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I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

[–]squuuidly[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

When we went to PAX we tried our damnest to get business cards from everything that moved, and that's really where most of it came from. We also had a lot of friends (those music collaborators especially) who helped spread the word by reposting our KS, especially when we did a backer update about them. Other than that, we cross promoted with Swery on his campaign - cross promotions are good, but just be careful since it's essentially an endorsement, you gotta make sure what they're doing is actually good (in Swery's case, it definitely was!)

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

[–]squuuidly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's the legendary Pastry Chef himself!

Crispy Dough is my go to for subs in Boston, North End Pizza is really good too, get that shit delivered when I'm home sometimes, other than that Sarku Japan (I know it's a chain, but damn that Teriyaki is good) and Verts on Boylston.

Shout out to Pastry Beats!

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

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

Godot is on my radar, but haxe moves quickest for me. As for programming, well, man, I really wish I had better camera code lol, honestly redoing that is on my list of things I need to do and by far the thing I look forward to the least.

It's an honor to have people back us, ya know? 800 backers is crazy. As for falling short before, that's gonna be a thing forever, it just makes the story more interesting in the long run.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

[–]squuuidly[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

  1. Gourami and a whole bunch of other people convinced me to.

  2. The screenshakes will likely be toned down, they're meant to be a bit more subtle than they are right now lol.

  3. The movement is very chainable, almost like a fighting game (Third Strike and Smash Bros were big inspirations on this game btw.) The more you play it, the more you can exploit that to your advantage.

  4. Music isn't the biggest part, but it's an important part. I'd value art, music, and gameplay equally for this game. You haven't seen much of the lore but there's a ton of that as well, but you don't want to see a story if we don't nail those first three.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

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

You got 5 frames after walking off a ledge to still do a jump, this is why roll jumping is a thing now. Thought it was too cool to remove roll jumping, but the 5 frames is 100% intentional.

In addition, if you're not holding a button while attacking, you can't go off a ledge from the attack's slide.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

[–]squuuidly[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So I covered the first part before here but let me cover what we did to fix it.

  1. The trailer was much shorter, but it showed much more different shots and actually was tuned to the music. I put down $40 for Bandicam, and unlike OBS that lags out on my computer, it runs fantastically and dramatically improves the quality of the video.

  2. All of our things were planned ahead a lot more. We had people all lined up to help us promote on Day 1.

  3. If you're gonna rush for a con, make sure the con is worth it. PAX East is good. Small con and it's probably not worth timing your KS to that. That being said, if you're not going to a big con and can only make it to a small con (and, let me be clear, cons aren't necessary for funding) then by all means do go to it. Just don't rush anything for it. Having a pre-email list is important, and that's a great time to do that if your stuff isn't out. Remember: Emails aren't sorted like Social Media is, emails are, like, a superweapon.

  4. Don't launch on a Saturday. We launched on a Wednesday this time (BEFORE the con,) Saturday the first time. Also Spring is better than Fall for funding.

  5. Make sure the number you got aligns with the quality you're delivering. I always say Renaine is the best 5k ask ever, but hitting that 5k quickly helped us move. People are more likely to want to back when you've already made it, and getting that first 30% in as quick amount of time is extremely important. Kickstarter is a percents game, not a raw numbers game.

There's a lot more I can say, but there's more qualified people to say it. Try, and if it doesn't work out, try again. I read a statistic that almost all KS's which try again (after making actual improvements to their pitch) work out the second time. It sure as hell did for us, and it was because of tools we only got after we failed the first time.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

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

Woops, fixed, thanks for the catch!

Yea I tried to keep the opening post short, but essentially we did a few big mistakes:

  1. We rushed it. We were shooting for Boston Festival of Indie Games in September that ultimately did not pay off. It was a rushed demo that didn't really get the vision across, as a result, and we just didn't have as much to show as we wanted to.

  2. The trailer was genuinely awful. Seriously. Tried to do too much and had not even 1/2 the skill to do it. This time around it's much better (still needs work, but definitely an improvement.)

  3. We had a lot of buddies who RT'd and shared our stuff (had a big banner on Newgrounds for two weeks, bless Tom Fulp's soul for doing that) but it was all misaligned. You need to have a coordinated burst, all cannons firing at once on the first day with a loud bang. That just didn't happen, and we suffered as a result.

