Funding the Dream

It isn't often a guest reaches out to share their spectacular success. But Fabio Redivo wanted to share his mistakes so others can learn from them. Fabio is a talented artist and graphic designer who decided to create a card game around his artwork. Usually, it is the other way around. A game designer seems to be always looking for a good artist, but seldom is an artist looking for a game. Fa...

How do you find your audience for your Kickstarter campaign? It is a fluid thing on how to hone in on your core audience.  Always remember it is better to find new products for your current audience rather than attempting to find a new audience for your products or services. This is why it is always a good idea to start small, to use your beginning as a learning experience and an opportunity to ge...

What's a hearth throb kickstarter campaign? Two years ago thousands of backers were robbed of their money for backing the Evil Dead 2 Kickstarter boardgame. Now, Tommy Gofton is trying to bring it back by having fans and vendors chip in to cover the costs and get all those thousands of people a copy of the game that never was made. Sounds a bit crazy...No, it sounds a lot crazy...but Tommy ma...

Richard Bliss Got Married.  Why the two-week hiatus? Because I was busy getting married. I occasionally share personal items in my show, but this episode was all about what is happening in my life.  I also wanted to thank all of you for your support. Recent decisions in my life have made it possible for me to dedicate even more time to make the show a success. And when you, the fans, reach out and...

You have one week left in your Kickstarter and you're at 85%. What do you do? Laurence O'Brien from Wotan Games discusses actions and steps he is taking to generate the interest and engagement to reach that critical last 15%. And we ask several questions: Why do people back out before a project is finished and give the excuse that they will come back if the project funds? Also, if you su...

Comics and Kickstarter with Tyler James on the podcast, ComixLaunch . Richard Bliss is a guest on Tyler's podcast about Comics and Kickstarter called ComixLaunch. A lengthy conversation about a wide range of topics, and the impact Kickstarter has had on the Comic Book Industry.

Success through Failure on Kickstarter. Success on Kickstarter can be such a problem when it leads to so many failures. And a good failure can lead to long-lasting success. These are the lessons, Host Richard Bliss, takes away from his conversation with Guest Brad Talton of Level 99 Games. Brad successfully raised $25,000 on Kickstarter with no business experience and lost about $25,000 on the pro...

As a woman in the board game industry, and a successful Kickstarter project creator, Heather O'Neil, President of 9th Level Games hears has become a local resource to new Kickstarter creator, especially for women who are looking to raise money for their projects. Her advice is usually focused on getting a strong understanding on the financials necessary to create your projects, and it is ofte...

Co-Host John Coveyou and Guest Marc Specter join Host Richard Bliss to discuss the challenges of non-traditional board games on Kickstarter John Coveyou, with Genius Games, has launched more than a dozen Kickstarter projects, yet his current campaign, Nerd Words , made some mid-campaign adjustments due to the difficulty of convey the game's experience into a Kickstarter campaign. While the pr...

Host Richard Bliss and Guest Aldo Ghiozzi discuss the merger of his company, Impressions, with Flat River Group. Flat River Group is one of the largest distributors of board games online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and even Bed Bath & Beyond.  In addition, Flat River Group is one of the largest fulfillment companies for Kickstarter projects.  Aldo discusses the theory o...

Host Richard Bliss is joined by Narek Vardanyan, founder of The Crowdfunding Formula, a copy focused on helping crowdfunding project owners expand the reach and influence of their campaigns. https://thecrowdfundingformula.com/ Narek shares his insights on what it takes to be a successful campaign on both Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. What's interesting, is Narek's company is influencing and...

Host Richard Bliss and Guest Laurence O'Brien from Wotan Games dig deep into Brexit and the mess it has become. But in this discussion we also talk about Brexit: The Real Deal Kickstarter project. A game about the consequences of Brexit and the break up of the United Kingdom. You can find the project here on Kickstarter: Brexit: The Real Deal Laurence and Richard have a great time discussing...

Host Richard Bliss is joined by Luke Gygax, founder of GaryCon and son of Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons. The conversation is centered on Luke's observations of the emergence of D&D as a streaming experience with fans by the thousands tuning in to watch. Discussed is Dungeons and Randomness, the previous guest, and the ability to make a living playing D&D. Luke admits t...

