KickTraq

What's the difference between a good Kickstarter and a bad one? For us, about four months. See how we started one project five months after the first one and almost finished at the same time. (Read More)

Having run multiple successful projects, we've tried just about every configuration of pledge level setup you can imagine from super complex to extremely bare bones with all sorts of different results. After fulfilling and supporting various kinds of projects, we've decided to continue with the minimalist approach to pledge levels for our projects, and here's why... (Read More)

Kickstarter appears to be suffering from an identity crisis. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it stems from the fantastic opportunities that come from growing. (Read More)

We’ve spent a lot of money on marketing over the past year or so. Some of that has been with ads, some of which we tried Public Relations (PR) firms. These are the lessons I’ve learned after spending tens of thousands of dollars. (Read More)

We’re no strangers to crowd funding. So far our projects have brought in over $1,000,000 and some might argue that we know what we’re doing. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t make mistakes. Let’s take a look at some of the lessons learned on our last project, Dragon Crate. (Read More)

I worked for many years in a corporate environment before starting Albino Dragon. In that time there was a vicious animal that always found its way into projects: scope creep. Let’s look at the what Wikipedia has to say about it first:

Typically, the scope increase consists of either new products or new features of already approved product designs, without corresponding increases in resources, schedule, or budget.

Sound like a project you may have backed recently? This blog post is the first part showing how some of that scope creep affected our final numbers and how these lessons may help you with your own project. (Read More)

Maybe the timing on your idea is just bad or you haven't conveyed the true value of the product that you are trying to produce. Whatever the reason, Kickstarter isn't just a good place to find funding, it's a good place to find out the market value of your ideas. (Read More)

Shane and I are going to be here for the final minutes of the project. Sing along with us to the sweet sounds of Europe in the Final Countdown! You can join us in the Google Hangout here or watch on YouTube here.  (Read More)

So it's the last 6 hours and we're going to try doing a live stream from Origins for a bit. I also received the magnet prototypes and they look better than I could have ever hoped. I've included a couple of pictures but they don't do them justice.... (Read More)

As we head into the final stretch we just wanted to say thank you one last time. We're going to have our hands tied most of today at Origins but we have a 55" TV that we'll be periodically checking the Kickstarter on at our booth. And I'm looking... (Read More)

From Pat's blog... “If you let me tell this story on my blog,” I said. “Me and my people will blow the fucking roof off the last two days of this kickstarter. We will bring thunder and fury to your very door. We will shake the earth.”... (Read More)

Thanks to everyone that has jumped on board and helped carry us this far. It's been an amazing journey so far and we're very happy to have each and every one of you with us. Please keep telling everyone that you can about the project and sharing... (Read More)

“If you let me tell this story on my blog,” I said. “Me and my people will blow the fucking roof off the last two days of this kickstarter. We will bring thunder and fury to your very door. We will shake the earth.” (Read More)

I’ve known Patrick Rothfuss since 2007. 2007. Before he was the writer responsible for the world-wide phenomenon known as The Name of the Wind. Before he built a legion of fans. The Rothfuss has many redeeming qualities. But the one thing I enjoyed most about Pat six years ago that remains true today is his unflappable humility and interest in helping others. (Read More)

It feels weird to know that this part of our journey is coming to an end, but there is still plenty of action going on until then. Check out the new stretch goals below and help spread the word the next few days. The ONLY way we'll be able to get... (Read More)

The Name of the Wind has been rated over 109,000 times on GoodReads, where it boasts an impressive 4.56/5.00 rating. Author Patrick Rothfuss maintains a popular blog on his own site. And a current Kickstarter project to create Name of the Wind playing cards has raised over $417,000 ($30 of which were donated by yours truly) against a $10,000 goal and garnered participation from nerd heroes like Neil Gaiman and Felicia Day. Suffice it to say: Kingkiller fans are a passionate bunch. (Read More)

We're working on the Albino Draccus in the Google Hangout if you would like to join us here. Or just be a voyeur and watch on YouTube here. The Add Ons Are Coming, The Add Ons Are ComingWe've gotten everything down in one place that you could... (Read More)

Okay guys, we are heading into the home stretch here. Let's make today another big day! We've given you some new pledges and stretch goals to help out so we just need to get people talking about the project anywhere that we can! If you've been... (Read More)

Pat and Shane are going to work together to put together another card tonight. Come watch them collaborate on YouTube here.  (Read More)

So we talked about this and we thought, "What would be better than Patrick singing?" How about Patrick singing Live? Cool, and what's even better than that? Well, I guess you can find out when the stream goes live shortly here. As always, thanks for... (Read More)

So we crossed a quarter of a million dollars last night, thank you! You have truly made this project epic in so many ways, so we went all out to try and reward everyone in an epic way. We didn't get the ill-tempered sea bass. No sir, we went all in... (Read More)

So a few things before I start drilling through the list. First of all, did we mention that this is now the most funded card project ever on Kickstarter? No? Well then did we mention that we went way beyond that and Pat truly did crush everything?... (Read More)

