How to get Kickstarted?

RogueGhost87

Hi

1st time post since recently stumbling upon these forums , The issue me and long time friend are having is that we're trying to figure out the whole process of getting kickstarted here in S.A ,apart from STASIS's success we have no idea as how the process afterwards of being funded with Taxes and other various niggles that might get in our way, we're a simple two man team that's recently finished Matric and have been working on games for the last two or so years and wish to continue in a professional way, there isnt as such any really outline as what to do to get us up and running and how to actually be funded without implications of tax and various other issues.


I'm hoping you guys can share some insight on this and any help will be appriciated.


Thanks in advance.

Gibbo

Here's a handy link for recommendations on how to create a potentially successful Kickstarter project: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/school#defining_your_project

First thing to check though is whether you're aware that you need some kind of base overseas? (I'm not sure if this just requires a US bank account or similar, or if a member of the team must be in one of the countries) As stated on the website: "Creating projects is currently open to creators over the age of 18 and based in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands."

You can read more about the guidelines here: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines?ref=help_nav#

And here: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creator+questions?ref=faq_subcategory#PaymUs

There are local equivalents like StartMe available, but obviously with tiny audiences in comparison.

The experienced crowd on the forums will give you a better indication of how to go about your project, but you should perhaps focus for now on just working on a solid kickass concept with something physical to show for it, and only worry about funding later

Elyaradine

Elsewhere on these forums, a search away ;) :
http://makegamessa.com/discussion/566/kickstarter-and-how-to-get-funded-/p1
http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1k67t0/a_lobsters_guide_for_video_game_projects_on

Kobusvdwalt9

@Elyaradine I found that reddit link on twitter the other day, great stuff.

I think after you have read that and STASIS's post mortem thingy your good to go.
http://www.stasisgame.com/kickstarter-postmortem/

RogueGhost87

Thanks @Gibbo , @Elyardine and @Kobusvdwalt9 for the links especially that STASIS link since I originally intended to email the dev's but didn't know the response we'd get from them, noted that pre planning is a major neccesity and not simple as 1.2.3 and understand it's not something to be rushed , the biggest issue though is @Gibbo mentions that one might need overseas reprsentation , a major issue if anybody can still explain is if we sucessfully run a simple small kickstarter how to we go about it on our side in regards do we have to regrister our little two man team as a small business here? since the major issue that we are stressing is tax , we don't wish to hit a this wall if somehow tax was needed to be deducted as such, like in my previous post we're just two recently matriculants so don't have much business experience and basically want to know in advance what lies ahead after runing a kickstarter.

Again thanks for the great articles and advice.

dislekcia

Just out of curiosity, why do you feel that going to Kickstarter is the logical course of action here?

RogueGhost87

@dislekcia As it seems to be the only main source funding option as such, I actually visited startme.co.za and sadly not many things find success, Indiegogo has proven successful but has a much smaller user base, Kickstarter seems to be viable place for anyone to go, we're not trying to fund a huge amount but enough to get a good soundtrack to the game as it's actually something we feel that's key to the game, I could be proven wrong on the matter of Kickstarter.

Chris_Bischoff

Rogue,

There are a lot of really good composers out there who will work for 'indie rates' - if your game uses music as a central theme you may even find a composer who is willing to work as a part of your team to develop the game.

You could also take a look at websites like Audio Jungle who license their music out for a fee MUCH lower than getting a custom soundtrack written.

If you are both recently out of Matric I'm assuming that you have pretty low additional expenses (rent, food, etc). Use this time to your advantage and push the development of your game to a playable state.

The bar for Kickstarter games is set pretty high nowadays - without a demo your chances are greatly reduced (even if you are asking for a small amount). Not only are people less likely to back projects that they haven't 'played', but there is also a HUGE amount of marketing that comes from Lets Plays on YouTube and Lets Players pushing your game on twitter. PewDiePie did a shout out for Stasis and we jumped a few 100 dollars on that one tweet alone.

If you go the KS route I would really look at developing your project to the point of a full vertical slice, or at least as far as you can get to a 'feature complete' game - then using Kickstarter funds to expand on the core product. The initial time outlay you put into the game now will pay off in spades later on. So many Kickstarters fail because the games don't exist yet in a form that's fun an playable.

Developing your game further will also give you a much better understanding of your time lines. You may find that you dont even need do any sort of crowdfunding initially. There are a lot of other options out there - early access for one is an incredible platform that not only gets you invaluable feedback but in some cases has fully funded development of titles.

