February 13, 2020: Kickstarter Reports, February Update

In 2019, Kickstarter became a more important part of our operations and we launched and closed a total of 11 different Kickstarter campaign across our two accounts. A total of $638,497 was pledged to our Kickstarter projects during the year (which doesn't include BackerKit funds), supporting the idea that the crowdfunding platform is a very important part of today's market. Kickstarter does not replace traditional methods of publishing and distributing games, but it does make for a great addition to those age-old tools required to make games.

Kickstarter is useful for the big project, yes, but we find that it really works well for those smaller games and accessories that we would normally shelve and not pursue. The Hexagram series for use with The Fantasy Trip, for example, owes its very existence to Kickstarter! The campaign for issue #4 is now running on Kickstarter.

To help all of you keep up with where we're at on projects, here's an overview of the current projects and the status of each:

Hexagram #4

• February 10 to February 17
• 472 backers and still funding.
• The project is in the funding stage. The creative work is complete and we're waiting on the printer proof.

Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2

• January 20 to January 27
• 536 backers and on schedule.
• The Kickstarter campaign closed successfully and the BackerKit surveys closed earlier this week.

Car Wars Sixth Edition

• November 29 to January 6 (2020)
• 3,936 backers and on schedule.
• The creative team is working on the game and expansions. 
• The BackerKit surveys are being prepared.

Deadly Doodles 2

• September 23 to October 11
• 543 backers and on schedule.
• The expansion is now on a ship and on its way to our primary warehouse. It is scheduled for distribution release in June of this year.

The Fantasy Trip: Decks of Destiny

• April 29 to June 3
• 1,172 backers and on schedule.
• The shipment arrived and we are now processing rewards. The last of the U.S. rewards shipped yesterday and some backers have already received their packages!

Bag of Bags

• March 31 to April 1
• 287 backers; some shipments are late.
• The last two international shipments have left the building; now for the slow process of seeing them move around the world.

Pocket Box Games of the Eighties

• January 30 to March 1
• 1,974 backers and behind schedule.
• The containers arrived and the fulfillment team is now shipping rewards. Over 1,000 have shipped so far!

That's a total of 7 active projects:

• 1 funding
• 1 in active development in our office.
• 1 now on the water.
• 1 almost ready to mail to backers.
• 3 now mailing to backers.

A great way to start the new year! If all goes well, we'll see many of you back on Kickstarter in 2020 as we bring more new ideas to life.

To receive notification when we launch new projects, we recommend following both the Steve Jackson Games and Warehouse 23 accounts, as well as liking and following our Facebook page.

-- Phil Reed