Three days ago I was informed Archmage Rises was selected for a booth at Indianapolis GenCon 2016. GenCon started as a table top role playing convention, the largest in North America. (It is the birth place of Magic: the Gathering as something to do between D&D sessions). BioWare did sneak previews of Dragon Age: Origins there. Last year 61,000 gamers attended.

This is a huge opportunity to make a splash for Archmage with hard core role players, board gamers, and card game players.

To take full advantage of this opportunity (and get ROI on the cost) I need to do three things:

Allow players to play a brief demo the game to get a taste for it
Take a pre-order with a special offer
Have a set release date

The conference is Aug 4-11 so pre-orders will begin on the website Aug 4.

Now before I explain how I'm doing pre-orders, first a quick analysis of the industry.

Analysis of Pre-Orders

For the last year I have pondered how I will do pre-orders. As I write this XCom 2 is available for pre-order on steam. I have loved XCom since the 90’s and want to play it. I would like to play it on release date. But here are the problems:

No Incentive to Pre-order

Unlike a kickstarter (which isn’t a pre-order though many people treat it that way), I get nothing special for ordering right now.

Highest Price

If I pre-order right now I pay the same price as when the game is released. Why should they have my money now instead of in 2 weeks?

If I wait, I’ll catch a Sale

Unlike fashion which stales quickly, games are just as awesome now as in 3 months as in 3 years. Experience has taught me in 3 months I can probably get the game 25-50% off as part of a steam sale.

If I wait a LONG time I might get it in a Bundle

Right now XCom 1 is in Humble Bundle which I can get for a minimum of $1. This strategy is less certain than the steam sale, but the reward is much greater. For waiting I save 98%.

The results are:

The dedicated fans who value and appreciate the game and gave money before they even got anything, they pay the most.
The people who don’t care much for the game pay the least.

In my opinion, this is messed up and backwards.

Who Has done Pre-orders Well?

Minecraft and Prison Architect.

When Minecraft was just a buggy Java alpha you could pre-order it for $10.
When it was more complete and closer to release you could pre-order it for $15-20.
When it was finally released it was around $30.

Prison Architect did a similar approach, except they had tiers of pre-order with rewards. It was similar to a kickstarter with no time limit.

What both of these games did right was:

1) The earlier you pre-ordered, the better the price/value.

2) You got something when you pre-ordered. Something you can play today.

Why Pre-orders?

Pre-orders solve a number of issues for me.

It will show my wife that what I spend all day (and sometimes night) building people really do want. Trust me, that’s real important! :-)
I’m two years + $40,000 invested with another $50-60,000 to go. To get the game done faster will increase those costs even more. I can use pre-order money to get some help and finish faster.
The amount of pre-orders determine interest which tells me how much more I should invest in it to make it a richer, higher quality experience. The amount I invest in a game that could at most sell 10,000 units verses 100,000 units is quite different.
It indicates how popular this game is and helps me create the right marketing plan for getting it in front of others. The approach for a game that sells 100,000 copies verses 10,000 is quite different.
A dedicated group of testers from which to try builds and dialog about the game.
The more pre-orders, the more likely games journalists are to take notice and write about the game.

Archmage’s Pre-Orders Begin Aug 4

I don’t have all the tiers and specifics worked out yet. The released version of the game will retail from $20-25 US. This is what I do know:

Play Immediately

You immediately get access to a demo build which contains the first hour or so of the game. It will be polished to release quality.

Best Value Evar

As a reward for pre-ordering you will get the Founders Collector’s Edition. It will give you the game, season pass to all DLC, art book, soundtrack, exclusive founders content, and more. I commit to you this deal will never ever be matched by a steam sale, humble bundle, or anything else. I reserve the right to limit the number of Founder’s Collector’s Edition I sell. This exclusive offer will be available to everyone signed up on the newsletter list.

But what about the Release Date?

And the final piece is I estimate the whole game could be finished by late 2016. But here’s the thing: with all the AAA games coming out Sep-Dec, it’s death for a little indie like me to try and release something then and get noticed. So the smarter confident release date is Feb 2 2017.