FallCon, my first Gaming Convention

So today I had the opportunity to attend my first Game Convention, and although it was a small one compared to the huge cons I see on the many game sites out there, it was still a great chance to interact with gamers and designers in Alberta.
I started the morning by playing a fantasy dice game already in publication, called Dice Throne, by Roxley Games.  Had never heard of it and was invited to try it, it was a fun and fast battle game loosely based on a Yahtzee dice roll with some major add-ons...
Dice Throne is an accessible and strategic dice dueling game where players choose their Hero and square off against their opponents in an intense head-to-head or team battle.

After that I checked out quite a few other games already in play, then played an unpublished game called Borders of Kanta, a hex laying area control game by a game designer from Edmonton.   Had some good discussion with the designer Lorne, and was able to see the kind of quality that Print and Play company does for game production.
Also met the designer of Tiny Ninjas, a guy named Ryan who lives not too far away from me.  He had a great campaign with over $30k on his KS.  His game was manufactured with LongPack games and seemed to look pretty good as well.

I set up and ran my table for four hours, getting in two productive playtests and some discussion with passers by.  Everyone that came by was interactive and friendly, so a very good experience overall.  I was able to see where game time could be sped up by starting the game off in a later state (a common recommendation you see on game design sites anyhow), and will be adjusting the game to reflect characters being in a stronger position as the game begins.

After the demo I was able to meet a few game store owners and hand out a few more business cards to raise awareness for FunDaMental Games.  The environment is very difficult to actually sell a rookie product since there is so much established product available, but was still great to network and see visually a ton of the great games I don't own that people always talk about.
Examples include Scythe, Sagrada, Santorini, Twilight Emperium, and many more.

The con was a perfect break-in experience to the Con world, looking forward to the next opportunity to do it again!

Legends of Novus Ad Poster

Just a quick post to share a poster that will be used to showcase the amazing art for Legends of Novus...

Will be using at FallCon, in posts/ads, and as a visual cover for a future project for a 5E book for Legends of Novus (late next year)…

Kickstarter Update

It has been a busy week, but exciting as well!
     Duel of the Dragons has exceeded its modest funding goal of $500 on the third day of KS (of a 14 day campaign timeframe).  This was primarily done through unknown gamers, with some support from a few friends and family members.
     Launching the KS was a little intimidating, particularly when looking at some of the amazing projects others have launched and how much they were able to raise (and their preparations with reviewers and playthrough videos also).  I feel a fairly competent campaign was created and presented to potential backers, with each of the essentials for a successful KS being present to some extent.
     I launched the campaign on a Friday, which is not generally suggested (Tue/Wed/Thu are preferred), but that was my best timeframe around my day job and other life events.
     I have learned a lot about the KS program, and the behind the scenes data and discussions that can take place once you have launched  I have also learned a lot about the pressure to keep a campaign growing, and how challenging it can be to find ways to promote a game without delving into "spamming" or unapproved ads (on FB or other groups).
     Once it is all over I will discuss the process in an essay/review of some kind and post a link to it in this blog.  Might be a while due to needing to work on final revisions of the game, manufacturing submissions, and discussions with backers as well.
     The next week will continue to be full of FB/IG/Twitter ads/discussions, and the important FallCon event to demo Legends of Novus (and discuss/promote Duel of the Dragons).  It will be a great chance to meet gamers and designers in a local environment!

The day has come! First KS is live...

It will be a busy day to share and promote FunDaMental Games first KS.
I am sure it will be a day full of learning as well.  I will do my best to track the pros and cons of my approach to this campaign and share the journey in a separate post.
Until then I need to stay active across the different media channels and be available to answer comments/questions in the posts.

Giveaways

Trying to increase exposure to your games, and your game company, can be very challenging in a digital world so full of options to the gamers of the world.  In many posts and articles I have read about mailing lists, as I talked about last post when I started a mailchimp account.
Its one thing to make an email subscription list, its another thing to have people actually want to join it.  People need a reason to look at your games, and a reason to join yet another email subscription.  It is up to the game designer / publisher to create that incentive.
One popular incentive is to have a giveaway that will interest your target audience, in my case that would be fellow game designers and game players.  I decided to purchase a few extra copies of my upcoming cardgame Kickstarter and offer one as a giveaway prize to a random email subscriber of mine.
This helps drive traffic to the email subscription while also advertising the KS and the game.  One lucky subscriber will also win the game, getting it out into another random gamers hands.  After promoting this giveaway on Instagram, FB, and Twitter it helped bring about 40 new email subscribers to my account.  While this is a small number, it is a start and creates a base group to share news/updates every couple of weeks about what my company is working on for game design and future production.
As the list builds I will provide an update on this post for those that are interested.

MailChimp

As usual, I have been listening to podcasts and watching youtube videos about game design in my spare moments, and a common suggestion is to have an email subscription option for your game/company.

The most common recommendation is to use MailChimp, which is free to sign up and use until you have more than 2,000 subscribers (which is a huge number to hit, so not much of a danger there until you are in the big leagues).

I decided to give it a try today, so I have created my account and shared the link to join on FB and through an email to previous playtesters.  I have also created a button link on my company website that allows site browsers to just click to get the subscription option (another common suggestion).

Should this work well it allows a direct connection to people who have chosen to be linked to my company and games, rather than just trying to email people I think are interested.

I will try to remember to do a follow up to this note in a few weeks to see if the subscription option generates any interest (particularly after FallCon event).

Here is the link FYI

Sign up for our mailing list to keep in touch: http://eepurl.com/dGh6SX

Thanks for reading...

Novus Playtest Kit

The time has come to ship out a playtest kit of Legends of Novus to playtesters and reviewers that have taken an interest to the game.
First I am sending the kit to GameSmiths Playtesting group, a pay to play group that I used back in April of this year.  The reason I am using them again is the content they provide is fantastic, detailed, visual, and fun.  It is in the form of three youtube videos (Rules review, Gameplay, and Design Feedback).
Once they have played the game it will then be shipped off to a few different hardcore gamers/groups to test out.  I hope to get their feedback through some messenger chat, and maybe a Google Survey as well for some specific questions.
Right now the game, in my humble opinion, is fun, challenging, and balanced enough to allow exciting games for players.  This round the continent shipping and playing will help see if the game is broken in some significant way that I have not yet discovered.

Hope it goes well!  But even more importantly, I hope it finds the flaws that need correcting before making plans for a major KS launch and production!