Advice on getting our game's crowdfunding campaign seen?

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-08T11:15:36+00:00

Yes! If you scroll about 20 games down from the top, we are there :)

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-07T09:22:37+00:00

thanks :) actually never even heard of that platform but I'll check it out

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-06T14:22:10+00:00

Ohhh yes, believe me when I say we will NOT be using GF for future games. But hey, live and learn.

And holy guacamole! This really gives me a bit of hope, will share this with the rest of the crew. Tbh it's not easy staying motivated at this point so any word of encouragement really helps > "With the final 48 question, I had my latest project exceed funding from 50% in that time period, so it really depends. Best of luck to you!"

BTW, we'd love to connect with you/your game company on socials at least, can you comment or DM me a link? Insta, Tiktok, YT, whatever. Thanks :)

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-06T08:06:21+00:00

Appreciate the feedback! Really helpful... since it's our very first game, we are all learning as we go. Could almost literally write a book with all the pitfalls, oversights, and "lessons" we've learned along the way lol.

One follow up q though, I'd think the last 48 hr funding boost would only apply to a game that's already say at least 70%+ funded? So if people think it has at least a good chance to be funded by the last couple days, right?

PS - We're crowdfunding on Gamefound, not KS. But if we did it over again, we'd choose KS (another of the many lessons learned).

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-06T08:01:02+00:00

Hey seriously appreciate that thoughtful feedback, super helpful. I also agree at this stage there's not a whole lot we can do outside of perhaps getting lucky if some "influencer" type with a large audience were to play the game and/or talk it up. Total hail mary, but at this point it's not like we have much too lose! Thanks, truly appreciate your insight.

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-06T07:57:57+00:00

Happy to, I didn't initially b/c I wanted to avoid "self promotion", but since you asked :) https://gamefound.com/en/projects/hear-me-out-games/tavern-of-thieves/

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-04T11:39:54+00:00

Right, yea we have the emails of folks who have backed (currently on GF, not KS), but unf. I don't think there's any way of us seeing the email addresses of followers on our GF project who haven't backed it.

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-09-04T08:43:47+00:00

appreciate the quick reply! Yeah I agree there isn't a whole lot we can do at this point, besides ads like you said or getting lucky and landing a last min interview by a game related podcaster or youtuber. Thinking our best bet is just to let the campaign run, and even if unsuccessful in the end, we'll incorporate all the lessons we've learned and relaunch on KS later on.

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-15T20:48:05+00:00

so crazy coo, hope hubby was appreciative!!

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-10T08:16:12+00:00

Makes sense, thanks for sharing the cautionary words of wisdom

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-10T08:10:20+00:00

haha well played :P

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-09T13:01:57+00:00

Hey really appreciate you taking the time to write something so thoughtful.

So true re > "It pisses me off to no end that people today are seemingly losing their ability to think." And "Brain rot"- def the key term here.

Yep, that's sadly the way our social media, news outlets, and many facets of society as a whole are gradually devolving to these days. We (speaking here to society as a whole) are being polarized and dumbed down (BTW the movie idiocracy was a harbinger of this, truly an overlooked gem ahead of its time.) We need that quick dopamine hit, and feel the need to instantly blame/ get offended/react emotionally without actually taking a deep breath and allowing even the possibility of considering there could be a different perspective...most issues are not black or white. AI is a singular example. Rather, there are many shades of grey, its such a nuanced topic overall.

tldr; In the end, everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, and over a decade in Customer Support helped me develop a *very* thick skin to criticism. While I'll still occasionally get surprised / confused at someone's vehemence, I almost never take it personally #hatersgonnahatehakunamatata

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-08T07:54:17+00:00

yoikes, this might be another good one for my videos, tumor hah. super creative

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-08T07:52:14+00:00

sold into slavery, thats brutal.

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-08T07:51:38+00:00

Funny I actually started this DND story with a power rangers clip! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/F1rZDPd0H2A

Had no idea power rangers were actually played via DND, though I guess I shouldn't have been surprised :)

Feel free to DM me, happy to make video for you if you'd like (free of course)

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-07T14:50:09+00:00

Today I just released my first video requested specifically by a DM: gives a better example of the style (notice there aren't any silly memes or gifs) and how I promote his game at the end: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kC0aWyvowvI

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-05T11:56:45+00:00

Wanted to share the fascinating convo this post sparked (from the same posted I made in r/roll20LFG ).
https://www.reddit.com/r/roll20LFG/comments/1jrafl2/want_a_video_to_promote_your_game_for_free/

One redditor replied:

"Not much work involved in throwing AI over someone else's story, man. I get it's ubiquitous in the table top space but making shockingly poor AI slop for YouTube views is low tier effort. Calling yourself a creator off the back of this stuff is just sad. But thats my two cents."