Crowd Funding, be it Kickstarter or Indiegogo, or any other form of independent publishing, has become a way for small start ups to get their product out there. Some projects are good, others are bad, some make their targets and others don't, but there is no denying that Kickstarters have become a way to circumvent some of the barriers that have been placed in the way of independent growth in the past. So this week we’re going to have a guest post from the lovely guys over at Albino Dragon on the benefits and pitfalls of running a successful campaign, take it away Erik. (Read More)

A while back, I fell in love with the work of Shane Tyree when he was doing a kickstarter for a deck of Cthulhu playing cards. I boosted their signal on facebook, they donated to Worldbuilders, and we bought some cards to sell in the Tinker’s Packs. It was the start of a beautiful friendship. (Read More)

Some of you may have noticed a slight...change in our funding levels yesterday. First and foremost, we want to say thank you to everyone that helped us completely dominate yesterday! We literally cleared our first stretch goal in a few hours and... (Read More)

Stretch GoalsWe have a lot of other stretch goals to post as we keep steamrolling through all of our past records but we've posted two of them for you now (see images below). New Pledges We've been working with Pat to iron out some new pledge levels... (Read More)

Pat and Shane are going to work together to put together another card tonight. Come watch them collaborate on YouTube here.  (Read More)

So the good news is that we were able to get an order of dice put in for the project (as seen below). The bad news is that we could only order 3000, which is less than one per backer.  I was hoping you guys might have some feedback on the best way... (Read More)

We've had some feedback from you guys about the card back and the consensus is that everyone likes the original better and would like to see it in red. This is also what Pat has requested so we're going to ditch the alternate design and just change... (Read More)

Shane and Pat are doing a Google Hangout if you'd like to pop in and watch as they work on a new card for the deck. You can watch it on YouTube here. I've also included another print from one of the cards you've already seen.  (Read More)

We're getting pretty close to running out of Limited Edition decks so we created an Unlimited Edition to offer as well. As you can see, this version has a different card back design and color. To add one to your pledge, just add $11 to your current... (Read More)

We've included a couple of updated poker chips that have some better phrases than the ones we initially chose (thanks to Joe N and Zack Sheffield for giving us something more appropriate). We feel like this is the perfect example of how we all get a... (Read More)

Shane has been working on this for days and I couldn't be happier with the way it all turned out. I've posted the tuck box art here and on the main project page. There is also a new art print that Shane created from this that you can see below as... (Read More)

I sat down and ran the numbers of where we are at so far. We're looking at doing a limited run of only 10,000 of the limited decks. Right now, we've already allocated for almost 6500, which only leaves about 3500 limited decks left.  If we get close... (Read More)

Shane is working on the tuckbox for awhile if you would like to join us in the Google Hangout here. Or watch on YouTube here. Here is where he is so far...  (Read More)

We have enough backers now, we feel we can safely offer art prints. The reason I say this is that we have to do enough volume (hundreds, if not thousands) to be able to offer you guys prices this low. Normally, you would pay $30-$40 for something... (Read More)

Wow, that's really all we can say. And lots of thank yous. Last night we broke all kinds of personal records, one of the most important being the most backers for any of our projects, ever! Call of Cthulhu had just over 2200 backers. As of this... (Read More)

Here is the color version of the King of Diamonds that Shane worked on during the hangout yesterday. Thanks again to everyone that came out and participated, it was our highest attended event ever!  (Read More)

Join Shane and I here while he draws Kilvin - King of Diamonds. Or you can watch on YouTube here.  (Read More)

When setting up this project and the licensing agreements, one of the items Pat seemed most excited about were the poker chips. For anyone that hasn't seen these on our previous projects, they are casino quality ceramic chips that we have custom made... (Read More)

We've added uncut sheets as an add-on. These are the full sheets before they have the die cut applied and are beautiful when framed. We've included an image of what one side would look like, the other side would be each individual card in the deck. ... (Read More)

Shane cleaned this up and we put the proper verbiage on the coin from the novel. We also received some design feedback from Pat and incorporated that as well.  (Read More)

Shane worked with Pat last night to complete the first add-on for the project: Elodin's Question. This is a 1.5" brass challenge coin with an enamel finish. You can use this with your decks as a dealer button or a card cover. Just hit the manage... (Read More)

Shane worked up some examples of the standard cards so you guys could see how we are handling the pips. We've also included a legend to explain what each one is.  (Read More)

At $37,000 we'll put the custom deck seal seen below on all of the limited edition decks. Shane also took some of your feedback and made a few changes to the King of Spades card which you can see below. As always, your input is making this project... (Read More)

Shane was literally up all night trying to get this just right. We hope that you like it...  (Read More)

So some of you may have noticed a slight jump in our pledges yesterday ;-) Thanks to a quick post by Mr. Rothfuss on Facebook yesterday, we surged past any number we thought we would be at within a few days of launching. Consequently, we've been... (Read More)

We just wanted to say thank you to everyone that helped us fund so quickly! Shane's been working hard to get as many images completed up front as possible so we have enough time to work on some other stretch goals, etc during the project. For now... (Read More)

Shane and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that has pledged to the project so far. It's amazing how enthusiastic everyone is about this project and definitely helps to validate the decisions we've made about what projects we've chosen to work... (Read More)

A look at where geekdom intersects with charity, and how fan communities are giving back to their own communities (Read More)