Microgames for the Level 99 Minigame Library [Kickstarter]

You may have seen my past sojourns into the world of card game publishing and how quickly those costs can add up. So it's with great interest that I follow the Kickstarter campaign for this minigame library. David B. Talton is publishing four card games at once, plus several postcard-sized microgames. Disclosure: I've licensed a handful of my own abstracts to this project: Pebble Rebel, Pip•Pip and Minoqaur.

I asked David to share his thoughts on what makes publishing four games at once different than just one at a time.

"You notice that many games that are just cards come in vastly oversized boxes. This is because to make profit after what the distribution model costs, you need to charge around $40 for a game. To charge $40 for a game, you have to have a big enough box to say 'this is $40 of gameplay.'

"I decided to try a different approach than filling a box mostly with air, and just deliver $50 worth of games in my $50 box. As individual tuckboxes, I'd have to charge $15 or $20 to cover distribution. As a big box, I only need to charge $50 for the set.

"It's still economical for me to sell single games on my site, but in stores, only the bundle will be available."

Sure enough, the Kickstarter tiers allow you to order just one game or the whole bundle at a higher level. Now that's an interesting model in the long-term, especially for small games that might get lost in the noise of the average game store shelf. So far the project is trending steadily towards completion. If you want to support this ambitious plan or just sup.port me getting more games licensed, pledge your support to the Level 99 Minigame Library.