Physical reward questions!

Let's chat about what you want from our next game. :)
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matt
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Physical reward questions!

Post by matt »

I'm thinking about moving the poster out of the $100 tier and replacing it with other things just because they weren't super cheap to print (at the volume we needed) and they required a completely separate package, so they doubled our shipping.

I had some ideas of things to replace it with. How interested are you guys in these rewards?
  • Pins! We added them to the campaign late as an add on, and they were pretty cool I thought.
  • Soundtrack CD. I'm a big fan of physical CDs, but is that only me? Does everyone else just like digital audio files? I guess if you are pledging at the $100 tier, you at least want a physical game.
  • Signed postcards. This was another add on, and I'm not sure how much people like it, but I think we got more purchasers than the bookmarks or pins - although that could be because of the price.
Perhaps we'd add one or two to replace the poster. If people really want a poster, maybe we'll do it at a higher tier?

Thanks for your feedback!
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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evilkinggumby
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by evilkinggumby »

sounds pretty kool. I'd also like to suggest a few alternate options:

1: flat printed fridge magnets. I would love a set or just one larger printed fridge magnet from the game that I can see whenever I go to grab a drink in my office.
2: custom wall cling of the title/logo for the game with some decorative scrawlwork edging. Or a character from the game.
3: a signed pair of soiled undies. If the game is worth it's salt, i am sure by the release date you'll have dozens of soiled undies from QA and testing. This would be epic loot!
4: a set of trading cards for the various characters in this game and NeN. Maybe 20 cards in all, regular or oversized, that i can set onto felt in a large frame to hang. :) you could add singular cards to lower tiers as a bonus, but have a complete set higher up.
5: if you do a physical copy of the game.. print a MANUAL for it too so it feels like a full complete copy of the game. :) even if the manual is stretching it a lil
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RightClickSaveAs
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by RightClickSaveAs »

Fridge magnets are a really unique idea, I don't think anyone has really done something like that.

I love printed game manuals, if they're well designed. I still have my spiral-bound Fallout 1 and 2 manuals, they're the pride of my video game nerd collection (got rid of the boxes long ago though, sadly).

How did the NN pins do? I may not be the best person to weigh in on this subject as I don't usually do physical reward tiers on Kickstarter, but the pins sound the most interesting to me out of the three options. I think anything really unique and different like that would stand out, I don't know of many projects that have offered pins.

As for the physical soundtrack, I like the idea, but I honestly haven't bought physical music in at least a couple years, so I can't say that'd be something I'd personally go for.

The signed postcard would be a great idea as a lower-level tier or addon I think. I'd imagine they'd be the easiest out of the three for you to do.
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matt
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by matt »

The pins didn't do very well, but the add ons were an afterthought, so I don't think it got a lot of attention. Fridge magnets might be interesting. I'd have to look up prices, but I imagine they wouldn't be too expensive.

Game manuals are probably going to be pricey to print, and they are following out of fashion these days, so despite their coolness, I don't think it is worth it.

Signing postcards is actually a fair amount of work for me. Getting the postcards made up is easy, but actually signing is something I can't out source...
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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miumiaou
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by miumiaou »

I like the idea of a physical soundtrack but as Rightclicksaveas said it's not something most people would go for.
I think the game manuals is more something you should have for a higher tier
For a 100$ tier I'll see more something like a little figure of the main character (or maybe more extravagant, a towel with the character printed in it :lol: )
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evilkinggumby
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by evilkinggumby »

yeah pins for a reward aren't anything I am interested in. the few times i have gotten pins from campaigns and stuff I usually say ' oh..cute' and never look at it again or use them. hehehe. they seem to be more of a thing to put on backpacks, purses and other carry accessories, which is more of a "young folk" thing and young folk are not so much the ones with disposable income to throw at upper level tiers. So I can see why they may have failed last time.

where fridge magnets.. yeah.. anyone with a fridge, including old folk, has a bit more function. and getting images printed to those flat flexible magnet types shouldn't be too pricey to do en masse. But I could be wrong. :)

I have seen a lot of gamers that resent the fact game manuals are slowly being phased out. It is also something very appreciated when folk open an indiebox and see they have a game AND a nicely printed full color manual. But if it ends up being very expensive to design print and bind a manual then so be it. No real point making it if it inflates the cost of physical copies immensely (though again, skipping the manual with a physical copy falls into the "cheapskate" category that has ruined gamer's view of most AAA games to a degree).

