Nerdy Kickstarter Campaign Raises $1 Million

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Nerdy Kickstarter campaign raises $1 million. $1 million. This Ohio man loves board games so much that he made his own. He first goes out and tries to raise $6,000 through a Kickstarter campaign and he actually fails because this first campaign raises more than $100,000. And then as I gave it away in the headline, he then goes on to raise more than a million dollars through Kickstarter for his board games.

Very cool project, not a fluke, since he did it multiple times. And he generously offered to share some tips. He gave us all the details about how this developed. This is one of our favorite stories from the early years of the podcast. We are bringing it back.

Every Wednesday we're doing a little bit of a remix. So let's look at this one, Nerdy Kickstarter campaign. Not raising $6,000, actually going far above and beyond. The first one did 100,000. He went on from there.

Let's hear the story of Travis Hancock. It's coming up after the break. [Music]

If you would have told a young Travis Hancock that he'd eventually end up making a living off of his love of board games, he would have laughed outright and said, sure, yeah, right. There's no way you can make any money doing that. Followed closely by, but hey, sign me up.

You see, growing up, Travis and his family were always playing board games, especially around Christmas time. Travis would say it was kind of their default state. If they weren't eating or sleeping, they were usually gathered around a flat surface playing some kind of board game. And one of their favorites was Mafia. This classic 80s board game from the USSR made a star appearance at every family reunion.

It was a game that in Travis's mind simply could not be beat. It had everything. Concepts of good versus evil, manipulation, deceit, fighting for your life, et cetera. But there was something else that didn't occur to him until much later. He loved board games for the escape that they gave from the daily grind.

He also liked movies and books. And just like a book or a movie can do, he found that a board game can transport you to an alternate reality. This love of board games continued with him as he went to school and then college. He eventually landed a day job, but continued to play iterations of his old favorites. The most popular iteration involves switching out the characters with characters from another series he loved, Harry Potter.

Every Sunday night, he would gather his friends around in a circle, catch up on the week's events over a game. It was so popular that his brother even surprised him with a fully functioning set of this remixed game, complete with a printed rule book and cards. All of a sudden, Travis was a published game maker, at least a baby published game maker. Of course, this was just for fun with the family. And Travis knew if he wanted to actually make a game, then Harry Potter, those characters are licensed.

So he creates an all new iteration. It's called City. It involves four teams, the bad guys, the good guys, the self-interested merchants, and the villagers. He printed several copies of this, several additions, and tested it out with roommates and friends to rave reviews. Now, Travis went on with the rest of his life for a while.

He got married, City stayed on the back burner. But at some point, Travis begins to revisit. He comes up with a new theme centered around the Salem witch trials and gives his new game the name Salem. Had all the darkness and intrigue of mafia, but with a new historical spin. Travis and his wife felt so strongly about this new iteration, they decided it would be a pity to not try and make something of it.

So from that point, Travis began bringing his vision to life. Holly had some experience in graphic design, so she built the main infrastructure of the game. And before they knew it, they had an amazingly rich game full of interesting characters. Since they were starting out without mainstream validation, they decided to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund the first round of Salem. They hoped that they would hit $6,000, so they could afford to buy enough for friends and family, but they were blown away when they raised $103,000.

$103,000. Travis was so surprised he actually quit his job and started developing two more games that fit with the theme of the first. The second game of the series raised around $400,000. And at the time we went to press with this original episode, the third game had raised more than $300,000. So he just kind of kept going and going.

Eventually got to more than a million dollars worth of games sold through the dynamic crowd funding platform of Kickstarter and many, many sales through other retail outlets as well. The three games are Salem, Tortuga, and Deadwood. They were all aligned thematically. And Travis and Holly began planning the next set of three games occurring in a new time and place in the world. Travis's tips include be smart about the day and time that you launch a Kickstarter or any crowdfunding campaign probably, since you want a lot of eyes on your project right at the beginning.

And then again, at the end of the project, he recommends you launch before lunchtime on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and then end in the early afternoon on a Thursday. He also says, do some marketing, but don't stress too much about it. They spent about 1% of the total money they raised toward marketing and ads. Those ads got some new eyes on the project, but in the end, they weren't game changing. Most importantly, he says, have an awesome project.

Make your project amazing. If you have one hour a day to spend on your Kickstarter campaign, spend at least 55 minutes of that hour focusing on your product. That's the story of Travis and his million dollar Kickstarter campaigns. Travis and Holly's company is still around. You can learn more at facadegames.com.

I was just taking a look. Looks like they've got a mystery offer right when you first log on to the page. There is a series known as the Dark Cities that includes Salem, Tortuga, Deadwood, but also Bristol and Hollywood. There are upgrades you can purchase, trophies, another game called Parkade, it looks like, a fast-paced word association game. So basically, they have just kept going, making games.

In fact, on their about page, they say working from home since before it was cool. That's kind of how I feel as well. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed this story. I love doing a little bit of a throwback into the archives. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better.

Remember, there's something out there that you can do as well. I hope you'll subscribe or follow, continue to listen. It's always completely free. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]

From the Onward Project.