Crowdfunding Talk! with Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games

Posted byCéline MunozPosted inInterview, Tabletop Crowdfunding, The Tabletop Games IndustryTags:, , , , , , , , ,

New interview for our series Around the project – Actors of the industry. Laura Hoffmann, Game On’s COO interviewed Jamey Stegmaier, board game designer & cofounder of Stonemaier Games, to talk about his experience with tabletop crowdfunding, tips, advices and more!

Time to read this article: You will need about 35 minutes to read it.

If you prefer the video format, watch below our video where we discuss this particular topic. If you prefer text, read on.

French and English subtitles are available on the settings of the video.

Table of contents

Who is Jamey Stegmaier

Laura (Game On’s Chef Operating Officer): Hey, Jamey nice to have you here. How are you?

Jamey (board game designer & cofounder of Stonemaier Games): I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me. Excited to talk to you. I’m in St Louis. You’re in France. It’s nice that we can talk in real time this way.

Laura: I’ll let you introduce yourself to our audience. I’m sure a lot of people already know you, but there might still be some that don’t. And I’m sure you’re the best person to encapsulate who you are, what you do, and what you’re passionate about.

Jamey: I’m Jamie Stegmaier and I run a company called Stonemaier Games. I’ve run this company for about nine years now. I’ve been a lifelong tabletop gamer and game designer for fun. And then back in 2011, I decided to design a game specifically to put on a crowdfunding platform. For about five years that was what I did : designing games and putting them for crowdfunding.

And then in 2015 after we crowdfunded a big game called Scythe, we decided to move away from crowdfunding and publish things, not necessarily in the traditional sense, but to carry over all those things that I learned from crowdfunding and the communities that we built and did things our own way after that through a different preorder system on our website.

I also write a lot about crowdfunding and entrepreneurship, and I have a board game design YouTube channel.

Laura: So there’s a lot of stuff and indeed there are a lot of things that I think are personally very interesting, especially why crowdfunding and what did you bring out of it and how does this translate into other ways of sales and marketing? So we’ll talk more about that. I’m very well aware about your blog. You also wrote a book about crowdfunding, which I recommend to everybody, and obviously you were a publisher of many successful games.

Starting with crowdfunding or publishing games

Laura: So two big passions that go very well hand-in-hand but where did it start out? What kicked it off? Did you start out with crowdfunding or with publishing tabletop games? Was there one that started out before the other?

Jamey: The original passion was in game design. I was really excited by game design, but ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been excited by the idea of someday running my own business or having some sort of entrepreneurial activity. And the thing about crowdfunding that sparked me to actually act on it, other than seeing some tabletop games on Kickstarter back in like 2011 was the idea that I could know the names and have a connection and relationships with my customers directly.

I loved that idea of crowdfunding that when someone back your project, you see their name pop up.

You’re like “OK, Laura, backed my project. That’s awesome. Who is Laura? How can I get to know her better? And why is she excited about my project?” I loved that idea and that was kind of what sparked me to take this passion for game design and do something with it.

Laura: Awesome! Yeah, I think it’s also the other way around, right? For backers, it’s the same. It’s not just “I bought a game from some strange company.” It’s “I bought a game from somebody trying to fulfill their dream.” So yeah, I think it’s cool to see that in both ways.

Crowdfunding back then

Laura: So I think it was in 2012 when you launched your first tabletop crowdfunding campaign. Come to think of it, that’s nearly ten years ago now. How would you describe the crowdfunding tabletop era back then? Would you say it’s different from what we have now?

Jamey: I would say it is quite different than what we have now. Now we have multiple platforms that you can consider, like Game On Tabletop. But back then it was Kickstarter and Indiegogo which were kind of trying to make a name for themselves.

But there were also a lot fewer projects back then, especially in the tabletop space.

So many less projects on Kickstarter at the time, like I think on the day that Viticulture launched it may have been the only tabletop game project that launched on that day, whereas now you might have dozens of games, maybe even more launch on the same day.

So just the size has changed a lot. And also I think the level of professionalism has also improved a lot. If you go back and look at that original Viticulture project, it doesn’t look nearly as professional, I think as our later projects or especially many of the projects you see launched today.

