| The site of game designer Andrew Greenberg. All opinions expressed here are my own and are not reflective of any organization to which I belong. | Wednesday, 27 November 2024 - 4:12 |
We sent demos of Noble Armada: Lost Worlds, to our backers last night, and shortly after that the game hit its initial funding level. Thank you all very much. Now we are starting to send demos to contacts in the press and to other game devs. Check out the Kickstarter HERE.
Now it is stretch time. Many of our backers have told us what they want – more content, more platforms, more fun! The first stretch goal, for which we are already almost halfway funded, is the Campaign mode. If you have the demo, you have played Missions. These all take place within one solar system. The Campaigns will link jumpgates, allowing players to move back and forth between them – and ramping up the challenges accordingly. FYI, here is the message Kickstarter sends when you hit your goal.
Ready? Set? Scream! Your project hit its goal. Congratulations! |
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| When you’re done celebrating, post an update and thank your backers. They’ll be psyched to hear the good news.
Meanwhile, there’s still time on the clock, so keep at it. So what’s next?
And last but not least, keep up the great work! We’re here to help if you have any questions. |
We plan to livestream the game again 3 pm EST Sunday, March 11 on www.mixer.com/hdiandrew. During last night’s stream we heard a lot of interest in more factions, like the Church and Inquisition. That level is not far away – $8500. What factions would you like to see?
Well, we just wrapped up week one of our Kickstarter, and it has been a frenzy of activity. Noble Armada:Lost Worlds is a real-time strategy game, but you can pause it to sit and plan. There is no pausing a Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hdiandrew/noble-armada-lost-worlds-video-game
The lead up had been a mad dash of content creation – videos, press packs, Kickstarter rewards and more – as well as outreach. The past week saw those duties exponentially increased. We’ve run three livestreams, made countless social media posts, answered a flurry of inquiries, put together more press materials, and even managed to keep working on the game.
The result? More than ⅔ funded before the end of week one! What has made the greatest impact? Clearly those people who have enjoyed our games in the past. They have contributed the great majority of the funding and been fantastic in spreading the word.
Noble Armada: Lost Worlds bears a strong resemblance to a “naval combat” game set in space. By that, we mean winning the game requires you to properly maneuver the various vessels in your fleet to eliminate or subdue the enemy ships. Many of the concepts you would find in a naval conflict are present in NALW. As a example, one can Cap (or Cross) the T. The ships sides carry far more weapons than do the front or rear. As such, when “broadside” cannons are used, they launch a deadly barrage of fire at a foe. Positioning your ship perpendicular to the enemy allows your ship to expose the least amount of surface to the volley, increasing your chances for less hits.
Crossing the T
Kickstarter recommends giving a campaign at least three business days to get approved. We submitted the Noble Armada:Lost Worlds Kickstarter yesterday (Presidents Day) and got immediate approval. Now the race is onto have everything else in place before Monday, Feb. 26, when we plan to launch the Kickstarter.
The only other crowdfunding campaign I ever ran was for SCAD professor Tony Tseng’s family after he passed away at a game jam. We raised about $10,000 in a little more than a week, but that was obviously a very different campaign than this one.
Now comes the work of putting together everything else – press kit, demo versions of the game, publicity schedule, livestreaming events, etc. There is always the regret that time spent on the Kickstarter detracts from time spent on developing the game. In this case, however, the things the Kickstarter would fund – more art and coding – are not the parts I would contribute. Ninety percent of the game is done, and I am hoping that the Kickstarter will fund our new Mission Editor so I can start designing those as well.
A side benefit of running a Kickstarter is that it forces developers to focus on the last thing they want to handle – marketing and PR. We don’t plan to launch the game until late Summer or early Fall, but waiting until then to promote it means it is already too late for many media outlets.
Of course, we probably should have been promoting the Kickstarter months ago! Ah well, any suggestions on how to make up for lost time?