So as is more or less expected, there's a quick initial surge in contributions from all of you awesome people who were waiting for your humble deliverer of roleplaying goodness to get this thing going. Then it stabilizes and slows down until the day where I make the first update and promptly starts to climb up again. Note that this is before I make today's update or rounds of promotion, so the line is flat precisely because I haven't done anything new.
What I find more interesting are the near 3k downloads in the span of a single week, it is especially interesting because I still have under 50 backers, most of which already had the game. This tells me that either there's a high rate of interest (not in the economic sense) but a low rate of retention, or that a really, really high number of people are waiting for the magic moment when everything spirals out of control with crazy stretch goals. If you've ever followed a successful Kickstarter you know what I'm talking about.
Also, just to let you know that I didn't forget about you guys: Have an offsite poll. For your convenience, and here is a link to the non-backer inclusive update discussing the matter at hand.
That'll be all for now, I gotta go back to making games. Toodles.
Hey GimmickMan, I just wanted to bring up two things - one something that will probably help with kickstarting even more money, and another that's just a bit of discussion I'd like to have.
ReplyDeleteFor the first thing, you've got kickstarter updates set to backers only. Pretty much every big KS I've seen (and I've seen bunches) sets them to be open for everybody, because it lets you push spectators over the fence with more promises of goodies. You may have your reasons, but I do suggest looking at a kickstarter like FATE Core's - it seems to work, so maybe give it a shot?
Second, and this is a more personal opinion...take a look at this art: https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/002/822/532/cb7379cec4cc8d3b4ab84c84f10449d2_large.jpg?1414625530
This, to put it bluntly, is not good art. It's not, seriously. I'm not an artist, but I've spent years around them (being an RPG player helps with that) and they've explained the theory behind good art. This violates a lot of basic tenets, lacking background, being flat (look at those bits of grey steel at the bottom of the legs, they look painted on due to the lack of depth), and a billion other things I can't go into because I'm working off limited characters. It's just...it's not good. It won't let you sell people not committed to the game already on supporting you. If you don't mind me asking, have you considered going for 'less is more'? Take a look at this.
http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/Mechanical-Knight-144733548
http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/Robots-4-144732137
http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/Robots-3-144731391
http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/Robots-2-144729527
http://hgjart.deviantart.com/art/Robots-1-144728882
THIS is game-selling art. Would you be happy putting the art bit I linked above on the cover of a hardcover BCG? No? Would you be happy with one of these pieces? If the answer's yes, then you need to up your standards. As a fan who really wants to see BCG and any descendants of it grow bigger and generate a demand for further supplements, because the world needs more mechgames, I'd far, far prefer it if we got five pieces of art like that over fifty of art like the first. It's better to offer less but more stunning eye candy than more but mediocre-to-bad art, because the latter just makes your book look amateurish. Maybe the kind of art I'm looking at is just too costly. It's perfectly understandable if getting breathtaking art like that just doesn't happen - but I think the artist pool is deep enough that SOMEBODY has to be willing to take commissions for a price you can afford. Just as a reminder, this isn't a flame attempt - much like I was abrasive with BCG's rules prior to launch because I saw flaws, I'm trying to offer a different view for the art because sometimes another perspective comes in handy. if I'm overstepping bounds here, please let me know - but I really do want to see BCG do better than this.
Nah man you're not overstepping. But you know how most big games ask for something like $10000+ for a single book? Yeah. Guess where most of that goes.
DeleteIt is the difference between having 50 pieces and 10 with my budget, yes. I would personally prefer to have 50, but what everyone else wants is more important than what I want so I'm okay with leaving it up to a vote.
A vote would be lovely! I think that's a good way of seeing what the people want. Put up two images that are reasonably close to what you'd expect to get for the Quality Over Quantity and Quantity Over Quality approaches, then see what everybody thinks. Should be interesting to see if anybody shares this sentiment or if they prefer lots of art instead.
ReplyDelete