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Guys if you are literally unable to spend money on a thing until you get the next paycheck, you are "living paycheck to paycheck" and maybe should think seriously about an extended stay in the BFC subforum. Please don't spend your rent money on kickstarter.
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Sep 18, 2013 04:12
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Winson_Paine posted:A lot of the time that is what living on a budget means! According to the wise goons of BFC, one should have four to six months of living expenses saved up. People who have no savings, and who also spend every dollar they earn in the following month, are said to be "living paycheck to paycheck". For such people, most nonessential purchasing decisions revolve around when the next paycheck will come which will supply the next dose of net-positive cashflow they can tap (and spend back to net-zero immediately). A staggeringly huge percentage of the US population live this way. Many are poor, but many middle-class and even upper-middle-class people live this way, buying new cars based on the highest monthly payment they can manage, spending every spare dollar to maintain the highest standard of living they can. They are extremely vulnerable to any serious setback, such as unemployment or a period of illness, often relying solely on credit to get them through such gaps and sometimes winding up in default or bankruptcy. I have family members who have (and continue) to be like this, against all advice. I just worry about my fellow gamer goons who sometimes it seems are overspending on their hobbies. If your savings account has nothing but moths in it, don't be buying plastic mans, and definitely don't be pre-ordering plastic mans based on next month's paycheck coming in before the kickstarter actually takes your money. I won't belabor this any more, though. You guys are grown-ups, and if you need more information, BFC is thataway.
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Sep 19, 2013 00:49
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Winson_Paine posted:I am pretty familiar with managing on a budget, and part of a budget (even on a paycheck to paycheck setup) is having some discretionary money you can spend on whatever. It should certainly include savings, rent, a buffer for hidden expenses, whatever, but any decent budget is going to incorporate some money for "poo poo I might want." So maybe the people who are saying "gotta wait till the next paycheck" ordered a pizza and got a PPV this weekend with their discretionary entertainment budget, and they are merely being responsible. As far as the derail goes, it is certainly not the worst one I have ever seen in this thread. Oh, absolutely, I don't disagree with any of this. I just got more of the impression of "I don't have money left in my account till next paycheck" vs. "I don't have any entertainment/fun money left in my budget till next paycheck." The former is a scary warning sign, the latter is how everyone who isn't independently wealthy should treat their money.
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Sep 19, 2013 02:17
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Bieeardo posted:I thought Slender only preyed upon manchildren. I've always liked the Jabberwock they had on an episode of the Muppet Show; it was quite similar to the original drawing, coloured an unwholesome green and with bared buck teeth that almost gave me nightmares. Hell yes. I always thought its head looked like a grasshopper's. The Reaper Bones version of the Jabberwock is pretty good: http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/jabberwock/latest/89016 It's got the same buckteeth. 
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Sep 26, 2013 05:12
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Bones II Kickstarter in 14 hours and 20 minutes from this post.
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Oct 1, 2013 00:37
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Just an FYI, we are also tracking the Reaper II Bones KS over in the Reaper Megathread.
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Oct 1, 2013 16:51
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Games Workshop has also been quietly making "Adeptus Arbites" miniatures for decades, and they're pretty much just Judge Dredd with a different name.
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Oct 7, 2013 22:19
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Games & Gears and Hawk Wargames are both generous sponsors of this year's Oath thread, so I hope it winds up being something we can enthusiastically support. Games & Gears have provided a poo poo-ton of double-ended brushes (developed for a previous kickstarter, if I'm not mistaken) as weekly (!) prizes, and Hawk provided a bunch of Dropzone Commander swag for one of our grand prizes. Since G&G has previous KS experience, that should add some confidence to this one.
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Oct 22, 2013 07:25
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Yeah, give them a deadline. It's totally reasonable to expect someone to respond to your survey by x date. Reaper Bones II just finished and we have until the end of december to make final decisions using their tool, after which they're locked in. I'm sure they'll have some people who simply never pick what they want, or who have excess unallocated cash or whatever. Presumably you either keep the money or refund it, just be clear up front what your policy will be about that money and they'll have nobody to blame but themselves if they don't keep up. One thing to be aware of though is that people have spam folders and don't check them, so it's worth posting an official Update on kickstarter with your policy. Gives them a chance to notice it there, if they're wondering whatever happened to that one KS they pldeged for but never heard anything back about.