Host Richard Bliss and Guest Jason Massey talk about the coolest job ever! In this episode of Funding the Dream on Kickstarter the topic is how to make a living as a professional Dungeon Master who plays live on his podcast. Jason Massey quit his day job and dedicated his working career to hosting a podcast called Dungeons And Randomness . In the podcast, he and many of his friends, play D&D i...

Host Richard Bliss discusses with Guest Robert Burke about creating timed stretch goals. These are called Flash Funding Stretch goals. How do manage a flash funding stretch goal? What happens if you don't hit your goal in the time limit. Robert talks about moving stretch goals around to respond to customer feedback. Robert's project is The Silver River, a 4x game. We discuss what makes a...

Host Richard Bliss and Co-Host John Coveyou are joined by Michael Mindes from Tasty Minstrel Games.  Michael had just launched and cancelled a Kickstarter campaign because he knew he had done something wrong.  Within two hours of launching the Kickstarter campaign, Michael knew they had missed on the offer and needed to take immediate action. Within three days, Michael was close to his funding goa...

Host Richard Bliss and Co-Host Thomas Umstattd Jr. who hosts the Creative Funding Show podcast , deliver a CrossCast episode to discuss Patreon and the power of the crowd to deliver consistent financial support. In addition, Richard shares how he let his fans down and apologizes for how he handled the situation ( or failed to handle it), when life happened. The hosts cover the idea of Patreon and...

Host Richard Bliss and Guest A.J. Porfirio discuss game books and their live Kickstarter project. They have launched Graphic Novel Adventures Vol 2 on Kickstarter. A.J. and Richard discuss how to license intellectual property, how to maintain a brand. Van Ryder Games delivers strong narrative-based games with a solo-play angle. They have expanded into Adventure books because it continues with thei...

Host Richard Bliss and Guest Eric Price, owner of Japanime games, explain why to bundle three smaller projects/games into a single Kickstarter campaign.  Eric has built a company with Kickstarter and continues to make Kickstarter tightly tied to the growth of their company. Their current Kickstarter project, Three Worlds of Mystery, is a bundle of three different games with a similar theme and art...

Host Richard Bliss and guest Tomas Härenstam talk about Tales from the Loop and gives advice on how to turn small projects into larger projects. Their first project was an art book highlighting the talents of artist Simon Stålenhag Simon's art and concepts are now being turned into an Amazon Prime Television production. Tomas shares how he began working with Simon, how their tiny project turn...

Host Richard Bliss and Co-Host John Coveyou discuss five attributes of a great product on Kickstarter. People want to buy the product. While this seems obvious. oftentimes people want a product, but aren't willing to pay for the product. You have to find something that is valuable to your audience. People want to tell others about it . Word of mouth marketing is the best means of attracting f...

Host Richard Bliss discusses Live Kickstarter project Legends fo Novus with his guest, Bryan Rosander. Bryan dug deep into the Kickstarter project and delivers some great analysis and feedback on ways for Legends of Novus to improve their message, format, and engagement.  In addition, Richard Bliss apologizes for the failure of follow through on the Funding the Dream Patreon project.  A Facebook G...

Host Richard Bliss is joined by co-host, John Coveyou, to discuss 4 unexpected benefits from Kickstarter.      1. Gauge demand before you manufacture. 2. Improve your product based on customer feedback. 3. Ship products with maximal efficiency. 4. Tap into an audience you wouldn't be able to reach otherwise.

You do everything by the book. Follow all the advice, and yet you still fail to attract the numbers you need to successfully fund your Kickstarter campaign. These are the questions Wes Woodbury and I discuss. His project, Legends of Novus, has beautiful art work, great video, beautiful graphics, and an enticing theme, yet is still failing to draw a crowd. The question I ask you, the audience, is W...

Mark Roderick explains the difference between equity-based and rewards-based crowdfunding. Mark Roderick is a corporate and securities lawyer. Since the JOBS Act of 2012, Mark has spent all his time in the Crowdfunding space and is one of the leading Crowdfunding and Fintech lawyers in the United States. He writes a widely-read blog, www. CrowdfundAttny.com , with a wealth of legal and practical i...