Local gaming company wins at Kickstarter

I first met Breeze Grigas about two years ago. He’s a local entrepreneur leading Zephyr Workshop, a digital gaming company.

Last fall, he tried to raise money through a Kickstarter, a digital platform connecting companies seeking funds with people willing to write checks in exchange for benefits such as early access to the company’s products. Kickstarter requires companies to set fund-raising goals — if they don’t meet their targets, they must return the money.

Mr. Grigas’s first Kickstarter did not succeed, but he learned from the experience and exceeded his goal the second time around.

As I learned in June 2015, Mr. Grigas is an Oxford native who started gaming in Charlton and was thrilled to learn about Becker’s game design program.

"I went to Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton for programming and computer-aided drafting to pursue game design, and when I saw Becker's ad for their game design program, I was instantly interested," he said.

After graduating with a major in Interactive Media Design with a concentration on art, Mr. Grigas started Zephyr Workshop — a 2015 StartUp Worcester winner — to build games that he wanted to play. "Originally, I created a game with another graduating senior, and we built a company around that product. I really enjoy creating things and working on my own projects, making things that I would want to play," he said.

Back then Zephyr Workshop’s money came from "personal savings and revenue from previously sold iterations of our game."

In October 2016, Zephyr tried to raise $40,000 for one of its games — A.E.G.I.S. — through a Kickstarter, but did not meet its goal.

In May, Mr. Grigas tried again and had better results: As he said in a May 23 e-mail "our brand new Kickstarter campaign [was] completely revamped [since last October] and [was] extremely successful. We reached our goal in nine hours and have currently raised over $40,000!"

Mr. Grigas believes that that the original Kickstarter reflected his inexperience with crowdfunding. As he explained, "The game's pitch [was not] clear on the campaign page, and [was not well organized]. Our game's original pitch video did not highlight many of the central aspects of the game, and the page did not explain enough to make up for it."

This failure taught him valuable marketing and technical lessons. As he said, "We learned a lot about marketing. Throughout the campaign we were learning about the costs and effectiveness of internet ads, how to make a good value proposition, and to sell the experience rather than just the product's components. On the more technical level, we learned how to properly do live streams on the internet, and how to use the Tabletop Simulator platform to showcase the game and play with people over the internet. [Finally,] we learned how to structure a 30 day crowdfunding campaign and how to create a clear and appealing campaign page that shows off how cool our game is."

Zephyr’s May Kickstarter set a lower goal based on a lower price for its game. "The May Kickstarter has a much lower goal: $16,200 instead of $40,000; and the [price of the] game is $49 with free shipping instead of $80 plus shipping. Over the last few months we spoke with many manufacturers to get quotes that worked well for our game, and restructured the game itself so that it was more modular. We found the minimum viable product, and offered that, and everything else would be added via hitting 'stretch goals' after the initial $16,200. We also worked with some amazing talent to make a great video, and consultant Dan Zayas (cq) to give critical feedback on our page as we put it together," according to Mr. Grigas.

These changes generated momentum leading to a successful outcome as of May 24. "Because of the lower cost and lower goal, our game made over $17,000 in the first day, and is now at over $40,000 with two weeks to go. Having a more flexible campaign helped a lot - people on Kickstarter want to see a fast success and build on it, rather than grind up to a very high number over time. When you crowdfund, it's all about momentum. That, and our page/video was much more clear this time," he said.

This Kickstarter offered better benefits to those who wrote bigger checks. As he explained, "People who back the game will receive their copies late this year or early next year, and those who put in a bit more money have the chance to be illustrated in the game as a character, and receive various exclusive [items], such as limited print cards and companion books. The game costs $49, and for $79 you can get a 'Deluxe Box' with add-ons that let you play with up to six players."

Most of the money Zephyr raises will go to "manufacturing the game and shipping it around the world, and the rest will go towards marketing the game and selling the rest of the stock, as well as creating more content for the game in the future," he said.

Ultimately, Zephyr aspires to get A.E.G.I.S. on retail shelves by "selling and marketing at conventions such as GenCon and Penny Arcade Expo, where we traditionally have had the most interest and sales, and using the network we've built over the last few years to get in touch with distributors," he said.

Peter Cohan of Marlboro heads a management consulting and venture capital firm and teaches business strategy and entrepreneurship at Babson College. His email address is peter@petercohan.com.