Thoughts from a first-time self-publisher Part 29: What’s Next?

Hey everyone! Welcome back.

Best Part of my week (so far):
It’s been more than a week, but there have definitely been a few highlights. My licensing agent reached out to just have a talk about what’s next for me and is VERY excited about the prospects for Dog Days. Super Snipers hasn’t done much for either of us in terms of licensing so it was quite validating that they took the time and effort to have this meeting and can see my potential as a designer and publisher. Speaking of Dog Days, man is that game playing well. I’m really excited for this one. I had an incredible playtest of Ratatoskr with some new players last Tuesday. Whenever you offer players an out to go to feedback and they all insist on finishing because they are having fun…you know you’re onto something. And I’ve taken my first series of pitches as a publisher! More on that in a bit.

Most stressful part: Things are finalizing for Super Snipers. That’s a great thing, but it is also very stressful. At some point it will be “done” and I have to live with all of my choices.

Financials: Backerkit up to $5,842. $1080 licensing fee paid.

What’s Next??
I’ve alluded to this before, but the time between successfully funding a Kickstarter and delivering it needs to be at least partially spent putting wheels in motion for what is next. With my first Kickstarter, there is the added rule that I can’t put anything up on KS until I’ve successfully fulfilled my first one. I was able to spend as much time as I needed designing and developing Super Snipers before going to Kickstarter. Going forward, I plan on treating my publishing company more like a garden: planting and nourishing seeds for future projects as I harvest and promote the ones that have finished. I would like to publish an average of 1-2 games a year starting in 2024. Here’s how I plan to do that.

Next KS: My next Kickstarter will be 4 Mint Tin Games. They will all be 2-players, learnable in 5 minutes and playable in a half-hour. They will be available separately or in a bundle and there will be very limited stretch goals (ie - the games will be print ready at the point they are on KS). Why this follow-up route?

  1. Mint Tin games are economical to manufacture and ship

  2. They can be sold at a “no-brainer” price point of around $15 each

  3. Once fulfilled, I now have 5 games to sell at a booth and my online store instead of just 2.

  4. It will be a lot easier to bring a lot of these to sell at conventions and other places.

  5. Mint Tin games are reasonably hot right now.

  6. I already have 2 designs that work perfectly for this.

Taking Pitches:
I absolutely love game design. I could certainly design all 4 of the games in this offering. But I have chosen to reach out to some designers I know and start taking pitches. Why?

  1. Game Design is a ton of work and I don’t have infinite time. I would rather stay focused on a handful of designs I am most invested in.

  2. There is still a long and interesting road between when a game is signed and when it becomes a product and taking other people’s designs allows me to start and focus at this second leg of the trip.

  3. I get a lot for my money! For 5-8% of profits and an upfront advance (and other perks), I get hundreds of hours of work and a designer who will help me develop and promote. Completely worth it and doing all the design work myself is a toooon of work for what it would save me.

  4. It’s a great networking opportunity.

  5. I like working with other designers!

I have some great options so far and more pitches lined up. It will be a hard decision in the end but that’s a good problem to have!

And after that??
I’m strongly considering KS Dog Days myself but haven’t fully decided. I’m going to take the time to make sure it is as good as it can be and go from there.

As always, thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions and consider subscribing if you aren’t already!

Galen.

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Thoughts from a first-time self-publisher Part 28: VAT and Shipping in the UK and EU part 2.