The old times VS how it is now

Laura: Would you say you regret the old times? Would you rather be back then and see more of that, how it was or do you appreciate where it comes today and think that it’s healthy and good evolution of what started out, like you said, a bit more built together DIY like from different creators?

Jamey: A little bit of both. For me, I really admire that level of professionalism that we have in projects today. I think that’s wonderful, especially given that I spend a lot of money on projects, so I am more discerning now than I once was as a backer, and I kind of need more signs that I can trust a creator now than I did back then because there are so many projects at the same time.

I feel very lucky and fortunate that our games started in 2012 because if I had launched that same Viticulture project now, it probably wouldn’t have funded. So I feel lucky about that timing. So I’m glad there were fewer projects back then. I’m glad I was lucky enough to get in back then.

Toxicity in the crowdfunding industry

Jamey: One thing that I’ve noticed that seems a lot different now than it was then – this is going to sound a little negative and I don’t want to be negative – but I think it needs some addressing, it’s the level of toxicity and sometimes entitlement that seems very prevalent these days. That was not the case in 2012. It was very different.

There was very much less toxicity back then.

I’m curious what you see now and I guess if you don’t mind me asking, how that works on Game On Tabletop? What creators can do when they see that level of toxicity happening?

Laura: It’s true that there might have been a raise. I would still say that our community on Game On is still super open but obviously it can happen that there is toxicity going on. Creators are sometimes held accountable, which can be a good thing. And sometimes they’re just getting a bit trashed, which is way more difficult.

So in our space, it’s still healthy. Obviously sometimes there are elements that just go too far. I also think it’s kind of like normal in some cases because creators need to be able to prove that they’re going in there with a good spirit.

What I still see some companies managing to hold up a good level of interaction with the community and that they do have a very healthy community. Sometimes you will also see communities that are very toxic and sometimes they aren’t, with exemples all over the internet with creators on YouTube or Twitch for instance. Sometimes it’s really, really difficult to understand.

We’ve had projects on Game On where there have been so much hate or so much things that even I couldn’t really understand. And I don’t think anybody ever understood why on these projects, particularly that happened. But the good thing is that creators should be aware of the fact that this is going to be a real project with real challenges.

You’re interested by the entrepreneurship and that’s great. And I think that’s helped you a lot. Some creators go in there and they’re not really ready or that’s not really what they’re interested in.

A lot of mistakes can be made but I think it’s important for them to understand that when they’re launching a project they’re going to need to fulfill, be there, and be held accountable for that too.

But obviously we are sensitive to it if it ever goes beyond that. We would always remove people that are really harassing, building fake news or stuff like that. We will try to be also there to create a good environment for creators and backers.

It’s an issue that we experience a bit less, I think, than it might be on some other platforms right now.

Jamey: That’s awesome. There are two things that I really liked about what you said. You used the word accountable a number of times, and I agree a lot of it comes back to the creators and the second thing is tied to that, the idea that the creator has a pretty big impact on the tone of the community.

Creator can’t control everything but, if a creator is trying to be transparent and communicative and they foster that positive energy, the community will follow too.

Whereas, I’ve seen creators who don’t do that and that’s where the toxicity really seems to creep in a big way. So I like that you’re putting a lot of emphasis on the creator itself. And you’re right, they do have a lot of control in terms of how toxic a project can become.

Laura: And I think that’s always important. Now, obviously, I’d like to also state to everybody who’s backing a project:

Keep in mind they’re real people behind the projects. The goal is not to hurt anybody.

It’s legitimate to ask questions but be kind.

The definition of success

Laura: It makes me think about another subject that I think is always super interesting to talk about with creators I work with, it’s about success. Because basically when you look at the different projects that you ran, I’m sure Sythe is the most successful one financially speaking.

But I think success is something personal and I’d be super curious to know how would you define success? Taking away just the financial aspect, which project that you launched would you consider the most successful for you personally?

Jamey: I like the way you phrased that because for me, my goal and my mission in everything that I do is to bring joy to tabletops worldwide. And there’s a lot in that statement.

The focus is joy.

It’s also focused on tabletop specifically. You know, there’s lots of ways that we can bring people joy. I’m focusing on games, on tabletops and worldwide, so not just in the U.S. And so like very early on, one of my focuses was figuring out how to fulfill projects worldwide in a way that is sustainable for both the backer and the creator.

