Mustawd
Guest
So I've been browsing through the TSI thread, and have been extremely frustrated with their miserable attempt at crowdfunding. So in that frustration I thought I'd make my first thread and take a crack at listing some Do's and Dont's of a Kickstarter campaign off the top of my head.
TL;DR
Do's:
Have a good pitch person(s)
Consider just releasing a trailer with a voice over and no speaking from the team at all
Have decent gameplay to show me
Don'ts:
Let Joe Blow programmer/designer speak in your pitch video if you can help it
Just talk about the game...show!
Come with placeholder graphics
Wall of Text
Do....
1 ) Have a good pitch person(s) - In marketing, presentation and packaging is key. Even the best message can fail to catch someone's attention without the right messenger. This person must have the ability to catch the audience's attention by a combination of charisma, good looks, humor, credibility, and or sheer smoothness (all need not apply).
One of the best examples so far is Brian Fargo of InXile and his original W2 pitch. It had everything: Humor, charisma of a well known figure in the industry, a big name game associated with the pitch, and it didn't hurt that he did not look like Quasimodo.
To a lesser extent you had Obsidian's pitch for PE. In this case you had a handful of heavy hitters in the industry that have some actual PR skills. They have experience speaking to an audience and you can tell they were well prepared and comfortable in giving their pitch.
Don't...
1) Let Joe Blow programmer/designer speak in your pitch video if you can help it - Look...we get it. You're a small team and you want to showcase all 5 of you or whatever. But a bad presentation/pitch can just be as bad or worse than no presentation.
The audience wants to see excitement, passion, and a general belief in the project. We don't want to see an Underworld Ascendant type video where half the speakers appear to be coming out of a coma at that very moment.
Does that mean the project sucks? No. Does it mean that their enthusiasm speaks to their ability as a team? No. Does it mean only salesman-type personalities can make a good game? Absolutely not.
However, what it does mean is that you should not put them in the pitch video unless they can contribute something to it in a positive way.
Do...
2. Consider just releasing a trailer with a voice over and no speaking from the team at all - So say you don't have aFrian Bargo Brian Fargo to sell your pitch. And all of you suck ass at talking in front of a camera.
There's no steadfast rule that says you have to put out a team of accountant-type personalities out there (disclosure: I'm an accountant, so I know). Just look at Darkest Dungeon. Full on trailer for their pitch video. And it was badass.
If you MUST talk then keep it short. Look at Serpent in the Staglands. It's a trailer followed by a quick intro to the husband-wife team. Boom. Show interesting trailer with quick intros. Even SITS has some issues with their campaign, but f' it. They're just two people. It's to be expected.
Don't....
2. Just talk about the game...show!
I hate to keep harping on TSI's kickstarter, but it is the most recent example I've seen of this. However, other pitches suffer from the same problem: I don't want to hear shit coming out of your face. Why don't you just show me what you're talking about?
The first 5-10 seconds of any pitch is the most important. It should a.) capture my attention, b.) tell me what I'm looking at, and 3.) Make me cream my pants (or panties if you are a crossdresser, a lady, or have sensitive skin).
Do you have an interesting/unique setting? Show me art. Is your game based on older games? Pull those nostalgia strings and show me gameplay of those games. Do you have presentable* demos? Show them.
It's like foreplay. Show me a quick preview of stuff I already like in order to have my attention when you rock my world later on.
**presentable is covered in the next section...
Do...
3) Have decent gameplay to show me - How's that saying go? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
The days of "Look who I am! Look at what I'm trying to do !" are basically over for most of the future campaigns out there. The only ones that can still pull that off are studios with an established reputation. These include InXile, Larian, Harebrained studios, and possibly Obsidian. Even the they are running on established games with some reusing their engines (Larian and Harebrained for example).
If you're not in that camp you better have something to show me. There's too many examples of kickstarters burning their backers to blindly believe in anything anymore.
Best case scenario is to come to a campaign with a very limited but sort of complete setting. Yes, yes, it's hard to get there. But look at the trend: Many games are coming to backers with gameplay and graphics similar to what will be shown at release.
Note that "similar" does not mean "polished". But if you're going 3D, then show 3D assets. If you're going 2D, show initial 2D assets. Anything that will help us envision what this game will look like (even if it's a rough draft).
Don't...
3.) Come with placeholders graphics - Look, I'm not a graphics whore. I regularly play Xcom, love SITS pixelated graphics, and prefer 2D over 3D any day of the week.
However, you're selling a vision and a future game here. I need to know that a.) you've settled on an art style, b.) I can gauge the amount of attention graphics will get.
"C'mon Mustawd...are you seriously suggesting that people are making a judgment based on placeholder graphics? FFS, it says 'placeholder graphics' in bold font!"
Absolutely. What a lot of these pitches don't seem to understand is that backers are always asking themselves, "Can these fuckers pull it off witht he team in place and the funds requested?"
Graphics, gameplay, etc. are all a part of that. Come with something to convince me with or don't come at all.
Guys, if you made it this far I salute you. You have conquered the wall of text I have summoned after my firm's happy hour and a weekend full of 8 hour workdays.
