BackerKit will be moderating a panel at GenCon 2016 with game creators who have run successful crowdfunding campaigns. If you’ve ever been curious about what it takes to run a campaign, join us! Attendance is FREE and you can sign up HERE.
In this series, we’ll be profiling some of the game makers who will be speaking on the panel. We’re excited to announce that Rich Thomas from Onyx Path Publishing will be joining as one of five experts on our Crowdfunding panel at GenCon 2016!
Hi! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Who are you and what do you do?
“I’m Rich Thomas, owner and Creative Director of Onyx Path Publishing. At our heart, Onyx Path creates amazing worlds and characters to tell stories about. Right now, we are mostly doing that via tabletop RPG publishing with our licenses from White Wolf Publishing of the World of Darkness, the Chronicles of Darkness, and Exalted 3rd game lines. This year we Kickstarted our first brand new game called Pugmire, which is a creator-owned property, and we’ll also be Kickstarting the launch of our own game Scion 2nd Edition later this year.”
One of your recent blog posts is titled “Each Project is a Snowflake.” Although every Kickstarter campaign is unique, are there any similarities or common threads you have seen in successful projects, as someone who has helped run a ton of them?
“From our own experience, I’d say it is really important to stay focused on the project you set up the Kickstarter campaign for and not get swept up into all kinds of extras from Stretch Goals or Achievements. At the same time, build in backer involvement to the campaign from the start. Folks having fun and feeling involved with contributing to the project is one of the great and unique things about crowd-funding.”
We’ll go into more depth at the panel, but what’s one piece of advice you would give to a game creator who is thinking about crowdfunding for the first time?
“If you run a Kickstarter, it is really, really hard work to do well. Get all your estimates and quotes ahead of time and be absolutely certain in your head as to how you will fulfill the rewards you are offering. Shipping is more expensive than you can imagine when you are sending packages of variable kinds of rewards around the world. Assume you’ll be dealing with the high end, worst-case scenario of any quote.”
Where can people find you at GenCon?
“Booth 1201! When you come into the entrance where you’re facing Fantasy Flight’s eight million signs, turn to your right and we are right there on the end at the front aisle.”
What are you most excited about doing/playing/seeing at GenCon this year?
“Your Kickstarter panel, of course! While I always look forward to the announcements about new projects we do every GenCon, this year we’ve changed our booth set-up to allow for more demos right there with the creators who know their games better than anyone. Very much looking forward to seeing folks sit down, or stand if it is one of our quick demos, and hear our gang explain the parts of their games they love the best. So really, I’m looking forward to seeing everybody have fun with the games we’ve been working so hard on this last year, and getting to chat with old friends and new.”
We’re thrilled to have Rich share his experience at the BackerKit-moderated panel at GenCon! Don’t miss it!
Find Rich & The Onyx Path:
https://twitter.com/rich_thomas_ww