Funding the Dream

You’ve probably heard plenty of arguments about AI already. We take a different path: I bring my AI companion, Claude, onto Funding the Dream and let you hear how we actually work together when nobody’s selling a product and nobody’s reading a script. The goal is practical and specific: running a solo Traveler campaign and using AI for tabletop RPG worldbuilding, scenario iteration, and creative c...

Kickstarter for board games used to reward scrappy creators with a prototype and a promise. Now it often rewards publishers who look like they’re already finished. After 14 years, I sit down again with AJ Porfirio, founder of Van Ryder Games, to map that shift from the inside, from his first $10K campaign to Final Girl Series 4 pushing $1.5M with thousands of backers. We talk about how AJ got star...

A roll that matched twice—once on-screen and once at the table—sparked a wild idea: what if your physical dice could post their results straight to your virtual game? We sit down with Scott Strong of Order of the Dice to explore the Vision Dice Tower, a computer vision device that reads your real rolls and syncs them into platforms like Roll20. No more arguing with streaky RNG, no more losing the...

A lot of people think the golden age of tabletop is behind us. We don’t. Richard sits down with longtime friend and convention owner Aldo Ghiazzi and Goodman Games founder Joe Goodman to get real about what it takes to succeed right now—when 800 new game projects launch monthly and attention is the rarest component on your bill of materials. We trade floor-sleeping origin stories for hard-won syst...

In this episode of the podcast, Salvador Briggman interviews Chris O'Neal from Brotherwise Games on his most recent Kickstarter for Overlord: a Boss Monster Adventure. You'll learn about what goes into building a successful board game company, how to get funded on Kickstarter in 2020, along with some tips and tricks the team has picked up along the way. Links Mentioned on The Show Become...

Bobby Fiorentino launched the Kickstarter project "This Game Is A Disaster!" and raised  $8,420. He came on the show to share how he was able to do this, along with advice that he has for beginning board game entrepreneurs. Links  Become a guest: http://fundingthedreamonkickstarter.com/ Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardgameclub/this-game-is-a-disaster Coaching w/ Sa...

On this episode of the Funding the Dream on Kickstarter podcast, Salvador Briggman talks with James Takenaka, who has over 25 years of experience in the collectible and tabletop games industry. Apply to Be on the Show: Funding the Dream on Kickstarter James started selling at collectibles shows in 1990 and then was a co-owner of the Comix and Cardz Etc. hobby store. In 2001 he co-founded Hero Fact...

On this episode, you'll learn an effective Kickstarter community-building strategy from Gamedec, a project that attracted 4,911 backers. In this game, you are a detective who solves crimes inside virtual worlds. Use your wits to gather info from your witnesses and suspects, getting to the bottom of deceptive schemes. The game continually adapts to your decisions and never judges. Salvador Bri...

After eight years and more than 330 episodes, it is time to say good-bye on Funding the Dream. The podcast has been a fantastic way for me to meet some incredible people. It has also been a means for me giving back to a community that I believe in. In this last episode, I share a little behind the decision and how we got so far. Thank you to everyone over the years who have been so supportive and...

Salvador Briggman has been teaching people about crowdfunding for a long time. He is an author on crowdfunding, he produces a Youtube channel, as well as hosting the successul podcast, DeMystifying Crowdfunding. He joins as a guest on Funding the Dream to break down the basic elements of being successful before you launch your campaign. He provides excellent advice and is well worth listening and...

With more than 10 successful projects on Kickstarter, you can't always anticipate the sudden failure of a project. But what you can do, is learn and adapt. Brian Henk is the guest and co-founder of Pull the Plug games. You may also know him as the creator of the hit game, Good Cop/Bad Cop. He shares how a string of successes on Kickstarter suddenly became a short string of failures and how th...

How do you choose a manufacturing partner in China for your Kickstarter project? You ask Josh Fairbairn. Josh delivers specific advice to help those looking to work with Chinese manufactures for the first time.  His first piece of advice? Don't make a decision based on pricing. There are other, much more important qualifications rather than pricing. He qualifies this with an understanding tha...

