The Kindness of Strangers

One of the harder things to find, well without spending a ton of money on manufacturing, shipping, and pay to play... Is good reviews.
If you are a very new game designer, with rough ideas for games, finding reviewers and playtesters will be a challenge.  Once you have your game polished and made, it can still be tough to find people willing to get your game, play your game, videotape themselves, and give a decent review.
I am using this blog entry to tell you about John Galvin, he was an unknown backer to me on my first KS, Duel of the Dragons.  He mentioned he had a youtube channel, but didn't say much beyond that and I completely forgot about it during the production and shipping times of my game.
John actually did not get his original KS game, somehow it was lost between here and NY.  So after a few email chats I sent him a new copy of the game, this time tracked just in case it was lost/stolen again.  He got the game and had it played at a game store with a few guys.
He not only taped and showed that video, but also an unboxing video, a how to play video, a game setup video, and a review video.  Then one more video after that.
I can honestly say I was surprised by all of this, and he does it for all kinds of games that he buys/backs at no expense to the game maker and actually doesn't even tell the maker when or how many videos he is posting.  You would only know if you are subscribed to his channels and look at it regularly, or get push notifications.
So, in summary, just wanted to thank John again for the kindness of strangers.  His reviews were very positive about my first game, visually entertaining, a pretty accurate about the gameplay.  Check it out in the link below if you like:

Duel of the Dragons Review - 2 Gun Pixie - John Galvin

Driving Awareness

The challenge from six months ago continues on today, how to get people interested in a game they have never heard of from a person they don't know and a company that has no history.  This is very difficult to do in such a broad and exciting hobby world.
One thing some games and other businesses like to do is contests and giveaways.  I have mentioned giving away a copy of Duel of the Dragons, and will be doing that again.  That can get expensive though, and only gets a prize to a few people.
In Legends of Novus the best visual to the game is the art.  Andrea Butera continues to amaze me with his character and creature work for Novus.  Boris Turano is doing a magnificent job with creating eye catching locations that capture this amazing world we have now created together through story, game mechanics, and art.
So it makes sense to try and share that with people while advertising the game and trying to earn email subscribers (who may end up backing the game later on or sharing the game/links with friends).

This resulted in a decision to offer 12 photo posters, just 8x10s, to give away to random people on the email list the day before the Kickstarter.  I will be promoting it for a full month in hopes to gain more and more email subscribers who like the art and want a chance to win one.  The cost of printing an 8x10 is fairly low (compared to giving away a game or other physical item).

I will share a post stating how many more subscribers this helped bring in during the next blog entry.  Hoping this can gather at least 100 more people in the coming weeks.  That may not sound like much, but again this is an unknown game in a well populated game setting (fantasy).

Here is the Ad Poster....

Updated Components and Art

The past week has been a tremendous time of improvement for the art and graphics of Novus!  I have been working on fine tuning wording and mechanics, playthroughs and social media exposure while Andrea has been working day and night at graphic design for the map, cards, and icons in the game.

The result is a new and improved look to nearly every aspect of Legends of Novus that we feel players are going to fall in love with when they see it, both on their screens (via website, FB, and KS), and when it hits their tables if they choose to support it.

This is not a project that has gotten this far overnight, it has been almost 12 months of daily commitment, from 1 hour on busy nights to 5-6 hours when time is available.  And its not over yet, the next four weeks require even more time and energy to create awareness of the KS campaign, develop video content, make sure rules book is fully understandable one more time, amongst other things.  Then there's 30 days of KS madness, a fun and critical time where I will get to interact with backers and reviewers, and maybe even some media depending on how it goes over.

Here are some updated images of icons and components to see how it is progressing!

Happy New Year!!! The Year of Novus!

It's the beginning of a new and exciting year, 2019 is here!
FunDaMental Games had a small game launch via Kickstarter in 2018, and all backers have now received their game copies.  The game is considered successful in my opinion, in that it was manufactured to the identified quality/specifications, communications were maintained via KS comments/updates and regular emails with the backers, and the product was delivered on time (a rarity in the KS gaming world).

Legends of Novus is less than 50 days away to its KS launch now, and time will feel in very short supply as I attempt to finish the KS campaign pages, conduct a new live playthrough with four players, get a video of the KS completed with a professional photographer/video editor, and finalize details on the core components of the game with the manufacture.  A lot to do, but I feel it is very important to get this completed in the early part of the year and aim for the Feb 19th launch date so that the artists can finalize their work and aim for a December delivery date again to the backers.

To support communication I have launched a new Game Giveaway, of some extra copies of Duel of the Dragons I had made just in case their were shipping/damage issues for the backers.  This will help gain some new email subscribers and awareness of FunDaMental Games prior to the LoN launch date.
Also, very new to me, is the function of paid advertising via FaceBook.  Right now just doing Boosted Ads with links to the email subscription for the game, then closer to KS the ads will be based on Legends of Novus awareness targeting gamers in highly populated areas of the US and Canada (and a little bit in Europe as well).

To anyone reading this post (whether now or months from now if you happen to look back on it), I hope that this year marks a new and fantastic journey as a game developer and producer in the coming year(s).  Creating this small company, investing countless hours of time and energy, and investing in Adobe, art, advertisements, and videos, and creating all of these groups/sites is a big risk to take if nothing comes of it down the road.  Nothing comes without some form of risk though, and there is quote that says you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, so this is my big shot this year.  Lets see if it can score!