The Game
The Haunted Garden is card game in which 2 to 5 players assemble their vegetable garden in order to make points. It's a game that use both the draft mechanic, which makes card go around the table, and card positioning. Each vegetable family in the game give a set number of points at the end of the game but only to the player who collected a majority. In addition, they each have a power which either helps the player in organizing his own garden or disrupt enemy plans. It's a fast paced game, easy to pick up and the game take 20-30 minutes depending on the number of players.
The Haunted Garden is card game in which 2 to 5 players assemble their vegetable garden in order to make points. It's a game that use both the draft mechanic, which makes card go around the table, and card positioning. Each vegetable family in the game give a set number of points at the end of the game but only to the player who collected a majority. In addition, they each have a power which either helps the player in organizing his own garden or disrupt enemy plans. It's a fast paced game, easy to pick up and the game take 20-30 minutes depending on the number of players.
Creation
The Haunted Garden is my first Kickstarter project. Originally, it was conceived as university project made in collaboration with my fellow student, Vincent Thoer-Fabre. Following the presentation of this project, we had much positive feedback, from both university colleagues and the people who helped us test de the game, that we decided to push the project further and learn about the vast world of crowdfunding. We were modest on our goals from the get go but the project managed to reach 265% funding and we were able to sell a hundred copies in Canada. Finally, our game as been featured in a list of the 5 most promising campaign of the week on the website, Casual Game Revolution.
The Haunted Garden is my first Kickstarter project. Originally, it was conceived as university project made in collaboration with my fellow student, Vincent Thoer-Fabre. Following the presentation of this project, we had much positive feedback, from both university colleagues and the people who helped us test de the game, that we decided to push the project further and learn about the vast world of crowdfunding. We were modest on our goals from the get go but the project managed to reach 265% funding and we were able to sell a hundred copies in Canada. Finally, our game as been featured in a list of the 5 most promising campaign of the week on the website, Casual Game Revolution.
My Role
During the ideation process, thanks to my experience of boardgames, I was the one who came up the mix of the 3 main mechanics, Drafting, Families and card positioning. The mechanic of draft, which makes player trade card around the table, is a way to allow interaction between the player which have to make choices on which card they will give to their neighbor. With the mechanic of families, we have a total of 11 vegetable families. They each have their effect, which allow a high level of disruption toward the enemy board, and they each give a set amount of points to the player who owns the most members when the game ends. To balance this out, the more points a family gives, the less their effect is potent, even having a negative effect for the top scoring family. Finally, the system of board positioning, mimics the action of planting a garden and opens up ways to create effects that disrupts the player plans. Finally, I was able to utilize the fact that I work in a board game pub to organize productive playtesting with my experienced co-workers.
I was also the one who pushed for going ahead and trying a Kickstarter campaign. I had this idea because I both knew that our game was at the standards of the industry and I was interested in the process of crowdfunding. So I was the person who created and managed the Kickstarter page with setting up rewards, explaining the project and setting payment information. Next, I managed the finance of the project, from being the treasurer to choosing the manufacturer with the best price/quality ratio. In total, we were able to make a 100 copies of the game and put the price tag at 25$. The price per unit were around 19$ so we had a profit margin of around 25%. The price tables made me realize that in board games, printing huge quantity to bring cost per unit down is the name of the game and need a huge upfront cost to back this up. Making things like crowdfunding super effective in gathering that upfront investment. It contrasts with videogame production who still have a upfront cost, from equipment and salary but when the videogame is completed it can be reproduced with no cost.
During the ideation process, thanks to my experience of boardgames, I was the one who came up the mix of the 3 main mechanics, Drafting, Families and card positioning. The mechanic of draft, which makes player trade card around the table, is a way to allow interaction between the player which have to make choices on which card they will give to their neighbor. With the mechanic of families, we have a total of 11 vegetable families. They each have their effect, which allow a high level of disruption toward the enemy board, and they each give a set amount of points to the player who owns the most members when the game ends. To balance this out, the more points a family gives, the less their effect is potent, even having a negative effect for the top scoring family. Finally, the system of board positioning, mimics the action of planting a garden and opens up ways to create effects that disrupts the player plans. Finally, I was able to utilize the fact that I work in a board game pub to organize productive playtesting with my experienced co-workers.
