Designer’s ninja board game finds funding on second try
It’s hyperbole to call Kickstarter a battlefield, but not by much.
On the crowdfunding site, amateur and professionals alike clamour for pledges from the public with every manner of project from feature-length film to smartwatch.
Sylvan Lake resident Ryan Leininger, 33, recently found success on the platform for his two-player card and dice game, Tiny Ninjas, which was fully funded in just 10 hours. It’s his first crack at the industry, having previously worked as an audio producer.
By Saturday night, the game had about $31,000 pledged of its original $8,000 goal.
But this is actually Leininger’s second attempt — Tiny Ninjas’ first campaign was a failure.
“There was a massive amount of competition,” said Leininger. “Mine got totally buried, I lost a lot of momentum. ”
Every Tuesday is a major day for board gamers when many aspiring designers launch their Kickstarter, said Leininger.
He started his campaign early in the morning May 14, thinking he could capitalize on the exposure throughout the day. But by day’s end, 30 other projects topped his own.
He said those first 24 to 48 hours are crucial.
“I didn’t have the adequate momentum to really sustain the whole campaign,” Leininger said. Instead of limping along, he decided to cancel and relaunch the following week with a few tweaks.
The biggest change was pricing. “There’s a perceptual thing with products in today’s age where people expect shipping to be included,” he said.
Kickstarter “backers” invest money according to pledge tiers set by individual campaigns.
Initially Leininger had included shipping costs with the pledge tiers but it made the “perceived value a little expensive.”
In the relaunch, shipping was an additional cost. Leininger also adjusted some of the graphics on his campaign page and included more cards with the initial game.
He credits those tiny changes to Tiny Ninjas’ success on the second go.
But Leininger said the most important work began long before even launching the first campaign.
“You need to really put in your time ... developing and building an audience before you launch,” said Leininger, who began working on Tiny Ninjas two years ago.
“You can’t just launch and hope or expect people will back your product.”