Super helpful eh? :D

dislekcia

RogueGhost87 said:

@dislekcia As it seems to be the only main source funding option as such, I actually visited startme.co.za and sadly not many things find success, Indiegogo has proven successful but has a much smaller user base, Kickstarter seems to be viable place for anyone to go, we're not trying to fund a huge amount but enough to get a good soundtrack to the game as it's actually something we feel that's key to the game, I could be proven wrong on the matter of Kickstarter.

@Chris_Bischoff's given you some great KS knowledge, born from experience. (Although, Chris, why couldn't you just file a W8-BEN and not worry about US tax at all - we have treaties to handle that sort of thing, surely?)

What I'd like to do is ask why you feel you need funding and what that funding is supposed to achieve. I feel that it's always a waste of time trying to get money for something that other people aren't already desperate to pay you for.

P.S. The Desktop Dungeons composers, despite being some of the best in the business (srsly, it still freaks me out that they wanted to work with us), were paid in straight revenue share. We didn't need any money to get great music, all that mattered was being able to seduce them with a good game ;)

RogueGhost87

@Chris_Bischoff Wow that really covered everything we needed to know and will take the advice to heart, from that we will focus on the core gameplay and try to refine it to the point where we're happy to release something out there and will focus on the music last while using really anything that fits it for the time being, Kickstarter Wise we've discussed it and agree that Kickstarter can be a really great thing but its really a risk and reward idea and think we should focus more it getting on steam and really leave the whole Kickstarter Idea alone. Really thank you for taking the time to explain the process you had through it, most importantly on composers we'll try and work something out since there are those that would do it and am sure we'll end up with something if not we'll take a look at Audio Jungle or nosoapradio as an alternative, as such the game hasn't cost anything really (Unity Free + own code and assets) Good luck on Stasis and hope you guys do exceptionally well in the future.


@dislekcia As such taking @Chris_Bischoff and your advice we'll try to avoid Kickstarter and surely finish the game without needing capital (ala Tom Francis's Gunpoint and Dennaton Games Hotline Miami style)

I do have very simple Ableton Live(simple being a very loose term) experience but doing anything with a high BPM I would probably break the immersion of the game lol.

Again thank you @Chris_Bischoff , @dislekcia for those insightful posts and hopefully we find success without needing initial capital.

dislekcia

@RogueGhost87: Why haven't you posted your game here yet? The most repeatable path to building good games growing to success from there is definitely open development. I have to admit to being a little worried that you're trying to plan some sort of release without exploiting the hordes of free advice and game testing that's available in communities like this one. Traditionally when people don't try to get maximum feedback, their games are pretty terrible/doomed...

RogueGhost87

@dislekcia At the moment we're still busy with core features (espically with having to do character animations to replace the simple first person controller we've been using, that and trying to understand Unity's mecanim system at the same time) hopefully having something to show that we're not embarrased by, we're hoping to have a webdemo or standalone demo with a trailer out next month, the game still has a small way to go 3 or so months(reason why we wanted to fund a soundtrack but thanks to Chris's and your advice we're looking for a simpler solution , I agree with pubicity and advice being key to any games success be it indie or AAA. and thats why we're hoping to do Demo - Video - Feedback - Steam Greenlight Campaign (which is another story on it's own).

Tuism

Don't get caught up trying to make something "perfect" - or at least "perfect for a first showing" - as long as you have something that's different from other things, SHOW IT!

I swear putting up something dead ugly with no animation now and some mechanics to make people think is WAY better than putting up something that's "fine" a few months later. 3 Months is a LONG time to go without feedback. You could be spending those 3 months WITH feedback - or better, multiple rounds of feedback. It's SUPER INVALUABLE.

Do it.

dislekcia

@RogueGhost87: How do character animations make the game more fun?

RogueGhost87

@dislekcia Sorry I completely misphrased my original sentence in regards to character animations those are more down the road, We're atm fixing and rewriting some code (which seems to have broken in these past few days)with which we're planning to release a standalone demo by the 3rd of June.

dislekcia

@RogueGhost87: No worries, I was just wondering if you were falling into the trap of thinking that your game has to be perfect before it can receive feedback. That's a mistake a lot of people make, and it's entirely untrue. At the same time, maybe character animations in your game would totally emphasise the fun! So I didn't want to assume :)