KickstarterForum.org

First, who I am. My name is Dave Wilde and I am a twice published author and creator of a hero universe called Galaxy Zento. I am running a Kickstarter for my very first board game. It's only day 2 and I shared (with permission) to a facebook group that I'm not going to name. After that about 8 people started commenting on how my Kickstarter is a guaranteed failure.

Now I took their opinions and advice with professional bearing. I said 'thank you'. I even handled the suggestion that I'm not trustworthy because I'm disabled and passed it on by. I was told my artwork is not professional (I am and consider myself a professional artist and have been paid to be one). When I questioned the resolve on some views I was labelled as "defensive" and as having a bad attitude.

I realize I'm not as shiny as other Kickstarters, but I did all the work myself. I worked hard and will certainly work hard for anyone who supports my project.

I'm not looking for people to validate my work. I'm just sharing a really negative event that had me pelted with messages all day long.

It's only day 2, but I am determined to make this work. It's fine to tell me it won't work. It's not fine to tell me I have no right to question that opinion. Does that make any sense?

I guess you should see what I'm doing. I want you to know that my project is more than just a board game, and more than just some books. It's a multifaceted project that will go many places before it's done. This is just to get it started.

So this is me and I'm sorry for any gloom, but I'm troubled and hoping that I can get better and more constructive insight here than I was pounded with today. Does that make sense?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1705446473/galaxy-zento-the-board-game

My FB page where people have enjoyed the art and stories: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxy-Zento/233056856752787?fref=ts

We live in an imperfect world. Absent knowing what the Facebook group was, and by extension, what EXACTLY was said by whom, and in what sequence, not even counting what was actually meant (which can be a thing quite distinct from what was actually said, at times), your experience in the group in question is largely moot - aside from the fact that you may have gotten your feelings hurt or maybe it left a bad taste in your mouth.

But, here's the thing, Dave - none of that matters. Running a Kickstarter campaign is a full time job. The real question, I suppose, is why are you allowing yourself to get distracted by stuff that doesn't mater, by stuff that doesn't really amount to a hill of beans? You engage in and embrace distractions at risk to your own crowdfunding campaign.

Dust yourself off, and refocus. Dwelling on a handful of opinions, whether positive or negative, serves what useful purpose? Keep moving forward. At a bare minimum, at least try to move forward.

Here's why - The amount of time that you have to get this project funded is limited. You opted for a 30 day campaign cycle, and 1/15th of that allotted time is already gone, never to be recovered.

You say that you're determined to make this work. In that case, keep in mind that should you fail to reach your funding goal within the allotted time, you can always tweak your project and relaunch it, at a later date. People relaunch failed Kickstarters, all the time.

That you are disabled and have medical conditions are beside the point. Even people that disagree with you about your game can sympathize with that, although once you put your creative work into the public eye, the public is entitled not just to their opinions about it, but likewise, they are entitled to share those opinions (with yourself and with others), be they positive or negative.

You can question opinions, but you can't control how other people choose to react to what you say.

Now, hope is, indeed, a wonderful thing to have, but whether you can get better and more constructive insight, here, than what you encountered in that Facebook group that you complain about even as you choose to not name it, well, you might or you might not.

Having spent a little while, tonight, looking over your Kickstarter project page (as well as your blog, your game's Facebook page, your Google+ page, your Twitter page, your game's Google+ page, an article about you (an interview) on Examiner.com, your game's wiki, your Zazzle store, your CafePress store, your Amazon page, your Patreon page, and even your old blog (Wildemand's Words), here are some of my thoughts and opinions on your board game, Galaxy Zento.

1. I like the name of the game. It's a good and suitable name for a space-based game.

2. The project image for your game, which appears to be the artwork for the box for your game, isn't overly impressive. It looks better on the box than just as a stand alone image, though. Unfortunately for you, the project image is probably the single most important image associated with your Kickstarter project, because that is the first image that most project page visitors will likely encounter. As with much comic book style art, which your project falls under in my opinion, the coloring of the art is what is the dominant visual interest killer. The artwork in that image isn't the best - and neither is it your best.

2. The quality of your art work is a mixed bag. A lot of it suffers the same visual malady as your project image. That said, some of it rises visually above the rest. Keep in mind, Dave, that Kickstarter is a visual medium. It rewards visual interest, visual energy, and visual impact. The fact is, some people may well judge your project base upon the art in it, and your disability and your medical issues won't have any bearing, at all, on why they reject it. But, people reject all kinds of projects. People back all kinds of projects, including projects that have artwork that is substantially more deficient than the artwork of yours that I have seen for Galaxy Zento. One point in your favor is that you are prolific enough, as an artist, that your board game contains a lot of different art - and that, Dave, is a big visual plus. Of course, counter-balancing that consideration is the fact that most people who will likely judge whether to back your project or not will not be influenced by all of the artwork in the game, as most of it isn't on display on your project page.

