Reluctant to Launch a Kickstarter... =/

[Ali]

You may want to look realistically at others who have done crowdfunding campaigns in our own community before looking at the 400K+ success stories.

These links might also be a warning not to use indiegogo to fund your game. I've seen campaigns with beautiful graphics and coverage from major gaming websites fail on indiegogo, and I can only conclude that it lacks the (largely) supportive community of Kickstarter.

I ran this Kickstarter campaign several months ago expecting to only receive pledges from friends, family and a few AGSers. As it was, the majority of support came from adventure game fans I've never met.

I was lucky to get an article on one or two gaming sites, most notably RPS. That made a big, direct impact on the campaign. I couldn't get many other big sites to cover the campaign (possibly because Tim Schafer and Dough TenNapal launched campaigns within days of me). I realise now I should have spent months running up to the launch making contact with game journalists, sending them previews and demos and building up support before launching the campaign.

Do that, and make a video which has lots of good stuff in the first 30-60 seconds, because that's all people will watch.

[Problem]

I hope my uneducated rambling in the world of AGS hasn't annoyed too many people

I don't know what communities you've visited before, but you'll have to work harder if you want to annoy people here

The most important things have already been said, the only thing I can add is this: If you really want to make a game, just make it - no one here wants to discourage you. The best thing you can do is to work on your game until you have something to show. Then you can decide if you want to recruit other people to help, and if your concept is good enough for a crowd funding campaign. Maybe it's a good idea to make a small one-room game first to get some practise. With your first complete game, you're bound to make a few mistakes. And why not have a look at the "Competitions & Activities" section? We're all crazy here anyway, so you've got nothing to fear.

[Saltwater Taffy]

I ran this Kickstarter campaign several months ago expecting to only receive pledges from friends, family and a few AGSers. As it was, the majority of support came from adventure game fans I've never met.

I remember your game being one of the first AGS games I came across and it was one of a handful of modern P&C Adventure games that really inspired me to take a stab at the genre XD and thanks for sharing your advice! It really helped put things in better perspective for me. I'm still trying to figure everything out and settle on the best way to approach everything. I mainly posted this thread because I wanted to hear from other AGSers before attacking any given project blindly :p

I don't know what communities you've visited before, but you'll have to work harder if you want to annoy people here

The most important things have already been said, the only thing I can add is this: If you really want to make a game, just make it - no one here wants to discourage you. The best thing you can do is to work on your game until you have something to show. Then you can decide if you want to recruit other people to help, and if your concept is good enough for a crowd funding campaign. Maybe it's a good idea to make a small one-room game first to get some practise. With your first complete game, you're bound to make a few mistakes. And why not have a look at the "Competitions & Activities" section? We're all crazy here anyway, so you've got nothing to fear.

Yeah I've mostly just been lurking on these forums until now but I really admire its community over other indiedev/gamedev forums that have a very pretentious air about them. You know, the ones who get all miffed if they get even the slightest whiff of a idealistic noob. It's especially more difficult when they find out you're a girl, they get even more insulted for some reason. HOWEVER AGS seems to be a really fun and nurturing community which is nifty. Also I've noticed a lot of female gamedevs on here so I feel much more comfortable.

For my first game I made it rather simple because I didn't want to be too ambitious with my first attempt although I think I did a pretty good job and creating a unique and intriguing story to make it stand out more. But maybe even that is a bit too ambitious. I'm pondering more and more over the course of this thread that I should probably collab with a small team on a fun hobby project or join in a game jam or something to get some more experience under my belt before going solo.

I just didn't think I'd get much interest in collaborators with my game until I produced a lot or most of it solely on my own beforehand. But shelving my game and contributing to someone else's who has previously proven themselves is probably the better alternative. :p

[Adeel]

Let me tell you about myself: I never worked too much on my game before finding myself a fellow musician. But still, I were able to attract interest of musicians. Maybe I were just lucky, I guess.

It's always nice to find willing artists to work with you. Too bad, I'm unable to find myself some free time these days.

Ah, if only you'd expressed your willingness few months before...

E: It's quite amazing how the whole meaning of intended emoticon changed with a single addition of hypen.

