Why is my Kickstarter not ready Part 1 of 3

WARNING! This blog post has not been edited .. I'm Dyslexic (see Below) I make mistakes. DEAL WITH IT ... I will have someone edit it later. 

So the whole point in this kickstarter is to give me the funding to create an amazing game. If I am very lucky I may be able to cut back my hours at work ... And if I am really really lucky maybe even quit!

So like many creative people I do tend to jump into things with both feet and think that I will try to learn how to swim on the way down. Sometimes that works and sometimes that does not .. With Kickstarter that is a bit different for me. I just saw a good friend of mine who had an amazing project miss his funding goal by less then $3,000. This was very eye opening for me because I really like his work and much of his previous books have been AMAZING and successful. He posted some very insightful reasons why he thinks his project did not succeed. With this I started to take another look at my own project.

My Kickstarter preparation check list  

Now a few of these items are checked off my list .. and I have created a nice spreadsheet that calculates how many items I have to complete .. This spreadsheet does not put into account items that are more important then others. However these are just a few things that you need to think about before starting your kickstarter campaign. at first I was thinking about making comments on all these Items ... then I started to realise I'm not writing a blog about how to do a kickstarter ... I'm writing about MY Kickstarter... This is something that I might revisit . but for now I'm going to just work on my own project. 

Invoke Card Game Design Checklist 

Rules proofread

Rules posted on website

Print and play version posted

Email sign up list created

Play testing 1-20

Play testing 20-40

All cards proofread

Cards uploaded to games crafter

Prototype ordered (Three Deck version)

Spell list sheet created

Domain name

Blind play testing

Creative Commons  licence (print and play)

Artwork for all cards

Box design

Instructions booklet

Create symbols for the three decks

Create suit for events

Re-create Cards for easy viewing

Kickstarter Tasks 

Submit approval

Create kickstarter page

Shoot video

Calculate costs of shipping US

Calculate shipping Au

Calculate production of all reward levels

Reward levels

Submit press release

Proofread kickstarter page

Back 5 projects (others)

Interview successful projects

Listen to all "Funding the Dream podcast"

Make comments on on other projects

Help promote others project

Amazon payments

Have someone else view my project page

Create and calualte streach goals

Marketing tasks 

Get involved with the board game community

Board game geek forum

Fiverr ad

Facebook ad

Email all friends

Host board game parties where someone brings a friend

Game con

Send out print n play versions

Contact local papers

Flyers at game stores

Be on at least 3 blogs

Get ads on 3 podcasts

At least 20 Blog posts.

Photo tagging promo on facebook

Factors not on my list 

These items I am going to talk about a little bit because they are more important to just put on a to do list. 

My Dyslexia

By the time your eyes have come down this far you may have noticed a few mistakes. .. yes yes I know you have seen me write about this before .. but its a huge factor. Think every single step requires me to wait for someone to help me to insure that there are no grammatical or spelling errors ... these is not something that "Spellcheck" can fix. So a major part of my time is waiting. The problem with having Dyslexia .. I cant just post something and have a mistake overlooked because my brain works differently. This is the internet ... Where the Grammar Jackals are just waiting to rip apart a creative idea due to a misspelling or misuse of tense. So I wait . 

Nobody knows me 

All my social media has been focused on being an artist. This is fine and all but I'm not one of those game creators who have other games out there. Lets face it the Fine art community is not excited because I'm hand painting a card game. So I have started mostly on Twitter looking to actually connect with people who like games .. and I'm not talking about following them just to follow ... or buying followers I'm talking about actually connecting to as many people I can and have real conversations with them. I'm not focusing so much on facebook because I feel that its not all that great for businesses. 

Playtesting 

So I can come up with some crazy ideas now and then .. And I'm sure that Invoke is one of those. The problem with having really out there game ideas is that some of the things that I consider fun may not be so for other people. My wife has told me that as much as she likes the game there is a huge list of other games she would rather be playing. So I want to find out if others are going to like the game. I also want to make sure the game is easy to understand (or at least as easy as possible and still keep the theme of the game) 

Print and Play 

At the time of writing this the print and play version of the game is NOT ready yet .. At one point I had a version of the game out that was so bad that I am embarrassed that I even told anyone about it. My Plans are to make the print and play free for anyone who would like to play. Currently the plans are to keep it that way (Funding my change my mind but as of today ... its free). My hopes is that you are going to like the game and play it with a few friends. If I am really lucky then one of those friends are going to want to own the retail version :) 

I only have one computer

That is not true ... I also have a phone and a cheep Android tablet ... but neither one of those will allow me to edit the cards. So when my wife is not using her computer is the only time I can work on the game. Sure there are parts where I don't need a computer like painting the creatures and such but that will not help me get the print and play version done in time. So I wait . 

I get funded with Kickstarter ... now what? 

Now here is a problem .. I have to start thinking longer term then getting the money to make the game.. I have to look into how its going to get to the stores ( if that ) .. and how much effort I need to put into it. So far its my dream to quit the day job ... stay at home and just do creative projects with my wife all day! with this comes planning. 

So there we go ... this is why my Kickstarter is not ready!
When ... I'm thinking Sept 15th 2014 

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.