KickStarter The Legends of Eisenwald Thread

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Autoloot games, I sent you PM - I think it would be good to talk and discuss a couple of things.

Regarding Greenlight, it's similar in many ways to running a campaign at Kickstarter, although not as intense and asking for votes is easier than asking for money

As for luck with our blessed businessman - I don't see it much as luck, it's a result of a lot of effort before (including Kickstarter). Once you have a successful campaign under your belt, it does prove somewhat that you care about your game and willing to do what it takes to finish it We actually had a few people wanting to invest money in our company, but mostly their expectations were a bit unrealistic.

I don't have time to do it now, but here is a simple idea - start a group on Facebook and call it Gamedev on Kickstarter or something like that. Invite there many people, create FAQ, post links to post mortems etc. We could invite there many people and this could be a good platform for us to share feedback. Also, we could invite there people like Brian Fargo and others and it could become a powerful community by the time you start your campaign. This way it will both serve the community and serve you. But that will take some work...

 

[hoverdog]

 

[MicoSelva]

 

[Azurite Games]

I don't have time to do it now, but here is a simple idea - start a group on Facebook and call it Gamedev on Kickstarter or something like that. Invite there many people, create FAQ, post links to post mortems etc. We could invite there many people and this could be a good platform for us to share feedback. Also, we could invite there people like Brian Fargo and others and it could become a powerful community by the time you start your campaign. This way it will both serve the community and serve you. But that will take some work...

I would definitely love to join in the efforts of making this FB page to leverage the knowledge for all devs preparing a KS campaign. The issue for me, personally, is the sheer amount of work that we have before the KS relaunch (and during it!). It's difficult to be up to date with all the stuff: coordinating the team members tasks, daily meetings, the game design doc, game systems, writting the story, prepping the pitch video, translations, plus soon the PR work with the agency. You know how it goes. Unluckily my partner had an accident as is still recovering. Thanks God he'll be okey in a couple of weeks. This means extra work for me. But after KS i'd love to help all those in the same situation as us, definitely. At the moment we rely on the rpg players' feedback, the genorisity of teams like you that share these good postmortems, the PR, other successful KS campaigns that is worth studying plus the knowledge we've built up of past mistakes.

Thanks again for your willingness to help, we get in touch, you guys are awesome! =)

Abel B.

 

[RedScum]

There is hope yet in this AAA world.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

I would definitely love to join in the efforts of making this FB page to leverage the knowledge for all devs preparing a KS campaign. The issue for me, personally, is the sheer amount of work that we have before the KS relaunch (and during it!). It's difficult to be up to date with all the stuff: coordinating the team members tasks, daily meetings, the game design doc, game systems, writting the story, prepping the pitch video, translations, plus soon the PR work with the agency. You know how it goes. Unluckily my partner had an accident as is still recovering. Thanks God he'll be okey in a couple of weeks. This means extra work for me. But after KS i'd love to help all those in the same situation as us, definitely. At the moment we rely on the rpg players' feedback, the genorisity of teams like you that share these good postmortems, the PR, other successful KS campaigns that is worth studying plus the knowledge we've built up of past mistakes.

Thanks again for your willingness to help, we get in touch, you guys are awesome! =)

Abel B.

Kickstarter campaign is quite an effort. I think it's actually almost necessary when one person is fully dedicated to PR. I did this myself during our campaign, and yes, our development suffered a bit because based on the feedback and requests we had to come up wit more materials. All I am saying it's probably not realistic to think that you can do both Kickstarter and regular work. Making a group could be a part of this work, but it might be more suitable for someone with a project planning to launch somewhere in autumn - by that time the FB group could become large and active. I am willing to help and give my feedback there but I don't think I could do any other administrative tasks there - Kickstarter is not our focus anymore

I am somewhat jealous now of teams going to Kickstarter - so much information is available It doesn't make it any easier though as I believe the number of games now seeking funding greatly increased.

 

[laclongquan]

There is hope yet in this AAA world.

Aaaah optimism~ I love that fresh smell.

