My INDIEGOGO has launched!

Started by nnodley, May 06, 2022, 07:40 PM

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Legend

dang that was quick. lol

But thanks.  I also extended the campaign.  We are in florida for a week and i want to when we get back continue to market it as best i can and for as long as i can

at this point i'd like to just hit over $1000 in funds.
Whenever you get around to making a big trailer, here's a great resource: How to Make a Trailer -- Derek Lieu Creative - Game Trailer Editor

Lots of great guidelines.

nnodley

Jun 06, 2022, 07:02 PM Last Edit: Jun 06, 2022, 07:09 PM by nnodley
So i think i've decided to delay my game to the first of next year, and instead give like the first 30 or 40(maybe more) backers, who buy one of the perks with a game key, a beta demo to both test performance and functionalities. Send out beta by end of september. Get some feedback on what could be changed and what works and what doesn't.  Plus as we are finishing up our flip house i'm not able to do as much these last couple weeks and moving to first of year will both give me more time to get this to a state that i'm really happy with and to get it out of the crowded end of year with all the big hitters.

and im gonna just try and post on socials every day or every other day with the link and good hashtags to hopefully get it to catch on and incentivize people to want to beta test it.  We will see

Legend

So i think i've decided to delay my game to the first of next year, and instead give like the first 30 or 40(maybe more) backers, who buy one of the perks with a game key, a beta demo to both test performance and functionalities. Send out beta by end of september. Get some feedback on what could be changed and what works and what doesn't.  Plus as we are finishing up our flip house i'm not able to do as much these last couple weeks and moving to first of year will both give me more time to get this to a state that i'm really happy with and to get it out of the crowded end of year with all the big hitters.

and im gonna just try and post on socials every day or every other day with the link and good hashtags to hopefully get it to catch on and incentivize people to want to beta test it.  We will see
Sounds like a reasonable delay. What exactly is the current state of development?

Don't be afraid of giving out raw alpha demos too, maybe just including the first 15 minutes. Feedback at every stage of development is valuable.


nnodley

Jun 06, 2022, 10:15 PM Last Edit: Jun 06, 2022, 10:27 PM by nnodley
Sounds like a reasonable delay. What exactly is the current state of development?

Don't be afraid of giving out raw alpha demos too, maybe just including the first 15 minutes. Feedback at every stage of development is valuable.


Right now the environment layout is fully laid out and complete, except maybe minor tweaks possibly. But I don't have all the gameplay elements fully working and you can't currently play the game from start to finish.  Though once i get functionality in a working spot it will go quicker but its just getting it to that point.

you can walk around the island exactly like what will be in final game, but just don't really have anything to do yet.  I know how its all gonna work just have to build the functionality.

maybe i can do like first 20 to 30 backers get raw first 20 minutes just to test out performance and stuff by end of july.  Then let anyone who backs any of the game key tiers get a beta key.  Just to broaden the range of feedback. Send the beta out by end of september/first of october.

I might need to make a disclaimer that without full optimization and figuring out actual needed specs that a gtx 1070 is bare minimum since that is the oldest card range that will work with lumen.  Nanite should be compatible back to like 2014 gpu's so i should be good there.

i want to have a graphical option to use unreals screen space GI option to allow lower end cards to work.

Legend



I think I see something!

nnodley


nnodley

Alright so. I guess my minimum for funding has to be $500. So what i'm thinking is let this campaign lapse without getting over the funding then it will all get refunded.  Then i can reset and attempt to use what i had in this campaign as a starter point and get much better trailers and info for a better second campaign in a couple months.  Since i delayed the game anyway it will be fine. 

Everything with this flip house we have is consuming everything to get it done so i just have no time to do anything else.  Trying to chill a little bit and play some games to unwind from the flip house.

Legend

Alright so. I guess my minimum for funding has to be $500. So what i'm thinking is let this campaign lapse without getting over the funding then it will all get refunded.  Then i can reset and attempt to use what i had in this campaign as a starter point and get much better trailers and info for a better second campaign in a couple months.  Since i delayed the game anyway it will be fine.  

Everything with this flip house we have is consuming everything to get it done so i just have no time to do anything else.  Trying to chill a little bit and play some games to unwind from the flip house.
That's rough with your house flip but smart to not burn yourself out.



What is your goal with crowdfunding? Are you needing financing to finish the game, or is it more about marketing and building an early community? Very few games seem to make money on indiegogo and while kickstarter tends to be better, it's super hard to reach your funding goal.

It might be wise to skip funding and focus directly on steam. When a page goes public for the first time the algorithm gives it a big traffic bump. Even without posting anywhere, the launch of a great looking steam page can drive a lot of wishlists. That's partially why it's so important to not publish your steam page until it is 100% ready.


