This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Riverton • Brian Kelley came up with his idea for a new card game the old-fashioned way — he used his imagination.
But to raise the money needed to publish his White Elephant card game, he turned to a new marketing tool — a website called Kickstarter, which is geared to helping creative projects attract potential investors.
"It's become a popular way to raise money to publish games," said Kelley, 41, by day a graphic designer and marketing specialist for a Layton company, BlueStep, which provides Web-based software solutions for assisted-living and skilled-nursing facilities.
At night he is a member of the Board Game Designers Guild of Utah, an avocation that has resulted in Kelley's creation of two games.
One called Super Hero is being reviewed by a game publisher in the Netherlands, Kelley said. But for his latest creation, White Elephant, he turned to Kickstarter.
"I decided this would be a good project to try it," he said.
With the help of some family friends, Kelley developed a campy video that is shown on the website, describing the game and inviting people to pledge money toward its publication.
"I need cold, hard cash," he said in his video, displaying ice cubes, a giant boulder and a stack of dollar bills as he said each of the last three words.
In return for pledges, investors are told they will receive copies of the game after it is published. But their credit cards will not be charged until after Kelley secures enough pledges to cover the $6,000 expense of printing the cards, game instructions and the cardboard box in which both are packaged.
And in his particular case, Kelley has until midnight Saturday to raise the money he needs.
"If my pledges don't make it in the allotted time, even if it's just a dollar short, the program doesn't charge anybody's credit cards."
As of Friday, he had signed up 152 backers whose pledges totaled $4,934. Thanks to the Internet, Kelley's reach has expanded from his Riverton home to all reaches of the globe.
"It's been surprising to me," he said. "Some of my investors are from Hong Kong, the UK and Sweden. And, of course, they're from all over the country, too."
Kelley's card game, as its name suggests, tries to replicate the White Elephant gift exchange familiar to most people.
The goal of this family-oriented game, which takes 15 to 20 minutes for three to six people to play, is to match characters on cards with the gift that would be most appropriate for them, be it "kitschy, gaudy, tacky or cheesy."
Buy the game, Kelley said, and "you can be the life of your next White Elephant party," coming up with a gift far more interesting than a "box of cheese wrapped in newspaper [again]. Lame."
And strictly as a card game, he pitched, White Elephant gives players a chance to "relive classic gift stealing, backstabbing moments all throughout the year."
Sounds like a deal.
Twitter: @sltribmikeg —
White Elephant
O To see Brian Kelley's online pitch for his card game, go to kck.st/jaq7NT