James Hintz of Lone Gunman Games in Chariton, Iowa comments on Susan Waldbiesser's Talk Back regarding Kickstarter (see "Susan Waldbiesser of Six Feet Under Games on Kickstarter").
 
In response to Susan Waldbiesser of Six Feet Under Games on Kickstarter:
 
As the owner of a miniatures company who also has 12+ years experience in retailing hobby related products I can agree with her statement on market saturation for well promoted games, but that is not limited to Kickstarter by any means.  Iowa is a terrible place to try and build an FLGS because most of the population here was not raised on comic books.  So most of the things that make a retail storefront profitable in other states does nothing but sit on the shelves and gather dust here.  Unfortunately that also includes the "BIG" names such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, and HeroClix.  In a town of 5,000 people there may only be one person interested in playing these games and their first and only resource for the games they want is on-line.  I have seen 10-player Magic: The Gathering groups fall apart overnight because one player moved or stopped having any money to invest in more cards.
 
However I don't agree with her statement that one simply brings your product to market.  Five years ago I bought an existing line of miniatures from a manufacturer who was leaving the hobby.  I at that time assumed that I could get them into distribution and in a few months triple the amount of sales from the additional exposure and start bringing new products to market.  Five years later I am still trying to get products into distribution, but without a million dollar marketing campaign, world class sculptors on the payroll, making figures specifically for someone else's game, and having 100 SKUs of product planned for release in the next six months, I have as much chance of getting into distribution as I have at winning the lottery.
 
So it seems that for some of us a Kickstarter project is the only option.  Whether this leads to any future sales to retailers or through distribution will probably depend on the subject of the project and how far the funding actually went.
 
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.