analysis of card games on kickstarter (q3 and q4 2015)€¦ · q3 q4 difference % change number of...

32
Q3 AND Q4 2015 CARD GAME KICKSTARTER REPORT by Bear Peak Games

Upload: hoangkhanh

Post on 25-Aug-2018

215 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

Q3 AND Q4 2015 CARD GAME

KICKSTARTER REPORTbyBear Peak Games

Page 2: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

FOREWORDThis report is the combined product of my love of games, my experience with financial reporting, and draw to crowdfunding.

Ideally I would like to eventually market my own game, but I never approach a potential venture without thoroughly researching it beforehand. There are plenty of great resources available now to turn to for the design phase of a game, the play testing, the production, taking it to market, and even fulfillment of orders, but I saw an absence of actual financial data supporting crowd funded games.

I settled on starting with a very niche market, successfully crowd funded card games on Kickstarter, but hope that if the reception of this report is positive enough, I can eventually expand this analysis to all types of games and potentially even other crowd funded material.

From my experience in public accounting and financial reporting, I know that a report like this is typically one-sided communication, where the report itself is pushed out, with little room for feedback. I hope to change this communication method and strongly encourage those of you who find this interesting to reach out and let me know what you liked and what you want to know more about. I have attached contact information to get ahold of me at the end of this report with the hopes that this can be an ever-evolving way of better understanding what is becoming one of the most popular routes to take for game designers to get their games to the public.

Additionally, for transparency and better understanding, I have attached an appendix at the end of the report which more clea rly outlines all the inputs utilized in coming to these numbers. If you have questions about any of these or come to different conclusions on what is appropriate to factor in, please let me know. I want this report to best suit the needs of its readers, but cannot do that without active participation from you.

For those of you that don’t have the time to read through every chart and narrative I have attached, I’ve tried my best to highlight “Key Takeaways” to summarize what I feel is most important.

If you found this report useful or if you despised it, please take 5 minutes to help provide feedback via this survey link. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8SYBMP2

I’ll post the results to the Bear Peak Games facebook page and Board Game Geek once I gather sufficient feedback.

Enjoy!

-Travis Talaric of Bear Peak Games ([email protected])

2

Page 3: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

Foreword

Quarterly Analysis…………………………………………….4 Overall Results Fund Goal Funds Raised # of Backers

Top Games by Quarter………………………………………..8

Timing of Campaigns…………………………………………10 Month Funded Duration of Campaign Production Timeline

Pledge Levels………………………………………………...14 Base Game Price Most Popular Pledge Level $1 Pledges Interim Pledge Levels

Country of Origin…………………………………………….22

First Time Creators…………………………………………....23

Community……………………………………………………27 Updates Comments Social Media

Appendix A – Data Inputs……………………………………31

Appedix B – About the Author……………………………….32

3

Page 4: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

Q3 Q4 Difference % ChangeNumber of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%Number of Backers 33,629 46,660 13,031 39%Total Funding Goal Achieved (USD) 500,748$ 507,741$ 6,992$ 1%Total Dollars Raised (USD) 1,536,130$ 2,173,811$ 637,682$ 42%

US Based Games 42 43 1 2%Foreign Based Games 12 20 8 67%Games with $1 Pledge Level 31 36 5 16%Games with an Interim Pledge Level* 21 21 - 0%First Time Creator Projects 31 42 11 35%

Backers Per Game 623 741 118 19%Funding Goal Per Game (USD) 9,273$ 8,059$ (1,214)$ -13%Funding Received Per Game (USD) 28,447$ 34,505$ 6,058$ 21%

US Based Games % 78% 68% -10%Foreign Based Games % 22% 32% 10%Games with $1 Pledge Level % 57% 57% 0%Games with an Interim Pledge Level % 39% 33% -6%Percentage of Games by First Time Creators 57% 67% 9%

*Interim Pledge Level represents a pledge level above $1 but below the base cost of the game

Quarterly AnalysisAmounts in USD

The rest of this report will go into far more detail than is depicted here, but I wanted to first start with a general summary of Q3 vs Q4.

