Lessons in Itchfunding
FREEBIE: 12 Damned Coins - Do Not Play This Game!
If you’ve been subscribed to the Missives for more than a week or so, you know that I just recently launched my first standalong TTRPG system, Tacticians of Ahm, in an early access capacity via itchfunding. Itchfunding is a mostly-unofficial term for selling a game on Itch in a crowdfunding-like manner. There’s very little the platform itself does to support this and it’s mostly a matter of communicating your plans and intentions well via the product page along with creating a Sale promotion with a set dollar amount goal which then displays a funding bar at the top of the product page.
Historically, itchfunding has been fairly hit or miss. Compared to Kickstarter, the sales numbers are very low, often a fraction of what a similar Kickstarter would expect to bring in, but there are times when something in the TTRPG space will catch fire, whether that is because it’s an adventure for a popular system from established creators or it hits the perfect storm of interesting mechanics, cool style, and a really engaged fanbase in its genre catching wind of it. For all thesae reasons when going into planning an itchfund, it can be difficult to know what kind of support you may see and why.
Not long after launching the game and getting an honestly quite surprising amount of support, I had a few folks reach out my way asking about how I was able to get so much traffic to my game on Itch, since typically it is difficult for folks to hit larger numbers of sales, especially in a short amount of time. While I do not think I can adequately analyze everything that goes into the who and why backs or buys a game when they do, I do think that my experience can help shed some light on a way to help give yourself the best chance for success on the platform.
In the first 12 hours or so after launch, I posted here (~1700 subscribers), on Twitter (~1,500 followers), Bluesky (~250 followers), Tumbler (~250 followers) and TikTok (~1,800 followers) about the game. Additionally, I created an introductory video for the game on Youtube (~50 followers). When the game goes live on Itch, an alert was also sent to all of my Itch followers (~600 folks).
Looking at my analytics at that time (sadly, I did not think to take a screenshot), the vast majority (around 70% of my traffic to the itchfund page) was traffic I had directed there from these other various avenues. The only traffic coming in from Itch itself was coming from a fraction of those 600 Itch followers who clicked through on an email or checked their Feed on the site itself. Of that traffic, this newsletter and Twitter were roughly similiar in bringing the most folks to the page (which is a bit surprising since Twitter is typically extremely bad at generated clickthroughs and sales, but a lot of other creators graciously boosted my launch posts so it did get much more reach than a typical post of mine would). Next were Itch followers, followed by Tumblr and Bluesky. Tiktok traffic, due to the nature of the platform, is not tracked via the platform itself (since you can’t embed links) so I imagine a good chunk of the google traffic was likely folks coming from either TikTok or Youtube and searching to find the page.
All of this traffic allowed the page to break its initial goal of $1,000 and generated around 60 total supporters. So let’s fast forward a bit and see what changed.
The image above is from just after 3 Full Days since going live. For about 2 of those days, Tacticians of Ahm was sitting at the top of the Physical Games - Popular and Physical Games - New & Popular charts (due to all of the previous support generated in that first day). At this point, you can see the Itch.io-driven traffic really shifts into the top spot. The Popular chart page specifically fed more traffic may way than any other single avenue over the next two days.
My main takeaway from all of this: When it comes to TTRPGs on Itch, you cannot rely on the site to promote and generate traffic for you, especially not at first. It is really key to build an audience across other platforms (especially newsletters) and use those avenues to direct folks into the Itch ecosystem. Within Itch, followers is easily the most important metric when launching a new game (since your game is dropped into their Feeds on the site and they are often alerted of the release via email). In my experience, Itch followers are difficult and slow to gain. Only from several years on the platform, actively following other creators I enjoy, and having lots of previous releases was I able to build the ~600 followers or so I had at launch.
Having directed all of your various audiences at your game, if you are able to rise up those charts than (and only than, it seems) the site itself will begin to generate traffic for you (helping you rise even higher on them even faster). Essentially, you want to be able to kickstart the few sources of traffic generation available to you on Itch whenever possible. There’s no silver bullet for engagement across platforms, but the surest advice I can give, regardless of the platform, is to 1.) Be Consistent, 2.) Be Passionate, 3.) Be Engaged and 4.) Be Kind. From there, it’s all about time. Beyond that, it just takes time to build an audience (unless you’ve got the cash to bring on a marketing firm and push ads, but even then, an artifical audience is a fickle audience).
