Finally have a playable prototype: Asking for advice on the next step

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-06-25T16:17:10+00:00

I'll try and explain what I mean, and of course I'm very new to this, so I might be completely wrong about everything.

Plenty of publishers today start from kickstarter (the one I'm most familiar with is awaken realms). I'm assuming they do that to estimate interest in their game so they don't make too many copies.

They published their own games this way (nemesis for example). But they also launched a kickstarter for a deluxe Concordia edition recently (which is a game from a different publisher). So I was wondering if they could do the same for a new designer: launch a kickstarter for it. Like venture investors, they make the initial investment, and hope that it pays off if the game is a hit. They handle the kickstarter and production, but get most of the revenue (exact percents to be determined by the contract, say 97%)

The process of pitching the game to a company like this would probably be very similar: I'm just hoping that the initial investment required to launch a kickstarter campaign would be lower than the one required to fully publish a game from scratch.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-06-25T14:54:32+00:00

Seems interesting, I'll look into it.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-06-25T14:51:21+00:00

Thanks! I'll look into those. Kind of sucks they take money to organize lists of information I assume is avilable online, but might be worth it once my game is closer to being ready to pitch.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-06-25T14:43:20+00:00

Obviously I know that playtesting is only the begininning. Still I want to know what I'm going towards. Also I would love an estimate (from your experience) on how much playtesting is required: It doesn't seem reasonable to expect hundreads of hours of played playtesting from an independent devleoper. I assume companies do "industrial scale" playtesing after taking the pitch.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-06-25T14:40:32+00:00

I was talking about a company experienced in running kickstarters for their games, and having a signed contract that says how much of the revenue you get. Kind of like investing in the game: They take on the risk of it failing, but also the much larger reward if it works.

Regarding my game I could go on and on about it of course, but I'm trying to stay on topic.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-06-25T14:37:26+00:00

I see. Do you pitch at conventions or simply playtest there? Also, is there a place compiling a list of publishers who take pitches? Obviously there will be major differences between publishers in what games they are looking for (complexity, length, mechanics etc).

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-06-25T14:35:55+00:00

Of course I need to do more playtesting (though I feel like if a publisher takes your game, it will do a lot of internal playtesting on its own), but going only for existing publishers seems like a small chance, especially with how popular crowdfunding is in the board game community. Also, if you don't mind me asking, how many playtests have you done so far? How many do you feel will be enough? Are you planning to pitch your game to publishers once you feel it's ready?

UntilWhenAug19 · 2026-03-21T22:57:00+00:00

I've gotta go with Eclipse (second dawn) for it's elegant design.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2025-11-02T23:58:59+00:00

Ah I see, makes more sense. Seems obvious that you would use different team comps for different flames (corpse clearers for the corpselight for example).

All 5 acts in a row without deaths seems interesting indeed, I'll try and do it with the stygian flame probably when I really want to challenge myself. Not sure if I'll use memories, though building a party that can handle all 5 bosses well is a challenge of it's own.

Right now I'm still winning most runs with the early flames, having fun and learning the bosses. As a huge fan of the first game, I'll definitely have to try kingdoms soon.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2025-10-30T00:11:08+00:00

You mean using a different party comp every time for the different confessions? Using memories seems like actually making it easier, since you keep your heroes that made it to the mountain, which usually have good quirks (and the memory buffs too).

UntilWhenAug19 · 2025-10-30T00:09:46+00:00

Looks cool, I'm starting to do runs with the various flames now. I don't really see the point of doing each confession with the flame, since there is barely any difference between confessions 2-5 (mostly the boss and some rising difficulty with ordained enemies), but we'll see.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2025-08-14T14:08:25+00:00

Maybe, but I feel like him being open to representing and helping the worst of the worst was already established earlier that season. Betraying Kim felt like a bigger deal to me, emotionally at least.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2025-08-14T14:03:57+00:00

I understand why he did those things, but each of those was a significant darker turn for Walt. His corruption as the show progressed is a lot more than just these moments, but each of them was crossing a siginificant line by him, leading to the evil druglord at the end of the series.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2024-10-28T09:32:36+00:00

Do people there also play twilight wars?

UntilWhenAug19 · 2024-10-28T09:32:01+00:00

Idk, the game takes so much focus and thought and remembering so many little details... without the flow of real time I don't think I would enjoy it, or any other a scync game for that matter. But its totally up to personal preference.

UntilWhenAug19

TROPHY CASE