Distribution Road to trailer

AriesGames

Member
Hello everyone,
I didn't knew which category to put it in so I've sticked with Distribution.

I want to make a rogue-lite dungeon crawling game (The Binding of Isaac).
I want to follow a certain development and distribution path and I need your advice and opinion on it.

What I want to do is make a solid prototype and build a trailer using it.
Then release the trailer and make a promotion campaign on kickstarter.
And after the campaign is over or even middle campaign to actually build over that prototype.

In fewer words, I want to build the trailer and only after the game.
I want to know if this is a good idea and if not, why it's not a good idea?
What would be the risks, besides not being able to finish the game after you release the trailer.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
What would be the risks, besides not being able to finish the game after you release the trailer.
Well, you lose your customers, Kickstarter backers are the one who pre-paid for your game and they are waiting for the release or at least that what your trailer said.
I am going to leave the development aside and focus on the release part, first impressions are everything, if you gained trust at first then good for you, you can use that later but if you screwed up at the easiest part—the releasing—then good luck getting customers back to you.

The other risk is the "All or nothing" Kickstarter policy, you should keep that in account, if you couldn't reach your goal, what you should do next ? does it affect the development process ? many questions need answers here, and you are the responsible for answering them, I had a kickstarter for my project "Bluelight Checkout" but failed miserably, the good thing is that I had a plan "B" if the Kickstarter failed.

The other risk is "The First 100 Customers", those customers are the people who are going to determine if you're going to work on your next project or not, you need budget if you want to make a "real" game, insert a coin to success and you know it, to be honest, this is the one I am struggling with right now, trying to land my first customer.
 

AriesGames

Member
@BiTrunade
Well, you lose your customers, Kickstarter backers are the one who pre-paid for your game and they are waiting for the release or at least that what your trailer said.
I never said I wont be able to finish the game. I said to remove that possibility, because it's a big one.

I had a kickstarter for my project "Bluelight Checkout" but failed miserably, the good thing is that I had a plan "B" if the Kickstarter failed.
But your project was not about releasing a game.
My marketing idea is simple, I am making a pixel rougue-bla bla bla game, there is a certain niche of people and players that enjoy those games.
It's a niche that like perma-death as a persistent feature. They are obsessed with playing those types of games that are hard mechanically.

If I can deliver 70%, let's say, of what my trailer will promise then I did my job good.
I am counting on that niche. I am a rogue-like/lite w/e fan too. I love how hard those games are.

For example even my story will be similiar to The Binding of Isaac one, but not literally.
What Isaac does is transmit to the player the feeling of being rejected, silenced, oppressed.
My story selling point is how careless people are and how arrogant. But with robots and artifacts and lasers, we need lasers.
The action happens in a future "dystopian" society where humans are extinct and only robots remain.

The story it's a little political and I am scared about that, because kids don't understand political oppression.
But I will try my best to make the player feeling oppressed, wronged to the point he needs to take action.

That's the niche I am counting on.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
I never said I wont be able to finish the game. I said to remove that possibility, because it's a big one.
You literally said "not being able to finish the game after you release the trailer." but okay.

But your project was not about releasing a game.
Maybe the difference between my project and yours is the hosting, the funding from the crowd was almost the only way to host the website but with your game and how you describe it, the funding isn't crucial and you might consider keeping going on your game even after—god forbid—the Kickstarter failed.

If I can deliver 70%, let's say, of what my trailer will promise then I did my job good.
Cheers ! that is more than enough for me to give a review !

That's the niche I am counting on.
Good luck !
 

AriesGames

Member
Cheers ! that is more than enough for me to give a review !
I am glad to hear that.

One thing I strongly agree with you is that even if the kickstarter campaign fails you have to keep going.

Creating a community and customers for your product doesn't need to involve crowd funding, yea it's nice if you manage one but not imperative.
As you said projects can have success even without kickstarter.

What I think is that you need to focus on exposure. You need to focus on getting your product out there for anyone to see it. Marketing and advertising.
From online review sites like Rock Paper Shotgun to Youtube trailer.

I had an idea of making a dev vlog on the game, so until it's finished I already have a small community build around it.
The idea of posting content of the game, sketches, dev art, concept art, anything you can, you need to flood the media with that.

Theres tones of ways to promote your game, it needs to be good.

And finally, if your game is good and does a good first impression then you're good to go. Then the real trouble begins. lol
 

Morendral

Member
Going along with what BiTrunade said, i think your kickstarter should have a solid plan in mind as to exactly what each dollar will be used for. You can share a "roadmap" with the people, if not the actual budget. This will help you determine how to proceed if you do/don't meet your goal, then what backup plans there are to raise the amount you determined you need, or how much to scale back to continue.
 

AriesGames

Member
You guys didn't understand my question, I didn't ask right either.