However, I think we'd all like to hear your own Do's and DOnt's of crowdfunding campaings. I've left out some topics on purposedue to laziness for further discussion. These include:
-Reward tiers
-Funding goals
-Hype machines
-Focus on Nostalgia
-Defining your core audience
-Campaign updates
And last but not least:
-Campaign phases (so little studios fail to understand that these things do not work in a linear fashion)
TL;DR
Do's:
Have a good pitch person(s)
Consider just releasing a trailer with a voice over and no speaking from the team at all
Have decent gameplay to show me
Don'ts:
Let Joe Blow programmer/designer speak in your pitch video if you can help it
Just talk about the game...show!
Come with placeholder graphics
Wall of Text
Do....
1 ) Have a good pitch person(s) - In marketing, presentation and packaging is key. Even the best message can fail to catch someone's attention without the right messenger. This person must have the ability to catch the audience's attention by a combination of charisma, good looks, humor, credibility, and or sheer smoothness (all need not apply).
One of the best examples so far is Brian Fargo of InXile and his original W2 pitch. It had everything: Humor, charisma of a well known figure in the industry, a big name game associated with the pitch, and it didn't hurt that he did not look like Quasimodo.
To a lesser extent you had Obsidian's pitch for PE. In this case you had a handful of heavy hitters in the industry that have some actual PR skills. They have experience speaking to an audience and you can tell they were well prepared and comfortable in giving their pitch.
Don't...
1) Let Joe Blow programmer/designer speak in your pitch video if you can help it - Look...we get it. You're a small team and you want to showcase all 5 of you or whatever. But a bad presentation/pitch can just be as bad or worse than no presentation.
The audience wants to see excitement, passion, and a general belief in the project. We don't want to see an Underworld Ascendant type video where half the speakers appear to be coming out of a coma at that very moment.
Does that mean the project sucks? No. Does it mean that their enthusiasm speaks to their ability as a team? No. Does it mean only salesman-type personalities can make a good game? Absolutely not.
However, what it does mean is that you should not put them in the pitch video unless they can contribute something to it in a positive way.
Do...
2. Consider just releasing a trailer with a voice over and no speaking from the team at all - So say you don't have a
There's no steadfast rule that says you have to put out a team of accountant-type personalities out there (disclosure: I'm an accountant, so I know). Just look at Darkest Dungeon. Full on trailer for their pitch video. And it was badass.
If you MUST talk then keep it short. Look at Serpent in the Staglands. It's a trailer followed by a quick intro to the husband-wife team. Boom. Show interesting trailer with quick intros. Even SITS has some issues with their campaign, but f' it. They're just two people. It's to be expected.
Don't....
2. Just talk about the game...show!
I hate to keep harping on TSI's kickstarter, but it is the most recent example I've seen of this. However, other pitches suffer from the same problem: I don't want to hear shit coming out of your face. Why don't you just show me what you're talking about?
The first 5-10 seconds of any pitch is the most important. It should a.) capture my attention, b.) tell me what I'm looking at, and 3.) Make me cream my pants (or panties if you are a crossdresser, a lady, or have sensitive skin).
Do you have an interesting/unique setting? Show me art. Is your game based on older games? Pull those nostalgia strings and show me gameplay of those games. Do you have presentable* demos? Show them.
It's like foreplay. Show me a quick preview of stuff I already like in order to have my attention when you rock my world later on.
**presentable is covered in the next section...
Do...
3) Have decent gameplay to show me - How's that saying go? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
The days of "Look who I am! Look at what I'm trying to do !" are basically over for most of the future campaigns out there. The only ones that can still pull that off are studios with an established reputation. These include InXile, Larian, Harebrained studios, and possibly Obsidian. Even the they are running on established games with some reusing their engines (Larian and Harebrained for example).
If you're not in that camp you better have something to show me. There's too many examples of kickstarters burning their backers to blindly believe in anything anymore.
Best case scenario is to come to a campaign with a very limited but sort of complete setting. Yes, yes, it's hard to get there. But look at the trend: Many games are coming to backers with gameplay and graphics similar to what will be shown at release.
Note that "similar" does not mean "polished". But if you're going 3D, then show 3D assets. If you're going 2D, show initial 2D assets. Anything that will help us envision what this game will look like (even if it's a rough draft).
Don't...
3.) Come with placeholders graphics - Look, I'm not a graphics whore. I regularly play Xcom, love SITS pixelated graphics, and prefer 2D over 3D any day of the week.
However, you're selling a vision and a future game here. I need to know that a.) you've settled on an art style, b.) I can gauge the amount of attention graphics will get.
"C'mon Mustawd...are you seriously suggesting that people are making a judgment based on placeholder graphics? FFS, it says 'placeholder graphics' in bold font!"
Absolutely. What a lot of these pitches don't seem to understand is that backers are always asking themselves, "Can these fuckers pull it off witht he team in place and the funds requested?"
Graphics, gameplay, etc. are all a part of that. Come with something to convince me with or don't come at all.
Guys, if you made it this far I salute you. You have conquered the wall of text I have summoned after my firm's happy hour and a weekend full of 8 hour workdays.
However, I think we'd all like to hear your own Do's and DOnt's of crowdfunding campaings. I've left out some topics on purpose
-Reward tiers
-Funding goals
-Hype machines
-Focus on Nostalgia
-Defining your core audience
-Campaign updates
And last but not least:
-Campaign phases (so little studios fail to understand that these things do not work in a linear fashion)
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