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LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
Kinetic Void will be doing a kickstarter either the end of next month, or the following. we will use it for our licencing, and marketing.

Thread on the project.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3464522

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LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
I think the biggest mistake that most of these indie dev groups are doing is setting their Kiststarter goal WAY to high, seriously? $200k to pay 5 guys to make that 2d episodic rpg?

The project I am working on, we have 4 guys, we are going to do a Kickstarter and we are setting a goal of $10k, we need the money for software licencing, and more music in the game. We hope to have the game to a point we want to really show it and do our Kickstarter around the end of April, but we will see. as of now in pre-alpha we have some game play to show and our ship builder is functional (not fully complete yet)

In case anyone missed it, here is the thread for the project
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3464522

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Seashell Salesman posted:

Are the tiers here going to include the game itself? I feel weird about giving money if it's not an investment and I'm also not getting a product in the end, even an interest free loan would be preferable.

On yeah for sure, the kickstarter will be one of the cheapest ways of getting the game, thinking $15+ will get a copy of the game, we want to do $25 at release.

We will also have some other nice tier rewards, like limited posters, and signed physical audio cds from the games audio composer Artem Bank. http://artembank.bandcamp.com/ we also want to include some way for the higher end backers to leave their mark on the game, like help us design a ship module set, or npc encounter or something along that lines.

We are NOT looking for hand outs, any reasonable backer will receive something for their money. The 10k goal is literally just for our software licensing, Maya is expensive. then we need to purchase Pro Unity licenses etc. with everything we get that is over the goal, will go to making the initial release better, more ingame assets, more music etc. and a bit to help with advertising and marketing.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Seashell Salesman posted:

In that case I'm 100% down for another awesome indie spaceships game.

great to hear! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted, if you can spread the word, the more people we got interested the better we will do!

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
Nope not quite yet, we are planing to list it end of next month. we do have a thread on SA about it though.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3464522


clarification: the reason we are waiting till end of April is we are in process of adding a lot of art assets right now. the better we can make it look, the better I think we will do on KS.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
So im gearing up for our Kickstarter (Kinetic Void) and I've got a question, is it really necessary to have a video featuring members of the team? Do people really want to see my goony self on their computer? or would they rather see gameplay and art assets, with voice over from the members of the team?

And to contribute to the previous conversation will we "kick it forward"? probably, I see no reason not to, I already back several project just because I like them and believe in indie development. If I can put a sticker on my kickstarter page and get more backers then why wouldn't I?

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
So, we have been working on our Kickstarter layout, as mentioned, figure I will share what we are planning and try to get some feedback. It's not finished and this is the first draft.

Kinetic Kickstarter

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Tarquinn posted:

The "Notch" tier is a joke that won't see the light of the day, right?

It is a joke, yes.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Occupation posted:

Okay, you need to completely rewrite your intro. All of it. It reads like a bad press release crafted by a mediocre outside marketing firm you hired.

Generally speaking, your intro should be a heartstrings-pulling appeal to emotion. Talk about how much you love to make games, how you're a brand-new startup, be sure to mention about how much publishers suck/you want to escape the publisher-developer relationship-everyone loves that. Describe your game, but keep the pitch (for your game) to under a paragraph. Compare it to currently existing works, if possible ('it's like Mass Effect meets Burnout', etc); that way potential backers will know immediately whether to be hooked in or not.

Your intro is the way that you can quickly form an emotional connection with a potential backer. In that sense, your intro should be more of a focus on why you want this project to exist over what this project will provide to a backer.

By the way, I read your whole proposal and I don't really have any idea what sort of game you guys are developing. I mean, Sci Fi Space Sandbox can describe Mass Effect. Your game does not sound like Mass Effect.

The main thrust of your intro is to establish an emotional connection with the reader and quickly (quickly!) describe your game's concept, using as few words as possible.

Now, on to your Gameplay section. This is where you put all the nitty-gritty for your game. Describe in lurid, explicit detail what your game is attempting to accomplish. Try to answer as many potential questions a backer could have about specifics here, big Q and As because the proposer was too vague and subsequently had to explain poo poo are annoying. Post a lot of pictures to space out the text. You definitely need to expand on this area, especially since you've mentioned before the game is near completion, this means you should have a large amount of finished models to display.

Oh, and make sure to emphasise what platforms your game is being released upon. This is the NUMBER ONE question everyone has. Make sure to emphasise Steam release if you're intending to release on Steam. The fact that you have no mention of release platforms at all, anywhere, is a big strike against you.

Your staff description should be a lot more professional than its current state. Remove all the jokes and emphasize your industry experience (if you have a lot) or your drive to make your dream come true (if you don't). Remember, you're asking for an investment, lame jokes about guys who hang out in TeamSpeak with you doesn't help your case. For every member of your team, include a picture of them/their work. Everyone likes pictures, and it puts a human face on the proposal.

