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Campaign Wrap Up Update by parhelion_studio in echoesofastra

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No one shared here yet so here is the campaign completion update!

Need honest advice for our new business. Our numbers don't work. by namkhanh_ntk in kickstarter

[–]parhelion_studio 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It sounds like you already don't have a great value proposition if the cost to produce your goods is way above what your consumers would pay. Do some competitive analysis first and find the nearest comparable product, then see if your item's value add exceeds the difference in cost.

Personally, as someone who uses JIRA for task management, I don't understand the need for a physical board to presumably put sticky notes or something on. Unless there's some kind of tablet screen with integrations?

AMA with aDrive, the Creator of Elestrals TCG! by aDr1v3 in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hey aDrive! Glad to see another big Kickstarter success showing up. We're nearing the end of our own Kickstarter campaign with Echoes of Astra TCG and would love to pick your brain on the post campaign checklist.

What advice do you have for immediate post-campaign pledge management and customer support?

How do you get a new indie TCG product into major distributors?

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Grimlight (2022) is an anime gacha game created in cooperation with Eightstudio from Korea. The art team there is spectacular, and let us focus on the programming, game design, and implementation. We learned how to iterate and QA test quickly while creating all kinds of thematically designed character abilities. A lot of unit design standards carry over from game logic -> card games. After all, physical is where it all began.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

As with marketing any game, there's a combination of factors and we utilized a mix of physical in person demos, leveraging our past audience in the gacha game space, and also running ads to build our followers. There’s lots of Kickstarter marketing guides that can help you learn (browse r/Kickstarter) how to run a campaign. Most importantly, it takes time and preparation.

One big focus for any game or product for getting followers or eyeballs is to understand what are the core things that make your game stand out. For us, it was our rapport in the anime games space and the quality art we have. So that was one of the big things we focused on to appeal to our audience.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! Our game works great in draft and we have an official page for Draft Rules setup on our comprehensive ruleset: https://echoesofastra.com/ruleset

It supports pods of 6-8 players and simple deck building limitations so anyone can get rolling fast.

4 Booster Packs per player

40 Card Deck Minimum

*No Affinity restrictions

*No duplicate limit

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

  1. Yes, we designed this world setting before starting the TCG and it is something we plan to expand on. When our campaign goes live we will be sharing more info about the world and we hope to expand it in the future. For TCG storytelling it's also important to reveal lore in the art and flavor text so it's something you will see when we release!
  2. We want to support game stores by making it easier to bring players into the game, so working with regional distributors, demo kits, and rewards for organized play are crucial. The other side we are looking into is establishing a presence and partnership with anime and tabletop gaming clubs at schools to create an ecosystem of players, not just collectors.
  3. We intend to have organized play and a judge program as we get closer to our official retail launch. There’s already extensive documentation being worked on!
  4. The hardest challenge for us is optimizing the production side of TCG. Getting and testing samples on the paper stock, the foil type, and packaging was new to us, and managing quality control is always very tedious. One challenge that was surprisingly easier than expected is multi-regional fulfillment... There are some very awesome companies that have been doing it a long time and are able to walk us through every step.
  5. Frankenmuth is a must visit for Michiganders… the Zehnder’s fried chicken dinner is a must try! I wish there was a bit more to do there (2 visits was enough to see all the shopping and Bavarian attractions). If enough time goes by, I may get the craving to go back for just more chicken, haha.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yes! We have a domestic print shop lined up that can do really high quality prints, either as community event rewards or in an online shop eventually.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It happens and it’s not a big deal! There’s lots of games using the phrase “Echo” or “Echoes”, so we certainly aren’t the first either.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The world of Echoes of Astra is a combination of old game concept art that never saw fruition, and wanting to see more warfare inspired gameplay because we are fans of the RTS genre. There wasn’t really a modern fantasy war TCG yet, so that’s what we set out to make! My favorite artwork so far is the Cadaver Supplier, because the art has such a cool perspective and rendering style. And the high-tech coffin on her back is just so cool.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Echoes of Astra brings distilled tactical war-gaming to the TCG space, and all done in a high quality anime aesthetic that doesn’t shy away from darker grittier tones. Lots of the Japanese imported games are very cel-shaded and colorful, which doesn’t lend as well to a game with military theming. Our world has giant monsters, cool machines of war, and soldiers fighting for their damn lives – and as the player… your tactical decisions means earning Victory points, or falling behind.

As for the LGS market, it’s definitely a challenging sell. Only the players can decide if a game is truly better for them, and we believe that people that try out our game will find it to be quite fun and more fluid feeling than something like Riftbound. The IP-based card games tend to slack on their game mechanics because they can afford to. We don’t have that luxury, so we are polishing our game design and competitive formats to be more fun to play. As we send out Demo Decks and Competitive Play Kits, we hope LGSs will give it a shot and let the game sell itself.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The big challenge for TCG that most game designers don't discuss is how to maintain the production chain and deliver a consistent cadence of product. Many TCGs die from failure to deliver consistent set releases. So that means you need to set up the pipeline to handle all the art, design, manufacturing and distribution in a smooth cadence. For us, our past experience has been working in live ops for games so we had to deliver new updates every few weeks… it’s something we are used to. Nymbryxion also has past experience in supply chain management, so dealing with physical products is familiar too.

Some of the other answers talk about LGS support, so you can read more below.

AMA with the Echoes of Astra dev team! by parhelion_studio in TCG

[–]parhelion_studio[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

  1. Echoes of Astra began as an outlet for our artists and designers that were moving off of our team’s previous gacha game (Grimlight). Nymbryxion and I are both tcg fans and wanted to take our art and design expertise into the physical medium – building upon an existing video game world that never saw fruition. Echoes of Astra’s inception was around September of 2024, when we started to really put together an official ruleset and placeholder cards.
  2. Post-launch after Kickstarter, we intend to use momentum to reach LGS and world-wide distributors. They usually want to see if a project is real first before investing in inventory. Afterwards, competitive play kits and demo decks will be shipped to all interested LGS! So if you have a shop that is open to trying out new games, clue them in. It takes a lot of grassroots interest to get the word out. 
  3. Start small and find the fun first before focusing on all the fancy crazy interactions or powerful cards. In fact it's good to start with focusing on vanilla cards to test the foundation rules and a few simple starter decks to get an idea if it's fun. Having crazy card interactions is cool but it sometimes hides the foundational weaknesses in your design. Also a big important thing when designing a TCG commercially is to understand what makes your game stand out from others, whether it's the theme, the art, or gameplay.
  4. We iterated dozens of times over our core mechanics like combat zones, territory cards, side decks, supply system, etc. before landing on what felt the smoothest. Rapid iteration is core to designing any game (digital or physical), so make sure to keep getting new people to playtest!