*Two months ago!
And I forgot to post about it because we’ve been SO DANG BUSY!
To make up for the lack of updates on our upcoming release, here’s an image of an extremely out of place horse.
NEWS POSTS
We’re two weeks into our Kickstarter campaign for Beasts of Burden, our sweet card game about managing encumbrance!
You can get a copy mailed to you for just $20!
We made a totally jawesome video of Dioxin Dump HQ explaining the rules and mechanics of Beasts of Burden! Give it a watch!
Here’s a breakdown of the rules, for those of you who ain’t got time for youtubes:
Here’s some constraints!
That’s it!
For Immediate Release
For Further Information Contact
Rebecca M. Schranz (314) 504-3532
rebecca.m.schranz@gmail.com
Dioxin Dump Games Launches Kickstarter Campaign for Card Game Beasts of Burden
June 23, 2014: Dioxin Dump Games started their month-long Kickstarter campaign this morning for their second game, Beasts of Burden.
Beasts of Burden is a quick-playing game of treachery and debauchery that happens to center around constantly swapping items in your inventory. In the game, players must carry around weapons, tools and treasures, each with separate weights, values and uses in order to defeat monsters, avoid traps and solve puzzles in an absurdist dungeon.
“I love pen and paper RPGs, but I hate managing encumbrance,” said Stuart Keating, the game’s designer. “So, creating a fast, fun card game around what kind of junk is in your backpack was an interesting challenge, and I think fans of Munchkin, Fluxx and Kingdom of Loathing will appreciate the aesthetics, pace and mechanics.”
After their first game, Three Days until Retirement, raised nearly $10,000 on Kickstarter, Dioxin Dump is quickly gaining a name as a producer of unique, interesting content throughout the gaming community. While Three Days met the demands of a niche RPG-based group of gamers who love 80s cop action films, Beasts of Burden is a simpler, faster game designed for a much wider audience.
The campaign’s $6,000 fundraising goal will allow Dioxin Dump to professionally print the game and will result in over 100 custom illustrations by the talented Nikki Burch, while also producing additional physical goods. Campaign funds will also fund professional editing and fulfillment services from project manager Rebecca Schranz, ensuring a timely release of a high-quality game.
At all funding levels, backers will receive an instant PDF of the beta game rules, as well as instructions for creating the cards at home. From there, it’s all gamer gold: $10 buys a digital copy and $20 a physical copy; Higher-priced tiers include “fan club packs” full of physical goods as well as tank tops.
Many tiers are geared towards group purchases to make purchasing easier for stores, international purchasers and game clubs. “Two of the driving forces behind Dioxin Dump are collective action and that feeling you get when something weird shows up in the mail,” said Keating. “We want to make sure people can get together with their weird friends, order cool, weird stuff through the mail, and then do cool, weird stuff with it.”
The Kickstarter campaign for Beasts of Burden runs until the morning of July 23, 2014 and can be found at http://kck.st/1puDv1p.
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Last fall, we ran our first-ever crowdfunding campaign to fund our first-ever game, Three Days Until Retirement. The project was incredibly successful, raising $9,925 on a $3,000 goal. We ended up with 351 backers, 253 of which received physical goods.
Having fulfilled the Kickstarter (with the exception of a tiny amount of physical content shipping separately to about 30 people) and amassed the numbers, I now have a much better idea of the margins and cost and hopefully a few ideas/lessons worth sharing. Here goes:
The numbers
Wow, $9100 seems like a lot of money! It is a lot of money! But, if you’re in the indie publishing business, that money has a lot of claims on it. Let’s break down the expenses.
So our production cost was $7,359, and I have approximately $1000 (cost value) in merchandise available for sale/distribution. Not too shabby!
ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM TIME How you gonna get all this shit shipped to your delightful backers?
Not going to lie, shipping kept me up at night once or twice. I ran a few estimates but had no real idea what to expect. I’m going to help y’all out though and give you weights, costs, etc.
That brings our total cost to: $8900.43. Subtract that from $9100, and I got to LIVE THE HIGH LIFE on $199.57!
So what did we learn today?
Will I do it again? OF COURSE. I’m launching a kickstarter for our next game, Beasts of Burden right… about… NOW!
GOLD TIMEX 1 is the first expansion content for Three Days Until Retirement.
Instead of playing as grizzled cops in an over-the-top metropolitan area, players assume the role of “special investigators” with unique powers, personalities and drawbacks that must explore some mystery happening in Mapleton, Metro City’s weirdest suburb.
An homage to the “surreal suburb” genre (Twin Peaks, The X Files, etc), this expansion to Three Days Until Retirement will open up a whole new can of adventuresome worms!