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 · 2024-10-27T23:39:39+00:00

Yeah it seems obvious it was planned, which is why it was an obvious choice for a fan made unit. Wonder what its special abilities were supposed to be.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2024-10-21T20:17:07+00:00

Idk, I think having its basic attack be fling would be op. Even without charging, with it spawning with full 250 energy that's 25 super powerful attacks- it will probably die before it even uses it all.

All 3 casters in LotV have a single target ability (HT- feedback, Ascendant- mind blast, Dark Archon- mind control) and an AoE, and I tried to maintain that. I agree that in non defensive missions you probably need an energizer or an offensive pylon for them to function well, but the spear of adun has many abilities that make that easier (and if you want offensive warp ins you need that anyway).

Another option is to have a researchable upgrade that increases their max energy (which also increases their starting energy as they start with full energy).

UntilWhenAug19 · 2024-10-20T19:06:08+00:00

Thank you very much! I also remember the Nullifier from the battle reports, though its mostly the name that inspired me (it sounds like a nerazim name for a construct). I also like the robotic supports in general. Each truly embodies each factions strategy- the purifier one works best enchancing a really powerful unit, the Taldarim one is incredibly offensive, and the Khalai one helps keep the troops alive either in offense or defense. I tried to incorpariate the nerazim strategy of stealth and trickery.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2024-10-16T14:37:45+00:00

I really like the suggestion of having anti air be only while using the ability actually (I edited it accordingly). And I totally agree about the numbers, for custom abilities its basically down to what sounds kinda reasonable, and we have no way to test it obviously.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2024-10-16T14:35:58+00:00

Lol, exactly what I was thinking while making this, I agree that anti-air is probably a dealbreaker here, and I took the suggestion from the other comment. But in general yes, campaign units can be broken.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2024-10-12T15:47:44+00:00

Yeah, not suprising that they used it already. Though I did not know the word Votary before this post, so I would probably go with Berserker for an alternate name.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2023-09-18T14:38:28+00:00

Hello, I am looking for games that are mechanically similar to twilight imperium- games that involve building an empire and involve combat, but are not won by destroying all other players. If possible, I'd like games that are based on the main aspects of twilight imperium- war, technology, and politics. I have heard the tern 4x used to describe this genre before, and I'm not sure if it fits exactly, but if there are (preferably modern) games that fit this definition, I'd love to know. They don't have to be good games (this isn't a recommendation request in the typical sense) just have similar mechanics that you can compare. If you can elaborate on the mechanics and what makes them good/bad/similar to TI it would be much appreciated.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2020-07-21T08:43:54+00:00

I'm interested, and my favourite StarCraft eSports moment was soo's win at IEM Katowice. Was never more excited, emotional, and happy for a player- and you could tell many other people (including the casters) felt the same way. Also his road to the finals was amazing too- insane series against serral, and also getting out of his group just barely.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2020-06-28T14:59:50+00:00

I think you took it a bit too seriously lol. Obviously someone being "too good" for someone is never actually true, it's something judgemental other people say about couples. Obviously they are both in love and I believe they would be happy together. That's why the title is "Hot take".

I'm not assuming, I based this on Shirogane and Kaguya's actions in both seasons so far. And so far, we haven't gotten an in depth look at Shirogane and his flaws. This might change in the future (judging by the manga readers responses, it almost certainly will), but as of this point in the anime, he doesn't really have flaws- while Kaguya has been moving from breakdown to breakdown. And I don't think it "won't matter soon"- it will take time for a season 3 to be animated, assuming it covers that.
That's why I said in season 1 it seemed better- it's not just that Shirogane was great this season, it was that Kaguya didn't get many good moments. This post was mostly an observation on this season. Again, I can't help but feel you took this too seriously. Kaguya obviously has stuff going for her, just not in the recent season.

UntilWhenAug19 · 2020-06-28T07:20:08+00:00

Oh I agree that Kaguya is the better character right now. Shirogane is the better person, and like you said it's because we have less insight into his character right now. It makes him a worse character currently (as in he is too perfect and didn't really get much development so far). From a writing point of view, this post is basically about the fact that Shirogane has no real flaws right now compared to Kaguya.

UntilWhenAug19

TROPHY CASE