Lessons in Failure: Broncos and Board Games

I spent 14 months working on a board game that went live on Kickstarter this past Tuesday. It’s a really cool game that’s fun to play and interesting to look at. Unfortunately, it looks like it won’t meet it’s funding goal based on our current pace. I’ll lose my investment on it and need to take a year or so off from funding any more work on our future games. Though it sucks to feel defeated, I’ll take some time to build back the seed money to try again.

When I got laid off last April, I had the choice to pull back and delay our launch. That wouldve been disappointing, but none of my teammates would have blamed me for not wanting to spend the kind of cash we’d need to design and book an advertising campaign, let alone travel to a bunch of conventions to plug the game. Rather than delay, I chose the riskier path. Even without an income, I believed in what we were doing and decided to spend whatever it took to maintain our timeline for launching our crowdfunding campaign in October. We made it, and our hard work resulted in a great looking campaign.

As the go live date approached, I spent probably three weeks being the most scared I’ve ever been. During the worst of it, I was shaking in my office chair, having a difficult time concentrating on anything, couldn’t hardly hold a conversation, and blew off all my other responsibilities. It was nerve wracking. I had made something that I thought was good, and was going to see if the board game world agreed. I feared the feeling of rejection I might experience if the support wasn’t there. I was pretty embarrassed by how I felt, and my business partner could tell. He told me something that turned me around – being scared of something and doing it anyway makes you a brave person. That felt right, so I decided that it was ok to be scared and that I was, in fact, being brave.

 

Only a few days have gone by since go live and it’s maybe a little pessimistic to think we won’t see it pick up the pace. But it’s fair to say that our first day missed the mark that a successful campaign would want to hit. I won’t vote you with the details of what these things want to look like, but we’re not there right now. Today, we look like we’re heading for failure.

 

Alex, what does this have to do with football? Boy, I’m glad you asked. I’ve been watching the Denver Broncos bang their head against the turf every week for seven years, never once feeling like the team had it together. They’d go out onto the field, fumble the ball, go 3 and out, fail to slow the opposing offense… you name it, the Broncos couldn’t do it. Each season, after a few weeks, it felt like we were heading for failure – and every time, it was true. We haven’t even sniffed the postseason since Manning retired.

What I’m constantly telling people each season is that building a great football team is a long, arduous, and painful process of failures and lost value. Nobody can predict how bad it’s going to get until you start heading in the right direction, or if you’ll be able to sustain the positive momentum needed to get back to great. You just have to keep plugging away at it, withstanding the ugly games and the missed opportunities. You have to forgive the draft picks that don’t pan out and the coaches that can’t make it work. Never abandon your patience. Seal your heart against despair. Go back to work every time.

 

So today as I look at some less than promising numbers and a dwindling set of options for how to turn my kickstarter around while I still have a chance, I feel like the 2023 Denver Broncos. I’ve taken some crazy risks, just like how the Broncos traded for a QB and a coach, neither of whom are looking like world beaters. I’ve leveraged my future by spending so much, just like how they traded away draft picks and young talent. And I’m facing a mostly ugly situation with a few bright spots. It looks like it’s going to be a failure. And I need to treat my personal business with the same sensibility and pragmatism that I do my Broncos fandom. I might need a rebuilding year where nothing is fun and we gather assets to give it another shot, but when I have the chance I need to be ready to take that shot again.

 

I know this is a pretty melancholy writeup, especially for having been gone again for another month. It isn’t how I wanted things to be, but I think there’s a valuable lesson somewhere in here, for me at least. I may be failing, but I’m not a failure. And I feel the same way about my boys in orange.

Now that this board game thing is concluding, I am hoping to string two weeks of posts together. So for now, see you next week.

 

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Alex_Demote
Game designer, junk collector, paint chip taste tester
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BrettFavresColonoscopy

Just kicked. Or started. Or whatever.

Gumbygirl

Chin up, Alex. This is a great idea, and you just need more time to get it going. Not a fail, just a temporary setback. In the immortal words of Senator Blutarski, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? HELL NO!!”

bk109

Yeah, it’s interesting as an idea and I kinda wonder if adding a stretch goal for allowing it to be played online* won’t help find more backups.

*Unless I’m mistaken, there are at least a couple of platforms meant to give the proper board game playing experience online?

Brick Meathook

Did everyone get the emergency warning test on your phone?

Gumbygirl

I got it in English AND Spanish. My phone thinks I’m smart!

bk109

I got it on my burner temporary device I’ve got to use in-country as I don’t want my wallet raped by the obscene roaming fees (plus you guys should really start using the same mobile bands as the rest of the world).

Brick Meathook

The United States is better than all the other countries of the world combined. And you know this.