Q4 saw substantial growth in general terms of the number of games funded, the number of backers supporting these games, and total funds raised. But a lot of this growth actually came from abroad as more non-US creators have stepped up to the plate to market their games. In addition, there were plenty of new games put out by first time game creators.

Games also began phasing out $1 and interim pledge levels, favoring pricing where the cheapest pledge level buys the base game, turning Kickstarter campaigns into even more of a game pre-order platform.

Obviously, only analyzing these two quarters in isolation, it is hard to form concrete assumptions over long term Kickstarter growth, but it seems fair to say that the popularity of using Kickstarter as a fundraising platform for card games continues to grow.

4

Page 5: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

QUARTERLY ANALYSISFUND GOAL PER GAME

With 117 card games funded over the second half of 2015, it seems apparent that the majority of games tend to set more achievable fund raising goals of $10,000 or less.

My thoughts on this are two part.

First, card games set themselves apart from the rest of tabletop games in that they are inherently cheaper to finance. A full game of 100ish cards, tuck box, and instructions can be produced in bulk for $4-$7 per most current price quotes.

Second, there is something that motivates backers to back a project they deem more attainable. This makes sense if you think about it. Even though Kickstarter refunds unsuccessful projects, the vast majority of backers are funding a game because they want to play it, and a lower funding goal better ensures that possibility. In the future I hope to compare all unfunded and successfully funded games to get a better picture of where this line is.

15

19

9

5

3 3

18

22

11 11

1

LESS THAN $5K

$5,000 TO $9,999

$10,000 TO $14,999

$15,000 TO $19,999

$20,000 TO $24,999

$25K +

# o

f Gam

es

Fund Goal

Fund Goal by Game

Q3 Q4

5

Page 6: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

QUARTERLY ANALYSISTOTAL FUNDS RAISED BY GAME

This distribution of funds raised per game stays pretty constant from Q3 to Q4, with a slight increase in Q4.

The majority of card games successfully funded in Q3 and Q4 raised between $5K to $20K.

The average funds raised per game on the previous slide indicates a mean of $28.4K in Q3 and $34.5K in Q4, but these averages seem to be skewed by the few very successful games (funding of over $100K).

The median amount of funds raised per game seems to be more representative of the population at $13.1K in Q3 and $13.6K in Q4.

Key Takeaway: When establishing your funding goal, weight your goal against this analysis. If the average game raises around $13K and you want an obtainable goal, try to get your costs down to the point where you can come in below this amount.

6

13

1110

5

2 2 1 1

3

7

13 13

11

6

2 2 2 1 1 1

4

# o

f Gam

es

Funding Received

Total Funds Raised by Game

Q3Q4

6

Page 7: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

QUARTERLY ANALYSIS# OF BACKERS PER GAME

The distribution of # of backers per game is also pretty constant quarter over quarter, with a slight increase in Q4.

While the mean of the data gives an average at 623 and 741 backers per game in Q3 and Q4, respectively, the median of the data brings the average down to 356 and 372 per game.

Key Takeaway: If you are working with a manufacturer that requires a minimum order quantity, take this into account. This is also helpful when creating pledge levels for a limited number of backers (i.e. early bird).

