Backing a project .. First hand experience!

So As you know I'm working on this card game called "Invoke" , and I'm planning on starting a Kickstarter campaign sometime in the near future. I'm sure that I'm going to be able to get the funding that I need to finish the game but.. I only have one shot to do this correctly on Kickstarter

So the first thing I did was find all the podcasts I could find on the subject. Lucky for me there was a podcast called "Funding the Dream" That actually is about funding board games on Kickstarter.. How lucky am I that such a podcast exists.? Now being an experienced podcaster myself I realise that all the good podcasts are independent. So I gave it a shot!! I learned TONS!! So if you are thinking about starting a Kickstarter project, you need to listen to this first..

Here are some things that I learned

Plan plan... Look at all the aspects of what you want to do the marketing, Design, Manufacturing and how you plan to deliver what your backers so rightfully deserve!

Get social media revved up early!! I'm starting now... and if you are reading this then something is working!

Back someone else's project...

So that is exactly what I did today.. I booked three projects! Kingdom, Earthdawn 4E, and Japanese the game!

First thing I noticed was a message from the makers of Kingdom thanking me for my support and all I baked them was $1.. Cool huh.. I think that it's really cool that I get to interact with the people who designed the game. I like their project and I think that the ultimate product is going to be amazing!

So I sent a message saying that I would love to interact with them on twitter and offered my twitter name @artofpaint

and within a few seconds I got a reply from them on my twitter feed.... (wait they just responded to my last tweet)

Ok Back!! Wait.... Another tweet

OK back!! The point is that there is an actual conversation going on there. The guys at Black Locust Games responded to my inquires right a way.. And I'm only a $1 supporter. The conversation was not "Hey give us more money" either.. It was about how passionate and proud they are of their product. At the time that I'm writing this they don't have the funding they need but I'm sure they are going to get it. It was the artist.. How to find the Print-n-Play version of the game that will at least give you an idea of how the game plays so you know if you want to get the full version.

Visit their Kickstarter Page and help them out .. if nothing else let others know about this amazing product.

At this point, I want to mention that I'm not getting paid for this promotion. They did not ask me to write this blog post. But what I am getting out of this is the knowledge of how I want to treat my supporters when it's time for my kickstarter campaign. Thanks guys... If I run into some more money in the next 31 days.. I will up my backing category to something nicer ... If nothing else ... I know where my next disposable bit of income is going :)

Links

http://blacklocustgames.com

http://richardabliss.com/funding-dream-kickstarter-podcast/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1281146833/kingdom-0

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1374838500/japanese-the-game-a-language-learning-card-game

Sign up for the Invoke newsletter and be the first

I broke the website the last time I tried this... so If you can see this I must be doing something good. Ok So if you want to be part of the Invoke Newsletter you will get the following.

• News about Print-N-Play versions (Including download links)
• First to know when the Retail version is going to be available 
• Information of when the Kicstarter is going to begin.
• News and updates about expansions 

Here is what your NOT going to get 

• Spam about my cat (That is what Facebook is for)
• News about ever single time someone looks at my kickstarter page! 
• Emails ever week about Sales and promos that you don't care about 

Truth be told I hate "Email marketing" so I'm going to make sure that if I do have to send out a newsletter its going to be something you are going to like!

Subscribe to our mailing list

Drawing from three Decks: Invoke !

You come up with some of the most interesting Realization when you are playtesting.. It also helps that when you are playtesting that you have people that who are willing to make suggestions. So this other week we were playtesting the old paper version of Invoke (still called spellslinger at the time) and one of the major things we noted was that we kept having turns where we had absolutely no actions. For a game, this is a major problem.. I can understand having one round where you have no actions at all..But 4 in a row.. It became very clear to me there was something very wrong with the game.. So my good buddy Mike who is also a game designer (Check back to this blog because I will feature his games here) suggests that we change it from one deck system to a three deck system.. The idea was having all the actions in one deck.. All the objects and creatures in a second deck and the third would be all the cards that would modify an existing spell.. At first, I did not like the idea because I was too attached to my own concepts but after some thinking I figured not only was it a good idea but in true Mike form.. Brilliant. So here is how the three deck system works now.. .

