Legends of Novus will need a Relaunch... and thats okay!

After 30 long days the game that I planned to create was unable to fund on its first attempt on Kickstarter.  One thing I have learned recently is that many games struggle in their first attempts now.  The competition is getting better and better, which is great for gamers/backers, but hard for new designers trying to "break into boardgames".

As I gather all of the data, review all of the potential missed funding opportunities, and strategize a relaunch, I thought it also important to post here on my Blog.

Below was the final update I placed on my Novus Kickstarter, figured instead of retyping it all that this can summarize some things I believe my campaign was missing...

To be continued...

Hello everyone, as many of you have predicted through the fairly reliable Kicktraq and Bigger Cake trend graphs, Legends of Novus was not able to attain its funding goal for this first attempt. It has been a very fun, engaging, and educational 4 weeks going through this campaign. To say this was a failure would be wrong, I feel what was learned this past month will make me a better game designer and marketer for any future endeavours. And to have over 400 people take interest, with over $20,000 Canadian pledges, means that Novus was important to many people!

The creatures that have been plaguing Novus will not relent, and your support will be needed when we get the chance to try this again! If even 50% of you came back for Day 1 of the relaunch we could see a fantastic % funded and interest in the kickstarter and gaming community.

Here is a quick video, a temporary farewell...

Something does need to change though, I cannot relaunch as it is now and expect it to succeed. So here are a few of the things that will be considered between now and the relaunch:

• Reducing the minimum funding goal to a more attainable result early on. In order to do this there will need to be a game component to review, to determine what is a must have and what is a nice to have. The most costly component, for example, are the dual layer character boards. If these were playmats to begin with, and the dual layer turned into a Stretch Goal, then the initial costs would go down significantly while still allowing for that to become a component with enough funding.
• Kickstarter game exclusives... there is some dissent on whether these are important or not, but I believe in a game like this they can be created/included without taking away from a potential retail game in the future. This would most likely be in the form of special characters, classes, and creatures.
• Add-Ons instead of excessive Pledge Levels. Things like the Art Book and the Neoprene Mat are great things to have, but they may have deterred backers as they can make the pledge levels confusing, and feel that if they don’t contribute the highest level then they aren’t getting the full game.
• Additional Game Reviews/Previews by more prominent people in the industry. By having these, the game will get more media exposure and views, which drives more traffic to the game and thus more people become interested. This comes at a cost, of course, which must be balanced carefully.
• New art... The game is already loaded with some fantastic art, but the more there is the more visually appealing the game becomes. I will work with the artist to decide on some new pieces to gather specifically for the relaunch, rather than releasing it all before the launch.
• New prototypes, using all of the new graphics, and inputting those new graphics into the intro video. You may have noticed the promo video used the older format of card graphics and the older character sheet. Although the video was still very appealing, it will match the game more with the newer graphics/images instead.

Here is an estimated timeline of events to lead toward the relaunch. Exact date is to be determined by the end of April, then will announce in the FB group and to some of the Kickstarter awareness groups out there.

I am sure there will be some other things to reconsider between now and the relaunch, and anything you wish to recommend you can feel free to do so. Here are a few ways you can:

Email me at fundamentalgames@icloud.com

Join the games Facebook Group and comment there (link at bottom of KS page)

Send me a tweet, or FB message, I am Wesley Woodbury, should be easy enough to find;)

2 Weeks of Kickstarter... Whats Happened?

Legends of Novus has been active on Kickstarter for 15 days now, 50% of the planned campaign time.

Most estimates say a game should be over half funded by this point... it is currently sitting at 36% of its goal.  If nothing else were planned to promote it, and if I did not have faith that it was a truly enjoyable game, this would be the time to cancel and decide if and when to relaunch.

I am not going to pull the plug and cancel until the day before it ends though, going against conventional wisdom based on some planned events and promotion.  Whether this is successful or not is completely unknown, but if nothing else it will still gather more attention, earn more backers, and make the game show as more professional by the end of the campaign.

A few things planned are:

• BoardGameGeek Ads running for the final two weeks of the KS.  Now that any pre-planned game followers have joined, and early KS browsers, these Ads will hopefully gain the attention of those who like fantasy, and missed the initial launch information.
• Podcasts airing from Funding the Dream (Richard Bliss), We're Not Wizards (Richard Simpson), and Getting Leafy (Blake Lively) are all airing information and interviews with me about the game.  As people download/listen they may gain an interest and decide to support the game and the company.
•  Well known game creator, publisher, and blogger Jamey Stegmaier, read an email I sent to him about my KS strategies and may include it in a Blog post.  Given that hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people read his content weekly, this could send a few people to read about the Kickstarter as well, potentially earning new backers.
• The GAMA is coming up in Mid March, right before my campaign ends.  A former employer of mine, who owns three game stores, will be attending and is planning to share my Info Sheet and discuss the game with people of influence at the show.  This is a big wargaming and fantasy crowd, and also big fans of Kickstarters.  Who knows what kind of boost that could give to the campaign!

So with all of that in the works, the next two weeks could easily bring in more interest and backers than the first two weeks.  I will continue my daily updates and game training videos, share on social media, and engage with the gaming community however I can (without over-spamming) in an effort to keep the world of Novus gaining exposure and traffic.

