Belarusian game development team raised $ 83,577 on Kickstarter
The Belarusian team of game developers Aterdux Entertainment managed to raise $ 83.577 on Kickstarter (from the planned 50 thousand). The crowdfunding campaign dedicated to the release of the second part of the Eisenwald Legends game was supported by 2,729 people.
I bring to your attention an interview with the project manager Alexander Dergai, who shared his invaluable experience in conducting a crowdfunding campaign on foreign territory.
Who came up with the crazy idea of the Kickstarter project, how did the team members react to it at the very beginning, why did they decide to try it?
We follow the news in the world and once we came across an article about Tim Schaffer and Kickstarter. At this point, we already realized that we don’t have enough money to complete our game, and I invited everyone to launch our project on Kickstarter. We began to monitor various projects, consider how much we need funds.
How did you prepare to publish the project? What did you read, whose experience did you study?
We basically looked at different projects on Kickstarter. Although we looked at the projects of Tim Schaffer and Brian Fargo, we did not focus on them, since our situation is completely different - few people knew about us. So we looked at small successful projects, FTLin particular. We also learned a lot of different “how to” on the Internet about how to present your project on Kickstarter. Unfortunately, they did not find any information about the games. It would be very helpful if, by the start of the launch, we realized how important the promotion of the game in the media is. By the way, now there is a new interesting group on Facebook: Russians on Kickstarter . We highly recommend this group to anyone who is going to create their own projects there in the future.
Who led the project? Was there someone in the team responsible for running the project on Kickstarter, or was it all done together?
We discussed all ideas together. And then the tasks were distributed. Viktor Armonik for the most part worked on update texts and others, I mostly translated everything, talked with backers on Kickstarter and on various forums on the Internet. It took a lot of time to discuss various “strategic” issues - what information to publish, what additional rewards to do, etc.
How confident were you in success?
We were sure that we would collect our amount, and all the questions that you would do if you did not collect, they answered that we would collect. Still, we asked for funds at the very minimum and we really believed in our game. And by the end of the campaign there was already quite a lot of media coverage of our project, so the question was only how much we would collect.
How was the required amount collected? Were there any peak or, conversely, failed moments?
There are several peak moments: the first time the creators of The Banner Saga, Studio Stoic, recommended us to their backers, the influx can be seen on kicktraq.com. Then we released our video demonstrating the battle system, which also attracted a lot of people. And 4 days before the end, Rock Paper Shotgun, a very popular gaming site, wrote about us.
What feelings did you feel when the right amount was gained? How was success noted? ;)
When the necessary amount was accumulated, almost until the morning we argued about the additional funds - what they would be used for. In the end, we calculated how much it would cost and put it to the vote of the backers. We didn’t celebrate success, only after the end of the campaign we all went together to a cafe and then slept for several days (not from a cafe trip, from lack of sleep during the whole campaign :))
What, in your opinion, was your secret to success? What have you done to make it work?
I think our success lies primarily in the fact that we love what we do, and this is noticeable. Our video on Kickstarter gathered a lot of positive comments. The most important thing was that it was necessary to convey all this to a large number of people. They started to write a little about us. We did not stop, and in the end we got to the big sites. The main thing was not to give up, and to the maximum we did everything we were capable of until the end of the campaign. Plus, we maintained very close contact with many active backers, listened to their advice and recommendations. One of these backers was the editor-in-chief of a German gaming site - pcgameshardware.com, which helped us a lot with coverage of our game and project in Germany.
Were there any points that you, from the height of today's experience, consider to be wrong? If there was an opportunity to start a project from the beginning, would you fix something in the style of project management?
There were many mistakes, and we were glad to make them now, and not during the release of the game itself - it could all be much more painful for us. Firstly, we launched our project on Kickstarter on Saturday, and the first press releases were only released on Monday. Now you see that it is advisable to give information about the project before its release. And do not run it on the weekend. Secondly, we counted on the fact that if we already have an alpha version of the game, and other projects have only ideas, then we do not need to provide a lot of information. As a result, we did not create enough promotional materials, and we had to deal with it frantically during the campaign itself. Thirdly, for writing press releases, it is nevertheless desirable not only to translate them from Russian into English, but to write them immediately in English, and this should be done by a person for whom it is a native language.
