Gen Con and Central Michigan University (CMU) invite you to join an upcoming course as part of the Applied Tabletop Game Design program — “Crowdfunding with Confidence: Designing a Game with Crowdfunding in Mind” with industry expert Jason Furie (Game Designer and Creator Community Lead at BackerKit).
Below, learn from Jason about why this is the course you’ve been looking for if you’ve ever considered crowdfunding your game.
Through my work at BackerKit over the past 7 years, I’ve had a front-row seat to the crowdfunding industry collaborating with countless first-time game designers, the seasoned pros we all know and love, and everyone in between. I’ve also run 6 successful crowdfunding projects including my most recent board game Realm Runners.
I will draw from these experiences to offer an inside look at what it takes to design, and ultimately, crowdfund your next tabletop game with confidence.
Here are a few things you can expect to learn throughout this 6-week course:
How To Establish Goals, Set Expectations, and
Identify Your Audience
Whenever I speak with budding game designers and/or crowdfunding hopefuls, one pattern I see more often than not is folks not taking the time to properly define their goals or set realistic expectations for themself.
In my experience, disappointment is simply friction with expectation. I will help you navigate how to set these expectations, as well as shed light on why it’s extremely important for you to identify exactly who you are making your game for sooner rather than later.
Audience Building in Relation to Designing, Prototyping and Playtesting
There are a myriad of things game designers often overlook when designing, prototyping, and playtesting that are directly related to audience building, engagement, and overall game refinement. And a lot of those things we consider “marketing” are actually important lessons you can learn that will ultimately make your game better and more appealing.
I often see game designers wait much too long to start building their audience. I will teach you the importance of doing these two things in tandem without feeling overwhelmed.
The Anatomy of a Crowdfunding Campaign and Knowing When To Launch
It’s never too soon to create a landing page for your upcoming game, and it’s never too soon to start drafting a crowdfunding campaign page.
Oftentimes when you force yourself to start defining your game and your audience, it helps inform your design. We can toil away at rules forever, and sometimes the hardest part is knowing when to stop. I will teach you not only when it’s time to stop designing your game, but also, when it’s time to hit that launch button on your crowdfunding campaign.
By the end of this course I want you to have a solid understanding of not only who you are making your game for, but also, an understanding of things you can leverage along the way to start building your community now.
We will create a landing page for your game (or soon to be game) as well as draft a crowdfunding campaign page. My hope is that you will come through this course more confident in your game design, and perhaps, your upcoming crowdfunding campaign.
Crowdfunding with Confidence: Designing a Game with Crowdfunding in Mind
- Course launches Monday, May 6, 2024.
- Course ends Monday, June 17, 2024.
- The course runs on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time) / 3:00 to 5:00 pm (Pacific Standard Time).
- This is a non-credit bearing course and certificate.
Industry Expert: Jason Furie, Creator Community Lead, BackerKit, and Game Designer (Rental Rumble, Realm Runners, Shape Shape)
Academic Expert: Andrew D. Devenney, Associate Director of CLGS, Co-owner and Publisher of Superhero Necromancer Press
Cost: $460
Meet Your Instructor
Jason Furie is the Creator Community Lead at BackerKit — a leading crowdfunding platform dedicated to making sure creators and backers have the best experience possible.
He’s successfully crowdfunded 6 projects including Save Pepe (2016), Rental Rumble (2019), Pizza Pinz (2022), Movie Moths (2023), and Fantasy (2024), along with his most recent game Realm Runners (2024) which raised over $200K.
He’s hard at work on his next game Shape Shape (2025) which is described as a game for great artists, lousy artists, and everyone in between.
Aside from crowdfunding, Jason is a father, husband, writer and artist who spends most of his free time organizing his physical media movie collection 📼