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Oct 29, 2013 01:06
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The art style reminds me a little of whoever did the illustrations in the e. This guy:  e2: Jim Holloway Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Nov 5, 2013 |
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Nov 5, 2013 23:44
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/\/\/\What? The botttom-most pledge level is for SIX 2' by 2' boards. How loving big do you need your table to be?theironjef posted:The big issue with a big visible break line at exactly 24" from each board edge on the table is that it makes it pretty easy to mentally measure stuff you're not allowed to measure. Oh jesus. Probably there's already a thread about your wargame in TG that endlessly argues about this... ugh.  I am mad about bad rules
Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Nov 12, 2013 |
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Nov 12, 2013 20:19
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In case anyone's curious: the biggest problem is the use of the trademarked name of the game. Game rules are generally not subject to copyright, and the designers can avoid the copyrighted parts of HeroQuest by not re-using any of the artwork or flavor text. Although it looks like they've re-used the box cover artwork, at least in the kickstarter. But they are definitely attempting to sell a game under a trademarked name, and I'm guessing they're under the belief that this game name isn't trademarked in Spain, and/or in the EU, and also that they therefore won't run afoul of a lawsuit. I suspect they're either partially or entirely incorrect on the former count, and for the latter, I suspect they'll get a C&D pretty quickly and then have to weigh whether or not they've got the money to afford to fight a lawsuit. Then of course there's the question of Kickstarter potentially receiving a C&D; if they do, and I'd expect them to, I'd expect them to take down the HeroQuest KS immediately. So there's a lot to potentially go wrong here, and the organizers don't immediately appear to have an ironclad response to the above potential problems. e. Apparently, the company does hold a trademark for the name "HeroQuest" in Spain. I'm not convinced that will keep them safe, though, since they're not just copying the name HeroQuest, but also the logo. Trademark protection is not just about the letters in your product's name, it's about being protected from others "trading on" your mark. That is, selling things that a reasonable person would assume came from you, because the packaging, advertising, etc. looks too much like your own packaging, advertising, etc. Game Zone may have registered "HeroQuest" in spain, but that's not necessarily going to convince a judge, if they appear to be deliberately trying to gain sales by mimicking someone else's trademark. Then again, I don't know what the law specifically is like in Spain, and I don't know if Spain's EU membership alters that (e.g., if a Spanish company infringing on a trademark registered in the UK, Germany, etc. can be sued in Spain, or if some other EU court would have both jurisdiction, and any ability to enforce a penalty.) Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Nov 26, 2013 |
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Nov 26, 2013 06:25
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From the kickstarter:quote:First stretch goal rewards any pledge that includes a core set My interpretation is that all of the pledge levels will get the first stretch goal, and then only the top level will get the following subsequent stretch goals. I'm not 100% sure about that, though, and also that's kind of stupid since it means everyone will wait to see what the stretch goals are and if they get achieved, before they upgrade to the highest level, which means they won't hit as many stretch goals because everyone is holding back. Also they're saying that if you have a tier that receives stretch goals, you won't have to pay extra for them, e.g., they're not costs-you-money add-ons. Which should be obvious since you're paying extra for a tier with stretch goals, but there you go. Most importantly, according to that thread on boardgamegeek, the rules won't be the classic HeroQuest rules! Presumably you could still get ahold of the classic rules and play that game using this game's pieces, but that's kind of a bummer. (The rules are the one part of the classic game that are clearly public domain, since you cannot copyright a set of game rules.) On the other hand they're including a whole bunch of different player cards and figures, whereas the classic game came with only four. Maybe that could be really cool, assuming they're well-designed and reasonably balanced. Personally I'm not pledging because I already have a copy of HeroQuest, but I'll be following this kickstarter just out of curiosity as to how the whole thing plays out. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Nov 27, 2013 |
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Nov 27, 2013 19:20
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My FLGS has a couple of boxes of Dreadball in the discount bin. Also there: Nighfall, and Nightfall: Martial Law, and one box that is labeled that it contains both Nightfall and Nightfall: Martial Law along with "all add-ons". I think they're $20 or $25. Did these games flop, or is it just the thing the owner of my FLGS tends to do which is order a few things from a game KS and then when they don't immediately sell, he puts them on clearance and gets rid of them.
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Dec 4, 2013 00:01
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moths posted:The owner of Leperflesh's LGS who discount binned them. Yeah, they do do game demos and stuff, but I think he probably only had a handful of copies and didn't see the value in doing that. For what it's worth, Black Diamond Games is very clean, very well lit, very well run, and its game space is full to capacity pretty much every night of the week with various events. So he'd probably actually have to carve out time from some other event in order to promote Dreadball. If I'd fault him, it'd be for not recognizing that it's the kind of game you need a community of players to support, and therefore would need promotion, before purchasing it. Much like Bloodbowl. Folks who already have an off-site game group and would want it, probably got it in the kickstarter for cheaper.
