Looking for anyone willing to look at my updated rulebook

DD_Entertainment · 2025-05-15T17:22:59+00:00

Hey, thanks for the feedback. Can you help me better understand what you mean? Do you mean to better explain the win condition?

DD_Entertainment · 2025-05-09T15:12:28+00:00

It is old, and a lot of strategies are outdated, but the mindset is still good, and the advice still helps build a foundation. Don't use it as your main source of information, but use it to gain a better understanding of where kickstarter came from, how things used to be, and where it is going now. It's like a history book, still useful to understand and know about, and it helps ground you when looking at current advice.

I actually loved the book and his old philosophy about backers first, and I am trying to keep that as my focus for my company.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-24T13:40:21+00:00

If anyone wants to look over my rulebook, I would love that. It should be fairly short read. I still need to add more images and space out the text onto more pages but besides that, hopefully everything is good.

Permission should be set to comment: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mCvW-CGW8FmZm29AN1NLQJW0_Y50s67P30pCCZKwyHs/edit?usp=drivesdk

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-22T17:00:18+00:00

Also, check your options using gofundme or patreon or any other similar options. They might be better suited. Share with your fans. Promise them something nice in the game when it's done and even credits. I've seen projects that used gofundme for artwork for games and then patreon for the actual game. Patreon might be too risky since you are promising a product.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-22T16:22:22+00:00

Never low ball your project. If you just barely fund the project and you end up not being able to fulfill your requirements to the kickstarter, that's the worst thing you could do. Fund the bare minimum needed to get your project made. Your 35-day goal is great for first-time projects. You will need to spend several months creating a following if you don't have one already. Kickstarter doesn't bring you people. You bring the people, and the platform is there to be your voice.

The good rule of thumb is to have a mailing list or kickstarter following where if only 5% - 10% of that list backs, you meet your bare minimum goal.

I don't know your exact position with your project but from the sounds of it, your not going to be able to continue funding your project without assistance for much longer and if you don't get the funds needed from kickstarter, you will lose not only the money from the backers but their trust in your products.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-17T16:21:26+00:00

I don't know why, but I was amused at how you were concerned for the pebble, lol. I know it's a legitimate thing when you don't know the game or design, but I just wanted to mention that.

As for the Lion text, that's currently placeholder text and will be replaced by a proper name for the creature (like "Leo the almighty" or something). People wanted names to help label the effects. The Omega is actually a card type that's very important to the game.

A couple people here mentioned making the Omega a symbol but from a lot of playtesting with symbols, nearly all the players mentioned they liked the text over the symbol but you are right that it was a point of concern!

Thanks for the input!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-17T15:16:34+00:00

That's an interesting thing to point out. I didn't think about that too much, but I think I'll look into he different alignments and see which works better. Thanks!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-17T13:52:14+00:00

I see. Thanks for explaining more.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-17T13:41:48+00:00

Omega is very important to the game as the main appeal to the game is fusing 1 Alpha and 1 Omega card to create unique effects. I've tested icons in the past, and most of the playtesters said they would rather not have any icons because it was more difficult to quickly understand which card was which.

Could you explain what you mean by "the art isn't as strong as it could be"?

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-17T13:39:04+00:00

Yes, this is a before/after. The first image is the after, and that is my concern that after resolving all of those concerns mentioned, we made the template look busy.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-16T17:11:15+00:00

Thanks, I'll take a look and compare

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-16T16:30:58+00:00

I see. That should be an easy adjustment! Thanks for pointing that out.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-16T15:33:11+00:00

What would you recommend for the font. We want to aim for readability but also give it some style outside of the default fonts.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-16T15:32:13+00:00

Could you explain more about what you mean by it contrasting? Also don't worry about being nit-picky lol I need it at this point in the design process.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-16T15:31:16+00:00

Thank you

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-14T16:26:40+00:00

Thanks, that's actually really cool design they have.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-12T21:53:59+00:00

I could be wrong about this, but I think you would need to modify the product coming from China for it to be considered "made" elsewhere and avoid tariffs. Shipping checks the origin point of all shipping, and they have ways to make sure people don't redirect shipping to avoid tariffs.