16

8

6 67

3 32

3

17

8

10

78

2

6

23

LESS THAN 200

200 TO 299

300 TO 399

400 TO 499

500 TO 749

750 TO 999

1000 TO 1499

1500 TO 1999

2000 +

# o

f Gam

es

# of Backers

# of Backers per Game

Q3Q4

7

Page 8: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

TOP GAMES BY FUNDS RAISED

NameFunding

Received (USD)1 One Night Ultimate Vampire 378,117$ 2 Nuclear War Card Game 156,696$ 3 The Contender: The Game of Political Debate 142,551$ 4 Dark Dealings 91,549$ 5 100 Swords 80,465$ 6 BRAWL: Real Time Card Game 43,714$ 7 Shadowfist: Year of the Goat 40,765$ 8 MONSTROUS 37,043$ 9 Hocus 31,403$

10 How To Kill A Spider 29,330$

Q3Name

Funding Received (USD)

1 Wizard School 461,583$ 2 Dan Ariely's Irrational Card Game! 282,294$ 3 Spaceteam 181,625$ 4 El Alamein Anime Card Game from Japan! 161,769$ 5 Innovation Deluxe 91,769$ 6 DrunkQuest: Porcelain Gods 85,797$ 7 Draconis Invasion 60,204$ 8 JadedAid 51,182$ 9 EXCEED 50,591$

10 Master Thief 47,321$

Q4

8

Page 9: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

TOP GAMES BY NUMBER OF BACKERS

NameNumber of

Backers1 One Night Ultimate Vampire 4,839 2 Dark Dealings 2,937 3 The Contender: The Game of Political Debate 2,698 4 100 Swords 1,713 5 Hocus 1,639 6 Nuclear War Card Game 1,388 7 MONSTROUS 1,240 8 Marrying Mr. Darcy: the Emma Expansion 1,027 9 Fleet Wharfside 935

10 Perspective 918

Q3Name

Number of Backers

1 Wizard School 9,377 2 Dan Ariely's Irrational Card Game! 5,405 3 Spaceteam 4,222 4 Innovation Deluxe 1,635 5 JadedAid 1,625 6 Draconis Invasion 1,398 7 KEEP 1,266 8 Master Thief 1,110 9 Deer Lord! 1,075

10 El Alamein Anime Card Game from Japan! 1,048

Q4

9

Page 10: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

TIMING OF CAMPAIGNMONTH FUNDED Q3 & Q4

This is an interesting slide as it shows that during both Q3 and Q4, the largest quantity of games funded occurred in the first month of the quarter.

I am interested to see if this trend holds true going forward, but would not place too much weight on this until more data is analyzed.

22

20

12

24

2019

July August September October November December

# o

f Gam

es

Month Funded

Month Funded

10

Page 11: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

TIMING OF CAMPAIGNDURATION OF THE KICKSTARTER

75

33

63

9

3

37

9

5

LESS THAN 3 WEEKS

21 - 27 DAYS 28 - 34 DAYS 35 -41 DAYS 6+ WEEKS

# o

f Gam

es

Duration

Duration of the Kickstarter

Q3Q4

Both in Q3 and Q4, five week long campaigns are the gold standard for card games.

Key Takeaway: Specifically, 41% of card games funded between both quarters had a duration of 30 days exactly.

11

Page 12: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

TIMING OF THE CAMPAIGNDURATION ANALY SIS Q3 & Q4

Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is better, right?

Per the adjacent chart, it seems it may be best to succumb to the peer pressure.

Key Takeaway: Where one would expect the longer campaigns to average the highest # of backers and funding received, the 4-5 week campaigns actually averaged the highest in both categories.

The results of the data aren’t quite as clear after the 5 week mark, as the shorter campaigns tend to average a larger amount of backers, while the longer campaigns average more funding received.

Duration of Campaign

Average # of backers

Average Funding Received (USD)

28 - 34 days 834 40,547$ Less than 3 weeks 576 17,299$ 21 - 27 days 526 13,166$ 35 -41 days 395 22,191$ 6+ weeks 322 19,583$

12

Page 13: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

TIMING OF THE CAMPAIGNPRODUCTION TIMELINE

This slide represents another unexpected result of my research.

While Q3 games spiked around a four month lag time, Q4 was much quicker, spiking around two month lag. I won’t draw a definite conclusion yet, especially because the overall averages both come much closer to a four month lag, but I wouldn’t be surprised if both the Q3 games and Q4 games set early 2016 as their delivery benchmark.

