Editing The Pen Addict 450/transcript (section)

== Game Project Failure ==


'''Brad:''' That seems like not nearly enough money. Like, right from the jump.

'''Myke:''' People didn't know then, though, Brad. I remember this happened a lot with video games around this time. People would just, they would be indie developers, right? Right. And they think, you know, they do this thing, and it's like, six figures? I can make my game for six figures. Right. But it tends not to work that way if you're doing it without having a job, right? Like, I think a lot of indie game developers, they make their game on the side. But now, what's replaced Kickstarter, really, for this type of stuff, is early access games. So, people will pay you while you're making it. And you kind of make money along the way. I think that's... Play along with it, yeah. That's become the model now. I don't really feel like I see a lot of Kickstarter campaigns for games. And when I do these days, I've seen some where it's like, okay, here's the Kickstarter campaign. We will then use this as a way to help us raise money, right? Like, because if you have a successful Kickstarter, you might be able to get some additional financing. Yeah, this was a really beautiful-looking game, and it just never came to be.

'''Brad:''' That's wild. I just remember, I don't remember the name of that one giant studio that blew it out, where it was several million dollars worth. Like, and they made a studio, made it like a real run at making games and things like that. And that seems successful, but like the small dollar stuff for video game creation, even if it's a singular person, like that churn rate on that... You just light money on fire until you can actually deliver something. So, maybe that type of early access helps solve some of that problem.

'''Myke:''' Yeah.

'''Brad:''' There's one problem we cannot solve, Myke. Nobody can solve. Nobody can solve. And that is, what pen do you use to sign your child's birth certificate, Myke?

'''Myke:''' The Visionaire. Now, we wanted to include it at this point because it was very successful. Didn't fail as such, but didn't go very well. So, $324,393 raised against a $15,000 goal. 5,803 backers back in June of 2013. I was thinking back on this, Brad. And I don't know if I have forgotten or if it was just weird at the time. I do not understand why so many people backed this project. Like, the marketing of the campaign itself was very good, right? That was the whole thing. Like, the way it was written, the way the video was made, it was good marketing. And, like, the way stuff was written, we make these jokes, the only pen you'll ever need, the one for your son to sign the birth certificate of their child, like, all of that. But it just exploded. And to this day, I don't know exactly why nearly 6,000 people wanted this specific fountain pen.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, that's the challenge with this one because there was technically nothing wrong with this product, except it wasn't really, like, from pen people's perspective. We knew this was, like, a basic Chinese knockoff pen. And it was a resale product, which goes against what Kickstarter is. Yeah. But what this was, which you alluded to, was a marketing success.

'''Myke:''' Fantastic marketing. So good.

'''Brad:''' But I've never been able to grasp why. Because I can't remember the guy's name that ran it. He was literally clueless about fountain pens. Yeah. I remember I was texting him at the time and we were trying to set up phone calls and all these things. And, like, he was using India ink to fill his fountain pens. And it was just a real, real train wreck of, like, what a fountain pen user would think about a fountain pen. But where he hid it out of the park was accessing thousands of $8 pens and selling them for $37.

'''Myke:''' The whole way along.

'''Brad:''' So there's stuff like... The right price.

