Yesterday, I got a copy of FlickFleet (yes, it’s one word in case you were searching BGG unsuccessfully). It’s a dexterity game of flicking spaceships to move, and flicking dice to shoot your foes. Fast, fun, and well-regarded (7.9 on BGG). This deluxe copy is packed with stuff and I’m looking forward to getting it on the table.
But that’s not why I’m here.
I won this at a convention. Jackson and his team at Eurydice Games often run a competition at conventions, where you get to test your skill at the game by blowing up asteroids. They’re a polite sort of target that doesn’t return fire, and make a good thing to practice on. Anyway, best score on the day wins a copy of the game. I got lucky.
But that’s not why I’m here either.
Eurydice are currently running a Gamefound campaign for one of their growing line of print and play games. I’ve played that too, and it’s a fine example of the genre.
But even that’s not why I’m here.
The reason I’m here is to point out the type of campaign they’re running. It’s a new (to me, at least) type of GF campaign where they only need one backer to successfully fund. This means that it charges your card as soon as you pledge rather than waiting till the campaign ends (because it knows that it’s funded, so why wait?). It’s an interesting development. Several folk I’ve talked to about it have had the same immediate reaction as I did: you can get to most of the same place by just setting your goal at a single pound/dollar/ningi. I’m told that there are benefits to getting the info early from the viewpoint of the creator. Time will tell if this format becomes popular.
In its early days, I’m sure I recall KS having different types of campaigns you could run, though that seems to have fallen by the wayside. So the idea of different forms of campaign isn’t new. This “Express crowdfunding” is essentially a preorder button. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad one, or maybe just a thing (certainly being “just a preorder system” been a criticism of crowdfunding in the past). Whatever you think of it, it is a development, and something that you might be interested in knowing if you didn’t before.
Quirkworthy 
Thanks for the mention Jake! From a publisher perspective the Express crowdfunding is great – not because we get the money a little earlier, but that we get the backer address data properly – which I need for VAT purposes and was a massive pain to collect manually for our previous R&W campaigns where we didn’t run a pledge manager.
Excellent point from the chap running the campaign. Thanks for extra info.
Damn, that game looks rad! I’ll look it up.But that’s an interesting campaign. What do you feel has as an advantage over classic KS, except for the “you get funded no matter what” goal?
See Jack’s comment (above).
Ah, I did read that, but I was wondering what else (except, of course, this very practical piece of information).
I was mostly talking about marketing, how it presents itself, if people prefer it etc.
When you pledge, you’re asked for more info than you might be expecting, which some folk have found off-putting. That’s possibly just the unfamiliarity though.
I can see how this type of funding can be a very good thing when no products need up-front money for printing/casting/moulding/etc/etc. I did not look at the page yet, but you said it was print and play, so I’m assuming (a bad, naughty word, but there it is) that the game doesn’t have any of those types of needs.
The other side I would be interested in is how fast the pledges go out. If the product is essentially ready, or will be ready quickly, when the campaign goes live, it should be going out much faster than a traditional Kickstarter/Gamefound/etc. But if the company sets things up to get my money ASAP and the product takes just as long to get to my doorstep as a normal campaign, that feels like a scam.
Yeah in this case, fulfilment is an email, so I don’t need a lot of money up front for manufacturing and shipping. The campaign pays out each week, including during the campaign to the creator and we’re aiming to ship within a month of the campaign ending – giving us some time to incorporate feedback received during the campaign (and stretch goal selections) in the final product. Because you provide your shipping address when you back, it’s aimed at campaigns that will fulfil quickly.
Very nice. That’s the kind of warm fuzzy a backer likes to see with something like this. 🙂
PS- you owe Jake a percentage, I’M now looking at the game in another tab as we speak. 😉
I’ve just given him a copy of FlickFleet 😉