[Blowback for $1K] The numbers: some successes, some mistakes
So let’s look at the costs for Blowback, broken down by the initial list I posted in October:
Game Text and Editing: $0
I wrote the game myself. Ryan Macklin provided some excellent structural advice, but due to poor communication on my end, our schedules got all fucked up and I wasn’t able to fully avail myself of his editing prowess. More’s the pity, but the advice he gave me radically changed the structure of the text for the better. Additional editing was farmed out to my heroes Vincent Baker, Graham Walmsley, and Jonathan Walton out of the kindness of their hearts. I sent out the PDF with preorder, with a note that asked readers to be on the lookout for typos and inconsistencies, and they responded with unimagined vigor and usefulness. Smartest thing I’ve done with this project.
Printing: $27.50 (as of this date)
This is just simply the costs to print prep materials for conventions and playtests. Since the actual print run money is not coming out of the $1000 (more on this later, including the stupidest thing I’ve done with this project!), I’m not counting it here.
Art: $211
This is the most money I’ve ever spent on art. Hell, just the font family I used for the text cost as much as the art. If there’s one thing people are saying right now about Blowback, it’s that it looks great. I’m really proud of the gorgeous full-color interiors, and the only thing that made them possible was the amazing photography collection at iStockphoto. Now, I’m probably a bit biased because I’m a contributor to iStock and the site has been a significant source of income for me over the last six years, but they beat every other stock photography site I’ve looked at for cutting-edge, outside-the-norm, artistic photography. I was showing the layout to my friend Eppy, who exclaimed at one point, “You found a HOSTAGE SITUATION in stock photos?!” Oh, I did. I did indeed.
Layout and design: $0
Something else I’m proud of: as with all 2SP games, the gorgeous layout and ornamentation is all in-house. Shreyas and I worked hard, sketched stuff, I told him what I wanted and he figured out the templates to make it work. Then I actually massaged the text, figured out what went where, etc. Shreyas made all of the fantastic hexagonal/halftone ornaments you see throughout the text.
Playtesting: $160
This includes the admission to two cons and gas to and from Dreamation. I’m including it because this is where a lot of the initial playtesting got done, and it was instrumental in the development of the game. (I’m not including lodging for Dreamation because we’ve got a place to stay in Morristown.)
Promotion: $486
This is $446 for a booth buy-in with Design Matters for GenCon and two exhibitor passes, and $40 for media for a trailer I didn’t have the time or energy to put together. This was a mistake, of course.
Total: $884.50
The other approximate $120 went into unforeseen expenses with It’s Complicated temporarily, and will probably be paid back into online connectivity and iPhone support in the fall.
So what went wrong?
I said I’d talk about printing more, and let me tell you: I really fucked up. I’d decided a while ago to price Blowback at $24, since the per-copy cost to me was about $6. Well. I got the proof for It’s Complicated back, and it looked great— but the paper I’d chosen, while perfect for IC and its relatively sparse use of color, really would not have worked for Blowback and its really intense layout. Since the quote I had was based on using the same paper as It’s Complicated, I contacted Kim at 360 about upgrading my paper to the next heaviest weight. Well, turns out I was already using their best standard paper: the next rung up is 80# matte coated. Gorgeous paper, but it ups my per-unit cost from $6 to $10.
But I look at the prices of comparable books coming out (mistake #1), get cold feet about Blowback, (mistake #2), and decide to keep the price at $24 despite a nearly-doubling per-unit cost (mistake #3) out of concerns that people wouldn’t buy the book if the price were closer to $30.
Which has lead to an ulcer-inducing nightmare of frustrating math. I’ve gotten a ton of preorders, but the more preorders I get, the more it takes up the print run I was planning to do. But if I increase the size of the print run, the preorders I have won’t cover the cost of the print run. And normally I might be able to move some money around, but new expenses are cropping up literally daily, since I’m getting married in nine days. Oh, and I have to have the final PDF with the final order in by Monday.
Is the game profitable?
On top of my giant pricing mistake, when I signed up for Design Matters I was completely scatterbrained and forgot that they do 100% profit sharing at GenCon instead of direct sales— despite the fact that I had a long talk with them about it two years ago at GenCon ‘08. That’s completely my fuckup. Unfortunately the difference between what I could potentially make back on direct sales and what (if growth patterns bear out for DM2010) I could make back through 100% profit sharing is approximately $1200. That’s a ton of money. Since this whole experiment is one in transparency and “Hey! What does it look like when you make a game on this budget, and what does the profit look like?” it screws things up a bit. That said, I think Design Matters is fantastic and their model is great for ensuring that edgier games which might normally be risky to bring to a big con get the eyeballs and promotion they richly deserve. It’s just easier to say that when you’re not looking at your own bottom line, which makes me feel like a money-grubbing jerkface.
Long story short: in a hypothetical world, could Blowback made a profit? In its sleep. In this specific world, can Blowback make a profit? God only knows.
Suggestion: For pre-orders, offer anyone who’s going to be at GenCon (or next nearest convention) that you will give them a signed copy in person if they’ll pick it up from you.
That might cut down your shipping costs which I’m assuming is the other painful part after the unit price jump.
Granted, it won’t totally negate it, but if you get 10-30 people you’re not paying shipping on, well, that’s a good thing.
I just pre-ordered and was looking for an option to enter an extra value to help cover the *actual* costs of printing, but there was nothing like that.
So I’d throw that idea out there. Have the normal transaction page where it will list the cost of the item, then shipping line item, and then I’d suggest a small box that allows the purchaser to enter a value.
The other idea is a “donate” paypal button, but I can’t seem to find one on this site.
I hope I can make observations about the PDF here.
Maybe I’m overlooking it, but it seems that you never name what die is used to create a dicepool.
From reading the mechanic for success, as well as the flowchart where it says “4-6 is a success” or whatever the phrase is, it’s pretty obvious it’s d6 base, but no where in the pdf (Unless I’m overlooking it, which is entirely possible) does it mention the die used for game.
If this has been fixed or I am in fact overlooking this information, feel free to disregard my comment.
First things first, it looked excellent at GenCon and thanks for the explanations. Very useful stuff to read.
Have you considered using Kickstarter as a method for pre-ordering? In my experience I have found people pitch in significantly more when you go that route and if it fail’s, you can still go the conventional pre-order route.
Just an idea which might be able to help on future projects.
Cheers!
Sorry the money situation has been so stressful.
Pricing is the issue that made me get out of print publishing in the first place, so I have total sympathy there. But what you should do, IMMEDIATELY, is increase the price of the game for future buyers, after making some kind of announcement that the “introductory” price is ending. You don’t have to keep making the same mistake after making it once.
Conventions are always super expensive and attending one (and especially getting booth space at one) should never be the default assumption unless you’re fairly confident that the results will justify the cost. DM probably isn’t the booth for folks with hot new games coming out either, because of profit sharing. Gregor was nice enough to subsidize the booth last year with 3:16, but he lost a lot of money by doing that too. Luckily, 3:16 was also carried at IPR, I think.
Hi Jason! I did consider Kickstarter long and hard, but I didn’t want to seem greedy. I’d already won a grant for $1000, and I was concerned that the public would have thought “Man, how much money does this chick NEED?” As is usual, though, I wasn’t giving the public enough credit. Lesson learned.
Printing is expensive, and simply telling people the high production costs on the beauty would have done the trick. Not to mention that many people are more then willing to pay extra to encourage good design such as yours.
The hidden benefit of Kickstarter that I have found is that it collects the early adopters who spread the word months ahead of the normal street date. It’s excellent marketing in my experience and I know I have been snagged by it in the past.
Cheers!