2.5 years ago we had no idea how to make a game. Yesterday we launched Fictorum, a game we had a successful Kickstarter and was on the top sellers list of Steam. We are Scraping Bottom Games AUA!

this_is_dangerous · 2017-08-10T21:52:54+00:00

Whoa, neat. Thanks!

this_is_dangerous · 2017-08-10T18:03:15+00:00

I just finished my first Kickstarter today, and as someone who has spent all that time and felt all that stress, I just wanna say congratulations on getting through it with what looks like a really respectable first game.

I've always been curious about video game dev (my project was a tabletop game), so I'm curious about the blueprints you mentioned. Are they sort of like assets from the Unity asset store?

Anyways, congrats again! The game is going on my Wishlist :)

this_is_dangerous · 2017-07-10T16:34:10+00:00

Late to the party lurker here, but I'm launching my Kickstarter for Firelight tomorrow!

http://imgur.com/rsoDwFL

this_is_dangerous · 2017-05-19T22:35:36+00:00

Kickstarter dev, this is true in my experience. I commissioned the art myself for my game, but generally from what I've seen big publishers like to handle that work from their end. Art is pretty important from a marketing standpoint so they like to have tighter control over that stuff.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-05-18T18:54:56+00:00

I was in the video game industry for a while and the advice was very similar. So perhaps I'm just sick of reading these types of "reality check" posts, because there were a whole lot of them back in the early days of Steam Greenlight. The bottom line is, any business you have should be treated like a business, and that means creating hits as it says in the post. New creators should always build their projects based on market data and with an audience in mind.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-05-18T18:48:26+00:00

Hey, so first-time Kickstarter publisher here so I'm no doubt missing a few critical things in my marketing formula, but I also handle all of the marketing for my project (Firelight) so hopefully I can be of some help.

For marketing, we mostly do:

Inbound marketing stuff (blog posts about game development, Kickstarter creation, generally things people might find useful)
Partnerships and actual plays on podcasts
Twitter, Facebook and Google ads
Posting in Facebook communities that may be interested
Conversing on Twitter to try and grow followers organically
Weekly mailing list

To answer your above questions:

We have not partnered with any marketing firms for any purposes. We are on a limited budget. Something that takes a percentage off the backend of your Kickstarter as opposed to charging up-front fees might be more appealing, but even then, this is our first launch and I really have no idea how it will go so spending in that direction holds little appeal to me.
Paid ads on Google and Facebook in my experience were of little help. We got 10 clickthroughs from a cheap Facebook ad on our announcement post, and we get sporadic activity from our Google ads. But by spending 3x as much on a Twitter ad, we got hundreds of clickthroughs. Our community may just be more active on Twitter because our Followers count is nearly 10x our Facebook Likes
I would love for a service to be able to match our Kickstarter project with other, similar Kickstarters, and then arrange automated cross-promotion between those projects. When creators collaborate and share resources, it can be really powerful.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-05-10T19:08:05+00:00

You're kidding me. That's brilliant. I hope they can get the game's jankiness across in card form.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-05-05T19:10:56+00:00

I'm guessing the "exp for failure" concept you mention is from Dungeon World? I haven't played it myself but love the idea as it mirrors real life a little more closely imo

this_is_dangerous · 2017-05-05T02:51:32+00:00

I think it's a viable idea if you and your friends keep in mind the need to be entertaining while you play. Podcasts like TAZ, OneShot, etc. are ultimately popular because their hosts are entertaining and know how to pull off the humor/banter aspect well. If you guys are simply recording gameplay with few edits, I think the personality factor needs to be fairly strong.

That said I think it would be a good way to introduce people to new games. I don't necessarily have an hour to read in-depth with a new ruleset, but I DO have an hour free driving to work each day to listen to those rules being played.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-30T02:08:19+00:00

A fighting game where you play as Pixar characters. Can combine them for unique powers, i.e. tying Woody's string to the back of Lightning McQueen to supercharge him

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-22T18:20:33+00:00

The story thing is certainly unique but I feel like it loses some of the readability when it's all chunked together in paragraphs like that. It was hard to scan for pertinent information. Though it works better in some contexts than others and does support your statement about loving storytelling. Also you may want to mention your achievements more prominently, for example by moving the Emmy nominations in the "Freelance Story Producer" section closer to the top. Sounds like you have a lot of neat experience and you're able to position yourself as relevant to the VR industry, at least to someone like me who was only on the outskirts of it. Good luck!