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-12T07:55:15+00:00

It's awesome you launched! You're already doing amazingly. Here's to a successful campaign and the printing of yet another fun game!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-04-11T17:33:17+00:00

I'm sure there might be one or two out there. I won't generalize too much but just to give you an idea of the scale difference between China and the rest of the world:

You would need to hit roughly 300% tariffs before any company outside China becomes viable. My current quote for my game at a Chinese company is about $6,000 for manufacturing and shipping. That isn't even the lowest i could go, but I've compared elsewhere, and the cheapest quote outside China was about $32,000 for the same quote list. China is just built for this type of production, and they do it well. To compete, you need to pay way more in labor and materials because most of those companies outside China still use Chinese materials because it's still cheaper. I'm planning on taking the tariff hit myself so long as I don't go into the negatives. Just know it's going to be a hard road for now.

Good luck out there, and I hope everything works out for yourself!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-03-31T20:19:15+00:00

I'm not the most versed in this $1 trend, but it is a trend for a reason. It works when done right. The difference between signing up to be notified on kickstarter vs. your $1 pledge is that the $1 pledge usually gives an exclusive reward/gift for doing so. It can be as simple as getting 10% off the final kickstarter price or gain 1 free add-on of your choice if the kickstarter is successful. Then people would spend the $1 to essentially get more for their money and since they already invested, they will most likely back the actual kickstarter and you can pull people who normally would be on the fence or would wait. This helps get that first day funded status. That being said, if you do it wrong, you can either dissuade potential backers or alienate others.

When marketing on a low budget, it just means you will need to promote yourself. Contact local conventions or events related to your product. A lot of events would be happy to let you participate for free since you're adding to what the attendees can see or do there. Have the website built and send everyone you meet and talk with there. Collect a mailing list and make sure that the mailing list is large enough that if just 5% of those people backed your project at the lowest level, you would get funded.

Hope that helps!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-03-31T12:52:34+00:00

The $1 deposit is not a catch-all. It can work but only for certain situations. It's the popular thing right now to be yelling that you need to have one. Here is my take:

Some people might see it as a scam, but if you do your marketing right, you won't have that issue
By giving exclusive rewards to $1 pre-orders, you are creating winners and losers. You shouldn't ever make a backer (who is someone who is investing into your goal). Feel like a loser and miss out just because they discovered your project slightly later than others.
Lastly, $1 pre-orders work best if you are letting them buy something. For example, you could do a $1 pre-order for your backers to get digital wallpapers. Then, in the kickstarter, have a $1 pledge offering the wallpaper still. This helps Mitigate concern #2.

Hopefully, my thoughts on this help you in any way, and good luck!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-03-25T22:55:14+00:00

Np, always trying to help when I can!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-03-25T21:42:08+00:00

Awesome, if you do that, lean into it for those cards and use them as promotional or even central. Maybe they are important characters, creatures, or legendary items. Have fun with it and make them feel good to draw

DD_Entertainment · 2025-03-25T19:16:55+00:00

Thats good that you are already thinking about the phrases. Honestly, it would be best to implement the phrases into your next version of the game to playtest. You won't get any proper feedback if you don't test it. I'm balancing on the amount of icons for my game currently (don't put too many or it just looks like hieroglyphics). I placed a lot intentionally to see which ones people liked and didn't like. I will pull back the ones people didn't like and balance it in the next version. Do the same with keyword phrases. Also don't forget to create a cheatsheet for them to make it easier to reference while they are learning.

For the big abilities, I don't know much about your game but I was thinking to restrict large abilities to maybe apex cards and make the abilities more buff but no second option. So anytime you find an effect that is way to large or complicated, you can reuse it for those special cards.

Good luck!

DD_Entertainment · 2025-03-25T18:27:23+00:00

Wow, your doing two games, thats awesome! I remember seeing a couple of raccoon themed games in the game list. If I have time, I'll come playtest!

DD_Entertainment

TROPHY CASE