KickstarterForum.org

Hi guys let me introduce myself before I talk about my product. My name is Michael Milano and I love to create things. In university i told my design class that my goal in life was to make things that people enjoy, whereas most of my classmates focused on the aesthetics i would focus on the use experience. Before I came up with my project i was a very a passive and timid person, just kind of cruising through with no real drive. I began to teach english in korea and I slowly i began to see the light. the more i talked to people the more I enjoyed it! i wanted to create a product that could help people become more comfortable with one another in a game format this game to me was a no brainer. thats when i thought of this game and the rest is history. since i started developing my game my whole life has changed and what and who i am has changed as well.

On to my product. Thinktank is the perfect apple on the undiscovered orchard. Its the cookie, but its missing the milk. But really its just an awesome party game! Players have one minute to think of titles and descriptions of various apps, movies, websites, restaurants, and products. I hope that players of this game can feel more comfortable about sharing their ideas because responses are anonymous!

If you love party games, japan, pizza, ramen, and supporting entrepreneurs like me please let me know how I can boost my exposure and get my game out there! Thanks so much guys. you can check out the site at http://www.thinktanku.com or https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelmilano/thinktanku-the-party-game-for-creative-thinking

Looks like you are off to a great start. Much luck to you and thanks for visiting my page I'll be watching your KS

Thanks and I will be doing the same for you.. Be happy because both of us are doing our dream! good luck!

Wow, this project looks really solid. Nice page layout, clear but attractive card design, and reasonably priced.

When I consider backing a board game project, I always check out the game's boardgamegeek.com page. Right now, yours is pretty empty. I wonder if you could fill it with more photos of people playing, some reviews and general comments, just to give the page a 'lived-in' feel. I know I'd feel better about backing a page that feels like it has an audience already behind it.

You might also do that with the comments section of your Kickstarter page. Maybe send out an update that asks your backers to come up with an answer for one of your game's questions, and then have them post answers in the general comments. That will be fun for backers (you could even offer a small prize), and it will get some activity going on your page.

Best of luck,

Matt
https://www.inkshares.com/projects/grimm-diagnosis

matt...thanks for the reply!!! very helped information.. I will be hitting my boardgamegeek page now!

Milanocookies56 wrote:On to my product. Thinktank is the perfect apple on the undiscovered orchard. Its the cookie, but its missing the milk. But really its just an awesome party game!

Mattgo wrote:Wow, this project looks really solid. Nice page layout, clear but attractive card design, and reasonably priced.

I begin by quoting the two segments of this thread that I think are worth highlighting.

Matt, in my considered opinion, gives some of the best advice on this forum that I have seen, to date, and I agree with him that your project page has a nice layout, and that your cards are clear (and to a lesser degree, somewhat attractive - more notably, they are legible, something that not all cards for games tend to place much emphasis on, unfortunately).

Your project page has a crisp, clean, and very organized approach to it, Michael. In that sense, it is dressed and groomed nicely.

But, visually speaking, your project page has all of the appeal and charisma of Howard Sprague, a character from the old Andy Griffith Show. In other words, visually speaking, your project page is boring. It's bland. It's dull. You've dressed it up with a bowtie, and I'll give credit where it is due - Howard Sprague was well-groomed, if he was anything.

As a supporting fictional character, Howard Sprague was a great character on a great show. Yet, why is it that when I look at your project page, just sit and look at it, that I'm not left with the impression that it is either awesome or that there's a party going on?

I watched your project video. The quality of the project video is very good. The content of it is more Howard Sprague. Let me put it this way, Michael, there is what you are saying, and there is what is being communicated.

Visually, as well as audibly, what's being communicated is the essence of Howard Sprague.

Obviously, your current 86 backers pledging $3,807 of a $15,000 goal may feel otherwise.

When you raise your voice in your video, it doesn't signal enthusiasm to me, but rather, it signals to me that Howard Sprague just got louder. Visually, especially, this project page has milquetoast written all over it.

Look at your project page, Michael. That little photo of you, the circular one over on the right hand side of the page, that's a good image. It's a good image, because you as a person are "legible" to the eye, even though the photo, itself, is very small, as rendered. You're also smiling, which generates positive energy.

Now, look at all of the other photos of people - actual people - on your project page. Not the meeples, but the people.

Visually, your project page isn't sending the message of social, or of fun. Why? Because, nobody on it is actually playing your game, and clearly having a fun time playing it.

The end result is visually sterile. The fun factor is neutered, visually speaking. The page has a professional air about it. Certainly, the game wasn't thrown together in a half-ass manner. Just look at the images on the project page. Everything is all neat and prim and proper.

You're seeking to sell people on a game, on a form of entertainment, on a form of fun.

If Thinktanku is truly an awesome party game, why doesn't your project page leave me feeling that way? Why doesn't your project video leave me feeling that way?

Hey Charles,
I wanted to thank you for your long thought out and very interesting post. It was quite the rollercoaster, haha. Perhaps I should have shot some play tester footage that would have really captured the magic. Unfortunity I am longer able to capture footage from my primary audience. I did and will continue to use what resources I have. Throughout the campaign i have been posting cards from the game to social media. Today I compiled some and added them to the kickstarter page. Thanks for the reply it was nice having a new insight on the campaign

Milanocookies56 wrote:Hey Charles,
I wanted to thank you for your long thought out and very interesting post. It was quite the rollercoaster, haha. Perhaps I should have shot some play tester footage that would have really captured the magic. Unfortunity I am longer able to capture footage from my primary audience. I did and will continue to use what resources I have. Throughout the campaign i have been posting cards from the game to social media. Today I compiled some and added them to the kickstarter page. Thanks for the reply it was nice having a new insight on the campaign

You have said that it is an awesome party game. So, it shouldn't be too hard to get a group together to play it, I would think. After all, you have over three full weeks left in your campaign cycle to round some people up.

That said, you don't even have to do an actual game session, in order to get some still shots done. They can be mannequins with smiles, holding your cards.

You could also take photographs of your cards atop different tables or materials, to gain additional texture for your photographs.