Additionally, someone who had checked out the game posted about it on Reddit’s r/rpg. I had heard in the past that Reddit was a big driver of traffic within the TTRPG space, and the numbers here definitely agree with that. For a relatively small post (40 upvotes, 15 comments), it generated over 200 visits alone! That’s a pretty massive clickthrough rate. It helps, I imagine, that this post came organically from the community rather than being an explicit promo post from myself which seem to rarely do well (for this reason, I did not post to Reddit at all about the launch as I’m just not active enough on that platform to be seen as a member of most communities).
NOW FUNDING
The Tacticians of Ahm itchfund launch continues! We smashed Goal #1 on the first day and are well on our way to completing Goal #2 and beyond (just a few days in). The game hit #1 on both Itch’s Physical Games Popular and New & Popular pages, beating out games like Honey Heist and Lancer! I’m blown away by the support the game has already seen, especially not knowing what to expect from itchfunding and from the early access-type structure of the campaign.
Get the early access rulebook NOW and get all future updates for FREE!
In case you missed it previously, Tacticians of Ahm is a tactical combat-focused tabletop roleplaying game in the corrupt3d fantasy world of Ahm. A bit-rotten blight has appeared in the Northern Sea and from it flows the Corrupt1on, fractured light and shattered shapes sowing chaos across the realm. As Tacticians, you alone are prepared to face the darkness spreading across the lands and reunite the scattered peoples of Ahm.
Unique Elements of Tacticians of Ahm:
Always-hit, set-damage grid-based combat!
Class-specific attack patterns, abilities, and more!
Easy-to-use weapon and ability diagrams!
Rules light out-of-combat play using a single d20!
A digital fantasy world corrupting with age!
You know it's a video game, but your characters don't!
Greenhorns, Spicy Tuna RPG’s new weird space RPG, is live on Kickstarter now, and I am writing the book’s introductory bounty hunting adventure! I have gotten to play Greenhorns, and I can’t really say I’ve ever experienced anything quite like it. It’s one-part Destiny, another part cosmic-level Marvel, and another part weirdo-archangels. I’m excited to be a part of what it shaping up to be a really unique book. It’s based on Down We Go so all the core rules and character sheet fit on a single spread but the book is full of flavorful varieties of planets to explore, added class details, bounty board, and setting lore. This is my 3rd or so time doing adventure writing for Spicy Tuna RPG, and they continue to be one of my favorite folks to work with in the scene!
FREEBIE: 12 Damned Coins!
After reading the combo of someone talking about how horror roleplaying games are rarely, if ever, scary to play (as opposed to just being about scary things) and PrismaticWasteland’s New (Year’s) Resolution Mechanics post, I was inspired to make something silly and stupid that attempted to handle both things. The result is 12 Damned Coins: Do Not Play This Game!, a one-page roleplaying game of old world greed and risk versus reward coin flipping and face slapping that is never meant to be played.
Download the full-quality PDFs (including extra printer-friendly) HERE!
MORE COOL STUFF
The folks over at The Weekly Scroll were generous enough to let me come and rant about Tacticians of Ahm on it’s itchfund launch day. We dig into the reasons I started designing the game, how extensive playtesting has gone, plans for the future and more. I think you can really tell how many bottled up thoughts and emotions I had about this after working on it in the background for the last year or so!
Moreau Vazh over at Tasklander wrote a great, in-depth review of Tunnels in White that also examined the ways Liminal Horror has evolved since its initial release and how experienced GMs often look for different types of adventures than newcomers. I really enjoyed reading it (plus, there are some great and valid criticisms too).
“Sorrell does not provide a ‘preferred path’ through Tunnels in White: There is no obviously most sympathetic faction and there is no obviously preferred outcome, there is only the details of a situation that your group are welcome to explore and resolve to their own collective satisfaction and that is precisely what I want in a scenario as it a) empowers the players to make their own decisions and b) empowers me as a GM to think creatively about how I fit the adventure into my campaign and how I explore the consequences of the players’ actions.”
My contribution to The Discourse over this last month was speaking to TTRPG writers average pay rates and how we need to raise our expectations of what we will pay, what we will expect to be paid, and when it can be a good idea to not take low-paying work when you could create something of your own. If I want to be known for anything in the space, it’s as an advocate of better lives and livelihoods for creators.