I think Viticulture may have been one of the first projects ever to use multiple fulfillment centers around the world rather than ship from one place. So that’s really important. I mean, Viticulture is really dear to my heart because it was the first one, but Between Two Cities Project, which I think was in 2014, is also really important to me in terms of that mission that I just described.

And also the fact that it was the first project for a game that wasn’t designed by me. So it was our step of we’re no longer just a self-publishing company, but also we’re looking outside at many of the amazing designers around the world who are way more talented than I am and making one of their games as part of the Stonemaier Games universe.

And so that project Between Two Cities I think accomplish those goals and, and leveled up our company in a special way.

Laura: I think it’s super important to note those smaller milestones, right, that are maybe more hidden to the global public. But I think they’re really, really important and they forge you into what you become.

What made a difference

Laura: So when you look at your timeline of crowdfunding campaigns, are there things that you would say stand out in the way of how you started out with the smaller campaigns and brought you to one more success? Obviously, we all know a lot of things go in there, but for you personally, would you say there are some things that stand out and make a significant difference?

Jamey: What I think helped us a lot over the course of the seven crowdfunding projects that we had was a level of consistency. I think this is really, really important for any creator who is running more than one project.

Consistency in terms of delivering very close to the estimated delivery date.

I know that’s not always possible. Now, there are a lot of factors out of creators control, especially these days with manufacturing, freight, shipping being very different, very crowded. But like I think it really helped our second project Euphoria that we delivered Viticulture when we said we were going to deliver it. So we kind of built that first level of trust: “hey, we’re going to do what we said we’re going to do”.

And then we did the same with Euphoria and really for pretty much every project, we either delivered on time or early. And for the one project I can think of that we weren’t able to do that that we got a little behind on. I asked backers, I said “Look, I was really hoping to get this project to you by Christmas.” I think this was for Tuscany or maybe the Treasure Chest that I was hoping to get in time for Christmas. “That isn’t going to happen right now, but if you really want it for Christmas, I’m willing to airfreight the game, air freight pallets of the game and then fulfill them early.”

And so I kind of put it in the hands of backers.

For about, I don’t know, 300, 400 backers? They said “Yeah, I was really hoping to have this by Christmas.” And so we did it. We air freighted pallets of games to fulfillment centers and fulfill them. And for the other backers, we ship them via ocean freight.

So I guess it all comes down to trust.

I think a lot in crowdfunding, the levels of consistency, of delivering on time, delivering quality products, we kind of try to hit that time after time to build that trust and keep that trust. I think it’s really hard to maintain and keep that trust.

Laura: I absolutely agree with you. Trust is a word that echoing a lot with me, and especially for crowdfunding, it’s super, super important.

His magic formula

Laura: I’m sure everybody listening to this interview is going to ask “But what’s your secret then to deliver on time?” And I’m not sure there might not be a magic formula that you can give out to other people, but maybe you have something to share on that subject.

Jamey: I actually do. I do have a magic secret for that. But, it doesn’t work for every project. The thing that I did is that I tried to have – not for Viticulture, this wasn’t the case but the projects that followed – I tried to have everything done before we launched the project. I tried to have the game design done. I tried to have the graphic design done, the art done, or almost done.

I tried to have all the samples ready from the manufacturer, the quotes for the manufacturers. So I’d already done everything. It wasn’t just ideas. This was something that I had fully executed. I was ready to go to print with it. I know that’s not always possible, but that’s a big part of the secret.

If you have a lot of everything done, then you have a lot less uncertainty about whether or not you can find the right artist or you can get the game design right. All that stuff that happens later.

The trap of adding a stretch goal that wasn’t planned

Laura: Did you never fall into the trap of adding the extra bonus stretch goal that wasn’t calculated or wasn’t ready, but everybody wanted and you wanted to do you. Did you ever fall into that trap or never?

Jamey: I did definitely. Many times as I got more experience with crowdfunding, I did a better job of planning ahead for the stretch goals and kind of anticipating what people would want more of.

But I think that’s one of the joys of crowdfunding, that the backers come up with a lot of ideas.

Some of them don’t work, but some of them are really, really cool and have a little bit of flexibility. If I’ve already done most of the work on a game then there is a little bit of wiggle room for those really cool ideas when backers think of them.