To be clear on this chart, this uses the dates of “expected” delivery per the Kickstarter. Whether the projects delivered on that date or not is not included in this analysis.

5

87

16

9

5

3

1

3

17

9

78

10

34

2

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

# o

f Gam

es

# of Months Until Delivery

# of Months Until Delivery

Q3Q4

13

Page 14: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELSBASE GAME PRICE

12

15

11 11

5

11

19

15

12

6

LESS THAN $15 $15 TO $19 $20 TO $24 $25 TO $29 $30 +

# o

f Gam

es

Base Game Price

Base Game Price

Q3Q4

Obviously the price you list your base game pledge level at depends on many inputs, but this graph shows that if you’re pricing over $30 per game, you will be somewhat of an outlier.

I understand many game creators back into their price, but be cognizant of the number you arrive at, as you will see on the next slide, there is definitely a demand curve that tapers off when you start to price too high.

14

Page 15: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELSBASE GAME PRICE ANALY SIS

Base PriceAverage # of

BackersAverage Funding Received (USD)

$20 to $24 29,017 52,077$ $15 to $19 18,433 17,265$ $25 to $29 17,423 50,609$ Less than $15 10,981 11,696$ $30 + 4,435 31,273$

I believe the results of this chart to be very important to game creators.

This shows that there is indeed a “sweet spot” when it comes to pricing your base game.

Key Takeaway: The numbers show that just because you price low (less than $15) doesn’t mean that you’ll attract more backers and just because you price high ($30+) doesn’t mean that you’ll raise more funds.

Instead, the mid points of pricing, especially the $20 to $24 games, see the highest averages in both number of backers and funding received.

15

Page 16: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELSMOST POPULAR PLEDGE LEVELS

1215

11 11

5

1012

9

14

9

LESS THAN $15 $15 TO $19 $20 TO $24 $25 TO $29 $30 +

# o

f Gam

es

Pledge Level

Q3 Base Game Price vs Most Popular Pledge Level

Base Game

Most Popular Pledge Level

This slide shows that the price of the most popular pledge level (the pledge level with the highest % of backers) is higher than that of the base game. Backers are still willing to pay more than the base price if the pledge level in properly incentivized and priced correctly as evidenced in the following slides.

Q4 showed an even larger shift in backers willing to pay more (over $30 USD) for pledge levels while base games averaged more than $10 less.

11

1915

1266

17

7 7

26

LESS THAN $15 $15 TO $19 $20 TO $24 $25 TO $29 $30 +

# o

f Gam

es

Pledge Level

Q4 Base Game Price vs Most Popular Pledge Level

Base Game

Most Popular Pledge Level

16

Page 17: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELSBASE PRICE VS MOST POPULAR PLEDGE LEVEL Q3 & Q4

I think this is one of the more important findings from my research.

The highest popular pledge levels, regardless of base game price, seem to cap out around $35 -$37.

As you saw in the slides preceding this one, the highest total funding and total backers come from games where the base price is between $20 to $24.

This shows that even though you’re allowing backers the opportunity to buy your game for less, the majority of backers are still willing to pay a premium for added content.

Key Takeaway: Allow your backers the ability to buy the base game cheaper so that you don’t lose the interest of those with less to spend, but still provide them the alternative to buy added content at around a 50% premium.

$18 $19

$37 $35

$38

Less than $15 $15 to $19 $20 to $24 $25 to $29 $30 +

Mos

t Pop

ular

Ple

dge

Leve

l

Base Price of the Game

Most Popular Pledge Level vs Base Price of the Game

17

Page 18: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELS$1 PLEDGE LEVELS

No43%

Yes57%

Q3 % of Games with $1 Pledge Level

No43%

Yes57%

Q4 % of Games with $1 Pledge Level

18

Page 19: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELS$1 PLEDGE LEVEL ANALY SIS Q3 & Q4

The $1 pledge level has been a hot-topic issue on Kickstarter for a while now. Proponents point to it as a level that allows interested backers to sit at until the campaign draws nearer to close and they can make a final decision to contribute more or not. Critics state that there is no real benefit provided by it.