Each Player at the beginning of their turn (and only at the beginning of their turn) draws up to seven cards. They may draw as much as three cards from any of the three decks. I have named the decks after magical skills in legends.

The Three Decks 

Thaumaturgy : The act of doing something... this deck is going to have your actions.. Moving left, moving right.. Sling (The card that makes fireballs... but I'm thining of a new name for that card) and the all important Sheild card.. This deck is what you draw from if you want to DO something..

Apportation : The act of summoning something.. This is your objects.. This will most likely be an element as in earth, air, fire & water (there are other elements in the mix for later expansions). There will also be objects like wands, Books, and rings (From expansions) and if you are really lucky there may even be a creature to help you in your quest to win the game. This deck you will draw from if you need ammo or for a spell you have yet to cast

Alteration: This deck allows you to modify or target something . So this where you draw when you have a spell but you would like to have a little more control or have some cool special effect added to it... say.. A fireball that can strike a wand or that burns the opponent for 3 turns.

So I wanted to test the three deck system.. I drew 9 hands.. Before it was possible to have as many as 4 hands where you had no actions possible... not even bad ideas. White of the three deck system all but one of the hands had at least one or two actions (not saying those actions were good ideas ....but at least they were an option) 

So what I learned was good ideas come from your best friends and don't get too attached to an idea! Don't be afraid to make some major changes during the play testing stage of a game.

Can't sleep so I'm working on the cards.

It's really early.. I can't sleep.. My cat "KittyNinja" decided it was time to add a few extra holes in my arm! So now I am awake and I cannot fall asleep. So what does an artist do when he cannot fall asleep? He gets to work!

So what I am trying to do is get the Print-n-play version of Invoke ready.. What I want to make is make it so that anyone with a printer or access to one can download my game, print it out and play. The idea is that those people who are doing so are going to have to play with someone. It's advertizing! And as far as I am concerned if someone is too broke to get the real version of with the new cards (And trust me... I would have a lot more games on my shelf if I was not broke all the time) they are more than welcome to have the Print-N-Play version..

So you know here is difference between Print-N-Play version of Invoke & retail version.

• Retail version is going to be in rich colour with all the glorious art.
• Print-N-Play is going to have my website over all of the element cards.
• Retail version is going to be printed on really nice cards.
• As far, as game play is concerned they will be exactly the same l! It's also important to point out that I am not going to make a print and play version of any of the expansions at this time. 

If all goes well there should be a Print-N-Play version of Invoke sometime next week 

If you are following me on twitter , Facebook or Google + and you would like a copy please let me know and I will add you to the list of people who get the first download. 

Invoke Card Game Prototype card have arrived

So I got the prototype to Invoke today !! I am loving what I see.. The cards are good quality and very easy to read .. I think that I am going to keep with the maker of the cards for future projects as well .

I have to say there is something about holding the real deal ... it does not matter if its a prototype or not .. I really feel like this is going to happen now!

The point of having a prototype 

So now I have a prototype ... now what ? .. well We play test .. the idea is that I need to go through every single card and see how I can improve them .. here are some factors that I'm a looking at .

• Layout 
• Font size and readability vs background and art 
• Spellcheck 
• Spellcheck
• Spellcheck (Yes I said it three times) 
• Working with rules 
• Artwork making sure there is nothing odd about the works
• Do people like the cards 

So what I am doing is when I show someone the cards I watch how they look at them ... I also ask if there is anything I could improve because I value their opinion .. Asking for their opinion is not a method of fishing for complements but actually giving them permission to pick them apart.. I have a good friend mike who is well known for telling you how it is ..(He does so with logic and a smile) and is able to do so in a way that is easy to understand .. People like that are the people who you want to give it to ... also teenagers who do the "It sucks" all the time .. because they will find the tinniest flaw and tell you about them .. 

Its very easy to get into your own head and assume that the projects are perfect .. I did not want to do that with Invoke .. I want invoke to be the best card game around. To make a card game of high quality I need to make sure that I rase my quality not just assume that I have it. 

Ok ... I'm going to employ my favourite lawyer to look at the rules ...(Its ok .. its only going to cost me dishes and foot rubs ... I'm married to her :) 

Oh and Invoke the Card game has an official Facebook page! 

