I have never really been in to the idea of Kickstarter because of paying money up front for something you may not ultimately receive, the potential for the game to not actually be very good (a lot of the previews that are available are paid for by the publishers themselves so they cannot be guaranteed to be impartial), or for the high prices some of these kickstarters command only to find them discounted in shops or online shortly after release, does not really appeal to me. Now whilst this does come across as negative let it also be known that I have been following kickstarters for some time and have kicked myself for not pledging for a game only to find that, yes I do really fancy playing it, and now I have to pay significantly more than the original cost of the kickstarter for the privilege – I am looking at you Gloomhaven and Nemesis!
Both Mrs. Middleaged and I caved into the draw of Kickstarter after AwShux (2020 Lockdown edition). Mrs. Middle Aged fell in love with the aesthetic and idea behind Chai: Tea for 2 (because of the beautiful looking production and the puzzly nature of the game) and I got rather smitten with the componenty goodness of My Fathers Work (actual honest to goodness glass vials, metal cogs! What’s not to like) – I’ve always been a sucker for boxes with lots of stuff, and the fact that I love worker placement and a lot of variability in a game, this looked like something I would definitely like to add to the collection.
We decided to take the plunge for the first time on Kickstarter given that as far as Chai: Tea for 2 is concerned, some of the things that we liked were kickstarter exclusive. My Fathers Work is not currently set to go into general distribution and (according to the Kickstarter at least) will cost more when bought directly from Renegade.
The next bit is for those not familiar with kickstarter, if you are, skip the next three paragraphs!
One of the main reasons with my reticence to use kickstarter is, as explained earlier, that you can pay and not receive anything. To those not familiar with Kickstarter, it is not a shop (as stated many times on the kickstarter website), it is a way to enable creative types to realise their ideas by pledging money for ‘rewards’. If the campaign to which you pledge mismanages or simply walks off with your money, there is very little recourse, your money is effectively lost. For some of the bigger campaigns with lots of components and minis this could be in the hundreds of pounds/dollars, and if you back something like a gaming table the thousands. Now this is not to say that the site has problems with this, most kickstarters do deliver their rewards, but it is not unheard of for some to fail and backers see nothing for their money.
The rewards from a kickstarter campaign can also vary in quality/size. The lowest pledge often just gives access to the pledge manager where you can choose your reward level after the campaign closes (effectively guaranteeing you a place in the queue for a couple of dollars, which is a good way to reserve your ability to pledge for a campaign after it has closed without having to immediately fork out the money). The higher tier pledges (i.e. the more expensive pledges) normally build from a basic version of the game, to a version with expansions, and possibly on to deluxe versions with upgraded components (again this is just a generalisation but is often the case).
Kickstarter campaigns have a target value that they must reach in order for them to go ahead, if this target amount is not reached then money is refunded and the campaign does not get produced. If the target amount is exceeded there are additional incentives for people to pledge for either a copy of the game and/or some additional components rather than just access to the pledge manager due to the stretch goals. The stretch goals are incentives for people to spend more on the campaign by offering upgrades or extras to the base product these can either be thrown in due to economies of scale being met by greater volumes of the game being ordered/produced, or simply if there is sufficient demand creating additional expansions/components to but and add on to the pledge. Such extras can be things like better quality card for cards or the game board, cardboard chits upgraded to minis, metal used instead of plastic, extra cards, better artwork, etc. Yes this can sometimes be used as a cynical money making ploy ‘spend money and we will give you more to spend your money on’ but who doesn’t like upgraded components and more stuff in a box?
Back to our pledges. The two games have different backgrounds. Chai: Tea for two is from a small independent publisher (this is Steeped Games third game, the first being Chai, the second being the expansion for Chai called High tea) – the sort of thing that kickstarter was designed for and the other is by Renegade Games Studios which has 12 kickstarters to its name, but has many more to its name as a publisher/distributor (with award-winning strategy games like Lanterns: The Harvest Festival and Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure, accessible family games like Kitty Paw and The Fox in the Forest).
It has been a bit of a story of extremes. My Fathers Work has so far gone smoothly, there were regular updates during the campaign, once the campaign closed the pledge manager (which is used to pay for any extras if there are any, or to change the pledge level, again if there are any) opened a week or so after that. Since the campaign has closed there have been updates every month showing card art, box inserts and generally showing that progress is being made. These updates give me a warm fuzzy feeling inside that I am going to receive something and that the quality is going to be what I expected from the previews and the initial kickstarter information.
Chai tea for 2 has been the opposite of smooth. Whilst the initial kickstarter campaign went smoothly with plenty of feedback, the promised stretch goals seemed to be met with some hostility in the comments, especially as one of them was the game designers doing a Twitch stream on international tea day, and not something tangible for the game (more like marketing that people would expect if you were trying to get off the ground). After the campaign closed on June 5th the information was that the pledge manager would open at the start of August. Part way through September and the pledge manager still has not opened. The wheels appeared to be coming off their previous campaign as there were very late deliveries for the high tea expansion for the original Chai game, with rumours that the money used for Chai tea for 2 being used to pay for outstanding costs of that kickstarter campaign. These are however rumours and it cannot be forgotten that the world is a different place to where it was prior to the pandemic, it has hit shipping costs and manufacturing costs in china, so there are definitely extenuating circumstances as to why things have not progressed. The silence however is not so forgivable, given both the global uncertainty, and the uncertainty that backers face every time they back a campaign, it feels disingenuous and unfair not to keep the backers of the campaign in the loop as to why/if the campaign is not progressing or has hit stumbling blocks meaning delays.
The silence was broken mid-way through September with the promise of the pledge manager opening within a week, and also videos of some of the game components being produced, along with the news that the game is to be shipped before Christmas. Could this bring the warm fuzzy feeling to this campaign too? Sadly not, two weeks after the post promising the pledge manager opening in a week’s time and it is back to the usual radio silence… The saga continues