Love’n Fools Kickstarter Fail

Well why did that happen?

Well that didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. We launched our Kickstarter last week and it failed to get off the ground. Despite the amazing work of my team, our partners, and our artists, Love’n Fools was not fully backed via Kickstarter. The campaign that I had been building up to for the last 9 months was not successful.

It happens. I’m disappointed. But it is not the end.

Firstly, I want to give a shout out to all the people who did support the project through backing on Kickstarter, sharing with friends and even our fantastic playtesters. Your support means the world to me and everyone else at Verge Games.

Secondly, when I was working through why it happened, I realized that I needed to share my findings with you. So here is what I learned - why we pulled the plug early, the problems that we found, and what we plan on doing next.

Why we pulled the plug early

This is the easiest one to explain: the Love’n Fools Kickstarter wasn’t getting any traction.Those first 24 hours of your campaign are the most crucial ones. It is where you get your audience excited and get the anticipation building. And much like the launch of a rocket if it starts off poorly, you are not going to suddenly hit the stratosphere any time soon.

So once I saw that the Kickstarter numbers were stagnant and that the ads were not converting to sales, I decided we needed to pull the plug. There is no point throwing good money after bad in the hopes of salvaging a failed campaign. Sometimes it's just time to pack up your bags and figure out what went wrong.

The problems we found

So what went wrong? Well, I stepped back from the project and decided to ask some advice from all the people involved. I opened a question to the larger community both in the adventure’s private group and on the Board Game Design Lab community. The feedback I got was a bit eye opening but I will try and boil it down here. I think the two biggest problems were poor theming and poor timing.

Theming

This one is all on me and my team. The adventure of Love’n Fools is fantastic. It is a funny adventure with a clever story taking place in a unique town that sets it apart from typical adventures. 

I can personally attest to its greatness with only a massive amount of personal bias on my part. :D 

But unfortunately, the theme of the Kickstarter relied heavily on the romantic and not on the comedic. It came across confusing to the backers exactly what they would be getting and what it was about. And that’s on me. Sometimes when you are so close to a project you just fail to see where you went wrong. Though I am not the only one working on this I am in charge so it should all stop right there. I let the theme of the Kickstarter get lost so it failed to connect with an audience when it launched.

Timing

Not everything in life is in our control. The other side is the timing. We launched in September to be able to deliver to our backers by Valentine’s day. The unfortunate truth is that times are really rough right now. The news is terrible all around, the economy is a bit shakier than what is being reported, and everyone is on edge all the time. 

This sucks. 

And unfortunately, not many people were probably in the mode for a poorly themed Kickstarter about romance at the moment. Nothing to be done about that. When you set your dates sometimes terrible things happen that get in the way of what you wanted to do. Nothing left now but to chin up, and carry on to what's next.

What we plan on doing next

We are going to launch Love’n Fools in our online store very soon! We might still consider doing a Kickstarter campaign to provide physical books but more importantly we want to have it available to you guys before Christmas as soon as we can. I know this adventure is good. I have played it a ton. I just want to make certain that you can have a chance to play it too. 

While that is getting finalized I will want to get started on the next adventure for the spring! An adventure specifically created for some bachelor and bachelorette parties…

Last thoughts

Product launches are difficult. Kickstarter is a great place for indie game makers like myself, but it isn’t a foolproof method of reaching potential customers. Just like a major company can flop on a product launch the first time around - Airbnb and Netflix to name a few - sometimes it takes refinement to get the product right.

We’re not giving up. In fact, we’re forging ahead. That’s why I wanted to share with you why we pulled the plug, what went wrong and what we plan on doing next. 

Love’n Fools will be back. It’s just going to look a little bit different next time.

Remember, all the organization in the world is helpful. But with a DnD campaign, chaos is likely.

#NumberOneJosiah

Jo is our co-founder, resident DM for Hire and a philosopher of tabletop gaming.

Jessie CM

Jessie is our marketing guru, lover of #NumberOneJosiah and a published author.

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