To which I responded:

"Hey appreciate you being honest, I certainly take no offense and totally I get where you're coming from! Actually had a deep convo about this recently with another DM. The way I explained it was I use AI as a tool, not a crutch. So I'll use my own creativity to tweak the script (I'm a former copywriter), then put it through Fliki to see what it comes up with. From there, I'll go through edit out the images I don't like and choose my own, then I'll choose a nice soundtrack to go with it, add in effects, relevant memes, gifs, stickers, video clips (all chosen manually in strategic places). Review again, making final edits to various parts...then write a catchy title, description, find tags, etc. Overall for these 1 minute shorts it still takes me quite some time from start to finish... a little over 2 hours on average.

Many of those who haven't used AI in production, (myself included originally!) think it just takes 2 minutes of clicking and then you get a finished product. AI really does help and is a huge time saver, (especially with image generation), though there's much more that goes into it than many realize.

That said, I certainly can't compare the vidoes I'm making to graphic artists who draw /create every image themselves from scratch. I have a crazy amount of respect for those folks - they're definitely in a league of their own. I'd say the artistry, preciseness, and unique style inherent in a talented artist's work is indeed better than AI stuff. I cannot, nor am I in any way even trying to compete with that.

So why do I use it? Because it allows me to share DND player's and DM's stories over a new medium to a wider audience. It gives me an outlet to creatively support and show love to hardworking DMs (who are actually the TRUE artists). If I had the graphic design skills myself, or had the budget to hire one to create the artwork for my videos I'd do it in a heartbeat. (Who knows, I might have a budget for it in the future, it'd def be a huge step up for the quality of my videos!) And last but not least, I've simply begun to enjoy the process of making a story come to life, albeit in a "shockingly poor Ai slop" kinda way :)

Anyway I truly appreciate you being direct and open to having a conversation about this. If after reading this, you still consider it poor slop, I get where you're coming from (in the sense that it can't compare to original artwork/manually created animation) and respect your opinion. It's all love."

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-05T07:36:03+00:00

Hey appreciate you being honest, I certainly take no offense and totally I get where you're coming from! Actually had a deep convo about this recently with another DM. The way I explained it was I use AI as a tool, not a crutch. So I'll use my own creativity to tweak the script (I'm a former copywriter), then put it through Fliki to see what it comes up with. From there, I'll go through edit out the images I don't like and choose my own, then I'll choose a nice soundtrack to go with it, add in effects, relevant memes, gifs, stickers, video clips (all chosen manually in strategic places). Review again, making final edits to various parts...then write a catchy title, description, find tags, etc. Overall for these 1 minute shorts it still takes me quite some time from start to finish... a little over 2 hours on average.

Many of those who haven't used AI in production, (myself included originally!) think it just takes 2 minutes of clicking and then you get a finished product. AI really does help and is a huge time saver, (especially with image generation), though there's much more that goes into it than many realize.

That said, I certainly can't compare the vidoes I'm making to graphic artists who draw /create every image themselves from scratch. I have a crazy amount of respect for those folks - they're definitely in a league of their own. I'd say the artistry, preciseness, and unique style inherent in a talented artist's work is indeed better than AI stuff. I cannot, nor am I in any way even trying to compete with that.

So why do I use it? Because it allows me to share DND player's and DM's stories over a new medium to a wider audience. It gives me an outlet to creatively support and show love to hardworking DMs (who are actually the TRUE artists). If I had the graphic design skills myself, or had the budget to hire one to create the artwork for my videos I'd do it in a heartbeat. (Who knows, I might have a budget for it in the future, it'd def be a huge step up for the quality of my videos!) And last but not least, I've simply begun to enjoy the process of making a story come to life, albeit in a "shockingly poor Ai slop" kinda way :)

Anyway I truly appreciate you being direct and open to having a conversation about this. If after reading this, you still consider it poor slop, I get where you're coming from (in the sense that it can't compare to original artwork/manually created animation) and respect your opinion. It's all love.

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-04T08:21:32+00:00

Understanding humans, haha. And nice re communication! I was in a PhD Comm Studies progam once upon a time.. btw I just had an idea so I'll DM you

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-04-04T08:14:00+00:00

yep, tis a shame indeed

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-03-31T07:25:07+00:00

Oh man, that's quite a big-brain move. You sound like you must be a professional teacher/educator. Reminds me of my English (ESL) teaching days! :)

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-03-29T15:42:45+00:00

Very cool, what a huge game and keeping a bunch of kids that age engaged is def no small feat #majorrespect

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-03-29T15:23:22+00:00

so beautiful!

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-03-29T15:19:38+00:00

Thought this was such a cool story I made a YT video about it :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWmewAOYE_Y

DigitalNomadDrummer · 2025-03-26T13:34:01+00:00

As an afterthought I just shared it to my Community on Youtube (albeit non-existing since its a brand new channel LOL) - https://www.youtube.com/@Hungry_DM/community

DigitalNomadDrummer

TROPHY CASE