In general though I'd really recommend just doing whatever makes it easiest to finish the game itself. That's hard enough on its own, especially when you can only work on it part time. Financing/marketing is important but spending a lot of time on it can be super demoralizing.

nnodley

That's rough with your house flip but smart to not burn yourself out.



What is your goal with crowdfunding? Are you needing financing to finish the game, or is it more about marketing and building an early community? Very few games seem to make money on indiegogo and while kickstarter tends to be better, it's super hard to reach your funding goal.

It might be wise to skip funding and focus directly on steam. When a page goes public for the first time the algorithm gives it a big traffic bump. Even without posting anywhere, the launch of a great looking steam page can drive a lot of wishlists. That's partially why it's so important to not publish your steam page until it is 100% ready.


In general though I'd really recommend just doing whatever makes it easiest to finish the game itself. That's hard enough on its own, especially when you can only work on it part time. Financing/marketing is important but spending a lot of time on it can be super demoralizing.
I don't necessarily need the funding. It was more just to help give some savings boost for future games or whatever. I definitely can finish the game without it.

That might be the best option. So I can focus on getting some good marketing materials and trailers for my steam page and get that up and just focus on sharing the game updates to social media and hopefully build my wishlists

But I was gonna use some of the funds to pay a couple people to help on some VFX and stuff. I have a guy who works at pipeworks in Oregon that offered some help.

Legend

I don't necessarily need the funding. It was more just to help give some savings boost for future games or whatever. I definitely can finish the game without it.

That might be the best option. So I can focus on getting some good marketing materials and trailers for my steam page and get that up and just focus on sharing the game updates to social media and hopefully build my wishlists

But I was gonna use some of the funds to pay a couple people to help on some VFX and stuff. I have a guy who works at pipeworks in Oregon that offered some help.
Probably the hardest thing is just not knowing how the game will do. Twisty Puzzle Simulator did great on PS4 yet flopped on Steam, which is the opposite of what I expected. Similarly I have done a lot of market research and have some sales expectations for Hapax, but I'm very aware I might end up making less than minimum wage.

Wishlists are imo a great pre-release metric to see how you're doing. They're not preorders and most never convert to sales, but you can at least start objectively analyzing performance. Game Hub followers are another helpful metric.  For example The Entropy Centre was revealed a while ago yet had a very good trailer at the Future Games Show. Look at those numbers skyrocket! https://steamdb.info/app/1730590/graphs/

For your game specifically, I think you really need to sell the "adventure." It looks gorgeous and people will see that immediately in screenshots and videos, but that alone won't sell the game. Compare these video game trailers:


Both are from the same dev team and neither is great, but the later does a better job selling the emotional feeling of why players should play the game.

Meanwhile this new trailer from different devs is a million times better.

I'm kinda cheating with this example since it uses a lot of voice acting beyond your scope probably, but it gets the point across. The Witness trailers are also good examples.



On a similar note, I think you're pretty close to having enough content ready to make a trailer. I spent a few minutes using the footage you've shared and while my "fan trailer" isn't that good, I think it only needs a few more item interactions/gameplay teases to be a solid showing.






nnodley

Jun 16, 2022, 01:38 AM Last Edit: Jun 16, 2022, 01:40 AM by nnodley
Probably the hardest thing is just not knowing how the game will do. Twisty Puzzle Simulator did great on PS4 yet flopped on Steam, which is the opposite of what I expected. Similarly I have done a lot of market research and have some sales expectations for Hapax, but I'm very aware I might end up making less than minimum wage.
This is one of the reasons why I'm trying to also build up a real estate investing business as well.  Flip houses and have investments just in case for some reason i can't get my stuff off the ground and making money.  But i also think if it so happens to all flop i should be able to get a position in the industry.

I hope i can get a good enough footing for this game and studio to keep it going and build something much larger.

I'm hoping the real estate market doesn't implode, but it would result in some cheaper properties to flip.  There's just too little inventory right now for anything to happen.  It will take months for inventory to potentially level out with demand.

nnodley

Campaign ended. And I do keep what I got so I'll try my best to deliver what I need to.  I'm not too concerned with the demos but I'll still try to get some out to anyone so I can get feedback on performance and stuff.

Since only have 6 real backers with a perk. One was just a donation

Legend

Campaign ended. And I do keep what I got so I'll try my best to deliver what I need to.  I'm not too concerned with the demos but I'll still try to get some out to anyone so I can get feedback on performance and stuff.

Since only have 6 real backers with a perk. One was just a donation
I'm looking forward to whatever you share next.

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