Doktor Zymm

I get free data pretty much everywhere in the world, while I met loads of people in Europe complaining about high fees for going one country over, so I’m thinking this one at least isn’t a US problem

BugEyedBoo

Yep. The 5G worked, and I have the Marburg virus now! Go Bill Gates!

bk109

Wait, I thought Marburg was the illuminati, while Bill Gates was the downloadable mind control chip to force me to somehow stop saying that Windows Me was the best OS* Redmond ever sharted out!

*Yes really.. because unlike everything before or after it, ME got me laid!

Gumbygirl

I’m pretty sure I’m not a zombie, but who can tell?

Horatio Cornblower

Can’t talk, Marburg virus turning me into a zombie.

Beerguyrob

Just keep the faith.

And never forget – [DFO] will always take you back. Look at me!

LemonJello

Who’s this guy?

bk109

He’s not asking for money, so at least he’s not Zelensky. One down, so we’re down to just another 8064361297 to rule out

Brick Meathook

What do you have against Ukraine?

bk109

Plenty.

Brick Meathook

Like what?

bk109

Like the two great-whatever-uncles that got killed in Lviv ’41 by the same sort of scum (and same unit!) that got applauded by the Canuckistani last week. Or perhaps it’s because of the two cousins of my that disappeared while the regime we installed after the last Maidan, because they dared asked in writing whether there would be some goddamn fucking justice for the people that got burned to death in Odessa? Or maybe it’s because I somehow find distasteful to support a regime that CONSISTENTLY espoused the thought that “Crimea should be ethnically Ukrainian, or UNINHABITABLE” SINCE GODDAMN FUCKING 1992 (aka after they got their independence from Russia.. Independence, by the way, that came after a referendum where 75% of people voted against the dissolution of the USSR, but .. people’s opinion only matters when it favours our side”). Or perhaps it’s because I somehow find it amusing that I have to feel anything resembling pity a country, whose unofficial moto was “Let’s slaughter the Russians” and who suddenly discovered that maybe that if you say that enough times, the other side may decide that enough is enough?
Or perhaps it’s that I find it a stain on the honour of my country that we’re helping kill servicemen of the same goddamn country that helped us out in ’21 to pull our guys out of Afghanistan while the Kabul fiasco was playing out for the world in stunning 4K.

Or perhaps it’s the fact that only a fucking moron would believe that we’re doing anything more than prolonging the fucking agony of the Ukrainians (who’re down at THE MOST OPTIMISTIC – 1 million+ KIAs and 500k cripples ), in the vain hope that the Russkies would somehow pull a 1917 on us. You don’t believe me? Notice how our side is delivering a couple of hundred “modern” (but not really) tanks to offset a couple of thousand destroyed, all the while the US has a couple of thousand M1’s of various types in Arizona. Or the plane deliveries? Yeah, we’re building a grand coalition to deliver 40-year olf F-16A/B’, when AMARG alone can cough up enough to fully stand-up a proper air force………….

Or maybe it’s the hypocrisy we’re showing to the world? Ah, yes, we bombed Iraq for WMD’s, went for two decades to grow heroin.. I mean avenge 9/11 in Afghanistan. We set North Affrica ablaze (the Italians are really enjoying that bit right about now).. and the world said fuck all. The Russians jumped in with more justification (and despite giving the unpopular Minsk agreements an actual try, unlike us) and the whole world suddenly started screaming bloody murder…

And despite all that, I’m working for my country to help that goddamn country, because my oath demands if of me.

Brick Meathook

It sounds like you’d be happier in Russia, dontcha’ think?

bk109

Ah, great rebuttal. No, I’d rather live in the country I’ve actually worked my arse off to become a citizen of and not to see it and the EU go to shit trying to deal with the blowback of yet another fucked up example of moronic (and short-sighted) US foreign policy.

LemonJello

Nobody does short-sighted and moronic better than the US of A!

Horatio Cornblower

OK, but other than that?

bk109

*checks notes*
Eh, some other odds and ends, but I think I covered the important bits. Though I forgot that time where Dinamo Kyiv ruined a 20 game acca when I was in high school. If they didn’t let in two veeeeeeery late goals against Shakhtyor Donetsk that would’ve allowed me to buy me my first car (without touching my savings) 😀

bk109

Oooh, I see the muppet that shat out ‘Gideon’ has somehow managed to achieve an even bigger farce than last month’s XD

Brick Meathook

Go to the pathology museum in Silver Spring today. You’ll like it and you’ll thank me.

bk109

Y’know, constantly mentioning that museum’s reaaaaaaaaaally getting my stubborn streak going. Plus even when/if I go there, the odds of me doing a boots on the ground are about as good as Hippo’s chances of marrying* Margot Robbie

*though to be fair he can give our old friend Stockholm syndrome a chance

King Hippo

Given how weird everything tastes and the raw number of sleepy-time hours I have lodged since SNF ended…pretty sure I have #NuAIDS 2 – Electric Boogaloo.

