Hello IndieDB’ers!
It’s been an exhausting 20 days or so, but we’re finally back with a news post :) For those of you who have been following our Kickstarter campaign, there might not be much actual news, but IndieDB was our first “home” so I really want to keep this page up-to-date for everybody ^_^’
So, twenty days ago, pixel artist Cyangmou and myself launched our Kickstarter campaign:
It’s been an uphill battle, but so far we’ve managed to avoid the dreaded “mid-campaign” lull, instead showing a nice steady progression towards our goal.
Here are some key learnings from our experience so far:
It’s a s**t ton of work!
No kidding! Good thing we had prepared update drafts in advance, but even then it takes up to 1-2 hours to get each update out the door (polish / adapt the draft, capture the required gifs, format everything, etc.).
Then comes replying to mails, Kickstarter comments, Greenlight comments, forum comments, Facebook comments, YouTube comments, and so on - I really try to answer everybody’s questions ^_^’ - and of course sending out personalised mails to the press and YouTubers.
Add on top of that preparing daily gifs for our twitter channel, taking part in the various “promotion channels” (#FridaySpotlight, #screenshotsaturday, etc.), answering twitter PM’s, setting up cross-promotions with other teams / campaigns, the occasional stream or twitch appearance, reviewing the day’s analytics to re-focus our marketing efforts on the channels that work, finding new Facebook groups to post on and new YouTubers to contact, and you can see how running a campaign quickly turns into a full-time job!
Press
Our luck with press has been very mixed so far. To give credit where it’s due, the Indie press has been nothing short of fantastic! Eager to support us, give us feedback, provide us with tips, and just generally making us feel very welcome and appreciated :)
On the other hand, the only major publication who took an interest in us was wired.de (thanks guys!), but none of the “big ones” - i.e. RockPaperShotgun, Polygon, etc. - seem to have time for us ^_^’
We did get 2 lines in-between articles on Kotaku, and those 2 lines brought a disproportionate amount of pledges (enough that it still features among our top 10 sources of pledges!), so one can see how effective an article could be :)
Twtitter
Throughout the entire campaign, twitter has been our number 2 source of pledges, right behind "direct traffic", and our number 1 source of page views according to Google.
We take great care in tweeting new gifs every day, and taking part in things like #screenshotsaturday which help raise awareness of our campaign and brings interested viewers directly on the campaign page with a single click.
YouTube
YouTube is our second best avenue for promoting the game. We had exactly 1 contact going in (EpicNameBro) who was kind enough to feature us early on and get the ball rolling, but we have contacted over 200 YouTubers since, and have managed to score a few more videos along the way:
EpicNameBro - Zombey - Fork - IndieInsights - XdarzethX - IndieGameNews - and more!
Facebook
I’ll be very honest here, I’m not a big Facebook user ^_^’ I’ve had an account for years, and occasionally check it out to keep in touch with old friends, but my post count is in the low 2 digits ;)
However I must say the reaction on Facebook has been fantastic! Every new post on a retro-gaming or indie-dev themed group brings in comments, visits, and pledges! I’m not sure if it helps that my account uses my actual name and pictures, but it seems like people are more eager to help and support on Facebook, which definitely makes me re-consider spending more time in those groups ^_^#
The experience in general
I started out by pointing out how much work running this campaign has been (let alone the months of preparation that went into it), and one thing that doesn’t often get mentioned is also how stressful it can be: the long hours, the doubts when your progression graph flat-lines, the not-so-supportive comments etc. can really take a toll on you.
Having said all that, it’s really an amazing experience nonetheless :)
We are extremely proud of how far we’ve come, we have made many friendships along the way, have found a ton of support among the indie community, and have had a blast meeting and interacting with our backers!
Of course with 1/3 of the funding goal to reach in 10 days, we’ve got our work cut out for us, so buckle up because it’s going to be one hell of a ride :)
Good luck with the campaign!
Cannot wait to get my copy :)
Just read your news, very interesting because I'll post my Kickstarter in one month :) Thank you! What do you think is the "direct traffic" number 1 pledge?
Wow, how did you get so many watchers here?! It's weird, people seem to love my game but no one ever does follow it...
I'm really pulling for you guys. Been keeping tabs on the KS page. I'm developing a twin stick shooter as well (Space Jammers) and have been contemplating doing a crowdfunding campaign for around the same amount, but wasn't sure if it was asking too much. I'm probably gonna base my decision on whether this campaign is successful. If a great game like this can't get KS funds, then it leaves me little hope for mine.
Did anybody know why I can not pay on kicstarter via paypal?
Kickstarter does not use PayPal because of PayPal's refund policies. Paypal refunds money pretty easily (favoring the customer). So, the group running the Kickstarter might get fully funded, and then lose the funding because of refunds. It ends in a whole mess of things gone wrong. (I hope I explained this well enough)
we reached our base funding and opened up paypal now.
So when the game gets fully funded, then I can back it with paypal? (because of no refund problems? :) )
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I am glad that I backed you guys. It's crazy that more big site don’t run articles on your game. It’s really frustrating how we get treated, if a known company just announces a new title X for their new game they get a whole article and a front page. How are we supposed to get a foot in if we have not released a game yet and are unknown? Why does not every game get an equal chance?
All well what can you do, hang in there I hope you guys make it the game is awesome.
Thanks for sharing the KS info you help a bunch of us out that plan to do a KS as well.
So much love from them Kotaku posters. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)