It's a lot of effort and upfront cost (if not Kickstarter) and also marketing is about as important as the product itself, and marketing has never been somethin

It's a lot of effort and upfront cost (if not Kickstarter) and also marketing is about as important as the product itself, and marketing has never been something I've excelled at. And I know firsthand that running a Kickstarter is a super time consuming and exhausting process (ran a couple while working for a game developer). I was hoping I could not have to worry about that and just use a publisher. I might actually have been further along if not for the pandemic. I was starting to build up my network a decent amount but then all conventions stopped happening with the pandemic and that killed all my momentum. Some people converted their games to digital versions (using something like Tabletop Simulator) and kept pitching virtually, and I did a little of that, but not enough. For a while it was all I could do to just to keep the family afloat during the first year of that pandemic, as we lost almost all of my wife's income. I am considering maybe doing a crowdsale through TheGameCrafter at some point, as they can handle the manufacturing and distribution easily, but it'll be more expensive for the end user and they get an order of magnitude less sales than on Kickstarter. But it could be more manageable for the time I have, and require no upfront cost. Another thing that's started happening more on Kickstarter is people putting up Print and Play Roll and Write games, where you don't need anything manufactured and shipped, and some of them are doing well. I'd have to design a roll and write game first before I can do that though :). I'm also planning to start going to board game conventions again this year, so maybe I can start rebuilding my network again. It's looking like I'll only have time to go to one, though, and it's not the best one for pitching games (that one is in a few weeks and I won't be able to take the time off from work to go to it, also the main game I want to pitch isn't quite ready for pitching yet). Honestly it just seems like the board game industry is in kind of a messy situation right now, so my focus has shifted a bit. I can code video games, so I'm more focused on making video games again lately (which can easily explode into a ton of work and effort that way also, but at least I don't have to worry about the mess of physical manufacturing and self-publishing is super easy). It's looking like in some sectors there might still be a way to have a fairly simple game and make some good money, such as in the VR space.