I guess for me, if I have a choice between a barebones copy of a game, physical, that is just disc-art-case or just getting it digitally, i'd just go digital since the physical really isn't anything "special" to have beyond disk and boxart. At this point physical media is something of a collector's item with so much going digital, so it seems like a waste to do it super cheap and no frills. :) It also makes unboxing video's on youtube pointless (so you lose those potential adverts for future sales) Do yo guys plan on putting full printed labels on the disc at least? :)

I would enjoy a physical soundtrack. Maybe i'm just weird though. If it is a solid soundtrack I have been known to bring the disc into the car and throw it in every once in a while when I have a lot of driving. Also kool to throw it on as background audio when I am working on writing or art. I guess digital downloads also make it possible, but for my car i'd have to hook in my phone or a mp3 player or burn a mp3 cd to play them. not a huge deal, but just popping in the cd is nice. And seeing the extra art on the cd case and the disk is always kool.

one thing that may be interesting is doing a custom photo locket or keychain fob with a small pic relevant to the game. that's unusual and may draw a lot of interest. photo lockets can run as cheap as $30 online for silver ones, likely a lot less for ones made from pewter or something cheaper. I guess having a physical replica of a significant item from the game would just be kool, and folk will pay more to have that as a showpiece or keepsake. If you did a locket with pics of the 2 main characters from NeN in it back during that campaign i'd have gotten it. some websites will make and add the photo for you and ship it all done, others may require you custom cut the pics to place in the locket (once you get a proper sized die cutter it wouldn't take long to cut and add the pics to a bunch of them. but that also depends on how many are interested. :)
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matt
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by matt »

We spent a fair bit of time designing our game DVD to be nice. We printed system requirements on the package to make it look professional as well as a cool image pressed on the CD. In addition, we put a lot of really neat bonus features on the disk. There are a bunch of REALLY early builds of the game that are almost embarrassingly bad, but you can see how the progress of the game came along. I think our special PAX demo build was on there too. I really wanted to get silver CDs, but unfortunately for orders of our size, it had to be on a CD-R. :-/

I appreciate all of the suggestions! In general, I tried to set the cost of shipping and goods to be 10% of the reward tier. I went way over on Neverending Nightmares, and I think I’ll go over again (maybe 20% for the physical reward tiers?), but I want to try to create value to backers with a little less costs to us (particularly in shipping).

Figures and photo lockets (even if they are less than $30) are pricey, and I’d rather than spending all of our budget on just one thing, I’d rather offer a bundle of goods at the $100 tier, so if you don’t like the physical game for example, and want the T-shirt, you might still pledge. Fridge magnets are an interesting idea. I'll have to consider that.

The poster is cool and all, but shipping a second package doubled our shipping costs, which are significant. I haven’t gotten the final number from our fulfillment service but I think it was like $3-4k.
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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LobsterSundew
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by LobsterSundew »

I pledged for the pins that Bendito Machine had as a reward. I used the yellow one to decorate a Raspberry Pi that was being used as a XBMC machine and that was about it. The problem is what is worth attaching them to. They are good for giving out at conventions because in large batches it gets really cheap per button.

The fridge magnets are something that would get used. There are round and rectangular options for magnets that are manufactured similar to buttons, but with a magnetic backing instead of a safety pin. A rectangular magnet could look like a spooky framed painting. The question with magnets becomes how small the magnets should be. Backers may prefer one big magnet or 3 small magnets for the same price.

For those flat magnets there is looking into what is used for vehicle magnets that businesses have printed to put on their cars. Those magnets can be big for a vehicle door or small for a bumper.

Some services offer magnetic versions when printing business cards. Business card services are a way to mass produce things like thank you messages on the cheap.

Something to remember is the minimum batch sizes can apply to a design. If there were 3 different button designs and a minimum batch of 50 per design, then that is 150 buttons to order. If it was just a single design, then the minimum order would be 50.

I am biased towards being in favour of postcards since I just counted 25 framed postcards hung on the walls of my room. They can be promoted as miniature art prints.
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evilkinggumby
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by evilkinggumby »

ohh it'd be kool to have a collection of postcards that connect into a single image. if you did a promo artwork that was drawn specifically to work as 4 individual images, but when sqaured together, make a larger ensemble piece that is cohiseive, that'd be right fun. those wanting to frame them separate or together could, and the "broken yet whole" idea, psychologically speaking, is an interesting effect if it parallels any of the game.

Just something to consider if you go the postcard route and were planning to do 3-4 images. it would mean getting a mini poster sized image or several smaller bits of art and not worrying about extraneous shipping for large rolled posters.
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matt
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Re: Physical reward questions!

Post by matt »

These are interesting ideas! Thanks for the suggestions! :)
-Matt Gilgenbach
Lead Frightener at Infinitap Games
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