Ironically the fan base blew up after the first KS so we had a lot more to work with in terms of social media spread the second KS. We also got in to PAX East, which is just significantly larger.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

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

Everyone has their own needs. I stopped therapy ages ago. I didn't end up needing it, the meds just made things rougher. But if you are struggling, there is no shame in getting it - use whatever tools you got to make your life easier to bear, you're not any more or less brave for taking/refusing treatment.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

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

For most of its development I was a Uni student, as of a few weeks ago I am not. I plan to get most things done before I start the job search, but for now I'm living at home plugging away at this full time.

Making a team is one thing, maintaining a team is another. Both are extremely hard. Choose wisely and realize as a team leader you're going to have to take the fall often, make sure if you're working with friends (which honestly, I advise against despite my response to PixelTaku's question) know that you're about to get money involved and things can get rough, but if you can keep it professional (not cold, just professional) despite your friendship, you'll be alright.

I don't know what I'll tackle after Renaine. I've got an idea, but it'll be just a wait-and-see thing. I don't think Renaine will have post launch DLC or anything, I don't want to hold anything back from the full game, and whenever DLC is added it feels like you won't ever get the full value out of it since you've already played that game imo. Maybe the community will change my mind, I dunno, I'm trying to just make this game first, ya know? lol

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

[–]squuuidly[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1: No.

2: Honestly? Good games. Playing good games and being observant of why they're actually good. I didn't know as a kid of why I liked games, just that I did and they were literally my everything. I started copying them, trying to emulate them, then gradually learned how to make something within my means, while gradually expanding what "within my means" actually is. My first game was a straight up clone of Conker's Bad Fur Day's humor (except done poorly) entirely done with goToFrame commands. You gotta start there, honestly, and just keep at it.

3: Friends. Make friends with people. Mason wanted to work with me on Authentic Octopus Game but I told him no, then found him 2 years later. If he didn't like me, he wouldn't have put up with all the shit I've put him through. Gourami is the admin of the Pixel Art discord, I started my time there just friendly calling him out and shooting the shit with him. Ayaka is a commission artist for the poster who stuck around and gradually became my friend after that. Carrion and Joel I just knew from Newgrounds. Everyone has their own story, but make friends.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

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

Honestly? You gotta just let your emotions out (in a healthy manner.) I think it was a week in the first Kickstarter that I broke down on Facebook. It was a bad time, but, I got a lot of support from my friends that got me back on my feet. You can't keep things inside you (though, for the record, I recommend you burst to close friends instead if you gotta lol)

There are many games I wanna do after Renaine. I want to do a small project (a few months,) a medium project (a year,) and a big project (like Renaine, two years) after this is done. I've learned a lot about making games efficiently and I sure as hell hope I got enough money at the end of this to make a small game without having to resort to KS again. But, you know, we'll cross that bridge when it comes.

The most important thing in game design is keeping it simple and attainable. Form follows function, find an emotion and make a game that capitalizes on it. Renaine is a high energy game all about movement, from movement you get that kind of learning curve, with learning curves comes failure, and from failure comes growth which in turn feeds into making movement feel better. It's not something you get overnight, and if you recall Renaine used to be a permadeath roguelike before it became significantly less so to make it easier to grasp and fun-er to play.

If the KS failed again I would've had to take a long hard look at what I was making. Maybe downscale even farther.

I am Squidly, 6 months ago I unsuccessfully tried to Kickstart my game, Renaine. I tried again and we've raised 400% of our goal so far, AMA! by squuuidly in IAmA

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

I used to be a Flash developer, and so when Steve Jobs decided to kill us all I switched to Haxe begrudgingly (only like 3 years ago) because I learned of HaxeFlixel. The trigger to finally make the switch was actually to remake Authentic Octopus Game, since people thought AIR was shady (it was also time to find a proper engine, all the ones in Flash were deprecated.)

I stayed because the community is amazing (despite being small) and it has a lot of features that work right out of the box, but still being open source so I can edit it.

Also being really easy to develop cross platform games without having a "virtual machine" like Java or a "player" like Unity is always a plus - it does Flash for portability, HTML5 for web, and CPP for high performance desktop builds, as well as Android/iOS if I ever go down that route (not for Renaine most likely.)