[Snarky]

Newbies are the future of gamemaking, and there's a lack of female game creators, so it sucks that those things would put people off. Hope you have a better time on AGS.

The truth is that only a few of the hopeful first-time game makers who think they have a great idea for an adventure game will ever finish and release it, and after a while you tend to take the "Games in Production" announcements with a grain of salt. Plus, there are a lot of aspects that go into a good adventure that you only learn by experience, so a first game is usually not that great. The best way to build credibility and a fan- ( = potential customer-) base is therefore to put out a few games, even if they're just very short ones. Contributing to a team project is a nice idea in principle, but the risk of people dropping out and the project stalling is probably even higher.

Given your situation as a full-time student who needs to take freelance gigs in your spare time to pay the bills, I don't really see how you can fit in adventure-game making right now. It is a time-consuming hobby, and even the few people who are making money off AGS-related work had to put in years of unpaid effort to get to that point. If you can find a way to make it work, that's great, but I think it's unrealistic to expect to live off AGS game-making (whether funded through KS or sales) right off the bat.

[Blackthorne]

Saltwater Taffy - always remember - time is really irrelevant if you want something.  When I was 12, all I wanted to do was "make Sierra games".  Over 20 years later, I'm doing that.  We first had the idea to do a game like "Quest For Infamy" over 10 years ago!  Sometimes things need to wait, but you always stick with it! Keep it in your heart and in your mind.  You're going to be just fine, I think! You've got a good head on your shoulders, and I do really hope you always keep your idea and dream of a game alive.


Bt

[Andail]

Hello and welcome to the community!

I think it sounds strange that you have been laughed at and felt unwelcome because you're female - if anything there's a shortage of female game developers and most people I know think it's great if that could change.

Having said this, I think your idea of game making as an occupation seems slightly optimistic. I'm developing a game right now and have done so for some 1 1/2 years, but before that I saved up lots of money to be able to go down to working 80% at my daily job. Having a steady income and substantial savings were crucial for me to put so much time and effort into a game, and I don't even expect to make very much money on it (more than perhaps cover my VO costs).

AGS and other developing communities are usually rather skeptical about people with grand plans but nothing to show. People around here will wait for you to release your own game before mustering up that much enthusiasm, simply because many people are gifted talkers but not great doers. Kickstarter and crowdfunding sites in general seem to work a bit more chaotically; suddenly something just goes viral because their pitch video is hilarious and they gain LOTS of attention, so if you have at least some material and then shoot a video of yourself talking passionately about your project and then update your campaign and tweet constantly and so on I'd say it's worth a shot.

[Monsieur OUXX]

The points that stand out so far :

1) You can draw. But do you have a viable production pipeline? (producing graphical assets for a game can be somewhat of a repetitive task, and a large volume). Can you draw hundreds of sprites and backgrounds, with technical requirements?

2) Do you want to go freeware or commercial? That's the one decision you need to make first (cat's intervention sounded like nobody even wants or needs to go commercial) : if you want to go freeware, you might get some money afterwards (if you're extremely lucky and manage to publish your game on semi-paying distribution networks  like steam, appstores, etc.). But you said yourself that you can't reach cruising speed by using only your free time. Then you need to go commercial.

3) If you go commercial (1 of 2) : Either you use crowdfunding, or you contact a publisher. Or a mix of both. But for your first game ever you'll have to be very convincing to get any money!

4) If you go commercial (2 of 2) : you have more financial resources but you also need to have a very steep production phase, you can't just afford to say "thanks, see you in four years for the release". Do you have any experience at showing your progress/results?

4) Can you make a game? It's one thing to draw. It's another thing to make a game: puzzle design, narration, scripting. The best way to prove your skills is to 1) either create a short game, or 2) Create a demo for your own game. Even something short, but intriguing. The shorter the game, the more you can focus on reaching the level of quality you're aiming at in your real project. But sometimes, even making a shit-looking but well-polished game (good narration, well debugged, etc.) is a good thing.

5) Never underestimate that a game development project is cyclic : the more you produce, the more you attract people. And the more you attract people, the more you produce. Stay under the radar as long as you only have something half-baked. But then as soon as you have reached a certain critical mass, then start advertising like crazy. And then you might eventually feel ready to kick off a kickstarter campaign or attract a small publisher.