The only danger, one example that I give is with Viticulture. I had a stretch goal for metal coins. Metal coins came up as an idea during the project and metal coins I think are too expensive to be a stretch goal and so that would have had a pretty damaging impact on some our games if we had actually reach that stretch goal. But we didn’t reach it fortunately.

And I learned my lesson there that I need to be careful about the things that I add to stretch goals because they can have a big impact on the budget and the timeline.

Laura: Yes, It’s not always easy to make the right call, but sometimes you have to, even though you really want to do those metal coins, maybe, but sometimes it’s better not to and maybe release them in another way later on.

A crowdfunding team

Laura: Another question that I think is very interesting. I know you were very involved in most of the parts of your company, of the crowdfunding of the games, and I think even more so at the beginning but how did it look like during the period where you were running crowdfunding games? Did you have people that you would still call your team? Did you delegate stuff? How did you interact with these people?

Jamey: I like that question a lot. For the first eight years of Stonemaier Games, it was primarily just me. I mean, it was me running Stonemaier Games. I did have a business partner that helped co-found the company, but Alan is mainly my go to playtester, he isn’t involved with customer service or communities.

Although he was helpful for a long time, he did help out with the replacement parts. You know, whenever someone receives a game and they were just sent a card or something he would send that. So he did that part of customer service, but for the most part I was the project manager for the company. So I would outsource things, like I would outsource the art to somebody else, I would outsource the design but I would be the pinpoint, the hub for those communications and making sure things get done.

But I like that you mentioned the idea of a team because even though I was the hub, the person writing the emails, reading the comments, all those things, designing the games for a long time.

I was amazed by the number of people who showed up on crowdfunding projects who wanted to help like that.

To me, it was just incredible. Another thing that I love about crowdfunding, that people show up not only just wanting to back something and get something cool, but to actually help make it better, it’s incredible. And so there were so many backers that I would say are part of that team, and one of them in particular, Morten.

He later became part of our team because he was so helpful with Viticulture and so passionate about solo game design that we ended up hiring Morten. They revolutionized, I think in many ways what solo game design is in games. He created the autonomous system that we see in many, many games now.

And so that was Morten literally just showing up on a project and saying, I want to help. I think that’s amazing. Do you see that on crowdfunding, on Game On a lot?

Laura: Yes. I can see that. And also the project that I might have been running, obviously I have people that I’m still in touch with now. And that sometimes I became part of the team. But yes, what you were highlighting also underlines the story why crowdfunding is a bit different from some other sales channels, because things like this obviously can also help happen just through, I don’t know, convention presence or stuff like this.

But crowdfunding does give you access to an adventure that is a part and that is very rare to be as close to.

And I also really like that when I kind of triggered you with the word team, what came to your mind is the fact that you didn’t have like a real established team, as some might see in a regular company, but that you can project this to those people around.

I often tell people, if you want to go into that, you need to be aware that you need to do a lot of different things that in many companies are sometimes splits between different people. I also acknowledge that for them it’s going to be a way, way bigger feat. To actually accomplish it because what you’ve been doing and what they might be facing. You need real big shoulders to carry all of that, so it’s a great perspective of hope.

So yeah, I think that’s a really great powerful statement.

Jamey: To tackled on to the end of that is that even though my co-founder Alan, even though he only does a few very specific things, that partnership at the very beginning was really important for so many games to exist. I had this game and I was asking friends to playtest it with me. And every time I asked a friend to play it with me, I would feel a little bad because I’m asking them when we could be sitting down to play a game that works, that is great, that is already published, but instead we’re playing my scrap paper prototype that I know isn’t that fun for anyone.

But Alan was the only one who emailed me the next day and said “Hey, I really enjoyed that process. I really enjoyed Playtest did this with you. I want to do that more.” So I no longer felt guilty, it was someone that I could go to and feel good and feel excited to get it to the table with him.

So just that little bit of partnership, that little specific element was so helpful and helped make Stonemaier Games a company.

Laura: Absolutely. You need your mental health ecosystem around you.

Crowdfunding platforms in the creation process

Laura: So you ran your crowdfunding campaigns on an external platform that was not your own website. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that today you run a lot of your own preorders on your own website. I think it’s a different experience because basically the platform becomes like a third party service.