I was also the one who pushed for going ahead and trying a Kickstarter campaign. I had this idea because I both knew that our game was at the standards of the industry and I was interested in the process of crowdfunding. So I was the person who created and managed the Kickstarter page with setting up rewards, explaining the project and setting payment information. Next, I managed the finance of the project, from being the treasurer to choosing the manufacturer with the best price/quality ratio. In total, we were able to make a 100 copies of the game and put the price tag at 25$. The price per unit were around 19$ so we had a profit margin of around 25%. The price tables made me realize that in board games, printing huge quantity to bring cost per unit down is the name of the game and need a huge upfront cost to back this up. Making things like crowdfunding super effective in gathering that upfront investment. It contrasts with videogame production who still have a upfront cost, from equipment and salary but when the videogame is completed it can be reproduced with no cost.
The Importance of Playtesting
Playtesting is key part of any game development, it both gives feedback on the game and on the reception from the player. Considering my job at the time we had a huge pool of player coming to Randolph in addition to the staff which tried it numerous time on board game night. Playtesting helped us identify problem in the game balance and the first player experience. In light of those playtests, we made several changes to gameplay and to the rules to help comprehension. We also came to the conclusion that a game can always be improved and that more playtests are never useless.
Playtesting is key part of any game development, it both gives feedback on the game and on the reception from the player. Considering my job at the time we had a huge pool of player coming to Randolph in addition to the staff which tried it numerous time on board game night. Playtesting helped us identify problem in the game balance and the first player experience. In light of those playtests, we made several changes to gameplay and to the rules to help comprehension. We also came to the conclusion that a game can always be improved and that more playtests are never useless.
The Challenges of Crowdfunding
The decision to bring this project to Kickstarter brought along many challenges.
Our biggest hurdle was respecting the deadline we put in place during the creation of the project. First, the gameplay wasn't set in stone when we launched the campaign and it continued to evolve, so much so that we always found ways to improve until we realized that we already were late on schedule. Another thing that took more time than expected was the art of the game, which would complete after our deadline. Even when the art was done, our graphic designer wanted to rework previous illustrations despite them being very good. Even though we wanted to continue developing the game, both gameplay and art, we had to take the decision to put a stop to the creation process and send the current version for printing and hope it was meeting expectations.
Another problem that arose was dealing with the shipping of the game. When we received the 100 copies of the game part of it was damaged and I had to deal with the manufacturer and shipping company to resolve the issue and replace the broken goods. Our profit of margin also took a hit when we were surprised by the impositions of custom taxes. Finally, even on a small scale, dealing with the shipping of the games to our customers brought challenges, so in my current Kickstarter project I opted to hire a fulfillment company which will allow us to easily reach the international market.
The decision to bring this project to Kickstarter brought along many challenges.
Our biggest hurdle was respecting the deadline we put in place during the creation of the project. First, the gameplay wasn't set in stone when we launched the campaign and it continued to evolve, so much so that we always found ways to improve until we realized that we already were late on schedule. Another thing that took more time than expected was the art of the game, which would complete after our deadline. Even when the art was done, our graphic designer wanted to rework previous illustrations despite them being very good. Even though we wanted to continue developing the game, both gameplay and art, we had to take the decision to put a stop to the creation process and send the current version for printing and hope it was meeting expectations.
Another problem that arose was dealing with the shipping of the game. When we received the 100 copies of the game part of it was damaged and I had to deal with the manufacturer and shipping company to resolve the issue and replace the broken goods. Our profit of margin also took a hit when we were surprised by the impositions of custom taxes. Finally, even on a small scale, dealing with the shipping of the games to our customers brought challenges, so in my current Kickstarter project I opted to hire a fulfillment company which will allow us to easily reach the international market.
Sharing our experience
Another development that we didn't foresaw was when a teacher, of the class in which the project was originaly conceived, approached us. He was impressed by the extra steps we took with our project and the crowdfunding campaign. It was one year later and he was teaching the exact same class to our juniors and he offered us to be speaker and share our experience. We agreed and presented a 1 hour conference that detailed all the steps our our undertaking. The conference is available, in french, below.
Another development that we didn't foresaw was when a teacher, of the class in which the project was originaly conceived, approached us. He was impressed by the extra steps we took with our project and the crowdfunding campaign. It was one year later and he was teaching the exact same class to our juniors and he offered us to be speaker and share our experience. We agreed and presented a 1 hour conference that detailed all the steps our our undertaking. The conference is available, in french, below.