Invoke Card Game Official Facebook Page

What is Invoke all about?

So here is the story about why I designed Invoke ..

A long time ago there was this new game called Magic the Gathering. I have to say that I really enjoyed playing with my friends deck and decided that at some point I was going to get my own deck. Well what happened was that I got the basic deck and two booster packs because that was all that I could afford .. I had a blast making a deck of Orcs and Goblins and it was a lot of fun.

Example of the Earth Card 

Well one of the guys who always comes to our game group was not really the sharpest tool in the shed. In most games we spent more time arguing with him because he did not understand the rules then anything else. Well once I saw the game ... he had to have it .. so he spent an obscene amount of money on the cards.

This is when I noted something ... "Mark" started winning ... A Lot!  Mark who was never a good player at any of the other games started winning at Magic a lot ... I mean all the time (not that he was a gracious winner either) . Mostly because he had a deck for every situation. A deck vs White, A Deck Vs Blue ... and every single rare card in the book. And he won almost every game.. Not with strategy but deep pocket power. It got annoying really fast .. and I was not the only player who felt that way. Just because you have the most money you should not be the best player ... At what point is this equal footing. Some of the best players I know got slammed by Mark because he happen to have one of those Ultra Rare cards that totally destroyed their strategies. But what do you expect when you spend $30 on a single card.  (I think my total deck was $25 or something)

So here I am ... this guy who was working two jobs just to make ends meet and all I had was one Ork & Goblin deck that really got trashed. Now you loose a game one , twice , 4 times and that is ok .. but with everyone else with disposable incomes vs a guy who felt guilty because I got an extra hamburger for lunch (Big splurge) you start to loose interest in playing. After all the playing field was not level. So my deck started to gather dust. I ended up giving my deck to someone ... I don't remember who.

So here I am many years later .. I'm working in a high end software company doing tech support. one of the software that I supported was a drag and drop  programming software. By Dragging components into an area you could make this software automate an action... Hummmm wait a second .. how could would it be to make a game out of that?

now wanting to be as far from work as possible when I design something like this I chose to have a Magical theme..

It works like this ..
Each Player on their turn draws up to 7 cards.. These cards then can make up a sentence

Fire + Sling = Fireball .. Attacking their target breaking on of the "Lifestones" 

What the players have to do is design the "Spell"  out of component cards provided.. The best part is that all players draw from the same cards .. so it becomes a game of wits and creative thinking not .. Who has the most expendable income. When a player gets a expansion pack .. all the players benefit from the investment.  I hope to have a print-n-play version of the game up soon .

I'm thinking this game is going to be good for people who want to teach logic to their children .. Hell adults are going to love this game.

I have deliberately not listed all the possible spells on this site .. though I am now and then going to be posting pages dedicated to one of the spells.  The idea is that I want you to come up with your own spells (and tell me about them) . I want this to be a game where creativity and thinking outside the box is the key to winning.

Off Topic ... Geek wisdom!

So the other day I was thinking about about being a gamer ... and anyone who follows me on twitter knows I am really big on equality! So I started to make a few images that crossed my mind.

New backs for the card game Invoke!

So with changing the name I really wanted to do something about the backs of the cards .. after all I could no longer call the game "Spellslinger" ...

here is what I put together

Now I want to thank http://www.obsidiandawn.com for the brushes!

The Old Back.

So I would love to have feedback on what you think would be the best back ! 

Card Game Rename !!!! Spellslinger to Invoke!

So if you are looking for the card game Spellslinger ... you are almost in the right place ... only that its because we have changed its name to Invoke !

Invoke is a game about thinking outside the box .. Players combine cards to create "Spells" to try to destroy or steal other players "Life stones"! We have left a lot of the rules open ended to allow creative use of the combinations of cards. This is a game of creativity and whit..

 Its not the hand you are delt but how you play what you are given    

 This game will be available for Print and play in the next few weeks! The rules of the game will always be available for free on this website and various PDF Versions. We hope you enjoy the game!


Kevin C Mason
Game Designer , Game Illustrator , Artist , Body painter , Geek ,