[Slasher]

Hi,

I agree with Andail.

It's about your credibility and respect.

If you have both then you are in with a chance of people putting their hands in their pockets.

No one in their right minds would stick loads of money on a rank outsider.

Love your graphics by the way

[Saltwater Taffy]

Yeah that's why my first game isn't too overly ambitious. It's nowhere near the caliber of say Blackthorne's "Quest for Infamy" I'd have to be downright mental to aim that high for my first try :p

The story I'm working on isn't a complex saga and the game itself is rather short but intended to be a full game. But I still feel it has a nice refreshing and unique concept that anyone could get addicted to. The only reason I'm at all concerned with budget and by that i'd probably only need like 500-600$ minimum that...I can probably save up all by myself if I live off ramen noodles for awhile lol. The reason for this is though the game will be simple as anyone's first game should be I really want to make it as polished as possible in other areas. I want it to have a strong story line, attractive graphics, and optionally (if a nice little microbudget would allow) a decent soundtrack and voice acting. The latter two aren't exactly necessary for a first game, I get that, but hey if I managed to raise/save up enough to afford to do that, it'd be groovy.

This game would be more of an introduction to what I could offer as a game designer. I don't intend to profit from the game and ideally I'd like to release it for free but at the same time I want it to be able to compete (in terms of quality) with similar titles that are of a commercial "indie" grade. Meaning, I don't want it to be sloppy if I can help it XD

[Myinah]

I'm a female dev, and no one on AGS have ever been anything but helpful to me so you really shouldn't have any issues here. I've never been on other dev forums, but the facebook group I'm in is usually pretty good too. Admittedly my biggest problem has been a handful of creeps trying to use it as a dating network, but thats easily fixed with a block button. Anyway, I hope you are no longer discouraged after some time here.

Myself and soxbrooker are in a similar position to you regarding commercial releases. We want to make games full time and we want to go commercial, but we know we have to prove our competence first. We entered a mags competition as our first game release, and are very close to alpha testing our current project. We are considering charging for our third release, but we decided we wont think about it until we release our second game and see how it is received.

My advice is finish a game. Just finish it to prove you can finish something. You mention you have lots of unfinished games and that will not bode well for people looking to fund you. Get a fully functioning short game up and see what the community says. Take part in the next mags on the competition forum if you can, it was honestly the best thing Sox and I have ever done. It gave us a steep learning curve and showed us we could finish something decent.

Best of luck

[Saltwater Taffy]

I remember checking out your game when I was browsing the MAGs competitions and pondering if I was ready to tackle one or not. I've been a bit hesitant but your game was really impressive and definitely motivating. I actually wanted to make some fanart for it after playing it, I have no idea why I never got around to doing it yet =X

I'd love to see/play your next game! And I hope to have a similarly successful debut game! <3

[Myinah]

Thank you. That's very kind of you to say.

Honestly though, we debated if we were ready for MAGS and then just went "Screw it!" We didnt expect to make anything amazing, but our only unspoken rule was to try our best. If it came out rubbish, then we would laugh it off. It's a short freeware game, and our first one too, so it didnt really matter if it was bad or good. It was just important we learn the code and make something complete. Those were the goals. By some goof we made something people liked and here we are.

I think we can all be too cautious, and sometimes the best thing to do is just go for it. The only way to find out if you can make a go of it, is to make a game and finish it Your art style will work well and you understand animation so you only need to carve some time out each day/week/month to work on it. If you need help with code there are so many tutorials and helpful forum threads, and if you need any help with your story or art there is a critics lounge too. If you wanted an opinion on story ideas I'd be happy to take a look for you.

Also if you do make any Witchy Woo fan art please let us know. Sox would get super excited and I would love to post it on our blog

[Dropped Monocle Games]

OMG OMG OMG! I want Woo Fan art!
I second Myinah 100% go at it in your free time if you can, even if it means it will take you longer
I lOVE your art style and I want to be playing one of your games one day

[Eric]

I can only conclude that it lacks the (largely) supportive community of Kickstarter.