Your "why do you need Kickstarter" section is good, but the question should be quickly answered in your intro and then expanded here. In your intro you should emphasise that despite a near-completed state on your game, issues with licensing the languages you're using to develop the game are prohibitively high (just spitballing, here). People should get a clear sense of why you need the money from your intro, not 3/4 of the way down the page. Also, the last sentence in your first paragraph of your "why do you need Kickstarter" thing is the runniest run-on sentence to ever exist.

Your rewards are fine, if unremarkable. However, your 100 dollar tier reward is kind of...lovely, you might want to improve it. Also, I dunno if you have a set figure of money you want to raise but you have insanely low limits on your mid-tier rewards. Especially the one hundred dollar one- it's a CD, why can't you just make it a limit of 100? Or, heck, even a thousand?

But yeah, those are my criticisms

I agree with some of what you say but a some I dont, I appreciate the feed back though.

We never said we are near completion, we are not. I also don't see the need to "appeal to emotions" and create some kind of sob story. We are not looking for charity, its understood by pretty much everyone that Kickstarter is used for funding projects without other means of financing, publishers, loans etc. I don't see the need to pointlessly state this, I do think I will mention my support for the independent game development scene however, but a lot of what you said just simply doesn't correlate to what other successful kickstarters have done. examples are FTL, The Banner Saga, and Wasteland 2. Sure the latter two have well known industry veterans, however that is the exception not the rule, Kickstarter was not created for well established professionals to get funding.

The team jokes were just stuck in while we were working together, it wasn't meant to make it into the final.

We do know that the game description needs to be improved, and we are working on this.

Describing our game is not the easiest thing to do, the closest I can relate it to would be concepts of X Universe with the gameplay of the space parts of Star Trek Online. I also really don't want to name drop other games to describe our project.

Platform is easy enough, and somewhat implied though yes it needs to be clearly stated, It's Unity Pro so it will Mac and PC, the game play would not lend itself to mobile gaming at all.

also what is not shown is our video (its not done yet) it will be an opening with me, introducing myself, a brief explanation of the game, then the it will show game footage, with voice-over for further explanation. and an ending with a thank you from me.

about the $100 tier, yes its a CD and everything before it, but we are not a record studio, we do not have the logistics to produce and ship a thousand CDs, not to mention the time it would take away from development. Maybe something extra could be added to the $100 tier.

again I appreciate your feedback, and some of it has given us new ideas, but I think some of your views are slightly skewed in a "this is how marketing works" kind of way that just doesn't make sense.


Fayk posted:

Are you guys sure you can handle (rather, want to) having no limit on the number of crew members that you'll have to populate with backers? (Unless I've misunderstood -- tier 4). Probably not an issue for a sandboxy game with names generated randomly, but thought I'd ask since other game projects on kickstarter have limited that kind of contribution sometimes.

People love seeing their names in credits, etc.

Its just a matter of adding someones name into a database that the game can pull from to name crew members, pretty trivial actually.


edit: something else we are talking about doing is adding a web-based version of the ship builder that will allow anyone to build ships and launch into a test flight area. and give people a feel for the game, before they decide to back the project.

LumberingTroll fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Mar 28, 2012

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Occupation posted:

Finally, re: the CD thing, I have no idea what your current audio setup is. I'm just speaking from experience with Kickstarter - one hundred dollars is about the limit to what your average, non Mr. Moneybags backer will spend on a project they really really like. Limiting it to 10, and therefore only a thousand bucks max, is shooting yourself in the foot. If you really cannot for whatever reason produce more than 10 CDs, that's fine, but you should really add another one hundred dollar tier reward in that case. (T-shirt, for instance.)

I'm just saying because you have a really cool fifty dollar reward item, especially an item as bulky and awkward to ship like a poster, it's a bit...odd that you'd move to a CD as the "next step". Especially one in as limited a quality.


You make a good point about the poster and CD, I will talk to Artem and see what he thinks. He is our composer after all, I think we may swap 4 and 5 around. making the poster, credits, and crew name the $100 tier, and CD the $50 tier.

Also check out Artems stuff he is pretty drat talented.
http://artembank.bandcamp.com/

and as mentioned before but may have been missed

something else we are talking about doing is adding a web-based version of the ship builder that will allow anyone to build ships and launch into a test flight area. and give people a feel for the game, before they decide to back the project

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

emoticon posted:

No, but you need to "elevator pitch" it up, which might be what Occupation is getting at. The description is way too straightforward and boring. For example, the sentence "Increased size comes with costs" reads like a memo rather than an appeal that's supposed to get the reader excited about the project.