Jessica Kelly has successfully crowdfunded $22,500 for her company, THR3EFOLD,  and has grown her company to be a leader in the ethical fashion space. Using crowdfunding to first scope her business with a trip to India, then using crowdfunding on iFundWomen.com, she stepped out on her own as a social entrepreneur four years ago and launched Thr3eFold. She has spent a decade helping hundreds of fas...

Guest, Leesa McGregor, is the author of the book, A New Alphabet for Humanity, which is on Kickstarter. It is a beautifully illustrated children's book featuring 26 empowering alphabet words designed to nurture emotional intelligence, activate the potential of our children and create a brighter future for humanity. A New Alphabet for Humanity teaches children the power of positive words so th...

Crowdfunding for Social Good is what sets Devin Thorpe apart from many who use Crowdfunding as a means of raising money.  Devin is a deeply optimistic person. He is an author, educator, and speaker;  a champion of social good. Through his work, he aspires to help solve some of the world's biggest problems--poverty, disease, and climate change.  His Forbes articles often reach more than 100,00...

You build a crowd by giving before asking. That is the takeaway from our guest, Lucia Fasano. Lucia is a songwriter, actress, and producer of comedy and music. She is in her 2nd Kickstarter campaign and shares how she follows the philosophy of giving to your fans and then asking them for support. So many do it the opposite, asking for money before building the following. Amanda Palmer is discussed...

Richard Bliss and Bryan Rosander co-host with guest, Laser Malena Webber, member of the band, The DoubleClicks. Laser has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars on Kickstarter and Patreon but focusing on giving away their music and then giving fans a chance to say thank you. Laser's book is currently on Kickstarter. It is called " Crowdfunding for Musicians " and shares insights an...

Maxine Lapiduss is a Golden Globe winning, 4-time Emmy-nominated TV writer and producer. She is also the co-founder of Storyblaster, a software company that helps Crowdfunding project creators learn how to tell their story and build their crowd. As host Richard Bliss oftentimes says, you don't have a funding problem, you have a crowd problem. Solve the crowd problem first and the money will f...

Bobby Fiorentino began building his crowd nearly a year before he even knew what his Kickstarter project was going to be. He built a following, using Live Stream, Giveaways, and advertising to draw people to his Facebook group where they shared common interests. His group rapidly grew to more than 4,000 members. He then began using this new crowd to develop ideas and as a sounding board for a Kick...

Wes Woodbury, from Fundamental Games, is a returning guest. He relaunched his Kickstarter campaign, Legends of Novus , after appearing as a guest on the show in Episode 293. With advice from other guests and fans, Wes went back to the drawing board and retooled and relaunched his campaign. There were three key things he did to increase his chances for success: #1 He worked with Manufacturers to lo...

From Singapore to San Jose, this interview spans the globe. Nison Chan is the guest and discusses his retail store, We The People Store, that only sells Kickstarter projects. With stores in Singapore, Malaysia, and St Louis Missouri, Nison shares the idea behind getting your Kickstarter product into retail. In addition, Nison is part of a Kickstarter conference called For Creators By Creators that...

Grandpa Beck's Games is one of the most successful game companies you have never heard of. They did over $1 million in revenue last year with their games regularly appearing as a best seller on Amazon. And their Kickstarter project, Cover Your Kingdom does something completely opposite from where most game publishers go...They took a successful family game and reworked it for the hobby board...

Brandon Raasch has mastered a means of increasing backer adoption during the lull between launch and the end. You know that period where backers slow to a trickle and you wonder if the campaign is ever going to pick back up. Brandon Raasch with Bard Games saw that lull in the middle as an opportunity to increase his backer's commitment. His project is called Fickle, you can find it here on Ki...

JT Smith from the GameCrafter is the guest as he shares how their new crowdfunding platform, Crowd Sales , allows you to lower the price for your backers as you overfund. As JT puts it, rather than adding stretch goals to overfund, Crowd Sales introduces a discount for reaching a certain number of backers.  For example, if the pledge level is $50 at the beginning and then 10 backers support the pr...

Part 2 How to screw up your Kickstarter project with Fabio Redivo. As a continuation of our previous conversation, Fabio outlines the other five things he did to contribute to the failure of his Kickstarter campaign. These are: 6 - Not having a playthrough video 7 - Not having a PNP 8 - Rely on artwork only 9 - A lot of money for the first project 10 - Count on friends and family 6, 7, 8 - Are in...