The first 2 tasks in TO-DO list without which, the idea of a startup is doomed to failure
So, there is a wish to bring this idea in life and tones of questions how to do it… I just made to do list where the first two tasks were research of similar realized projects and finding investments.
1. Research
Google brought me to the already existing solution with augmented reality on Kickstarter.com. I was very inspired by the project that is called «Hologrid».
Creators of “Hologrid” have raised funds to implement their idea! The game seemed to me a little bit “Geeky” and was more for Heroes of Might & Magic fans :) However, they are incredible fellows, as it was the first successful case of combining modern technology and the classic format of board games! Loud applause!
Hologrid became not only the first game, but also the only successful case. I found one more attempt to combine augmented reality and card game but, unfortunately, it was doomed to failure because of the necessity to use web camera on PC while playing… DRAKERZ : Augmented Reality TCG
This project’s funding goal was not reached, but they backed 19,476$.
Aaaaaand……I didn’t find anything that could attract my attention on Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other sites.
After this i started to find successful cases of standard board game on these web sites.
Exploding Kittens is the first one on the list!
The usual card game raised $ 8,782,571. One more time. An ordinary card game about exploding kittens raised more than $ 8 million! It’s amazing how developers managed to touch the hearts of backers and promote the project in which, during the campaign on Kickstarter, was sold more than 200,000 set of games …
just WOW!
These guys did not stop and implemented another miracle: Bears vs Babies. (Babies slump bears in this game) And what do you think ??? They became multimillionaires raising another $ 3,215,679 with 85,581 backers! Incredible!
What’s next? “Panda harakiri” or “Puppies dismember the raccoons”?!?)
With optimism, I moved on to the second task, which concerned financing model.
2. Investments
Initially, I had 2 possible ways to finance the project. According to my experience, I was well acquainted with direct investments from funds and only heard something about crowdfunding. Reading loads of articles in the internet about crowdfunding, I became confident in using Kickstarter or IndieGogo for the development of the future board game with Virtual or Augmented Reality, for several reasons:
1. Audience Feedback. A great chance to find out the real opinion of the audience about the product and its relevance, up to the moment of large investments and production.
2. Financing. Kickstarter is already an established tool for financing board and card games with backers, thanks to them you can sell thousands of copies, having only a prototype and well-designed page on Kickstarter with effective PR support.
3. Marketing. A successful project on the crowdfunding site is an excellent marketing motive for the further game distribution and sale in retail.
4. Convenience. Crowdfunding project can be combined with the main place of work for a long time.
5. Economy. A similar project can be developed, allocating a part of salary from the main place of work, while not starting to starve and not giving up personal life;)
Therefore.. on the one hand, it is frightening that there is only one successful case in the market and not to go there, on the other hand I still believe in the growth of AR / VR applications in our daily life and the increase of the audience’s attention to new products on the market with Augmented & Virtual reality. In my opinion, the most important thing in developing of a new product is really effective and irreplaceable application of new technologies. To test your decision on suitability, you can ask yourself a simple question: “Will AR or VR (in my case in the game) bring something new to the format that it is not possible to achieve with standard tools? If the answer is ”Yes” and there is an exact understanding that VR or AR makes the solution interesting, non-standard and with WOW effect, that’s mean that you are on the right way! And with small chance to raise money in crowdfunding platforms.
Well … I have a little left to do .. it’s time to come up with an idea of board game and with positive answer to the above question! :)