'''Myke:''' He included a converter, right? And was, you know, saying, like, is this piston filler mech? And, like, really, like, saying, like, he was using it. And then there was, like, this big post about, like, okay, now the packaging's amazing. Just a cardboard tube, right? Like, he would just... He had a very good way of... Then once you gave him your money, you felt like you were continuing to get something good for it. Now, we knew it was a joke, right? Right. We looked at the pictures of it and could see it was both generic and basic, right? Like, it was just ABC fountain pen, right? It was like, whatever. As you say, what probably did happen was the guy bought them from China and resold them. So, but I backed it because we were speaking about it so much, one of us had to have it. Yes. And to this day, it continues to be a pen that people want to see from me at pen shows. I backed the early bird chrome version for $37, which I... Now, looking back at it, it's so expensive for what it is. Right. And like, if you want to know for sure that this pen is basically a knockoff, right? So, they delivered nearly 6,000 pens on time. Yeah. Right? They were on time, which it would have been impossible for somebody to have these pens, quote unquote, made if they were thinking they were going to raise $15,000 and they raised $324,000. Because one of the biggest problems in Kickstarter campaigns is having a big success. Right? I remember the Fidget Cube people spoke about this like really eloquently. Like, and they were very good, right? And they did a really good job of like outlining the fact that a success of their magnitude, it brings more problems. Because you are not ready for the volume that you will be dealing with. You are in completely different territory now. Like, just how do you ship them? Right? Because they've got to go somewhere, right? Like, it ends up being a huge issue. And again, like in the keyboard community, when people were doing group buys of their own, right? Which is like, so they'll create a keyboard, they have it as unlimited, it takes off, and then you've got to bring all these products in and like package them and ship them. But if you're one or two people, now you've got 3,000 boards to do, and they've all got to be quality controlled, like it can be a real issue, right? So, unbelievable that they managed to do it on time, because, you know, the comments are full of people that are unhappy with the pen, basically that it stopped working, you know? And so that's interesting to go through those. Basically, this was a cheap pen, sold for what I expect was a very good profit for the creator, exploded due to great marketing, and then they disappeared. Yeah. So you'll note the project is technically deleted on Kickstarter. Like, oh, sorry, not the project, the BHG design, the creator has deleted their account. And it says that, but you can still, I think this is good of Kickstarter, you can still view the projects, even if the creators have left the platform, which is important for history. The Visionaire will remain a meme forever.

'''Brad:''' It was a perfect storm, right? Like, mostly around the timing, right? I think nowadays, if this rolled up today, it might succeed, right? If you had a $15,000 goal and you were selling this pen for $37, it would probably fund, but not at the levels that it did, right? And more people would be aware of what exactly the product is. I think it just really hit at this really strange peak. Like, it couldn't happen this way any other time in Kickstarter's history or future, I don't think.

'''Brad:''' To put a little bit better taste in our mouth after the Visionaire, Myke, I wanted to just mention two projects that ran almost simultaneously from two companies that are still out there making things today. That I can't believe it was this long ago that I backed the Tactile Turn in February 2014, the first Tactile Turn, and the first TI2 Techliner in March 2014. So, Will Hodges of Tactile Turn, Myke Bond of TI2 Techliner, they've both been, you know, great friends over the past year since they were making it. But it was cool, it's cool to see these first attempts at making a thing from, you know, people who want to make these things for a living, which both Will and Myke have gone on to do, make very successful pen companies or, you know, pen plus in the case of TI2, making all kinds of different projects. But I thought it was really neat to, like, Tactile Turn raised $48,000 and TI2 raised $55,000. They ran almost simultaneously on the platform, backed them both, still have those pens that I backed from those campaigns, still enjoy those pens. And I just thought it was kind of cool to see what that time frame was for these people that keep doing it.

'''Myke:''' They are the kind of modern idea of a modest success on Kickstarter, like, because their first, they did their first campaigns and they raised around $50,000, which is a lot of money, but it's not a lot of money when you're selling something, because in that is all the cost, right? Yep. So, like, they had 700, 800 people backing their campaigns, right? Which is not a lot of product, ultimately. And then they went on to create their businesses and do additional campaigns. This is more of the modern way of doing things, as compared to a Joto, as I mentioned earlier, who did one and then started their business from it. But this is not a criticism. This is a very valid way of doing business now, is using Kickstarter as a platform and you continue to bring new projects to it and reduces a lot of risk for you, all that kind of stuff, does market research, basically. But these guys have continued to go on and have a lot of projects of similar kind of sizes to these. And if you do one of these every year or two, along with your additional products that you sell, that's a business.

'''Brad:''' Yep. Yep. It's really great. So, it was cool to see that they've kept on and have been successful ever since and that we got to back them in the beginning.