3. I watched your project video. You did a fairly decent job of talking about your game in your project video. Your voice carries well, and it's not an annoying style of voice. It narrates well, if I may characterize it that way. The board game actually looks pretty good, just sitting on your table, as you speak. When your camera man got tickled, when you said you ad to use your notes, I thought that was a good moment. Laughter generates positive energy. It signals fun, regardless of what it is about, the game or something else.

4. I also watched your "How to Play Galaxy Zento" video. At twenty-one minutes and thirty-four seconds, it was neither short nor overly long. However, less than ten minutes into the video, and you have made multiple mistakes, already. I understand that you have medical issues that may bear on this - but, a "how to play" type of video is NOT the place that you want to make mistakes. Overall, I think that your "How to Play Galaxy Zento" video is in need of a rework. By the time that it ended, I was ready for it to end - but more importantly, it did as much to persuade me to not want to buy the game as it did to make me want to buy the game. That, Dave, is a major problem.

5. You really need to consider having one or more videos done of the game being played with the maximum number of players. Feel free to narrate it and to interject commentary at various points, but show potential backers actual people actually playing your game. This way, the natural ebb and flow of the game can visually reveal itself to people who might be interested in it.

6. Regardless of what anyone thinks about your art, it is what it is. If it is what you intend to use in the game, then so be it. I say, make the most of it - which means that you should give serious consideration to using the best art from the game on your project page. Your project pages needs to pack more of a visual punch. If you invest any money in having anyone else to do any of the artwork for your game, at all, then utilize them to craft new art for the box cover. Board games tend to never live up to what's on their boxes, anyway, but people do buy games based upon the box artwork. Not every game, of course, and not everybody, but many people factor the box art in disproportionately. It's eye candy, and people eat eye candy up.

7. You have two basic paths to fund your game with. One is with an emphasis on pledges, and the other is with an emphasis on the number of backers. Your rewards tier starts at the ten dollar level. Currently, your project has a total of three backers, all of which opted for the fifty dollar level. The primary reason to set lower tier rewards is not because they are a primary mechanism to get your project funded, but rather, because it opens the door to your project to gain great awareness through more people backing your project.

Now, the big, green "Back This Project" button will allow backers to set their pledge at pretty much any level that they want to put it at. But, that's not the same thing as having a standing open invitation, which is what the reward tiers that you create help your project to accomplish. Trust me - I do know about this, as the vast majority of the pledges that I make are for small amounts.

Plus, when you're trying to push against the odds to get a project funded, every backer helps. Even if low pledges don't move the money meter much, they do help to inflate your backer number. They help you to drive momentum.

8. I like the fact that you mentioned The Gamecrafter in your "How to Play" video, when you were shuffling the cards. You made a positive comment about the quality of the cards at the 3:43 mark. On your Kickstarter project page, you mentioned Gamecrafter, but you might want to double-check the text that you connected the link to, as you left the last letter out of the link. The link still works. It's just a cosmetic issue that I noticed.

9. The PDF file of the rules for Galaxy Zento, which I downloaded from the BoardGameGeek website is a mass of text. You really need to incorporate artwork into that document.

10. Can you post a copy of how you expect the money raised would be spent? I recall seeing a breakdown, but I am having trouble tracking that down, now. I'm tired, so that doesn't help matters any. I recall seeing something about the bulk of the Kickstarter funds would go to buy copies of the game, which you would take to a convention. The cost of each game, if memory serves me correctly, was $39 each.

11. You set your funding goal at ten thousand dollars. That's a five digit figure. If the project fails, you could try relaunching it with a lower funding goal, with less copies to take with you to the convention in question.


It's almost 3:30 A.M., here, and I am going to stop, here, and go to bed.

Wow, Charles, you are a thorough guy and to that I am impressed. You are right. I have a full time job on my hands and I have to keep rocking it forward. You make a lot of excellent points. I'm going to see if I can get some people together to play the game while recording. I've had a lot of great responses in public from people just watching. One of them already pledged. I may have another idea for a video to add as I sit here thinking. It's different, but maybe, just maybe it will be fun enough? We'll see. You sat up at 3:30 am and wrote all this for me and I am super grateful. Thank you. I've got to get my kiddo off to school so I will be back later, but I also have to "get to work" as they say. Thank you again, very much.

Charles wrote:10. Can you post a copy of how you expect the money raised would be spent? I recall seeing a breakdown, but I am having trouble tracking that down, now. I'm tired, so that doesn't help matters any. I recall seeing something about the bulk of the Kickstarter funds would go to buy copies of the game, which you would take to a convention. The cost of each game, if memory serves me correctly, was $39 each.

I found what I was talking about in Item # 10.