 

[Azurite Games]

Kickstarter campaign is quite an effort. I think it's actually almost necessary when one person is fully dedicated to PR. I did this myself during our campaign, and yes, our development suffered a bit because based on the feedback and requests we had to come up wit more materials. All I am saying it's probably not realistic to think that you can do both Kickstarter and regular work. Making a group could be a part of this work, but it might be more suitable for someone with a project planning to launch somewhere in autumn - by that time the FB group could become large and active. I am willing to help and give my feedback there but I don't think I could do any other administrative tasks there - Kickstarter is not our focus anymore

I am somewhat jealous now of teams going to Kickstarter - so much information is available It doesn't make it any easier though as I believe the number of games now seeking funding greatly increased.

We actually plan to launch earlier than autumm. For us, having 3 months before the KS relaunch is already a blessing, as we surmounted a difficult situation. Each month in development counts. We will have been a full year in development by then, so we must try and see how it goes. Yes, this time we will allocate more teammates for managing the KS campaign, there will be lots of stuff to prepare.

Yes, more and more people tries to go KS now, that's normal. I always joke with the guys that we've chosen the worst year in this and probably the next century to make our CRPG! =) I think this won't be the norm though, as making a CRPG is not easy and you need some budget and resources beforehand to at least be able to show something promising to potential backers. Maybe now with Unity you can "fake" it somehow for a pitch video, as Unity comes with many built-in stuff. In our case, we have a propietary engine so for example, making the visuals wasn't immediate, the coders had to set many things into place first, I suppose as you guys. An advantage of our take on this though is that we can add mod tools as stretch goals, but we need to study how long it will take us to prepare the environment, the scripting language, etc and reckon the costs. Whatever it may, doing what we love is already a great adventure per se! =)

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

We actually plan to launch earlier than autumm. For us, having 3 months before the KS relaunch is already a blessing, as we surmounted a difficult situation. Each month in development counts. We will have been a full year in development by then, so we must try and see how it goes. Yes, this time we will allocate more teammates for managing the KS campaign, there will be lots of stuff to prepare.

Yes, more and more people tries to go KS now, that's normal. I always joke with the guys that we've chosen the worst year in this and probably the next century to make our CRPG! =) I think this won't be the norm though, as making a CRPG is not easy and you need some budget and resources beforehand to at least be able to show something promising to potential backers. Maybe now with Unity you can "fake" it somehow for a pitch video, as Unity comes with many built-in stuff. In our case, we have a propietary engine so for example, making the visuals wasn't immediate, the coders had to set many things into place first, I suppose as you guys. An advantage of our take on this though is that we can add mod tools as stretch goals, but we need to study how long it will take us to prepare the environment, the scripting language, etc and reckon the costs. Whatever it may, doing what we love is already a great adventure per se! =)

3 months is a gift, I agree. We are in situation now, where each month counts too, but we are already more than three years in development, hmm, now I wish I didn't say that

I don't think there is good or bad year, or Kickstarter fatigue... You only need to have a good game, to plan your promotion and PR well, to prepare a good campaign and then go for it. PR is really tough thing, especially for indie companies. Hiring an expensive PR agency with tons of connections is not affordable, so we end up doing things almost ourselves. But some professional help would never hurt, or at least proof reading by native speakers...

 

[Metro]

I'm confusing threads at this point but did I read that Eisenwald was ranked 12th on Greenlight? If so you should be a shoe-in for the next batch.

 

[evdk]

I'm confusing threads at this point but did I read that Eisenwald was ranked 12th on Greenlight? If so you should be a shoe-in for the next batch.

There's an actual predictable system to that thing? Last I looked it seemed more like random chaos.

 

[Metro]

For the most part the highest rated games get the nod... excluding the software apps they keep shoving down our throats. So now it's the top 12-13 games and a few software apps.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

They used to select about 10 titles a month. But now it has been a while since the last Greenlight and many were asking Steam to select more games per month, so we are cautiously hopeful We slipped one spot down to place 13, but even if we are not selected this time around, next batch is almost guaranteed provided Greenlight is not overrun by tons of big projects.

