“They didn’t grasp the lockdown situation” – crowdsourcing during the pandemic

For those in RPG communities, crowdsourcing is a way to support and try independently produced products, such as unique dice or game mechanics. Crowdsourcing always comes with an element of risk, but the unprecedented pandemic is perhaps not one many campaigners anticipated.

“Problem after problem” from factories in China closing

Sunderland-based Anthony Howard runs Blue Wizard Gaming, an online store that manufactures and sells dice sets worldwide. Whilst Anthony had already been selling dice for a time, his Path of Chaos Metal dice set was the first time he launched a product via crowdfunding.

The campaign launched August 20 2019, and by September 20, was successfully funded, receiving at least £150k from Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms. A few months later, however, the project started to feel the effects of the new pandemic.

I went to the doctors for depression. I was getting really bad headaches. They put it down to stress.There was just no support.

Anthony Howard

“It was pretty brutal, to be honest with you,” Anthony explained – the dice were being produced in China, where factories were being closed as the pandemic escalated. “That knock on effect [from factories closing[ caused a lot of issues for us, because they were in lockdown, then they reopened, then we went into lockdown. It made communication pretty difficult.”

Anthony recalled the pressures experienced from “problem after problem”. Blue Wizard Gaming operates with Anthony as its sole member of staff, and as such was not eligible for grants from the Government. To cover the upfront costs of the campaign, Anthony took out a loan to cover the metal materials, but the pandemic resulted in raw material and shipping costs to increase by 50%. The delays in the campaign also meant that Anthony was unable to launch any new products, lest they receive backlash from backers who were yet to receive the Chaos Dice.

Whilst the campaign was ultimately a success in distributing the products, which shipped late 2022, the resultant additional costs meant the project was not financially successful.

“Death threats and stuff” – the pressure from backers

Anthony also had to balance expectations from backers. “They couldn’t understand what the delays were. People probably had worries and would just vent at ewogerver they could. I think maybe a few people said things I think they regret. I had a couple of apologetic emails weeks later when things had settled in. It was just I know there’s loads of Kickstarters that actually fail through the process.”

“I think 90% of the people were actually really nice and there was a lot of support. But even having two or three people that give you negative reviews, all of the negative concern that was around the Kickstarter, and you couldn’t actually do anything about it.”

“It was just the whole stress. Probably one of the most stressful things I’ve done in life.”

A lockdown success

Like Anthony’s campaign, plenty of other RPG kickstarters experienced delays, even if they ultimately were successful. However, this was not the case for everyone – Sam Bartlett was able to successfully fund their Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit product, and from that launch a new company called Roll & Play.

“We printed all of our products in the UK, so we were not significantly affected by shipping delays caused by the pandemic.”

“The idea to launch the Kickstarter came during the lockdown, so we were aware of the environment from the very start. Our campaign was kept simple. Backers were understandable, which made the situation more manageable.”

“We most likely wouldn’t have started the Kickstarter campaign if it hadn’t been for the lockdown. There was a spike in crowdfunding activity during this time which meant more backers were able to find us.”