Weird Giraffe Games: Carla On Big Easy Busking and Launching On Kickstarter
We had the privilege to be connected with another board game publisher, Weird Giraffe Games. Weird Giraffe Games creates engaging strategical games which focuses on play choices. They are relatively new to the game as a publisher but they’ve already had so much success! It was great to speak to them to learn more about their games and their experiences with KickStarter.
Weird Giraffe Games
Tell us bit about Weird Giraffe Games and its achievements. How did it start and how many games were published?
Weird Giraffe Games has four games currently; Fire in the Library, Stellar Leap, Dreams of Tomorrow, and Super Hack Override. We also have two expansions: Fire in the Library: Technology and Stellar Leap: Frontiers.
We started as a group of friends with an idea and it’s slowly become to be mainly me (Carla) as I’m passionate enough about games to be able to do the not so great parts of publishing, like answering the never ending emails.
Weird Giraffe has quite a few games under their belt. Which game by Weird Giraffe Games are you most proud of?
All of them! Each for different reasons. Stellar Leap was designed by me and my largest game. I had the idea to make a 4x game that played in an hour and I think Stellar Leap really fulfilled that goal. I’m really proud of Dreams of Tomorrow in that it’s my first retheme of a game and I think that the current theme of being dream engineers sending dreams into the past to save the future is not only really unique, but also fits the game much better than my original theme. I’m proud of Fire in the Library for being a press your luck game that is really accessible, but I also added in enough strategy that people that don’t like press your luck games can really enjoy it.
For Big Easy Busking, it’s the best of my solo designs. Not only did I make three different bands to compete against, each with their own strategy, but there’s also 5 difficulty levels, to give a truly great solo experience. Big Easy Busking is easily the most thematic of the games I’ve worked on and the music and New Orleans feel are definitely there. I’m even proud of Super Hack Override, which was the first game I’d ever designed, as it’s a lot of strategy in so few cards AND there’s a lot of software jokes for those that are looking for them.
Big Easy Busking launched on Kickstarter and was funded at 40% on the second day of Launch. The campaign is cancelled on the third day. Why did you decide to Cancel the campaign?
I realized that the illustration and graphic design definitely needed an overhaul, in addition to the marketing not being as much as I had hoped. I knew I could do better and make the campaign page a lot more clear than it was, so I decided to cancel and to come back a lot stronger with a second campaign.
What is the latest update on Big Easy Busking?
Big Easy Busking is launching on March 14th!
(Check it out on Kickstarter)
Weird Giraffe had a few launches up on Kickstarter. In your experience, what are the things people never get right when launching on Kickstarter?
I don’t think there’s any one thing that people don’t get right when launching, but I think quite a few people need to be better at treating people like they’re people and not just customers. This industry is really small and people like supporting their friends. It’s not big enough that you can just show up one day with a KS, you have to put in the work and be genuine and it will be recognized. Plus, you’ll meet a lot of wonderful people in the process! If you’re just trying to get someone’s money, people can usually tell and you’ll be missing out on a lot of great friendships.
How did you get your audience before Kickstarter?
I’ve been on twitter and facebook for awhile, helping out others and getting to know them. I’ve been to a number of conventions at this point, in addition to doing a lot of travel. I used to write for the Indie Game Report and hope to get back to that soon. I’ve also done a lot of interviews. I’ve done a number of Kickstarters and experienced lots of things, so part of what I do online is to try and share that knowledge. I’ve been told that I give a lot of insights into publishing that haven’t been seen before. I try to be really honest and open and I hope that people can see that.
Conclusion
Please check out our friends at Weird Giraffe Games! A dedicated bunch with many more games to come!
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Article published on www.fourtato.com.