Understood, we will look at making it read more exciting.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
I backed em, gives us hope for our funding, we will probably be asking for $10k because it's what we need for licensing and legal, but if we can get $69k we can pay our team to work full time until its released.

oh and I have Detour, it's not a bad little casual strategy game.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
I backed Takedown, but I had a feeling it wouldn't make it. $200k to "prove that there is interest" is a really bad pitch.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Vrikkian posted:

drat it, if every single old PC game gets revitalized here I am going to run out of money.

-still waiting for Freelancer 3-

There was never a freelancer 2? and Freelancer was a Microsoft game.


there are a ton of 'high-profile' projects going up, makes me unsure about our indie game getting enough notice. I will still put it up and hope that we can get enough interest.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

yeah thats pretty goddamn amazing, 400k under 30 hours

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
So it wont be going live for at least another 2.5 weeks. but id like some feedback
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seanpollman/1298494244?token=20d8bad0

I will be meeting with a local director next week to work on our Pitch video.

and our SA thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3464522

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Count Uvula posted:

Lots of weird grammar, :

Thanks, this should be taken care of now.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Tamba posted:

The "Pre-Alpha Update 8"-video starts with

yeah I noticed that, not much I can do at this point besides taking it down

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

silfay posted:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/343838885/nekro

dunno if anyone else has mentioned this already but this looks fairly neat.

Their concept looks great, and I love anything randomly generated, I backed them though I feel their goal may be a little steep unless they get a lot more exposure.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
The Dead Linger probably wont live up to most peoples expectations, people expect too much most of the time, but if they can do half of what they want, it will be worth the pledge. I enjoyed Fort Zombie because of the emphasis on survival, even though that game was awful in pretty much every way. I don't really understand all the doom-saying, if you don't want to back it then don't, there is no reason to try and persuade others not to. a $25 pledge is not much of a risk at all to most everyone, and if it pans out in any way, it will probably be worth $25 to get a copy of the game. If $25 is too much to risk blowing, then you probably need to just avoid Kickstarter all together.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
pretty much the same mentality as pre-order bonuses.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
Dead linger just got funded.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
Alright so as mentioned before, Kinetic Void will be having a Kickstarter 'soon' we decided to wait a little while until our Shipyard demo has a few more gameplay features in it.

Our dev thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3464522

and here is a preview of the Kickstarter,
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seanpollman/1298494244?token=c45e9787
obviously not done yet as we keep improving the game I update things.

I am hoping for another week or two until we launch it, but we will see.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

NINbuntu 64 posted:

I've been following Kinetic Void off and on for a while now and you already have a pledge from me when you go live. However, I'd probably bump "Why do you deserve my money?" to just above the gamplay section. It's a short section and you already give a rough description of the game in the intro.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, how did you handle the "snap to section" for your ship modules? I'm looking to do something similar for a level editor and any point in the right direction would be grand.

Thanks for the feedback on the page, and it always makes us feel good when people say they want to buy already :D

As for the modular system, I wont pretend to know how its done, Harabeck is a wiz at C# and he built the system from scratch.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Yodzilla posted:

I think M3CH could be pretty neat given enough time but I'm not sure why in the video you guys found the need to say that you're planning on expanding the franchise into the strategy, RPG, and FPS genres. Why? Why bother even thinking about that when the first game barely even exists?

they probably have a marketing guy on the team, I know a couple local ones and expanding brands is all they think about.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
I've upped my pledge for Nekro, I'd like to see them succeed but they only have 9 days left, and have another $44k to go.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
^^ I really dont like that they made it 'backer only' and this is something we will not be doing.

Arnold of Soissons posted:

It looks contrived and generic to me, except it looks like it was a rip off of like 10 years ago.

by definition, all games are contrived, using this as a detractor is a bit silly. Its cool you don't like it though, different strokes and all. I appreciate what it takes to make a game (not saying you don't), and though you may thing it looks generic or a clone of another game, they have some pretty interesting unique features.

LumberingTroll fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Apr 25, 2012

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

emoticon posted:

Using this as a defense is much sillier since by definition all media since the dawn of man is contrived and derivative. Therefore I can't say something like, "Battleship looks like a generic rip off of Transformers" because by your logic it has unique features (Battleships and Liam Neeson) so it's not a clone.

I suppose if you would like to argue semantics. I was not defending anything, I accept that he doesn't have the same interest. My point was saying that a game is not good because it looks like it was deliberately created is stupid, of course it was deliberately created, and everything is a 'generic ripoff' of everything else.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

emoticon posted:

stuffs..

you are totally right, I am wrong. we can continue the conversation on kickstarter now.