I asked if it's a good idea to follow this steps in development process:

-Prototype with almost no graphics
-Trailer build using the prototype with only the needed graphics for the trailer
-Gathering as much art and screen shots as you can
-Starting a marketing and advertising plan
-Then actually starting to put in motion the kickstarter campaign, which I am aware that it's a whole total process to deal with
-And only after that long exposure process to actually start to fill the gaps and develop the game based on the feedback you've accumulated
 
G

Guest User

Guest
Creating a community and customers for your product doesn't need to involve crowd funding, yea it's nice if you manage one but not imperative.
As you said projects can have success even without kickstarter.
What I like to add here is, don't think of Kickstarter backers as "donors", think of them as "pre-payers" for your game, therefore when they pay for the game price or more they are pre-paying for the game and of course, for the development process.

I had an idea of making a dev vlog on the game, so until it's finished I already have a small community build around it.
The idea of posting content of the game, sketches, dev art, concept art, anything you can, you need to flood the media with that.
Indeed, I've been studying these for a while and the most important note I got is "Start blogging !", create a community, a "trust cricle" for your customers where you are the origin of this circle.

Prototype with almost no graphics
It is crucial, it depends on your project, is the prototype "playable" even without graphics? let's take Minecraft as an example, if you remember back in 2009 and 2010 where Minecraft was just the "Cave Game", it is the prefect example for a prototype, the idea of the an open sandbox world is what attracted customers/players, not the graphics, back in the "Cave Game" era, the graphics were simple and countable, they were from "RubyDung" that became Minecraft.
The point is, Minecraft is marvelous, even back in 2009, even with countable blocks players made "art" using it, thus, it depends on your idea.

Trailer build using the prototype with only the needed graphics for the trailer
If your prototype meets the preceding post then congrats, you're on the right track.

Gathering as much art and screen shots as you can
Catchy screenshots and art is a good idea, some photoshopping might help either.

Starting a marketing and advertising plan
Easy to say, hard to do, it costs money, you can do all the previous steps but when it comes to marketing you have to have a good budge; however, if you have a low budget then Facebook Ads are a good start, it needs a lot of professional responsive banner, catchy phrases, cliches and other marketing stuff. Facebook Ads are good, for like (US)$3.74 you can get around 5,000-12,000 viewers, (US)$20.00 is a good amount, assuming your game price is (US)$4.99 then hoping to make 5 sales with this ad can cover the next one and if you managed to get more sales, then expand you audience to Google Ads, Facebook and of course, bloggers' sponsorship.

Then actually starting to put in motion the kickstarter campaign, which I am aware that it's a whole total process to deal with
I don't think you have to do the preceding part if the Kickstarter is mentioned, Kickstarter is your starting stage, customers will pre-pay for your game to get it finished and get a "free" copy after the game released.

TIP: Always name the kickstarter's price with the minimum price you want because once you reach your minimum goal you can withdraw the payment, and you can use "Stretch Goal" for advertising and other development subjects.

And only after that long exposure process to actually start to fill the gaps and develop the game based on the feedback you've accumulated
Are you sure you can make it here alive after all this stress ?
if yes, then congrats ! you just succeed with your game !

Good luck with your project, think of every possible response, write down everything that bothers you about the game and fix it, make a to do list, talk with your self, A LOT ! talking with your self is the best way to communicate with your self, yes, I call it "Self-Communication" I talk loud with my self like 2 characters are having a conversation about the project, you might come up with an idea or a bug or an issue you didn't know exists but other you mentioned it, it is possible, I do it all the time, I had to re-code the whole "Checkout system" in my website because of a very little issue I found out when I was talking with my self.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Morendral

Member
I think you have it figured out based on what you laid out. I would only disagree with the last thing you mentioned. I would develop your game based on your vision, not on what others dictate.
 

WarpDogsVG

Member
Well, here are some disjointed thoughts.

First, I think you're overestimating how much actual feedback you're going to get. It won't be a lot. You'll get people that'll say say things like "Wouldn't it be cool if X" or "you should do Y", but that's not a game. They won't help you build a car, but they will tell if you the color is ugly.

Second, I'd strongly advise against the whole Kickstarter thing. A Kickstarter should used after you have an idea and it is *rock solid* from every different angle. It's not for funding a prototype and figuring out what the game will be after the fact - to be frank, that would be an absolutely terrible way to run a campaign.

The whole point of Kickstarting is raising money to finish a project. How can you possibly ask for money if you don't even know what the final game will look like in terms of effort and costs?

Even if you still think it's a good idea, Kickstarter has changed a lot since 2013 where people would toss $50,000 at anything that looked cool. People are much, much more careful with their money, and without a solid idea and equally solid demo they won't support you

Sorry if this comes across as harsh. I know you're just looking for opinions on your idea, but I think you may want to focus first on a prototype for yourself and see where that gets you before you do any other steps
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
If you're not sure whether you can make the trailer look cool, you might as well wait until you KNOW you can make it look cool. Make sure you have all the gameplay mechanics you wanna show off in place, and that gameplay itself looks good; you could always start off with stock resources (you can get nice 32pp+ tilesets with full rights for like $15) and then put your own stuff into the game later (if needed) once you get funding. But you can't fake smooth movement and interesting combat mechanics, so make sure those are solid before you start applying filters and graphics and stuff to the game.
 
Top