Where do you see the place of a crowdfunding platform in the whole adventure? What does it bring to the table? What’s different to make it on your own website? Do you have something you can share on that?

Jamey: Yeah, that’s an interesting question because for a long time now, we’ve used an e-commerce platform called Shopify. But Shopify, you know, is a platform and we put our stuff on it. Shopify isn’t actively involved in the same way that Game On is actively involved with creators. It’s very different.

When I think of Game On, or other platforms, I think they’re so catered towards the specific crowdfunding process, and they are destinations for a wide variety of people to go to.

I see them as destinations really. Whereas our web store, a lot of people go to our web store go there because I tell them it’s there. There are people who already actively follow Stonemaier Games or they go to our website and they see that’s our web store. I don’t quite know how to differentiate those two things, but I feel like if we ever wanted to capture a much bigger audience than the people who already follow us, that’s where the crowdfunding hubs are so important.

Whereas now we’re mostly catering to the people who already know what’s Stonemaier Games is and know where to find us. Does that make sense? I haven’t thought about it for a long time.

Laura: Absolutely. And I think it’s also very interesting. Probably what you’re gaining about the fact of having your own Shopify system is the fact that you can craft it to Stonemaier Games’ needs. And I think at some point for a business that might also have its importance.

What Jamey is looking for in a crowdfunding platform

Laura: What what do you think is important in a crowdfunding platform? Especially now that there are more and more different platforms out there, what is something that really resonates with you? The first thing you look for in a platform?

Jamey: I have to answer that at least partially as a backer. Because with those platforms now I am mostly a backer. I like that there are different kind of sidebars of different reward levels. That to me is really helpful as a backer. And as a creator, knowing that on a crowdfunding campaign you can offer like a basic version of the product and then maybe a more deluxe version or like a customized version, things like that.

So having those all in one place. I also really like being able to see the funding goal and how the funding, the number of backers and how much money the project has raised, there’s something helpful about that number that helps.

It goes back to trust a little bit. If I see a project that is doing really well, I’m like “Oh, it must be doing really well for a reason”.

Laura: Yes, you gravitate to where the crowd already is.

Why Jamey stopped using crowdfunding to fund his games

Laura: I’m going to ask the obvious question, as you did most of your projects for a while on crowdfunding and then you stopped doing crowdfunding. Do you mind sharing why this decision was important for you? And what it has brought to your business?

Jamey: There were a couple of major reasons behind doing it. I’ll give you two answers because one answer was kind of the thing that happened back in 2016, and one is the reason that I haven’t returned to it.

One of the big reasons that I ended up moving away from it is tied to actually mental health, something that you mentioned earlier and also tied to toxicity with the backers. Sythe is a fairly unique project and it did very well when it was on Kickstarter and everything in terms of production and fulfillment went better than planned.

We fulfilled early for Sythe, two months early for some regions.

Yet despite all those things going so well during the funding process, reading the comments from backers, it was as if everything was terrible and horrible.

And it was a very odd, surreal time because we were delivering this thing to you. It was going to be an even better than we said it was going to be, and we’re delivering it early and you’re still finding something to be angry about. The example that I’ve given in the past is that there were backers in California, in the US who were fairly close to the fulfillment center, who were angry that the Summit Center, which had thousands of games to fulfill, was sending games to the east coast of the US first because they would take longer to get there.

And while those games were in transit, the fulfillment center was going to send games to California and this was like a significant number of backers who were irated their games weren’t shipped to them first, even though like we were delivering early, like they were getting the game a month and a half earlier than we ever said they would.

It was really damaging to me. If I look back at that summer, it should have been one of the best summers of my life because we were delivering this thing that meant so much to me, to people around the world. And yet it was it was so toxic.

And I think a lot of it comes from the fact that they were passionate, they were excited about the game. I get that. But you don’t have to turn that into something negative.

So that really stuck with me and that really turned me away from whatever manifested there.

Laura: I just wanted to share that I’m really sorry that you went through that. I can only fathom to imagine what what that looks like. Because nobody who isn’t in your situation can really comprehend that. But I know what toxicity on the Internet is like and what it can be like for crowdfunding campaign. So I think that’s the saddest which can happen.

I agree with you. It’s probably linked to the passion that people had for the game and the excitement, but that doesn’t excuse the behavior.