Occupation posted:

Also it's quite a stretch to interpret the word 'generic' to mean "deliberately created". One could even say that's an outright misinterpretation of the word.

It was not in reference to generic, he said contrived. the definition of which "Deliberately created rather than arising naturally or spontaneously" but it really doesn't matter, I'm going to drop it now.

Occupation posted:

Anyways I think Nekro looks pretty cool and I enjoy the art style, and I don't think it looks generic.

I agree, and as mentioned before, I hope they make their goal. The pitch makes it sound almost like a reverse majesty. where you are the evil one causing problems in the town. I do kinda wish they had a bit more facts on the game play though, at first I thought it was a Diablo-like ARPG, but the more I looked into it, this doesn't seem to be the case.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Milfay posted:

It looks like Republique finally gave in and are making PC and Mac versions. I'm happy it looked like one of the few cool projects that wouldn't meet its goal now I think donations will really pickup. They still need to update the faq though.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/486250632/republique-by-camouflaj-logan

they would have been a lot better off doing it as a computer based game anyway, now I'm not sure I'd want to back them for fear of if being a ios to pc port (oh god the horror)

It seems pretty clear they don't understand demographics.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

BiggerJ posted:

Check the Updates tab - the games will still be released.

That's gotten me thinking. Has any game Kickstarter ever threatened 'if this Kickstarter fails, this game you like will never be released/rereleased EVERRRRRRRRRRRR'?

Nekro

quote:

If the kickstarter does not go through Nekro cannot happen. This is the unfortunate reality of the situation. We will not be restarting the kickstarter for a lesser amount and the game will not be coming out 'one way or another' as many seem to think.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/343838885/nekro/posts

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
Someone should pledge a dollar and post in the comment sections, if it doesn't go through, you dont get charged a buck.

I would, but my Kickstarter is about to go live...

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
^^:argh:

Alan Smithee posted:

there's still about 42 days left. I'm confident it won't make it but if it did I would feel soooo dirty (plus minimum is 5 bucks)

No, that's the minimum for a reward tier, you can always pledge a minimum of $1, just click the green button at the top. The only reason I put a $1 reward tier in mine is because NO ONE realizes this :|

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Quodio Stotes posted:

How much effort do you have to put into starting a kickstarter? I have a funny idea that I am going to set the goal at $100 and I will follow through with my promise to completion.

Well, for us, obviously the info on the game, the video, sign up on Kickstarter, need an amazon account, then have to link a checking account to amazon payments - must be verified. and then you are able to submit it to Kickstarter for approval, and you cant submit before at all. after its approved, you can pick a time for it to go 'live'. You would think that needing to link a legitimate checking account to it would be enough to deter fraud. and ya videos aren't required, just recommended.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

Oh, and you have to live in America, right? Pretty sure that's a thing.

Yup, have to be either American, or Canadian. not because of Kickstarter, its because of Amazon Payments.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

Al! posted:

I think theres also a mentality of "we raised 80,000, we can all quit our jobs and work on the game now!" which leads to not having any money to invest in the game when that money comes up short in actual development.

totally depends on what the team is capable of, outside of software licensing there isn't much else to spend money on besides salary, unless you plan to outsource assets. If your team is not capable of doing 90% of the project on your own, you probably shouldn't be doing a kickstarter anyway. For example, the only thing we are outsourcing on Kinetic Void is our audio, and we already have a musician that is working on it.

LumberingTroll fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Apr 30, 2012

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
^ that is a good point. though there is a lot that can be done for free, but requires a lot of time.

emoticon posted:

This naively assumes that the team can perfectly deliver work of an expected quality exactly on schedule. If it were that easy, real games by real professionals would never get delayed.

That doesn't change the fact that the only thing left to pay would be salary, it would just be for longer, and or to more people. In that sense if not planned accordingly funds could dry up, especially if people were being paid too much from the kickstarter funds. It doesn't 'naively assume' anything. Obviously projects get delayed, that doesn't mean that they run and outsource all their assets.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...
We have a new thread, and our Kickstarter is now live.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3482187&pagenumber=1#lastpost
http://kck.st/KniuPR

I would greatly appreciate a sticky in games.

LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

NINbuntu 64 posted:

About loving time. I'll toss you some money in May.

Hey, we had a list of features we wanted in the demo before we kicked it off, :D I appreciate anything you can pledge!

also just purchased 4 banner slots on SA. common goons!

LumberingTroll fucked around with this message at 03:50 on May 1, 2012

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LumberingTroll
Sep 9, 2007

Really it's not because
I don't like you...

octoroon posted:

You should probably PM one of the mods with a politely-worded request.

Already done! Didn't want to spam all of them, and I know they check here as well.

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