About Alan Gerding
Alan Gerding is responsible for one of the highlights of my game design career, which we discuss in the first part of the podcast. He is a psychology professor and game designer who co-owns Tuesday Knight Games with his best friend. He is the designer of the recently Kickstarted game Mothership: Sci-Fi Horror RPG which made over 1.4 million dollars. Alan is awesome and this episode was a blast to record, there are lots of laughs and lessons in this one! Enjoy!
Show Notes:
Alan Gerding tells the story of what turns out to be one of the highlights of my game design career. You’ll have to listen to find out!
“It should be very clear what you want and what you’re asking for just so we don’t get into difficult conversations in the future.”
Shortly after the story, Alan tells us about when his best friend pitched him on a game concept. He responds with three questions, which help him determine how to proceed. They’re brilliant and will be useful to anyone starting a new collaboration.
“We have three things that we must always stay true to and that number one thing was: Have fun.”
Next, we talk about the core principles that Alan and Sean McCoy agreed to when they started their company. Knowing what your foundational principles are will help you along the way when you’re making decisions for your games, and your company. In this section we hear which principles Alan and Sean decided on and why.
“We did a lot of premarketing before we even went onto Kickstarter.”
Alan teaches us his tips on launching successful Kickstarters. He talks about going to conventions, creating print-and-play versions of his game, how to pre-market a game, and how to use feedback from fans. There are a lot of awesome tips and tricks in this section for leveling up your Kickstarter.
“We realized…if 75% of the people that signed up for our Kickstarter back, we’re looking at a million dollars!”
Toward the end of this episode, we talk about Mothership Sci-fi Horror RPG which made over 1.4 million dollars on Kickstarter. Alan talks about working with a marketing group and all the pre-marketing and playtesting that went into the massive success of this awesome game.
Here’s the video mentioned at the beginning of the episode:
Alan Gerding — From Core Principles to Kickstarter Success: The Psychology and Strategy Behind Crafting Mothership: Sci-Fi Horror RPG (#35)