-------------------------
Table: 180.00 (covers two badges for the con)
Chessmen novel (20 copies): 85.00
Short stories book (20 copies): 60.00
Chaos Rising novel (20 copies): 100.00
100 magnets: 30.00
Rack card bookmarks to give away (200): 45.00
250 copies of the board game: 9,750.00

Total aim: 10,250.00

SOURCE: http://galaxyzento.blogspot.com/2015/03 ... drive.html
-------------------------

Even if this project fails, you can always just relaunch it. The vast bulk of your funding goal is due to one thing - the quantity of copies of the board game that you want to create for the convention in question. Ten thousand dollars isn't a grossly exaggerated amount for a board game Kickstarter project, but then again, every project is unique. Some games have huge followings coming into a Kickstarter launch. Does yours?

You get the discount for 250 copies from the manufacturer, so I understand why you opted for that particular number. But, you have ancillary reasons for wanting this board game to be a success, based upon what you said in your project video.

How much did you intend to price the game at, if you made if to the convention with 250 copies?

We plan on pricing at 45 dollars. Actually, at this point, if everyone posts at the 50 dollar tier, that will leave us with 3000 dollars when all is said and done. That won't take 250 games to the con, but it will take quite a few and cover the costs of being there. We're cool with that.

GalaxyZento wrote:We plan on pricing at 45 dollars. Actually, at this point, if everyone posts at the 50 dollar tier, that will leave us with 3000 dollars when all is said and done. That won't take 250 games to the con, but it will take quite a few and cover the costs of being there. We're cool with that.

And if your Kickstarter fails? What then?

At 50 bucks per backer, you need 200 backers to reach your funding goal. That's no small potatoes.

Separate from that, while image manipulation isn't my strong suit, I did want to create a variation of one of your cards, to allow me to visually demonstrate a particular point about the use of your artwork within your game.

I didn't spend a lot of time doing a mock up, but here are two examples of the same card.





The first one is your version, and the second one is a modified version. The point isn't that my choice of layout or design is the best way to do it, but rather, artwork when used as game components is also an exercise in the manipulation of white space. There are things that you can do that require no artistic talent, at all, which can be useful for making certain characteristics stand out.

In your card, you group everything in one white box. You use no impacting techniques in your use of text within that box.

Of course, your actual artwork may limit your options in crafting your layout mechanisms, but hopefully, this rough example will suffice to underscore what I am trying to say.

Yes it does. It does so very well. And while my artwork doesn't support it that way for all cards, my wheels are turning. I see what you're saying. And I realize I'm on steep slope. LOL, my local supporters and I have talked and they told me I better not give up because they haven't reached payday yet. I said, just what you did, that I need 200 backers just at the 50 dollar section. They said not to give up on them yet. To explain, my wife works for the best radio station in the area (by the rankings) and things are starting to happen, just slowly. But none of them were the kind who could shout out about me without the KS being active already. Tonight I go to demo for the ULM Warhawks Gaming club (University of Louisiana Monroe). So there seems to be a line (albeit a fine one) between my local support and online support.

Hello Dave,

I wanted to chime in with a few thoughts. I'll try not to repeat Charles, who posted some thoughtful and detailed advice already. I really liked his point about reworking the card art to allow players to see stats at a glance.

As a game designer with one successful Kickstarter campaign under his belt (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/as ... enny-press), I can say that a lot of the success we had in the Kickstarter was laid down before the campaign even began. We took our game to local conventions, entered it into contests, and play-tested it with friends and strangers until the play was smooth and fun.

Along the way, we met other aspiring designers who gave us advice about how to improve the game, and we tried to collect emails of everyone who played so when we were ready to launch, we had a base of people ready to pledge.

So my advice would be to work on developing contacts and base of fans before you Kickstart. It can be a hard road, but the more you play-test your game at conventions and your local game store, the better the game will be and the more fans you'll have ready to bite on your crowdfunding campaign.

Best of luck

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

Thanks Matt. I've been thinking on this pretty hard. A lot of ideas rumbling right now. Not totally sure of what I'm about to do, but going to discuss with my wife and take all into very careful consideration. Part of the idea behind this Kickstarter was to actually get us to our first con. But like I said, all under very careful consideration at this moment.

Mattgo wrote:I can say that a lot of the success we had in the Kickstarter was laid down before the campaign even began. We took our game to local conventions, entered it into contests, and play-tested it with friends and strangers until the play was smooth and fun.

Along the way, we met other aspiring designers who gave us advice about how to improve the game, and we tried to collect emails of everyone who played so when we were ready to launch, we had a base of people ready to pledge.

This is superior advice.

Of course, for a Kickstarter that has already launched, one can't go back and un-do time, itself, in order to turn back the clock for a do-over. But, you can always do a re-launch, so a do-over is possible in that way, instead.

Having a way to gather e-mails, a way that doesn't turn out to be a put off to people, is a HUGE plus. That's the basis of a crowd heading into a Kickstarter. This matters a LOT< if one has no crowd, otherwise. One problem that a lot of crowd funding creators have is that they hit the launch button, and there they are, all alone, basically. Then, what they face is an instant hill to climb, one that just appeared out of the blue right in front of them and their project.

Of course, if you have their e-mail address, but they aren't enthusiastic, then those are still possibles, but not virtual guarantees, which is what enthusiastic individuals can turn out to be.