In two weeks I hope to provide a positive blog update of how this all worked out, but nothing is certain, all one can do is take a risk and try try try!

Wes

The Launch!

Well, launch day came and went in a blur.  Feb 19th, 9am, was 3.5 days ago now.  Thought it would be a good time to share a few thoughts.

First, how was the competition?
Pretty substantial.  Before I launched my game there were about 6 titles launched in the tabletop boardgame category.  After I launched, within another 2 hours, my game was no longer on the front page of the New section, as another 6-8 games had launched afterwards (which pushes you down the New list).  2 of those games were a similar theme as mine (fantasy adventure).

How did you do on launch day?
Day one resulted in just over 100 backers, and just over $5,000 CAN (about $3,500 USD).  For a very new person to the industry, and someone who has not been to any major conventions, I felt this was a reasonable result.

How are you advertising?
Mainly Facebook targeted ads, as well as discussions on social FB groups, Twitter, Instagram, and a small bit on Reddit (very difficult platform to share on FYI).
I spent about $50 on FB the first 2 days, and will continue to use their simple services to Boost posts.  I also attempted to use a social influencer, someone who has hundreds of thousands of contacts/followers, to see if that has any impact.

Do you talk to your backers?
Yes, I reply to every single comment/question on FB, Twitter, IG, and of course the Comments section of the actual KS.  I feel it is extremely important to be personal with the groups, and let them know how important it is for them to enjoy your game.

How often do you post updates?
I have made the decision to do one post per day, at around 11 or midnight.  This is for two reasons...
1- To thank and appreciate all new backers, as well as backers who have stayed with the campaign.
2 - To showcase specific parts of the game that I feel players would like to know about.
I am doing these updates with just a paragraph or two of text, accompanied by a 3-5 minute video of the two points above.  Thus far it seems to be liked by the backers.  This also allows me to share the video on YouTube, and other platforms via linked youtube video posts.
Some people may say a post per day is a lot, which is why I am trying to make sure each post serves an educational purpose towards the game (not just backstory, but actual gameplay).

Do you think you will get "funded"?
At this point, I honestly don't know.  I can tell you I have put a lot of time and energy into creating this project, sharing it, playing it, and now advertising it.  The artist has done a fantastic job, with minimal compensation (focused on the Funded result).  No matter what, the plan is to keep at it until 2 days prior to end of KS, if it is less than 60% funded then it may be time to quit, regroup, and relaunch in the future once additional prototypes and plays have taken place.

Updating my Prototype

I never imagined, when first creating Legends of Novus, that I would put together so many versions of the cards and game.  I thought I would get it right the first time, then once I was given some feedback I thought it would be done the second time.
Well... lets look at some of the card versions again...

I had no idea what I was getting myself into, or how many hours I would spend revising and retyping and reconfiguring the components of this game.

From the map layout, to the card configuration, to the text / rules, to the *shudder* rulebook (6 complete retypes!).

I want Legends of Novus to truly strike home with the fantasy gaming community.  I have loved fantasy my entire life, and don't want to create a game that people don't even want to consider playing after looking at the components/rules.

With some amazing support from the lead artist, Andrea Butera, and much feedback from the game design community, the game is truly eye catching now.  Is it perfect?  no, I don't think there is any way to please all fantasy fans.  But does it do justice to the fantasy setting it inhabits?  Absolutely.  When I printed out the most recent versions of the game cards/components I truly felt like this was something that looks polished and professional.  After a few more validations of grammar, spacing, and graphic layout this game is ready for production (plus the final artwork replacements of course).

Printing out the new material this morning was an exciting moment, and using them to play some games at some games stores over the coming days will be the perfect leadup to the KS launch on Tuesday (with some photo ops of course).

Here is a pic of some the most recent prototype components of Legends of Novus...

and a few digital images for higher quality viewing...

PnP Decision

When making a game with a ton of cards, and unique pieces such as the dual layer character sheets, it may seem odd to offer a PnP as it would be expensive for gamers to assemble.
After some discussion with the PnP community, and observing other game KSs, I decided that LoN should still have a pledge level for PnP.  If you think about it, the cost can be kept relatively cheap as there is zero production required for them (other than making the PDFs, which is not complicated).

So LoN will have a PnP tier, for $6 USD, in the KS.  But prior to that the PnP community had a few people willing to create my game from scratch , so I made the files and sent it off to one of them.  This person, Martin Gonzalvez, had some great feedback on how to better alter the PnPs to meet the basic needs of the community.  I figured it best to share a few recommendations here:

1 - All card files should be on a 9card grid, with 1pixel wide cut lines running between them all.
2 - If you are including backs, they should be on the second page.  All cards will print best if they are centred with same size space around cards.
3 - Reminder cards and standees, and similar things with two sides, should be set so they can be printed and folded (with a dotted fold line).
4 - Arrange tokens so that two sided print images will line up perfect when cut.
5 - If making a game board, segment it into letter size sheets or smaller, and safe those PDFs.  You can still make a large PDF in case someone wants to print that way, but no required.

The game is ready for PnP, and one player already has it made.  Hope this helps create some more buzz about Novus!

Here is a sample of the PnP made by someone:

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....