@Taskerland The only person I know who persistently makes money on kickstarters used to work in a bank and keeps really sharp eye on the accounting. It's all art and cards stuff though, quite a tight creative domain, and he tends to make about £3000 per campaign, which to him, is hobbyist money.

@Taskerland It can't help that the reward level from Drivethru is so epically low, it pushes towards KS

@Taskerland I wonder is there a merit in trying to change the nomenclature and market positioning of indie gaming away from er... gaming, It would benefit from being sold in Waterstones as "Improvisational Mindfulness Horror paperbacks" vs trying to compete with 5ed.

@Taskerland 10k on printing and shipping. There's why I'm sticking with PiY.

It's £8 for a hardback at the print shops, and comes with zero distribution problems.

@Taskerland @Printdevil I as actually a little confused on the art spend. I don't see illustration as a line item expense. The campaign shows two people behind it - the writer/designer and the illustrator. Which makes it sound like the illustrator got the worst end of the deal being one of the creators of the project instead of just being commissioned.

@Taskerland By contrast the new HMTW adventure isn't going the crowdfunding route. Granted, the game itself did so he's already got an audience.

Why did His Majesty the Worm skip the Kickstarter?

A preorder campaign gambit

Rascal News (www.rascal.news)

@Taskerland There's a comment down the reddit about some of the art spend being in the previous year and not included, so the actual return is even worse @kevin @Printdevil

@Taskerland The guy says his goal "was to make the game, not a living."

He says he makes a decent living wage from his day job and this is his hobby. His goal was to cover his costs, which he did.

Why so pejorative?

@Taskerland I don't interpret him like that. He finished in the black and says "I'm actually pretty happy with the numbers, all things considered."

He says he used two distributors because "it gets my games to way more people than I could on my own". So it doesn't sound like his game is left unplayed.

I suppose people could be buying it and leaving it unplayed on their shelf, but based on my personal experience that never happens. Ever. At all.

@Taskerland Never. If my wife tells you otherwise, she is lying.

@Taskerland I understand. That's not something new or unique to RPGs. Publishers have always had a lot of power and writers have historically stayed poor unless their works become wildly popular during their lifetime.