'''Myke:''' All right. This episode is brought to you by our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of our favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot, Namiki, Sailor, Kaweco, so many more. And they're an authorized dealer. They're always adding new products. Every couple of weeks, you're going to find new stuff over at Pen Chalet. And you're also going to find new discounts, too. They're always moving things through, adding new stuff, new brands, new types of product from brands, and then also doing great discounts as well. They also have all of the accessories that you're going to need, whether it's pen, paper, I should say, pen holders, refills. Maybe you want some ink or carrying case. It doesn't matter what it is. Pen Chalet have got it for you. They have fast and reliable customer service, and they do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the United States. They sell internationally as well with great shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices and high-quality pens, and they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to PenChalet.com and click the podcast link at the top of the website. Enter the password pen addict for this week's special offer, and to get the code you need to save 10% on anything at any time at Pen Chalet. What is drawing your eye this time, Brad?

'''Brad:''' The first pen in the list is one of those pens that everyone should have. And I don't have it, and every time I see it, I say I'm going to order it. And it's the Monteverde tool pen. So this is on sale, a pretty good sale, like less than $20 for this really cool pen. It's just, you know, it looks like one of those pens you should just have around the house because it's got the ruler and, you know, just the good pen and just kind of, I don't know, it just seems like a thing you should have. So it's a very good price to check that out. But he's got a couple of Conklins, a couple of more Monteverdes, a couple more Benus, which I haven't seen the Benus Supreme on sale for here before on our page. And then as Ron tends to do, he'll sneak something in there. There's a Pelican 805 in there for crazy, like half-off pricing. I probably shouldn't say that out loud. I don't want to get in trouble. So there's an interesting Montegrappa a little bit further down that I have not seen before that, you know, I'm a fan of how Montegrappa pens are and how they write. And then the Platinum 3776, there's some that are a really, really nice price right now. So you should check all these out.

'''Myke:''' So go ahead over to penshalet.com right now. You want to click the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer, and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at any time at penshalet. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Our thanks to penshalet for their support of this show and RelayFM.

'''Brad:''' All right, you got another one here that was kind of a launch product, if you will. Kind of like the last ones that I mentioned.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, I wanted to give an example of like the Tactile Tern and TI2 Techliner, which is the Nexus Minimal Fountain Pen from Nemisu. Now, we know Nemisu is a brand now. I've actually realized, I've backed three of their pens. They had a 104,568 raised against a goal of 10,000 to 2,000 backers in July of 2014. I backed the all-titanium model of this pen. It was my first titanium pen. Do not like titanium nibs is what I learned. They performed great, but mine was really squeaky, and I didn't like that.

'''Brad:''' It's an interesting thing.

'''Myke:''' Yeah, good flex on it. It feels nice to use, nice and soft, but it makes a weird noise. Not for everybody. They're another UK-based company. They saw delays in this campaign. I think they've had some sizable delays for all of their campaigns, but that's how it goes. Their shipping completed in August of 2015. It was originally estimated for November of 2014. I don't think that was that bad. But the big thing here for the Nexus Minimal is that it put Nemisu on the map, and they've gone on, in my opinion, to make many better products than this, even though I did really like this pen. I love the Nexus pen. But my favorite of theirs is the Nova, which I think is the most controversial, but was a pen that I really, really enjoyed. It was the Nemisu Nova.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, the Nova was one that was heavily delayed, but out of their control, it was a nib issue. So that was when Bach was having troubles producing nibs, and then when they came out, they had QC issues on top of that. But they kind of got that in the past. Their last couple of projects have been really good. I think I've backed whatever their most recent one was. I'm pretty sure I backed that one, so I'd have to take a look at that. But again, this is like one is like they got their start. They keep doing cool things, and I'd love to see it.

'''Myke:''' You'd love to see it.

'''Brad:''' I'd love to see it. When I was going through my list, this one popped up, and I was like, wait a minute. This was a Kickstarter? Do you remember the Bullet Journal launching on Kickstarter, the actual physical notebook? Bullet Journal? Me neither.

'''Myke:''' I backed it too, but I didn't remember it was a Kickstarter campaign.

'''Brad:''' Yeah, I was like, wait a minute. What is this? And it sure is heck. This was essentially the Leuchtturm launch for the Bullet Journal. That writer worked with Leuchtturm at our behest. We did that, Myke. I'm going to take full credit for that.