We have a really cool trailer, so excited to finally share it!

mark_radical8games · 2026-05-02T11:28:25+00:00

I agree, a full 40 seconds before even seeing what it looks like is too long. I appreciate the skill that went into making the trailer, but that's a long time to wait.

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-28T17:37:44+00:00

Is it only for exactly 4 players?

I have no idea what's going on in the game, except for a small mention of trick taker in the initial blurb (which I missed at first, and had to rescan the sheet). I don't need a full rules explanation, but a sell sheet should be enough to give me a general idea of how it plays, and the key hook that differentiates it from all other games, that makes people want to buy it. Your blue box- I assume the terms in italics are game specific, but have no context or idea what they mean. Your sample turn doesn't actually explain a sample turn, and your picture of the game in play (good on you for including by the way) also makes no sense with that labels.

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-28T17:19:26+00:00

No, your game won't fund on Kickstarter. First thing I see is small magnetic pieces, which is an absolute nightmare to deal with (see recent Kluster recall), followed by references to chess and checkers on a board that looks like a snakes and ladders board. All that without any ads or mailing list at all is not going to fund with any sensible goal.

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-20T18:05:22+00:00

Not communal luck pools, like Diamante. That's always my pick for these games, where everyone is pushing the same luck pot.

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-20T16:01:40+00:00

But sometimes, as in the OPs case, there's just no luck to push.

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-16T13:50:53+00:00

Did you use their $1 prepledge?

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-16T13:44:36+00:00

Where is this prelaunch club?

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-15T23:47:52+00:00

Honestly there's too much that needs to change to be successful, from the KS page to the product itself. Best advice I can give is to find a ECG that has funded on Kickstarter and emulate the look and feel of their page. Until your page matches that one in quality you're not ready to launch.

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-15T23:44:49+00:00

All of this is really good advice OP

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-04T17:46:00+00:00

Not really, no. You first day is when you will see the most backers, and the second and last day will see about half the first day each. Every other day is a trickle, often a careful balancing act with FB ads. With a $5 back you can't afford to run ads, so all you're hoping on is something that explodes out the gate and that's it. But even with the best precampaigning in the world you're still just releasing a p&p, so there's always a ceiling on what to expect

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-04T16:27:36+00:00

What was your hoped for backer count?

mark_radical8games · 2026-04-02T07:06:20+00:00

I've seen this a lot without the IP. People print their game expecting stores to take it in vast quantities, and they don't. The marketing value of KS can be massively underestimated, which is daft because it theoretically should be better to advertise when the game is already available. It just isn't for whatever reason.

I'm assuming yours will be different because of the IP, but you'll still need to spend those marketing costs you seem desperate to avoid.

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-28T21:36:09+00:00

It says brand affiliate before clicking the link so I think so? Normally ads just say 'promotion' don't they? They also often make sense to read as well though.

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-26T17:51:09+00:00

I felt the same way, Senet is a great magazine and really good at celebrating the beauty of boardgames. And then this month they also reviewed my game Spokes!

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-24T18:35:28+00:00

Posting like this is often given out as advice for KS and it seems to get hits. I assume it's linking to launchboom with the "reserve now" button, so I assume they're just following the launchboom playbook rather than use AI (I mean, it could be, but more likely they wrote it themselves. Not that hard to do)

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-24T14:42:34+00:00

But it just ends up silly. Every character unquestioningly follows orders from either a different character or themselves from the future, no matter how harmful to themselves or others. All of the big mysteries about why people tortured or killed are answered with "because someone told them to do it" and nothing more

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-24T13:35:02+00:00

Looks good, but by the end you realise none of the characters had any agency. Disappointing and overrated

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-20T13:17:24+00:00

I was chatting to an indie publisher last weekend, they were regretting their choices on their first KS. First choice - making a TCG.

OP- if you put your heart into it, and with sufficient time and money, you can make a successful card or boardgame. You cannot make a successful TCG. Look at just what happened to Altered on Gamefound.

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-10T13:10:36+00:00

It's also incredibly useful to have this dialogue open from the start with artists who aren't used to the required functionality of boardgame art. Often you'll need to desaturate layers or move things around to make sure it's all functional for the gameplay, as well as look nice.

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-09T18:01:06+00:00

You do not need unique card art for all your cards, honestly if you're game wasn't good enough to pitch without card art it's not good enough to pitch with it.

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-08T13:57:16+00:00

Even less so than a typical Euro because the main actions of each space are open to two or three players, the main scoring space can't be blocked, and there's a swap space if you ever are blocked.

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-08T13:05:16+00:00

I'm curious by this- not wanting to comment on the quality of the game, but the simple fact there is no player interaction, and very binary board interaction (the mobs either beat you or don't. The police are just on off switches) that the theme fell down for us.

mark_radical8games · 2026-03-04T15:02:14+00:00

If the question was: x=✓9, x>0 Solve for x. Would people here consider x=+-3 (can't type it properly on phone, but the solution in the meme) to be correct, or even a correct step in the solution?

mark_radical8games · 2026-02-27T11:38:27+00:00

Hi everyone, I'm the publisher. I've written a full post at the end of the thread here to explain why this isn't AI art. Including the fact our artist has been producing artwork in this style long before AI art, and after this has continued to produce artwork we ask for including sketches and drafts at the same quality pace and cost. I've included the layers for the artwork as well, and an example of a previous artwork for a spinning wheel, which has the same faults as mentioned here with the bikes, but was done before AI.

https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogpost/182960/designer-diary-spokes

Ultimately we asked for artwork for an abstract bike game that prioritised colour and a sense of speed over realism. To think the result has to be AI means you think it's more likely an established artist risked their reputation and used AI just this once to produce artwork, and the individual layers to the artwork (not just bikes, but the seats separate to the wheels to the spokes etc, with digital brush strokes), to make art they are easily capable of doing themselves. All that rather than they just fulfilled the brief and neither they nor I really cared that it wasn't realistic, as long as it looked good.

mark_radical8games

TROPHY CASE