It’s official! I’ve been tinkering away for a while on a new game, Usolli – the strategic board game about Salah, and I’ve set a launch date for early Feb next year. That’s just 19 weeks away! :O
This time I’ll be doing something a bit different: Every week I’m going to share what I’ve been up to, and how I’m doing leading up to launch.
If you’re curious about crowdfunding, making board games, or what happens when you smash cardboard together, you can keep an eye for an update every Tuesday right here, or join the mailing list at www.cardboardquokka.com. I’m not an expert at any of those things, but I’d love to share what I’ve been doing, how I’m doing, and I’d also love to hear any thoughts you might have about the whole process.
Let’s dive in and see where things are at:
1. I created a Notion board to manage this project.
Huge kudos to Ryan Cross for introducing me to this tool! I’ve grown to enjoy it despite the learning curve, and it definitely combines the best bits of some of my favorite tools. From talking to manufacturers, creating a content plan, and everything else in between, there’s a TON of things to tick off, and having a good project management tool and process is crucial.
I used Notion’s default Sprint template, as I want to (try) and focus on a set of tasks every week.
2. I used Ori Kagan’s list as a base for the initial tasks.
In the Board Game Design Lab community, I asked for best practise for planning a crowdfunding campaign. A ton of people replied, and I ended up going with Ori’s list as it seemed most straightfoward to repurpose. I’m not sure if I can share it, so if you’re interested in the list, add a comment below and I’ll let Ori reach out to you directly! I populated my Notion board with Ori’s list and then adapted to my own tasks accordingly.
UPDATE: Ori has kindly given permission for me to share the list … so here you go!
3. I created a Content Planner.
Using another Notion template, I started planning what I want to share for the next 19 weeks, and also during the campaign itself. I think this is really important so you don’t stress and burnout, and it gives a strong drip feed of interesting content you can utilise for different platforms.
4. I created a Budget Tracker.
I’m not a numbers guy, but I’ve read enough horror stories of miscalculated costs and things going down the gurgly wurgly. This part is the biggest fear for me to be honest. I’ve also board game designing for a while, acquiring tools and supplies, getting software subs, hired an artist, etc – and they all add up. So it’s time to really track them down.
5. I started a crowdfunding and landing page.
I’d like to get these done early so I can figure out the right messaging and flow. You can check out the landing page at https://cardboardquokka.com/usolli/ and let me know what you think!
What’s Next?
Phew! That’s quite a bit! There’s actually tons more that I’ve done, and way more to be done! Stay tuned next week as I share my progress!
If you’ve made it this far, comment and let me know what’s your favorite project or task management tool!
Thanks for reading and see you next Tuesday!