To save you from having to journey into the hellscape of modern Twitter, here’s the thread:
Watching a TTRPG budgeting video. They are talking about how writers are paid on average $0.05-0.06 per word and to build your budget around that. Folks, do not write for that low of pay! Honestly, there's no reason not to make your own book at that level of pay. Dreadful!
The only things I've written at a rate in that range was something very small for a project by friends where I just wanted to take part in it, mostly for fun. Otherwise, it's just better to put something out yourself, own it in perpetuity, and make more $$$ in the long term.
Additionally, they mentioned that the only folks making $0.20-0.25 per word are "industry luminaries" who've been writing in the space for 20+ years, and folks, that's just not true as well. I charge what my time and work is worth, and I'm no luminary!
I typically write for low word count style projects but even for wordier styles and systems, these rates just don't make sense. Imagine writing a 100+ page setting book (50,000 words, let's say) and only making $2,500. Less than $11k for the entire 5e PHB!
For example, I would have received just $66 for Goblin on Icarus Station if paid at $0.06/word. Doing basic layout, hand-drawing a map, and using Patreon stock art to make the rest myself: 650+ copies sold! At $5, you'd need to sell ONLY 14 copies to get paid more than that rate!
Additional thoughts: If you have done work for less than this, I do not think you are a sucker. I think you deserve pay closer to your work's actual worth. Also self-pub isn't a golden ticket for everything (but if small indie pubs can pay $0.20 or more, I know bigger ones can!)
Cloud Empress is continuing to grow with its new Lands of Life & Death expansion coming to Backerkit this April. I’m a (small) part of the team, just like for the base game, and I’m so stoked to be back in the Hereafter.
Luke Gearing and David Hoskins have teamed up for a new game of grimy, city-dwelling bastards called Swyvers that looks killer. Check out the Quickstart HERE.
DEAD HORSE finally made it out to pre-orderers and retailers! It was a longer road than we expected, but it should be in everyone’s hands now (after a generous and helpful save from Amalara Game Studio)! I’m still really proud with the look and feel and overall quality of this production, especially considering it was our first swing at a literary magazine-like thing! It’s available in limited quantities via Exeunt Press, Spear Witch, and a few other retailers.
I recently added “Comfort Colors” tees to the MeatCastle GameWear shirt and hoodie store. Additionally, I added this extremely stupid “Sea Doo What Nintendon’t” tee, mostly just for fun after the idea came to me.
Chris Airiau named Corpo Culture Killed My Dog his “Fave Diegetic Print-at-Home” of 2023 in his handmade Weirdo Faves of 2023 zine. There’s loads more fun stuff in here too than just TTRPG goodies like Corpo Culture. Check it out!
A few days after last month’s Missive went out I put together the MeatCastle GameWare Year in Review: 2023. Overall, I had 3 personal releases, I edited 16 releases, I wrote for 3 releases, and I did game development work on 3 releases! It was productive year and my first doing freelance TTRPG work full-time.
My Play-By-Blog of Luke Gearing’s The Isle continues over on Tumblr. We are in the heart of the dungeon now and so far, Medon - our cutpurse magician - has managed to stay alive. Click here to check out the Repository of all the entries so far!
NOTE: I’m aware of Substack’s recent depressingly bad take on allowing fascist, reactionary, and other harmful folks to operate on their platform (as well as their lackluster response to folk’s valid criticism about that initial decision). Right now, I am just not in a situation where I can justify a new monthly expense (due to the size of the Missive’s audience, I’ve yet to find a solid service that’s free at the tier I’d need) so I am remaining here. Now, that could certainly change, depending on how things pan out. Additionally, I enjoyed Chris Bisette’s recent thoughts on the topic and how we shouldn’t have to cede every corner of the internet over the shittiest of folks.
Thanks again for reading! This last month has been a time of high highs and low lows for me. From being really sick for most of the month and having a rather dreadful holiday season because of it to having Tacticians of Ahm hit #1 for over 2 days on Itch’s Popular Physical Games chart! I’m ready to keep the good news and good work going into the next few months though. Thanks for sticking with me! Your support is, as always, the only reason I get to keep doing any of this. - Christian