As you can see by the previous slide, there is a pretty even divide of card games that offer a $1 pledge level (57% yes and 43% no for both Q3 and Q4). But does this pledge level really have any added benefit to your campaign?

For all 117 games evaluated for Q3 and Q4, the average # of backers of card games without a $1 pledge level is 900 backers per game while with a $1 pledge level is only 527 per game.

Key Takeaway: While some campaigns have unique incentives to a $1 pledge level (toasting the backers, access to PnP, etc.), do not expect your total number of backers to increase due just to the fact you created this cheapest level to pledge at.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

No Yes

# O

F BA

CK

ERS

DOES GAME HAVE $1 PLEDGE LEVEL

Average # of Backers vs $1 Pledge Level

19

Page 20: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELSINTERIM PLEDGE LEVELS*

No67%

Yes33%

Q4 Games with an Interim Pledge Level

No61%

Yes39%

Q3 Games with an Interim Pledge Level

Interim pledge levels are all pledge levels between $1 level and base game price20

Page 21: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

PLEDGE LEVELSINTERIM PLEDGE LEVEL ANALY SIS*

The takeaway from interim pledge levels is very similar to that of the $1 pledge level, except that while $1 pledge levels are present in over 50% of card games funded in Q3 and Q4, interim pledge levels were only present in about 1/3 of card games during this time.

Once again, if you are hoping for more backers simply because you are offering the community a cheaper pledge level to support your campaign at, you may want to think again.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

No Yes

# O

F BA

CK

ERS

DOES GAME HAVE INTERIM PLEDGE LEVEL

Average # of Backers vs Interim Pledge Level

Interim pledge levels are all pledge levels between $1 level and base game price

21

Page 22: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

USA68%

UK16%

CAN3%

AUS3%

SWE1%

BEL1% CZE

2%

FRA2%

SUI2%

ESP2%

Q4 Country of Origin

USA78%

FRA5%

AUS5%

UK4%

GER2%

ESP2%

CAN2%

SUI2%

Q3 Country of Origin

It is encouraging to see an uptick in the percentage of games being created in countries other than the US. With the overall increase in card games funded on Kickstarter from Q3 to Q4 2015, this means that the US isn’t decreasing its production, but instead, foreign countries are contributing and successfully funding more card games.

22

Page 23: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

FIRST TIME CREATORSFirst Game

2%

No43%

Yes55%

Q3 First Time Creators

Yes – Has never successfully funded a Kickstarter Campaign beforeFirst Game – Has funded other projects on Kickstarter before, but never in the Game categoryNo – Has successfully funded Kickstarter Game Campaigns before

First Game10%

No33%Yes

57%

Q4 First Time Creators

There is a misconception in the game design community that Kickstarter is becoming more of a platform for veteran crowdfunders. Key Takeaway: The data above shows this to be untrue with an actual increase in first time and first time game project creators from Q3 to Q4 2015. To be clear, just because it is a project creator’s first project on Kickstarter, does not mean that they have not previously published games or built a following, but it is the first time they have utilized Kickstarter as their funding platform. The following slides show data specific to these first time game project creators.

23

Page 24: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

FIRST TIME CREATORSFIRST TIME FUND GOAL

8

12

54

2

1113

810

LESS THAN $5K $5,000 TO $9,999

$10,000 TO $14,999

$15,000 TO $19,999

$20,000 TO $24,999

# o

f Gam

es

Fund Goal

First Time Creator Fund Goal

Q3

Q4

Just because it is your first Kickstarter campaign, does not mean that you should incrementally discount your funding goal beyond the overall range noted in the chart to the right.

Key Takeaway: Funding goals for successfully funded first time creators gravitated around the $5K to $10K benchmark in both Q3 and Q4 2015 which falls in line with the overall data for card games noted to the right.