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Dec 4, 2013 05:37
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quote:Help the Knights of the Dinner Table Movie a reality! Big bold text, no editing. Definitely a harbinger of the quality to be expected from a KotDT movie/series/whatever, clearly conceived-of, acted by, and made by absolutely nobody with any filmmaking or acting experience whatsoever.
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Dec 17, 2013 07:55
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NTRabbit posted:Also you need to be wary of tax, I recall a project that got slapped with an enormous tax bill because they earned too much, incorrectly declared or transferred the money the wrong way or some such, and it nearly killed the project. The idiot in question treated the money from kickstarter as if it were income. That was definitely wrong and dumb. That said, Ettin if your kickstarter has the potential to bring in any significant amount of money (let's say, anything at or above $10k?) you really should discuss your business plans with both an accountant and a lawyer.
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Dec 18, 2013 06:45
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quote:This Heroquest version is a tribute remake of the original game to commemorate its 25th anniversary. All illustrations, board, miniatures, rules and any other components are brand new and property of Gamezone Miniatures. It's HeroQuest in name only. I mean, OK, inspired-by, but customers can expect to get a dungeon-crawl board game and that's about as far as this goes. What kills me is that they could just name it something different and then run the kickstarter in the US with no problems whatsoever. It's entirely due to the insistence on using the HeroQuest name to get customers that they had to do this whole thing over in Spain in the first place, and that really raises the question of whether the game is actually worthwhile on its own. They could even advertise such a game as a "spiritual successor to HeroQuest, honoring 25 years of that game's legacy" or whatever and probably be OK. All they have to do is name it something else. e. And yeah $200 for a dungeon-crawl miniatures game might be worth it or might not be worth it, but with nothing but concept art and no rules to review, it's way too much money to risk.
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Dec 23, 2013 21:30
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That seems like a no-brainer for $16 including us shipping. Even if they gently caress up and the money disappears, it's not a big loss. I'm in.
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Jan 12, 2014 18:27
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Bobo the Red posted:Heard about this through a friend: Huh. I feel like I've seen a kickstarter like this before. In any case, the actual printing is done by Shapeways, so this KS is really for funding their software character-builder tool, as far as I can tell from a quick skim. The minimum cost for one custom mini seems to be $20. Thats... well, I don't know if that's a lot, compared to other custom mini options (are there any?) but it's a whoollle lot compared to regular miniature options. Then if you want two, it's somehow $60, and so on... they throw in a lot of other crap I don't care about, so the best value remains with the lowest-level pledge, and I think that's problematic for their KS.
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Jan 14, 2014 02:30
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Boy, I sure hope you have a licensing agreement signed with Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki. Even if you're not explicitly claiming an endorsement from them, you're clearly "trading on" their names, and that's potentially trademark infringement.
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Jan 22, 2014 18:48
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Alien Rope Burn posted:What are RPGs but a constant litany of literary theft? I want to talk more about this but I'm pretty sure we should do it in the TG Industry thread so I'mma quote you there.
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Jan 22, 2014 19:32
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Thedandmom posted:It's not actually following any of the movies but the game has the feel of a Ghibli film. Actually following the movies or not, isn't that important. Using Ghibli/Miyazaki's names to promote your product is very important. I advise you/the project owner to consult with an IP lawyer before posting your kickstarter. It would be a shame to put a lot of time and effort into this project, only to receive a C&D and have to take it down (or if KS receives a C&D, they will take it down). A one-hour consultation should be sufficient.
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Jan 22, 2014 20:27
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There's a discussion about Palladium starting on page 76 of the "how not to run a game business" thread, and a discussion specifically about the way Siembieda runs Palladium beginning on page 20 of the TG As An Industry thread. Siembieda's terribleness is well known to TG, and I feel sad if anyone in here gave his company money without knowing about it. Let's talk about it there if you want.
