Tell us a bit about yourself and your gamestore.



My name is Dave Salisbury and I run Fan Boy Three, the UK’s busiest game store. We are situated in central Manchester, and we are one part traditional FLGS and one part boardgame cafe and organised play centre. I’ve been backing Kickstarters regularly since around 2013





Do you consider kickstarter a threat to the normal brick and mortar store selling board games?

Of course! Kickstarter was set up to be a disruptor, like Amazon or Uber. And like Amazon and Uber it doesn’t disrupt peacefully. It destroys. Think of it like mistletoe on an oak tree. They work side by side up until a point. Some people think that is good, because they love the direct relationship and the convenience. They don’t need to care about how the sausages are made, so long as they taste nice. But here’s the thing. Disruptors only work when there is something TO disrupt. So a traditional distribution model. And traditional retail – box A on shelf B – is an easy concept TO disrupt. Its inefficient and other people make money, so if you wanted to make it that only one person got the money – the creative – you could see the appeal. Here’s the thing though. KS is 5% of the market. If it was 100% of the market there would be no stores. No Organised Play. No third space. No ability to buy games after the KS had run its course. And so it would be harder to onboard more folks into the industry. In addition, you only have to look at other disruptor tech industries to see what happens to the cogs in the machine when the disruptor has taken root – working conditions and pay deteriorates. The cogniscenti dream of this future, because it rewards their intimate knowledge of the industry. It gives them power. But for most of us there is a sweet spot where we can use KS to springboard creators into traditional distribution, and help make the Fantasy Flight Games of the next decade, without being the oak tree collapsing under the weight of the mistletoe. Its a third way. For a third space.



Does your store back board games on kickstarter.

Constantly. At the moment its around £20K a year.

What is the most common mistake kickstarter creator does to alienate potential gamestores from backing?

Not having a retail pledge.

Look, if you do a KS and I reach out to you its not because I want to make money from your labours… OK, well, it is slightly that. But its mostly because I have seen something in your game that I believe has the capacity to make your game bigger than just the first 48 hours and the last day of your KS. Thousands of games are released every year. Some of them excel. And if I reached out to you, yours was one. Gloomhaven did 1200 copies first run. Printed twice that. Distro orders were 25,000. Isaac went back to KS – which we thought was a mistake at the time. Did 40,000 copies. I think there has now been six print runs and it still sells like hot cakes. Hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold. So here you go. The correct answer is UNDERESTIMATE THE APPEAL OF THEIR GAME. If 12 million copies of Ticket to Ride have been sold, it shows there is a vibrant long market for boardgames. Years long. As a game store I am constantly asked for games five or ten years old. THAT is where the giant share of the industry lives – tconvenience, on demand, for a long long time. Not one two week ordering window once. Sure, mitigate risk. But too many companies just simply settle for the lowest hanging fruit. If your view was ‘but I wanted to sell every copy myself so I get all the money’ – Monolith, looking at you here! – then you are settling. Chronicles of Crime has sold what? 100K units in distro? And its barely started. There’s always a bigger game. And if you don’t even think that there might be? Why are you even doing this? It frustrates me and other retail stores.

What can kickstarter creators do to make your life better?

Accept that retail stores exist for a reason.

Go into stores. Work with them earlier. A local great game store is a great resource from the earliest concept to the final pre-distro deal and beyond. You can use them to check out comparable packaging, size, cost, often demo your game, then we can back you and promote you. Honestly, those of us that reach out to you? We are good at our jobs. We have to be. Support us so we can help support you.

And lastly, don’t use updates to communicate retailer info.



Look, I back a lot of campaigns. I get 200 updates a day minimum. And these are mostly about how great the new art is, or why the game is late again. As a retailer I need to know 1) how much I am paying and when 2) when it is shipping 3) what the MSRP is 4) when the release date is. Less IS more. I don’t want complex pledge managers, and the absolute very worst is those pledge manager notifications that it is closing WHEN I’VE ALREADY FILLED IT OUT. Surely there must be a way to only send these out to uncompleted folks? has me in a panic every time!

Do you have an example of a Kickstarter campaign that did it right?

Oh, there are lots! Root was exceptional. Chronicles of Crime was exceptional. Anything the Kolossal team does is exceptional. Its easy to be exceptional – you just have to be smooth and professional. Just, you know, do it. Minimum of angst.

If there was one last thing here that could be improved I would say that I’d like to see every KS creator tweet or post that there game was now in retail, with a link to the retail backers. Post campaign publicity is the area the KS side of the industry still falls down on, which is crazy as the pre campaign publicity is so on point. Currently, literally NOBODY does that – except Jamey Stegmaier. Seriously people – be like Jamey. Two blog posts and a tweet and Wingspan is the number one selling game of the year.

What is the first think you look at on a KS page?

The backer count. My interest is already piqued, but then I need to see over a thousand backers before I think it has legs. Speed doesn’t matter so much – that’s a function of how effective your pre-launch publicity was. But when you have a thousand backers it creates a snowball effect post campaign when the games ship and start to arrive. All those folks opening their deliveries – that creates demand. And demand creates a market.



Honestly? Everything else is secondary.

Also, elevator pitch. If its a really unique concept that I can use to sell it face to face in a store, that’s a great thing. If I have to describe your game by saying its like ANOTHER GAME, then why does the customer not buy that game? Chronicles of Crime – its a virtual reality crime scene investigation in a box. In a boardgame. For thirty quid. Add the headset and its the best damn immersive VR experience on the market. Beats saying ‘ It’s like Zombcide but this has even more zombies’ or ‘It’s Descent in space’.

What do you think about Kickstarter exclusives?

I hate them. Honestly? Its the fiddle of the thing I most hate. If I backed them and they arrive in store I’m always trying to find effective ways of displaying them. THANK YOU WESTERN LEGENDS!!!! And you know, gamers are set completionists. If they like your game they will want to own everything. Why limit them? Do you know how many sales of games I lose because the customer only wants the KS version because it had an extra plastic figure?

A lot.

But here’s the real thing… the secret of retail. Because I will probably still make that sale. I have thousands of games in my store, and that customer probably will walk away with something. Just not your game. And I WANT you to prosper. Anything that is a KS exclusive should be a KS AND YOUR OWN WEBSTORE exclusive. Otherwise you are just handing money to scalpers instead of retailers. Why would you happily sit back and let the guys who want it to be exclusive so they can flip it prosper at the expense of the folks who want your game availaible long term at a reasonable price to as many people as want to buy it? Its antithetical to your long term survival – like the mistletoe on the oak tree.

If you could change one thing with Kickstarter. What would it be?

Only one thing? wow. So many to choose from. I would do away with the % funded metric. We all know everyone games the system. But this sets an unrealistic expectation as to the real costs involved in making a game. We should talk about that more – the real costs, the real margins, what folks have to do at each tier to make sure their game thrives. Otherwise you print your game already, pretend to crowd fund it, set a low target and use it for presales. Once KS attracted the big industry players you KNOW that this is what they are doing. It’s like how we pretend that all singers are also songwriters who mix their own tracks, or that anyone can be president. It sets a false expectation, because those barriers of entry are still there. Its an industry. we are all in it together – retail, distro, publishers and players. We should respect each other, and be honest. Because that’s what business is really all about – honest, trusting relationships.

Anything else you want to add?

If you want to see what retailers look for in Kickstarters, join the Game Retailers Who Back Kickstarters Facebook Group. I promise you, if you are a KS creator we will all be absolutely honest with you there 100% of the time.

Where can people reach you?

dave@fanboy3.co.uk