If THAT don’t impress Ms. Robbie, she must be sum kind uv BITCH

bk109

In all fairness, she’s Australian, so I doubt just a bout of NuAIDS will be enough to move the needle. After all, when you’re from a continent where everything’s trying to kill you and where Rambo’s survival knife’s little more than a toddler’s plaything, you’d need to be more creative. I’m thinking your best routes of attack are either commissioning an animuuuu style hilariously oversized sword or genociding the emus. I’d go with genocide, since not only it would be more fun, but it’d annoy the shit outta that pudgy retard we all know and loathe

Gumbygirl

Remember the Prime Directive: No Dying!

Brick Meathook

I know, I can tell. But I’m right and you’re wrong and I way the fuck out rank you. I’m giving you very good advice and instead you’re playing with toys.

But it’s a free country. Suit yourself.

BeefReeferLives

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Brick Meathook
2Pack

You are right my friend. You just keep plugging away. Rest, regroup and re attack.

Game Time Decision

How fucking cool is it to have come up with a new game. I have zero creativity that way, so will just admire all the work and creativity it took to get to this point.
/slaps Alex’s ass
/hard

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Yeah I had grand plans of making Guardians and Gladiators into a real thing (including a similar hex board design) and it’s a lot harder than I ever imagined it would be.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Still can’t believe they wouldn’t let you use BOLTMAN as a character in a game called The Power Generation.

Game Time Decision

Stomp
Stomp
Clap
Clap
/now trademarked

Gumbygirl

I don’t think that’s how it works.

King Hippo

Being a young whippersnapper, you probably just pirate the Donks (no WOO) games, as opposed to paying for Sunday Ticket like Hippo.

I know fuck shit about the bidness world behind board games, but your idea seemed damned impressive to me. But as I always say, Look, I am a liberal. I ain’t supposed to understand how money works.

BeefReeferLives

“Conservative” money management is really quite simple

1) Spend like a drunken sailor on military boondoggles and tax giveaways to billionaires while a fellow “conservative” is in office. Shower largess upon the corporations and billionaires that give you the biggest bribes, kickbacks, campaign contributions.

2) Once an opposition candidate is in office, cry “what about the children” like Mrs. Lovejoy about the deficit, threaten to shut down the government and shitcan the economy unless the opposition candidate cuts social programs and screws the poor into the ground.

https://www.salon.com/2018/02/12/thom-hartmann-how-the-gop-used-a-two-santa-clauses-tactic-to-con-america-for-nearly-40-years_partner/

Horatio Cornblower

“During the worst of it, I was shaking in my office chair, having a difficult time concentrating on anything, couldn’t hardly hold a conversation, and blew off all my other responsibilities.”

This is just like me today, except I didn’t do anything worthwhile, just got me second shingles shot yesterday. It’s a beautiful Indian summer day her in CT, and it looks like I’ll be spending most of it slumped in a chair, playing video games.

As God himself intended.

Game Time Decision

Pong?

bk109

… since I just learned that this is actually a thing – Yandere Simulator perhaps? On a related note… maybe the Earth getting hit by a random gamma ray burst that eradicates all life may not be that bad, no?

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Golden Axe.

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Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Is there a Tinder for households? Cause I have a profile picture suggestion for the Cornblowers:

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Last edited 1 year ago by Rikki-Tikki-Deadly
Gumbygirl

My, what a big axe Lowratio has!

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

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Gumbygirl

That’s about my speed. I did get really good at the mine cart level in Donkey Kong.

BugEyedBoo

He’s either playing Baldur’s Gate 3, or he’s wrong.

Horatio Cornblower

Fortnite. I’m not looking for anything that requires deep thought today.

BugEyedBoo

The shingles shot doesn’t fuck around.

Horatio Cornblower

Do you miss waking up hungover after night of drinking and throwing yourself down flights of stairs? Well now there’s Shingrex!!

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I thought we weren’t doing Hines Ward jokes anymore.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I’m sorry, I thought Missouri was supposed to be the “Show Me” state. Hypocritical bastards.

https://www.wnct.com/news/national/missouri-teacher-on-leave-after-school-discovers-onlyfans-account/

Horatio Cornblower

comment image

I’m OK with it.

Also, $8,000-$10,000 a month? Ma’am, you do not need the teaching job.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Yeah, and after this that will go up.

King Hippo

/this is the closest I have been to signing up for that service and going Full Pervert

BeefReeferLives

Totes. She looks, uh, nice. I am a fan.

Brick Meathook

What’s the game?

Don T

It’s not about falling, but how many times you get up #Backed

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Don T

Dude, it’s not an L yet! Chin up man, don’t relent.

BeefReeferLives

Hmmm… I’m not seeing the “Living fat off of that sweet, sweet, VC cash” stage…

Sharkbait

Backed the backstage pass level. Looks awesome and the friends I sent the link too think so as well.