need to be on top of your Campaign, following it every step of the way, adjusting it when necessary, listening to your backers and commnicating with them.
At the same time you need to launch numerous media campaigns (Ad Placements, Give Aways, Podcasts, Youtube Reviews etc), so that you can get the word out there and give as much information about your game as possible.
We can help you organize all these aspects of your campaign!
3. POST-Campaign
You will need the correct tools to achieve all the following goals:
- Gather Information: You need to be able to gather all the information you need from your backers to successfully deliver their game.
- Late-Pledge: Not everyone will manage to come to you in time for a pledge. Some backers would like to have some extra time to jump in to your project. You need to have a way for them to do so, even after the end of your campaign.
- Upsell: It is easier to find 1000 backers to pay $100 rather than 10000 that will pay $10. Also, not everyone will understand that you have extra add-ons they can include in their pledge. All these and much more can increase your revenue significantly.
- Shipping Costs: The most difficult part for a campaign is to accurately calculate and charge shipping costs. This is the stage you usually lose the most amount of money due to miscalculations. Our platform supports a really robust way to calculate shipping costs based on volume, weight, number of SKUs and everything else that modern fulfillment companies use to charge you.
We cover all of these needs with our own Pledge Manager platform!
If you want us to help you out during any stage of your crowd-funding campaign, do not hesitate to CONTACT US and we will be happy to accommodate you in any way we can!