7th continent was one of the most funded tabletop game campaigns on Kickstarter in 2017. We had a quick chat with one of their designers, Bruno Sautter, at the end of their great campaign.
What did you do to create a following when you launched the first edition of the 7th continent?
We took a tremendous amount of time to prepare the 7th Continent first Kickstarter campaign and began to talk very early about the game. We made lots of demos at conventions in France and at Essen Fair.
We also sent prototypes to a lot of reviewers (Rahdo, Undead Viking, etc.) and communicate on forums like Tric Trac in France and Board Game Geek in the US in order to inform our potential publics of the characteristics and specifics of our game.
Why did you decide to do another campaign for The 7th continent?
The 7th Continent is an expensive game to produce. Therefore, we didn’t found a way to distribute it at a realistic price using the traditional retail channel. In the meantime, a lot of people who have missed the first Kickstarter campaign were asking us how to acquire it. This new campaign let us answer this demand.
Beside, while we were working on the game, some new ideas came across our minds and the project to offer a new big expansion « What Goes Up, Must Come Down » with this new campaign, instead of making a simple « reprint », began to grow…
Did you expect The 7th continent to be an even bigger hit this time?
Several Kickstarter projects had opened the path for us (Kingdom Death Monster, Gloomhaven, to name a few) and with the great feedback we had from our players we were pretty optimistic. But honestly, we were not expecting something THIS big!
I have heard that you have decided to not have a normal distribution of the game but only do new Kickstarter campaigns. Is that correct, and why?
Indeed. We thought a lot about this. But considering the high production cost of the game, linked to both the quantity and the quality of its components, we couldn’t obtain a sufficient profit margin without putting a crippling retail price. One option was to work directly with the retail shops but our small size (we are a two-men company) and the fact that we already handle all the creation process, conception and design, drawing, copywriting, etc., made it impossible for us to commit with hundreds of shops all over the world.
What’s the best kickstarter advice you ever received?
Make people talk about your game long before the launch of your campaign!
Do you have any role models in the board gaming industry?
CMON and Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games (and his great blog about KS) have cleared the path of the new “Kickstarter” Business Model. Their contribution to this new “economic model” is unquestionable.
Anything else you want to add?
We want to thank all of our backers and specially the more than 80% of those who came back from the first campaign, diving again in the rabbit hole for a whole new adventure.
A series of Kickstarter interviews 