Well I had an interesting chat with Ronnie at Mantic today about all sorts of upcoming gaming excitements – more of which soon enough. One tidbit I can discuss is the rather jolly news that DreadBall has now sold more copies of the game to trade customers than it did on KickStarter.
This is important for a number of reasons. Obviously more sales are always good, but it’s much, much more than boring numbers. We’ve been looking at KS a lot lately, and we reckon that this is not a common feat. It’s impossible to be sure, but I’d guess that the bulk of most KS-backed games goes to the KS pledgers. How many KS games have a life beyond that? Second print runs? Third?
Ronnie and I always thought of the KickStarter as only the beginning for DreadBall, and the great thing about these sales figures is that they are proving just that: the game’s got legs (and it’s running for the Strike Zone).
As I said at the time and in several interviews since, the best bit for me about the KickStarter was the creation of a vibrant community from day 1, and this is, I think, a major factor behind the ever increasing numbers of tournaments, painted teams and excited fans I see around the net and in person. There is a busy Facebook group, a rapidly filling diary of events and that’s before Season 2 is even out. The fans (that’s you), make DreadBall what it is.
So I’d like to say a hearty thank you to all the DreadBall playtesters, Coaches and fans of every shape and hue out there. It’s crazy, it’s exciting and it’s been a wild ride so far – but we’ve only just begun!
Quirkworthy 
Congratulations.
Dreadball is going to be AWESOME!!!! Hooray!
All a testament to your hard work! We’ve even managed to get students turning up routinely every Monday for a DreadBall club, and that’s something completely new and exciting for me!
Wow! That is impressive.
Well done, Jake – and Mantic, too! Well deserved for such a great game and fun development process! Have just set up a league in the school where I work and the lads have bought more teams than we can play in a week! Should’ve opted for the other pitches on the Kickstarter! My own Kickstarter Striker just arrived late, so a marathon painting week ahead! Sincerely, though – good work to all involved!
Thank you. Best of luck with your league.
That’s great to hear! Excellent game and good to see it taking off!
Great stuff! The more players, the merrier!
I managed to convince my (rugby-loving) 60 year old father to play a game, which I think is a testament to the games universal appeal (and its simple mechanics). Although I am now permanently stuck referring to the players “Props”, “Half-backs” and “Wingers”, he does actively ask to play a game or two whenever I pop home – so thank you and nice work to Mr Thorton and Mr Renton.
Excellent! You’re never too old to be introduced to the joys of gaming đŸ™‚
I love this game. It makes me lose sleep on order to play more and win. Thanks to your game i have never before realized just how competitive i can be and how much I hate losing. Overall its a great game, quick to learn, with a lot of tactical freedom and decision making. Thank you.
Aha! A game to bring out the Dark Side…
So far I’ve been enjoying the game a lot, both in our start-up league, and as simply one-off games. I was wondering however (if you know), what the plans are for models to boost my team. For example, the Forge Fathers only come with two striker models and I’ll like to add some more, without purchasing another full team box. Does Mantic have plans to make individual models, or perhaps smaller boosters (ex: maybe two- or three-packs) of figures available to players?
Manic are going to release team booster packs (can’t remember the exact name) with a number of variant poses in for the team.The number of each model is proportionate to the number in the base team, as it should be.
I think these are due in the next month or two, though I don’t have an exact date.