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Jan 28, 2014 18:35
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GrandpaPants posted:I stumbled on Lagoon: Land of Druids. Looks like an interesting game with some colorful artwork, and the Kickstarter itself doesn't seem to have anything overtly wrong with it aside from the endorsements from the standard stable of reviewers who get paid for their praise. The game even has a (draft) rulebook and print and play options to try out yourself. The other rules quirk is that the game comes with 4 players worth of tokens, but the Kickstarter itself explicitly says that 4 players doesn't really work, which is strange to me. Doubly so since they're adding a fifth player as a stretch goal? Fifth player is already unlocked, but where does it say 4 players doesn't work well? I see near the beginning that it says a 4-player game is played in two teams, but that's it. quote:Lagoon: Land of Druids supports 2-4 players. Most games are completed in 60 minutes or less. A game with 4 is a team game. "The team actually works really well," says UndeadViking in his video review below ("What People Are Saying" section). Emphasis mine. Did you mis-read this sentence? I'm pretty tempted, this looks like a nice game and $35 is a reasonable price point.
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Feb 3, 2014 17:53
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Oh, yeah I missed that part. It is weird to have a fifth player as a stretch for a game that's optimally 2-3.
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Feb 3, 2014 18:22
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atholbrose posted:This just in: a kickstarter for Matching Manatees. Given how much we play Matching Lions (lots and lots), I'm definitely getting this one. Oh god it's about manatees being run over by boats  It's still adorable
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Feb 4, 2014 22:38
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Tiny Epic Kingdoms is in its final 48 hours. It has blown past the $200k stretch goal, and the next stretch goal at $250k just makes some background stories on the different factions available for download, so what you see at this point is probably what you'll get. On the other hand, if it can hit $275k, you get the tokens and stuff for a fifth player, so that's a very significant target folks will be shooting for (although the rules for 5th player are already part of the Print and Play tier). I'm in for the $24 level, which really seems to be a very good value, and so far this has been a very well-run campaign. The game looks to be pretty fun, too, and as a guy with a really full game shelf, I like the idea of a decent game that comes in a very small box.
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Feb 7, 2014 02:27
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Leperflesh posted:Tiny Epic Kingdoms is in its final 48 hours. It has blown past the $200k stretch goal, and the next stretch goal at $250k just makes some background stories on the different factions available for download, so what you see at this point is probably what you'll get. On the other hand, if it can hit $275k, you get the tokens and stuff for a fifth player, so that's a very significant target folks will be shooting for (although the rules for 5th player are already part of the Print and Play tier). TEK's now above $250k with 20+ hours left, so I'm thinking $275k is certainly in reach. The $300k stretch goal reward is ridiculous (the guy takes his wife out to dinner: what, is he going to not do that if it falls short of 300k?) but I think it's also smart that he's not adding on any more physical stuff. That little box is going to be very packed, and it's a good idea not to add on more stuff that has to be sent to over 8000 backers. senrath posted:I'm not seeing contradictory. The PnP comes in the PnP only tier as well as any of the Deluxe tiers. The base $8 PnP tier gets a regular PnP of the game. The $16 tier appears to only be the physical game, no PnP, although I'm not certain about that. The $24 Deluxe tier includes a "Premium PnP", which was achieved with the $125k stretch goal. It includes all the factions and territories (that is, includes the deluxe-only factions), a blank template for making your own factions, and "rules for adding a 5th player" although I believe that if the $275k stretch goal is hit, that'd become part of the deluxe game anyway. It also comes in both playing-card-size and full-size versions.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:05
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Yeah, I know, and I get it... but it also somehow rubs me the wrong way a little bit to have the game designer exposing his private life to his customers, even if it's just a little thing. Not that it makes me think less of him, I just don't think it's wise. Either way though, I'm happy with my $24 pledge and have a good feeling that fulfillment is going to go pretty smoothly.
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Feb 7, 2014 21:30
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Mikan posted:Why? That seems like such a tiny, minor thing to even have an opinion about. I'm just anticipating inappropriate comments from the peanut gallery, I suppose. It's not a big deal.
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Feb 7, 2014 22:42
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It's like, the word "copyright" has the actual meaning right in it. The "Right to Copy."
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Feb 17, 2014 08:43
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Mystic Mongol posted:The kind that is running out of money The kind that A) Has a Congressionally-required mandate to deliver regularly to tiny super-rural addresses all over a huge country without charging anyone an extra fee for those specific addresses B) Has to pay for itself, e.g., isn't subsidized by taxpayer money The USPS has been proper-hosed as direct-mail advertising volume has been rapidly shrinking, the use of the mail system for private letters has been shrinking, and the availability of taxpayer money has disappeared completely. It has to make all of its money handling packages, because that's the only thing that it can actually charge for, and that postage has to subsidize a lot of necessarily inefficient postal routes. It's also significant that the USPS is still the cheapest option for a lot of different kinds of mail, and the only option for some destinations. That's because the for-profit companies can't (or don't want to) compete in those spaces, despite corporate efficiency. I don't know what specifically has pushed international postage up so dramatically in the last couple years, but if UPS or FedEx or DHL or whatever is still more expensive than USPS, that says something about the actual costs involved. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/07/23/postal-service-mail-delivery-to-your-door-could-soon-end/2580645/ quote:The Postal Service spends about $30 billion annually on mail delivery, losing $15.9 billion last year alone. It does not receive federal assistance, getting revenue from postage sales, delivery services and other products. But mail service has dropped nearly 25% from 215 billion pieces delivered in 2006 to a current volume of 160 billion, says Postal Service spokeswoman Sue Brennan.
