We Failed at Kickstarter and the Future of Our First Video Game
Happy New Years!
Although it took a while, we promised an update on our failed Kickstarter campaign. I want to reflect on the past few months and talk about what went wrong and most importantly, what the future holds for our small studio’s very first game, Super Blast Off!
This past Halloween, we launched a Kickstarter in order to raise $30,000 in crowdfunding. The money was to be used to finish development on the rest of the game. We believed the timing to be right since we had just completed the first level and released a playable demo that showcased Super Blast Off!
The plan was supposed to be foolproof. Everybody would love the game idea, download the demo, spread the word, and as a result — not only would we reach our Kickstarter goal but beat it. Riding the momentum, we would approach Microsoft and Nintendo about getting Super Blast Off! published on their consoles, in addition to a PC release. We would sell bazillion copies and get started on the sequel. We would live happily ever after… the END. Right?!
High aspirations aside, there was one fatal flaw that we thought (mostly me) we would be able to overcome in our foolproof plan: we did not have even a small fan base, to begin with. And that is the most important factor in the success of any crowdfunding campaign.
Not a lot of people know about our game or our studio. But I thought that Super Blast Off!’s polish would be able to sway the masses and get us pledges.
As the head marketing guy, I am largely responsible for failing to build any sort of community. Would we have had a successful Kickstarter campaign if the game had a loyal following? I don’t know the answer but I know we would have had a better shot at succeeding.
A Much Needed Surprise
Something we were not expecting was the criticism that Super Blast Off! received for its gameplay. It is something that came out of left field for us because we overlooked it. We thought that the gameplay was good, not mind-blowing. At least not until we added the rest of the items and enemies and fine-tuned the game.
Up until that point, most of the gameplay feedback we received was from Orlando’s local community of gamers and developers, some of whom are friends of ours. I know what you’re thinking… friends and family are always going to tell you how awesome anything you create is.
We were aware but never took the time to set up a group of players who have no personal interest in Super Blast Off! to provide honest and constructive criticism of the gameplay and design. Despite this, it was still a bit of a gut punch to watch YouTubers showcase our game and not talk about how great the gameplay was. They would mention how bland or barebones it felt. The silver lining is that they generally liked the graphics and sound so it’s not all terrible.
It stung a lot but we did our best to not get defensive and recognize the reality of the situation. Super Blast Off! is not as good as we thought and it needs improvement. We are fully embracing the valuable lesson in all of this and the opportunity to do better.
Now that we’ve gone over the past, let’s talk about the future.
Without any doubt, we are moving forward with Super Blast Off! But it will be slightly different than we originally envisioned.
Michael and I are going over the game’s design and what it will look like. Certain features will get the karate chop while others TLC. I was initially concerned that the game will become a shell of what could have been. Instead, we are excited because we get to focus a lot more on making the gameplay great and possibly releasing Super Blast Off! sooner. Before, the concern was about having as many features and content as possible because gamers have become accustomed to getting a lot. The focus is now quality over quantity.
Improving Our Game
To ensure that Super Blast Off! delivers on that front, we need to go through constant iterations of design implementations, playtesting, and improvements until gameplay reaches a point where the feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Importantly, the game has to be playtested by gamers outside of our small studio since there is no internal playtest team in place.
With this in mind, we will be putting together a plan to form a closed group of playtesters to provide feedback as we reiterate on the game’s design. We made this decision not too long after we ended the Kickstarter campaign. This is going to be key in making Super Blast Off! great and fun.
If you or someone you know will want to be involved in the closed group of playtesters, we will provide full details in our next update. And that should come within a month’s time so keep your eyes peeled!
Anyhow, I would love to hear your thoughts on this update and get your perspective on what we’re doing. Comment below, tweet at us or send us an email. Thanks!
Twitter — @ParagonyxLLC
Facebook — @Paragonyx
Email — hello@paragonyx.com
Update on 3/8/18 — The Research Lab at Meow Enterprise is now open! Read all about it here.