This whole selection process raises another question - whether or not should Steam consider release date of a game? I would be fine if they greenlight ready or very close to being ready projects ahead of those who are still delayed. We are one example, but September is pretty close. Dreamfall Chapters is another example, they are in top 10 now but they just started development so they are not going to release their game at least for a year...

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

A quick update:
Yesterday before Greenlight we were at place 14 with 44600 yes votes. After Greenlight of 18 games, we went up to place 6. It means, Steam selected 10 games behind us but maybe those games were selecting votes faster than we do at the moment (right now it's less than 100 a day). We were already at place 4 today morning, but now back at place 6. I am getting an impression being in top 10 is not a guarantee of greenlight at all and it means we need to make more effort to show some good progress in getting new votes. Otherwise other games that are gathering votes faster might overtake us or their graphics might create an impression to Steam guys and they will choose not in our favor.

 

[Infinitron]

A quick update:
Yesterday before Greenlight we were at place 14 with 44600 yes votes. After Greenlight of 18 games, we went up to place 6. It means, Steam selected 10 games behind us but maybe those games were selecting votes faster than we do at the moment (right now it's less than 100 a day). We were already at place 4 today morning, but now back at place 6. I am getting an impression being in top 10 is not a guarantee of greenlight at all and it means we need to make more effort to show some good progress in getting new votes. Otherwise other games that are gathering votes faster might overtake us or their graphics might create an impression to Steam guys and they will choose not in our favor.

Or maybe there are last minute vote rushes. There's nothing wrong with your game's graphics. You'll make it in next time, I'm sure.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

We seem to move at the same speed as other games around us, that's why the frequent 1-2 places differences and because of this, I don't believe in last minute vote rushes, especially without press coverage. But also, by looking at our last month vote dynamics, from the point of view of Greenlight we were pretty uneventful We have to change this and attract some more votes in the coming month to get greenlit in the next batch and to stay in top 10.

 

[tuluse]

Steam still has other criteria, they're just using the vote to remove the chaff. So they can focus on games people actually want.

In your case they may simply be waiting for the game to be closer to finished.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Steam still has other criteria, they're just using the vote to remove the chaff. So they can focus on games people actually want.

In your case they may simply be waiting for the game to be closer to finished.

Well, in this case they shouldn't have greenlighted Dreamfall chapters, these guys are scheduled to release at the end of 2014 From my observations, release dates is not something they take into consideration.

 

[eklektyk]

that pick of greenlitgames was nice bullshit
shame u werent picked is all i can say without longassed rant....

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

that pick of greenlitgames was nice bullshit
shame u werent picked is all i can say without longassed rant....

Thank you for your kind words about us! But I had some doubts about being selected this round. Yes, good amount of overall yes votes, but they were gathered pretty much in the beginning and we didn't do much effort lately. So, from a point of view from Steam guys maybe that's what contributed to us not being selected. But on place 14 it's not so bad. I wonder what other games in top 10 were not selected, that's kind of harder to deal with, I think.

 

[RedScum]

Wishing you luck with the next round and looking forward to your game

 

[J_C]

But if they mess with you in the next round, I would complain about it at Valve. There are rules which Valve should adhere to, if they do this Greenlight stuff.

 

[Aterdux Entertainment]

Well, if we stay in top 10 and not will be selected, then maybe there will be a reason to complain. Right now, I see no much point in complaining, our game is not ready yet and we have time. However, it would be nice to be greenlit next, so we can built in Steam achievments and just to see what it takes in terms of integrating their stuff. We already came up with the list of some achievments and they sound like lots of fun

 

[Metro]

It's utter crap you all weren't Greenlit in light of some of the stuff that did make it... Angry Video Game Nerd... Jesus...

 

[Luzur]

It's utter crap you all weren't Greenlit in light of some of the stuff that did make it... Angry Video Game Nerd... Jesus...

i know, but thats the power of rabid fans for ya.