And I think maybe there needs to be more discussion about protecting your mental health and your safe spaces in crowdfunding because it gets very, very intense.

I think it’s important to to shed light on that too.

Jamey: I completely agree. And in many different ways. That’s just one example of how mental mental health is important in crowdfunding.

The second reason that I haven’t returned to it, as excited as I get as a backer for crowdfunding campaigns, I truly do love crowdfunding, but the reason that I haven’t returned is I am completely hooked on our current system, which is that instead of making something and then asking people to pay for it and then adding 6 to 8 to 12 months before we actually send it to them.

In our current system, we make a thing that we are really excited about and then when it is very close to when it’s fully manufactured and has already shipped to fulfillment centers, that’s when we announce it to people. A few weeks later we let them preorder it and then we ship it to them.

Definitely not every creator or publisher can do that, but I’m very fortunate to be in the position to be able to to fund that. And I love it.

I love that we can announce something and get people excited about it. And then a few weeks later they can have it in their hands.

And that’s what’s made it really hard for me to go back to crowdfunding as much as I love crowdfunding platforms or crowdfunding campaigns.

Laura: I think that’s great to hear too, because like you said, you are very fortunate to be financially stable enough to be able to produce that because you need the finances but also you really have a very good hand on producing awesome games. And that also helps. I mean, there’s never a no risk situation and I know probably some games do better for you than others do.

I think it’s very important to know when crowdfunding fits best for you. You should not be like “I’m doing crowdfunding because I’m doing crowdfunding”, right?

It should be because your project needs it, you need it, and it’s the right thing to do at the right rates.

What Jamey learned from crowdfunding

Laura: Are there lessons that you think you learned through crowdfunding and that’s still apply today and that help you in the way you handle things now?

Jamey: Oh yeah, so many. And that’s one of the reasons I still write a lot about crowdfunding because I still learn so much from crowdfunding creators. From the beginning of this conversation, I talked about being able to connect with people one on one maybe not have like full relationships with people, but to be able to interact one on one with people like I did on on crowdfunding, I still try to do that.

We have Facebook groups for each of our games now that I am very active in and that someone who is passionate about one of our games, they can join that Facebook group and be part of that community.

So we took that community aspect that I love in crowdfunding and have these game specific groups on Facebook that we now use.

That’s just one example, but the element of community, I think is what stuck with me the most building this community. The people that I can engage with and talk with and hopefully make our products better and make our company better by listening to them.

Laura: Yeah, that’s great. I always talk about succeeding. Your crowdfunding campaign is like “Yeah, you raise enough money to make it” but it’s also about the long term success because you need to fulfill it and in the best case scenario, it stays in and the tell spread.

Being successful in building your audience is building not only a crowdfunding audience, but building an audience that will follow you whatever you do.

It’s the long term success in audience building.

The place of tabletop crowdfunding today: a real sales channel

Laura: How would you describe the place of crowdfunding today? In our tabletop industry, as a whole?

Jamey: It’s a big part of the industry now. In fact, just yesterday I sent out our annual demographic survey. I don’t have it here in front of me, but I was looking at some of the data that was coming in because one of the questions I asked is “What is your primary place for buying games or in the past year, what was your primary place for buying games?”

And crowdfunding was a huge part of it. I think it was second only to online game stores.

It was online games stores and then crowdfunding. So crowdfunding was even bigger than buying from local game stores, according to this survey. So I think it’s become a huge part of the gaming infrastructure and the tabletop industry infrastructure.

I don’t know exactly how this plays into it, but I think maybe one of the key reasons why it persists and why it’s so important is the element of anticipation and excitement. I think there’s a different level of anticipation. Like if if a publisher announced the game tomorrow, it’s quite possible I will get excited about that game. But there’s something about being part of that, about the creation of something new rather than finding out something that has already been created that I think is really, really special.

So I think that still plays an even bigger role today in the gaming industry than it ever did. What about you? I mean, you probably think about this every day. What’s the biggest thing that you see?

Laura: I might be biased because I really work so intensely on it, but for me :

I consider crowdfunding to definitely be a real legitimate sales channel today in the tabletop industry.

Obviously different and maybe not the same scope as the really mass market retailers that sell some of the very well known games. We might be far from some of the quantities there.