15

19

9

5 3 3

18

22

11 11

1

LESS THAN $5K

$5,000 TO $9,999

$10,000 TO $14,999

$15,000 TO $19,999

$20,000 TO $24,999

$25K +

# o

f Gam

es

Fund Goal

Overall Fund Goal

Q3

Q4

24

Page 25: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

FIRST TIME CREATORSFIRST TIME FUNDS RAISED

3

87 7

4

2

5

89 9

32 2 1

3

LESS THAN $5K

$5,000 TO

$9,999

$10,000 TO

$14,999

$15,000 TO

$19,999

$20,000 TO

$29,999

$30,000 TO

$39,999

$40,000 TO

$49,999

$50,000 TO

$59,999

$100K +

# o

f Gam

es

Funds Raised

First Time Creator Funds Raised

Q3 Q4 6

1311 10

5 2 2 1 1 37

13 1311

62 2 2 1 1 1 4#

of G

ames

Funding Received

Overall Funds Raised

Q3 Q4

A main discrepancy between first time creators and veteran creators is that the veteran creators have the higher percentage of “runaway hits”. By this I mean, out of the 14 card games in Q3 and Q4 that raised over $50K, only 4 of these came from first time creators, while the other 10 came from established veteran creators.Key Takeaway: Successful first time card game creators still average between $5K to $20K in funds raised, but have less “runaway hits” as veteran creators do as noted above.

25

Page 26: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

FIRST TIME CREATORSFIRST TIME # OF BACKERS

11

65

3 41 1

13

4

86

3 1 3 1 3

LESS THAN 200

200 TO 299

300 TO 399

400 TO 499

500 TO 749

750 TO 999

1000 TO 1499

1500 TO 1999

2000 +

# o

f Gam

es

# of Backers

First Time # of Backers per Game

Q3Q4

16

86 6 7

3 3 2 3

17

810

7 8

26

2 3

LESS THAN 200

200 TO 299

300 TO 399

400 TO 499

500 TO 749

750 TO 999

1000 TO 1499

1500 TO 1999

2000 +

# o

f Gam

es

# of Backers

Overall # of Backers per Game

Q3Q4

Much like the slide above, while the backer distribution chart for first time creators reflects the overall trend, first time creators have less frequent instances of games obtaining more than 500 backers.Out of the 39 games surpassing 500 backers in Q3 and Q4 2015, 17 of these were from first time creators, while 22 were from veteran creators. This is significant when you factor in that first time creators account for over 50% of the total successfully funded card games.Key Takeaway: First time creators had an average (median) of 322 backers per successfully funded game, while veteran creators averaged (median) 499.

26

Page 27: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

COMMUNITYUPDATES Q3 & Q4

It should be no surprise that the longer your campaign is, the more updates you should be posting, but hopefully this chart will help you arrive at a good base number.

Per the Q3 and Q4 combined analysis, even the shortest games are averaging around 11 updates, while the longer campaigns average around 18.

Key Takeaway: Simple math will show that this trend indicates a correlation of about one update per every two days. But when you take into account updates posted after the campaign ends, the frequency comes closer to an update every three days.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Less than 3 weeks 21 - 27 days 28 - 34 days 35 -41 days 6+ weeks

# O

F U

PDA

TES

DURATION OF CAMPAIGN

# of Updates vs Duration

27

Page 28: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

COMMUNITYCOMMENTS Q3 & Q4

As a game creator, you cannot directly control comments on your Kickstarter, but hopefully this graph can let you know what to hope for based on the reception of your game.

Key Takeaway: The average amount of backers to comments is 4.7

Keep in mind this is throughout the duration of the campaign. If your project is not averaging about one comment to every five backers, be proactive in starting conversations on the page and make sure to respond to all backers who do post comments.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Less than200

200 to299

300 to399

400 to499

500 to749

750 to999

1000 to1499

1500 to1999

2000 +

# O

F C

OM

MEN

TS

# OF BACKERS

Comments per Backers

28

Page 29: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

COMMUNITYSOCIAL MEDIA

It should not come as a surprise that the vast majority of games have some sort of social media presence.