I was trying to think of AGS games that had used Kickstarter, and somehow, unforgivably, forgot Nelly, even though I was a backer! Sorry!   

[jwalt]

I don't intend to derail this thread, because I am finding the question, concerns, and thoughtful responses very interesting. Still, I couldn't resist...

OMG OMG OMG! I want Woo Fan art!

I prefer your Woo, but here's something I made with Anim8or:

[Dualnames]

Frankly, all the AGS campaigns I've backed have all surpassed the goal, I have kindly helped people who backed them by posting them into various forums as well. I think Nelly Cootalot, made a great buildup to its kickstarter. If there's product, people will pay for it eventually. I've been around, I've seen things, I've basically kickstarted a certain agser without him being aware of it. It's all about the product.

[Ghost]

I think Nelly Cootalot, made a great buildup to its kickstarter.

I think a great boon was that a) the Nelly2 pitch was really fun to watch, and b) the original game is freeware. That seems to be a really good situation: Having something to show that clearly demonstrates the potential of the product. Likewise remakes. If you have a game that is already known and maybe even liked a bit, I am absolutely convinced a fundraiser for an improved sequel (voice acting, better graphics, extra content, what have you) will be received better.

[Myinah]

It's great fun to see Woo in 3D. Thank you! We will have to stick it on our blog. We need a stickied fan art thread somewhere so we can all post different fan arts and not derail threads lol.

To be more on topic, Ghost makes good points re: Nelly Cootalot. There was a solid freeware game for people to play that showed Ali had talent and the ability to finish a game. But it also had a really engaging pitch video. So many of those can end up a snooze fest, but Ali's was great fun. I had a lot of confidence in him to make a great game and so I backed it.

[Saltwater Taffy]

Thank you. That's very kind of you to say.

Honestly though, we debated if we were ready for MAGS and then just went "Screw it!" We didnt expect to make anything amazing, but our only unspoken rule was to try our best. If it came out rubbish, then we would laugh it off. It's a short freeware game, and our first one too, so it didnt really matter if it was bad or good. It was just important we learn the code and make something complete. Those were the goals. By some goof we made something people liked and here we are.

I think we can all be too cautious, and sometimes the best thing to do is just go for it. The only way to find out if you can make a go of it, is to make a game and finish it Your art style will work well and you understand animation so you only need to carve some time out each day/week/month to work on it. If you need help with code there are so many tutorials and helpful forum threads, and if you need any help with your story or art there is a critics lounge too. If you wanted an opinion on story ideas I'd be happy to take a look for you.

Also if you do make any Witchy Woo fan art please let us know. Sox would get super excited and I would love to post it on our blog

Yeah I'm kind of tempted, if I can manage to allot myself some more free time in the following months to participate in either the April/May MAGS. I'd really like to do that I'm just afraid since I lack proper programming knowledge that the art might look lovely, and the writing potentially compelling, but ultimately the coding would probably be hella glitchy ;A; but if it's just for a MAGS I think I won't feel as pressured to make it uber polished and just do my best to start and complete something.

I actually started on the fanart piece a few months ago, hopefully I can try to finish it up this weekend :p Woo is such a cute character and a lot of fun to draw!

Frankly, all the AGS campaigns I've backed have all surpassed the goal, I have kindly helped people who backed them by posting them into various forums as well. I think Nelly Cootalot, made a great buildup to its kickstarter. If there's product, people will pay for it eventually. I've been around, I've seen things, I've basically kickstarted a certain agser without him being aware of it. It's all about the product.

I really admire the AGS community and how supportive everyone is towards each other. Admittedly since I've never used this engine before and really have no experience with programming anything from scratch I'm afraid my game might seem visually appealing but fall horribly short (and glitchy) in execution. Hopefully I can attract some coders/programmers that find my story compelling enough to contribute. Originally I was under the assumption that I'd most likely have to do everything entirely on my own and if I required additional help I'd have to pay for it. Which is why I was so worried about requiring any kind of substantial budget in the first place. But I think seeing what others in the community have been able to achieve with little to no experience with the engine and little to no budget to work with I'm feeling a lot relieved and even more motivated that I might be able to pull this off after all. *fingers crossed*