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Mar 29, 2014 01:29
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Tiny Epic Kingdoms has sent out emails with a download link for Premium backers, to pull down the Premium Print n Play, faction backstories, and PDF art collection. Unfortunately, he decided to use Google Drive and just provide a private link. It's not even 8 AM and he's already exceeded maximum number of downloads for the day. Google Drive is great, but not exactly an ideal solution for distributing content to thousands of backers.
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Apr 1, 2014 15:56
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The cleavage is accentuated a bit, but what bothers me about that image is her weirdly thin and broken torso (where are her ribs?), and the poor perspective (look at the two ship masts, and then figure out how that railing in the bottom left works).
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Apr 24, 2014 21:30
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So my friendly local game store, Black Diamond Games, is having a kickstarter to help fund their game room expansion project. It's obviously of very limited appeal to people who don't live near the store, but one thing I think is interesting is that Gary has some high-end reward tiers that involve him doing consulting work for your own game store. Gary's Blog is a font of knowledge and wisdom (and occasional grognardy opinion) about running a game store that has attracted a fair amount of attention in the game business world (and on these forums). If you don't live in the SF Bay Area and also don't run a game business, this KS is probably of no interest to you, but there's a few of us around so I figured it was worth a mention.
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May 19, 2014 17:17
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Sarx posted:I don't mean to be a jerk, but if he was really good at running a game store, wouldn't the store just be profitable enough to expand on its own? If I'm starting a game store, do I want the advice from the person who needs to crowdfund to expand? Or do I want the person who's business model is successful enough that they didn't need to ask for community support? You're not a jerk for asking, but you should definitely read the last two pages of his blog, because he goes into a lot of detail about this exact topic. The gist is that adding gaming space, in reasonably urban (and therefore costly by the square foot) retail, does not have sufficient ROI to justify the total cost of the expansion. So he's got business loans that are justifiable from his projected increased revenue, and the rest has to be crowdfunded. His business is successful enough that he could expand by opening a second store. But he discusses why he doesn't want to do that (he enjoys running a store, and does not enjoy managing store managers). This discussion is worthy of the game business thread, if you want to go into more detail.
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May 20, 2014 08:07
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Christ, again? Another sci-fi miniatures skirmish game, another set of bikini models and girls heading into combat with naked exposed bellies and halter tops. I give them a single prop for providing the rules as a free download at the top of the page. Also, 18 quid ($30) for 6 miniatures is not exactly a bargain. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 18:06 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 18:03
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Infinite Karma posted:I'm not going to say that this is a must-buy game, but I plan on using the human minis for count-as Assassins in 40K, and depending on how the alien ones end up, I'll get a box to use as Slaanesh Daemons. Compared to GW prices (and even Infinity prices), $30 for 6 minis is a steal. For basic troops? Nah, not really. Examples: 4 eldar guardians is $10. 8 guardians plus a heavy weapons platform is $36.25. 10 Ork Boyz is $29. A 10-man Space Marine Tactical Squad is $40. $30 for 6 models is a price similar to or slightly better than what GW charges for elite troops (5-man space marine assault squad is $33). Infinity models are horribly expensive for what you get, but they're doing mostly (entirely?) metal still, so that's why. I would expect a kickstarter to do a little better. This is a new game, which raises big questions of longevity, so backers have to take on the risk that the game could be a flash in the pan and they'll be stuck with an unsupported ruleset and models that nobody wants. It's fine if you see something you want to sub in for your 40k Assassins, of course (I see the death cult assassins are finecast, two for $16, which is obviously way too loving expensive - but that's finecast for ya), but there are much cheaper options out there; this is not "a steal." Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 18:58 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 21, 2014 18:52
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Jedit posted:You're seriously going to use the Games Workshop pricing model to explain why $18 for 6 minis isn't overcosted? What? I'm specifically saying $18 for 6 minis is overcosted, because it's right at the same level of GW retail.
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May 21, 2014 19:20
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