The main draw of crowdfunded games is that the backers actually have the ability to impact the creation of the game itself. This can best be achieved by more actively involving the community with various social media means.

In addition, some of the best advice I have gathered concerning crowdfunding is that the creator should try to start building a community before the campaign ever launches on Kickstarter. Social media is a great way to start growing your pre-launch community.

No, 9%

Yes, 91%

Did Game Have a Social Media Presence

29

Page 30: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

COMMUNITYSOCIAL MEDIA ANALY SIS

As you can see here, many of these games do not have a vast social media presence, but instead average a few hundred facebook likes or Twitter followers.

Key Takeaway: You don’t have to be Mark Zuckerberg, but having a social media presence can continue backer involvement long after your Kickstarter is over.

13

47

16

9 10 9 82 2 1

30

40

1311

57

3 2 1 4 1

NO LESS THAN 250

250 TO 499

500 TO 749

750 TO 999

1,000 TO

1,999

2,000 TO

2,999

3,000 TO

3,999

4,000 TO

4,999

5,000 TO

9,999

10,000 +

# o

f Gam

es

# of Likes/ Followers

Social Media Presence

Facebook Twitter

30

Page 31: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

APPENDIX A – DATA INPUTS

Games Considered: Games considered for this analysis were games that met all the below criteria: Successfully Funded Project end date was between 6/1/2015 – 12/31/2015 Game had at least 100 backers Game had a fund goal of at least $1,000 (USD) Game was either classified as “tabletop game” or “playing cards” Components of the game DID include

At least a dozen cards of playing card size (either bridge or poker) Rules/ Instructions (This mainly to exclude generic playing cards)

Components of the game DID NOT include Dice Board (with the exception of player mats) Figures (either miniatures, pawns, or meeples) Dials

I know this definition of “card game” leaves room for some subjectivity. So as I mentioned in my foreword, please let me know whether you believe there are any game that I have wrongfully included or excluded.

Currency conversion: All FX rates utilized for currency conversion to USD were taken from oanda.com for the end date of the campaign

Base Game Price: Cheapest pledge level that contained a physical copy of the base game (Note: If an early bird pledge level contained more backers than the non-early bird, this was considered the base game. If the early bird pledge level contained less backers than the non-early bird, the non-early bird pledge level was considered the base game)

Most Popular Pledge Level: The pledge level with the highest amount of backers.

Social Media: The majority of input data for social media was obtained from linked social media profiles in the “Created By” section of Kickstarter. If no social media was linked, I obtained this information by visiting the creator’s linked website and then from there, links to their social media. If the creator did not have a website or had one but did not have links to social media, I performed a quick search online for social media pages with the same name as the Kickstarter campaign.

31

Page 32: Analysis of Card Games on Kickstarter (Q3 and Q4 2015)€¦ · Q3 Q4 Difference % Change Number of Card Games Funded 54 63 9 17%

APPENDIX B – ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I currently have three years worth of XP in the realm of public accounting. From helping my clients issue financial reports to navigating the extensive rulebook of public accounting (Accounting Standards Codification), I enjoy the business of utilizing quantitative analysis.

I have a lifetime of experience playing board games and card games. Much of the same personality traits that drive my career translate into my love of exploring new games, learning the rules, and then trying to maximize performance while abiding by them.

I am an active contributor to Board Game Geek forums and through which have been introduced to the game crowdfunding world. Other game creators like Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier games and James Mathe of Minion Games have inspired me with their contributions to this community to try to benefit it myself.

I would love to get your thoughts on this report and see what I can add, what I can do better, and whether this is worth continuing. Feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] or fill out this feedback survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8SYBMP2

32