So I have run two Kickstarter campaigns, both of which have not reached their goal. There are a bunch of reasons we failed and the number one reason was marketing. I plan to rectify that and show that resilience and hard work can still make my dream of being an indie game creator come true. So if you guys do not mind, I would like to pitch my project to you and let you know what I am doing step by step. Any and all critique is welcomed and appreciated.
Who are we:
HomepageHi, my name is Tyrell White and I am a part of a small indie development team called White Guardian Studios. The main team consists of myself on sprites, my wife, Whitney White, who does most of the development, writing, and code, and our artist Ricky Gunawan. My wife and I have always perused game development and it is something that has always been in our lives. We aim to make games that are a complete experience like most of the games we’ve played in our youth. We have been developing our project for a couple of years now, putting our own resources into it. We strive to make a high quality experience for all fans of this particular genre.
Why:
Celestial Tear Demon's Revenge is a game which fuses the style of a JRPG with western elements set in a fantasy and sci-fi setting. Most JRPGs focus on having a strong emphasis on anime art style and themes. We want to step outside of that box and offer something fresh and new. Introducing a fresh take on the art direction by leaning more towards western comics style like Marvel and DC and focusing on a lore that merges both fantasy and sci-fi elements. We feel our project is one that is missing in gaming and has a story that will get gamers to think and forge their own perspectives on the issues that we present. We cannot make a game that our fans would want to play without feedback and critique. We want people to be a part of our creation process and help us make something that they would be excited to play.
How:
We are bringing our project to Kickstarter because we feel it will not only give us more time to achieve the level of polish needed to make the game we envision, but also to help us complete the game in a more realistic time frame. We have only really been able to put our free time and extra money into the project when we can. With your help we can complete our project with the time and resources needed to make this one of the best in this current generation of indie games.
Our goal is $12,000. $10,000 for the game and $2,000 for the fees and rewards. We plan to finish the game by the 2nd Quarter 2015. $5,000 goes towards living expense, $2,000 goes towards art, $1,500 towards tiles and $900 towards music. Anything extra would go towards the overall quality of the game or stretch goals.
I want to run the campaign by the 28th of this month.
What am I doing currently:
- I have been contributing with kickstarter projects re tweeting ones that I think are pretty cool in gaming.
- I have been looking on Kicktraq to see the games in my genre in an effort to see how much they received on their first day to get where they are.
- Building my Twitter account to almost 900 followers focusing on crowdfunding and gamers.
- Built a Prefundia account to gather some emails.
- Building my email list to cover bloggers and news sites that will be influential in covering my game(Most notable Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun).
- Using other platforms to gather support (Epocu.com, LaunchRock).
- Using facebook to interact with followers.
- Using facebook groups to gather more followers.
- Keeping communication with previous kickstarter backers using my old campaign updates.
- Contacted youtubers to play the demo.
What I plan to do
- Pre pitch campaign on Reddit and other places I frequent and other rpg sites.
- Pre pitch to family and friends.
- Use fiverr.com to get my email written to attract bloggers and news writers.
- Send out emails.
- Set up new kickstarter page and get feedback on that.
- Update landing page on my homepage to make a countdown for the launch of my campaign.
- Contact more youtubers to play the demo.
- Record new video with my team explaining the game and our campaign.
Any and all critique is welcomed and appreciated.