But there are a couple projects that are doing really well with crowdfunding. So, that’s super interesting. So I think crowdfunding is established now in this industry and the core for crowdfunding for me at least is innovation. And I hope that this can persist.

I think crowdfunding can only exist with innovation.

Something that we were able to notice over the past years, sometimes there’s like a new trend and a way of doing a campaign that comes out and then like everybody will build exactly the same campaigns, but trends are still moving along, they’re still changing.

And I think that’s important. I think crowdfunding is about innovation and it’s about risk taking too, right? I mean, the very first people who started out crowdfunding and even like you it wasn’t as assured as it is today. And so you kind of had to go in there and innovate and take risks to make this happen.

I think it also gets a bit more personal. Creators take the project really into their own hands and say “Hey, I want to run crowdfunding campaigns this way.” And this is important for me.

That’s something that we are confronted with every day at Game On. Adapting to every special need of every creator, and they’re so different.

No creator works the same way. And I think there are more bold moves now with the tools that are used, the platforms that are used, the people that interact with it, the different services that are added. And there’s more connection in there too. There is no question now that for the gaming industry at least, it’s a real sales channel.

It generates a lot of funds.

Jamey: And I think a lot of that ties back to new creators. If I was a new creator who wanted to both design a game and run my company, I would absolutely crowdfund my first project. Because you mentioned risk in your answer.

You can mitigate a lot of that risk with crowdfunding.

Or if I’m really excited about something, but I don’t know if other people are equally excited about it. Crowdfunding is the greatest way to test that, to see if other people are excited enough to justify you actually making this project.

So for new creators, I think crowdfunding continues to be amazing.

What Jamey would like to see coming for the crowdfunding industry

Laura: So is there anything you would like to see in the next years for crowdfunding? Maybe it’s secret because you want to bring that to the table. But yeah, things that you’d love to see in a crowdfunding campaign and a platform?

Jamey: I think it’s going to go with innovation. I love seeing people do new things. That’s what typically gets me excited when someone does something a little different. A different technique on a project or different elements of a game or product. That’s what really gets me excited. Anything unique and innovative is really exciting to me.

If you were asking me like what I would like to see crowdfunding platforms do :

Game On is already doing one of those things, which is having the automatized stretch goal system, having that built into the system rather than something that creators need to apply to later. I think it’s brilliant.

I love that you do that. I like to see crowdfunding platforms innovate and learn and listen to people and integrate those things into their platforms. So that’s really cool.

Laura: Yes, that’s what we try to do every day, and some of those things should become a norm.

What’s coming for Stonemaier Games?

Laura: I think we’ve been over time a bit. But I have a final question for you. Is there something new for you coming up with Stonemaier Games maybe, or something for you?

Jamey: I don’t know when this will go live, but we do have our preorder for Tapestry Arts and Architecture right now. We just launched it yesterday and we started shipping it today. It’s our new expansion for Tapestry that I’m really excited about. That wasn’t why I’m here to talk to you today, but I appreciate you asking that and I am really excited about it too!

Laura: That’s awesome. It’s a great game. And I don’t know when this will be live either, but as you are starting shipping, I’m sure it’s going to be just regularly available on your store. When people see this video/article, they can begin and purchase it at once. I don’t know if you have any anything you wanted to add.

Jamey: I think we’ve covered some fun topics today, important topics. I really appreciate your time, everything that you’re doing on Game On and I look forward to talking about it. I know for a while I’ve been wanting to write about it on my blog and so I’ve been waiting for this chat and so after this goes live, I’m going to write about Game On Stonemaier Games’ blog.

Laura: Awesome. Thank you so much! It’s very appreciated. It’s been a very big pleasure. Also, we’re finally able to talk to you after following your adventures for such a long time. Thank you so much for your time.

Where to find Jamey Stegmainer and Stonemaier Games

But those are just a few!

Discover many other great projects on www.gameontabletop.com !

You would like to use Game On for your next campaign?

Reach out to us at projects@gameontabletop.com

Article written by

Céline Munoz

Brand & Community Manager for Game On Tabletop. I’m passionate about drawing and everything creative. I also play an Elf Rogue with a cat so, let’s say I’m not very objective when it comes to felines… My blog posts will mostly be marketing related but also about crowdfunding projects, the tabletop industry in general and much more!

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