Putting Our Boots On: Starting A Kickstarter

I've been relatively quiet in the past couple of months. I know "quiet" for me isn't how most people define quiet, but it's true I haven't really posted here. I released a game last night (a Mountain Goats inspired "mixtape" PDF of lyric games called Altar Boys & Heretics) and Sleepaway was a part of the Itch Bundle For Racial Justice And Equality (which raised more than $8 Million Dollars to support Black and Indigenous activism in the US!) but for the first time in a while my Itch page has been really quiet. But that's just because I have something really exciting in the works! 
Wanderhome will be coming to Kickstarter in early August!
It feels weird to write about a Kickstarter before it launches. In a lot of ways, a Kickstarter is like a heist. You gather together a team of very capable people who each have a specific talent, and figure out how their talents intersect, and use that to pull of something that should be impossible. 
So here I am, writing a blog post about a heist when we haven't even gotten inside the vault yet. So, perhaps this blog post will come across with either misplaced arrogance or the proper amount of confident swagger. So, with that provision in mind, let's walk through the journey so far, and get you all caught up to where I am in the present.

April - The Knocking At The Door

Once I realized Wanderhome was going to be more than the 2 page mini-game I intended for it to be (haha) I realized a Kickstarter was inevitable for its future. The first person I pulled in to help out with that was Ruby Lavin. Ruby was my layout designer and interior artist for Sleepaway, and I'd be lost without her. This time, Ruby came on board as my art director and partner in crime. Having someone by your side through the whole process is invaluable, and really can help keep everything in focus. 
We sat down together and figured out what we wanted the Kickstarter to be. To do that we'd need to answer some important questions:

• How many words is it? How many pages?
• What size do we want the book to be?
• How important is art, and how do we want to handle art?

30,000 words. Probably around 152 pages. Softcover, 8.5" square. Full color. These are all numbers that sound arbitrary, but each one impacts how the product marketing goes and hugely informs budget. From these numbers we could calculate how much to pay the editor, how much printing would be, and what kind of art budget we could expect.
The art would be the fun part. The art is always the fun part.

May - The Hunt Begins

I spent maybe all of May hunting for artists to include. And I've, found a lot. I don't want to go into all of it (because who knows what could happen between now and August) but there are some real amazing creators involved in this project. In order to keep artist bloat under control, all artists were given the same shape (9x9" square, full color) and the budget was set across the board. My consistent rule was always to prioritize artist needs and funds. In a lot of ways, working with artists is like working with teenagers. They've got some kind of incredible genius, and you're just trying to get them to express it.
The most important artists to nail down before a Kickstarter are the ones whose work is vital for the Kickstarter itself. In this case, I found the amazing Letty for the playbook art (which will be used as sampling throughout the book) and Sylvia, who is doing the cover art.
During that time I figured out the main editor (Kazumi, who you might remember as a stretch goal from Sleepaway, who is absolutely perfect at the writing style, the politics, and the mechanical design Wanderhome is invested in) and realized I'd want a secondary editor to specifically help with list construction and flow, and to that end I brought in Luke of Games From The Wild Wood. 
This is the first Kickstarter I've done where I really set out to do it really meticulously. This is the first time I've done a project with the sheer number of artists that I'm working with now, and that means really familiarizing myself with everything and making sure everything feels proper, including contracts for everyone (so many contracts), google forms, and even a damn style guide!
This is also when playtesting ramps the heck up. I wish it was easy to run as many playtests as I want to, but I've gotten good at maximizing as much as I can from each playtest. Going into a specific playtest with a certain goal, and also being okay playing some number of playtests "just for fun" to see if the game is enjoyable, is a great approach when you know that playtesting is going to take time. For a game like Wanderhome, which is designed for longterm play, longterm playtesting will be basically required.

June - Tying My Shoelaces

And now here we are, at the end of June. I've set up contracts with almost 15 artists. I've figured out the budget, and while it's a bit more daunting than anything I've ever tried to do, I firmly believe I have the audience and that Wanderhome is a dream that people will want to buy into. I'll keep posting important updates to Wanderhome as it progresses, and I'm so excited for you to see how it all comes together.
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about what it's like putting together a larger Kickstarter, or if you want to chat about Wanderhome!