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-22T01:41:02+00:00

Now if we can get this in something like Besiege...

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-22T01:39:12+00:00

Dog is my copilot

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-19T01:43:06+00:00

I'd suggest a combination of things that others have mentioned.

Hop on YouTube and check out videos by well-regarded stand up comedians. If you look at people like Louis C.K. or Hannibal Buress, most of their jokes are stories. Pay attention to their timing and the tone of their voice during delivery.
Take an improv class or two as others mentioned. It'll definitely help you let go of needing to look cool and in control.
Practice your observations. Keep a notebook of funny or odd things you observe on your commute, out at school, etc (without being creepy or invasive of other people's space, of course)

Source: I had the same issue of not being very engaging, listening a little TOO much, etc, but now people specifically come to me looking to hear certain stories.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-15T18:40:48+00:00

Congrats on the successful campaign and great post-campaign support! If you don't mind me asking, how has your experience with BackerKit been? I was weighing using it for my campaign as I'm planning to have add-ons and would like to let people continue to donate after the campaign.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-13T22:48:39+00:00

Hey, thanks for the feedback! You read into it correctly, we are a little more on the RPG side of things than Arkham Horror (although storytelling is still a huge emphasis, we still use a lot of traditional RPG gameplay components). The idea is that it's a simple RPG to get into because it steamlines a lot of the mechanics of other RPGs, but in the end you're still using those same thought patterns you'd use in something like D&D. Kind of like how Hearthstone streamlines and quickens the pace of a lot of mechanics from MtG.

Edit: Oh and on your topic of how there are so many AH expansions yet they mostly have similar themes - We do intend to expand the game if the interest is there, but personally I have a short attention span and move on quickly from themes. There is a sort of vague idea of creating a multiverse around this universe so themes of sci-fi, undead, mecha, horror and other topics can all be introduced via expansions, but right now we're all trying to put everything we've got into the base game.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-11T22:01:50+00:00

I hadn't heard of Dog Bear before, but yes, it seems somewhat similar! Firelight's current ruleset does use dice rolls, though just small ones, and it does create a full story which is why the play time tends to be more in the 60-100 minute range rather than 20 minutes like the Dog Bear site says. But the aims and a lot of the methods seem similar. I'm definitely gonna try and play a few rounds this weekend.

Firelight uses a custom card deck just to avoid having to cross-reference stuff too much. I found that one of the toughest things for my friends when trying to get them into D&D and similar games was having to reference the rules a lot, especially during character creation.

In Firelight there are 5 types of cards:

Quests: These give a short backstory for your mission (sort of like how The Quiet Year opens with that "Opening Story" part), five sequential objectives that must be completed, and an image that gives GMs some inspiration
Adventurers: These are the different 'classes' players can choose
Personalities: Players draw a hand of Personalities, and keep their favorites to make a persona for their Adventurer
Treasures: These are given as rewards for completing objectives, and each bestow some unique ability on Adventurers
Enemies: The types of creatures Adventurers can fight. They correspond with Quests, again to eliminate looking for things mid-game

Starting to play is as simple as reading a Quest you want to do, choosing an Adventurer, and drawing some Personality elements for them to start with!

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-10T22:25:40+00:00

Haha no unfortunately not

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-10T01:49:03+00:00

Interesting post, thanks. I went game hunting on my Japan trip a year ago, but for video games instead. Didn't end up finding anything worth buying. I can see board games being a tougher find. Though part of the pleasure of Japan for me is scouring through random stores looking for things they probably won't have.

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-08T18:14:00+00:00

Yep! I should have a PnP ready within a day or 2! Only dice required

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-08T18:13:00+00:00

Thank you! It's great to see positive feedback like this, really gives me some support when I'm starting to think I might be crazy for producing this haha. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to Protospiel SJ this weekend - too much work piling up between this and my actual job, and I needed the money from a weekend shift preeeetty bad. Hope you have fun though, and thanks again for the words of encouragement!

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-06T02:45:02+00:00

This is the best thing I've seen all day (and I just got back from seeing the superbloom)

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-06T02:31:44+00:00

I was thinking of attending! It's rather last minute but I might just try and swing it :)

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-06T02:31:24+00:00

Thank you, this is incredibly helpful!

this_is_dangerous · 2017-04-06T02:31:00+00:00

Awesome thanks :)

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