The Shores of Tripoli Financials (2019-2022)

The good, the bad, and the accounting.

The Shores of Tripoli is the first game published by Fort Circle Games. The first play testing occurred in December 2016, the Kickstarter was in November 2019, and delivered to Kickstarter backers in December 2020. This post will be an overview of the revenue and costs for publishing the 5000 print run of The Shores of Tripoli. If you want to view my previous post with projections from 2021, you can view it here: The Shores of Tripoli Update #24.

The very first play tests of The Shores of Tripoli

Revenues

The revenue so far is quite straight forward - through December 31, 2022, we sold 3320 copies for $157,902 - an average of $47.56 per game. We also collected just over $10,000 in shipping fees, so the total revenue to date is $168,000.

Sales revenue for The Shores of Tripoli

Cost of Goods

The cost of goods is a little more complicated, so I thought I would go through each item. Art & Design includes not only art and graphic design, but prototype creation, how-to-play videos and the other creative aspects of supporting The Shores of Tripoli. In my KS Post, I had put this at $20,000 but we have had some on-going expenses - especially around the massive online tournament - so this kicked up to $25,000. Brand Royalties is the cash donations we make to Toys for Tots. We donated $1 per game manufactured plus $250 for each week of the four-week online tournament. Designer Royalties is what Kevin Bertram (me) gets paid for the design of the game. Our standard contract is 6% of revenue. Freight & Customs is the costs of getting the game from the factory in China to distribution points in Asia, Europe, Canada and the United States. Game Production is the actual cost of producing the physical game. Partnership Marketing is specific advertising that is tied directly to The Shores of Tripoli - this included BGG ads and some affiliate marketing agreements. Shipping Costs includes both shipping and warehousing costs. Transaction Fees is a bit more complex than it sounds - for Kickstarter, PayPal, Shopify and the like it is just a transaction cost. We also classify our Amazon costs as “transaction fees” but they also include shipping costs for games sold on Amazon and for games sold elsewhere but shipped via the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program.

Cost of goods for The Shores of Tripoli

2023

To date, our revenue slightly exceeds our costs - we have made a gross profit of just under $8000 to date, plus I have paid myself nearly $10,000 in royalties. And we have 981 games left in stock. A careful observer might ask where did the other games go? We gave 300 games to GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) to distribute to retailers. We donated 125 games to Toys for Tots (and our Kickstarter backers paid for 175 to be sent to Toys for Tots, so we rounded it up to 300 games). And then we have sent out 274 games to reviewers, to potential partners, to designers, to teachers and the like. In 2023, I expect that we will give out another 81 games and sell the remaining 900 games to bring this print run to a close.

When the books are closed out on this print run, it will show revenue of $210,000 and costs of $175,000 for gross revenue of $35,000. When I put together the projections in the KS Post, I had an expectation of gross revenue of $69,000. The main difference is in my earlier projections, we only had 300 complimentary copies but in reality we will end up with 780 complimentary copies. I feel perfectly fine about the 125 we donated to Toys for Tots. The 274+81 we have sent out or will send out to reviewers and other folks is a necessary part of doing business. The 300 games we sent to GAMA to send to retailers was a waste of product - lesson learned.

AGPPU & LTV

Remember in my first post when I talked about AGPPU - Average Gross Profit Per Unit - I said imagine an AGPPU of $20. The AGPPU for The Shores of Tripoli is not $20 - it will be $7 ($35,000 gross profit for 5000 games). But going forward with Votes for Women, First Monday in October, The Halls of Montezuma and future releases I think we can be in the ballpark of $20 AGPPU because of more streamlined costs - in particular, by cutting our domestic shipping costs by using Amazon’s FBA program. The goal of the firm is to sell 12,000 games a year at $20 AGPPU, which results in gross profit of $240,000. With $120,000 of expenses, that would leave a net profit of $120,000 - about the same salary as a data scientist or a senior Java developer.

While our AGPPU needs work, I am thrilled with the potential for our LTV - long term value of an acquired customer. While the terminology sounds a bit Machiavellian, it represents our brand being identified with thoughtful designs and excellent components - and that people will want to buy our future games. The Shores of Tripoli set an initial high standard - and looking through the early reviews of Votes for Women has been really good for the ego and the soul:

• "Both have VERY high production values, both are challenging without being rules-heavy, and (for me) both are addictive. A recurring theme for Fort Circle games, [Votes for Women] seems like it would be great for introducing new gamers to the hobby, and a great teaching tool as well.”

• “This game is fun to play and offers a great way to learn this important history. The production value of historical documents (unrelated to game play) and game components is extremely high. I consider this game a successful and inspiring model of using gaming for history education.” — Professor Monte Johnson

• “This game is very good. I've played a couple times and am looking forward to playing more. I think there's a lot I need to figure out to play well… Like [The] Shores of Tripoli, this looks like a good game for getting people into the hobby.”

• “Hands down one of my favorite new historical war games… Hats off to Fort Circle for the stellar production as well, they really went above and beyond on the historical texts. Really looking forward to playing this more and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.”

• “My favorite game of the year. Brilliant combo of gameplay, history, and production.” — David Thompson

The challenge, of course, will be to maintain our high standards while publishing two or three or four games a year.

Challenge accepted.