What would you recommend to people who will start their crowdfunding project in the future?
Study, see what others are doing, contact others, ask for advice - the experience of others is always very useful, and, as they say, it is better to learn from the mistakes of others.
upd: meet the hero of the interview with Alexander Dergay under the nickname aterdux . After the publication of the article, good people gave him an invite.
I bring to your attention an interview with the project manager Alexander Dergai, who shared his invaluable experience in conducting a crowdfunding campaign on foreign territory.
Who came up with the crazy idea of the Kickstarter project, how did the team members react to it at the very beginning, why did they decide to try it?
We follow the news in the world and once we came across an article about Tim Schaffer and Kickstarter. At this point, we already realized that we don’t have enough money to complete our game, and I invited everyone to launch our project on Kickstarter. We began to monitor various projects, consider how much we need funds.
How did you prepare to publish the project? What did you read, whose experience did you study?
We basically looked at different projects on Kickstarter. Although we looked at the projects of Tim Schaffer and Brian Fargo, we did not focus on them, since our situation is completely different - few people knew about us. So we looked at small successful projects, FTLin particular. We also learned a lot of different “how to” on the Internet about how to present your project on Kickstarter. Unfortunately, they did not find any information about the games. It would be very helpful if, by the start of the launch, we realized how important the promotion of the game in the media is. By the way, now there is a new interesting group on Facebook: Russians on Kickstarter . We highly recommend this group to anyone who is going to create their own projects there in the future.
Who led the project? Was there someone in the team responsible for running the project on Kickstarter, or was it all done together?
We discussed all ideas together. And then the tasks were distributed. Viktor Armonik for the most part worked on update texts and others, I mostly translated everything, talked with backers on Kickstarter and on various forums on the Internet. It took a lot of time to discuss various “strategic” issues - what information to publish, what additional rewards to do, etc.
How confident were you in success?
We were sure that we would collect our amount, and all the questions that you would do if you did not collect, they answered that we would collect. Still, we asked for funds at the very minimum and we really believed in our game. And by the end of the campaign there was already quite a lot of media coverage of our project, so the question was only how much we would collect.
How was the required amount collected? Were there any peak or, conversely, failed moments?
There are several peak moments: the first time the creators of The Banner Saga, Studio Stoic, recommended us to their backers, the influx can be seen on kicktraq.com. Then we released our video demonstrating the battle system, which also attracted a lot of people. And 4 days before the end, Rock Paper Shotgun, a very popular gaming site, wrote about us.
What feelings did you feel when the right amount was gained? How was success noted? ;)
When the necessary amount was accumulated, almost until the morning we argued about the additional funds - what they would be used for. In the end, we calculated how much it would cost and put it to the vote of the backers. We didn’t celebrate success, only after the end of the campaign we all went together to a cafe and then slept for several days (not from a cafe trip, from lack of sleep during the whole campaign :))
What, in your opinion, was your secret to success? What have you done to make it work?
I think our success lies primarily in the fact that we love what we do, and this is noticeable. Our video on Kickstarter gathered a lot of positive comments. The most important thing was that it was necessary to convey all this to a large number of people. They started to write a little about us. We did not stop, and in the end we got to the big sites. The main thing was not to give up, and to the maximum we did everything we were capable of until the end of the campaign. Plus, we maintained very close contact with many active backers, listened to their advice and recommendations. One of these backers was the editor-in-chief of a German gaming site - pcgameshardware.com, which helped us a lot with coverage of our game and project in Germany.
Were there any points that you, from the height of today's experience, consider to be wrong? If there was an opportunity to start a project from the beginning, would you fix something in the style of project management?
There were many mistakes, and we were glad to make them now, and not during the release of the game itself - it could all be much more painful for us. Firstly, we launched our project on Kickstarter on Saturday, and the first press releases were only released on Monday. Now you see that it is advisable to give information about the project before its release. And do not run it on the weekend. Secondly, we counted on the fact that if we already have an alpha version of the game, and other projects have only ideas, then we do not need to provide a lot of information. As a result, we did not create enough promotional materials, and we had to deal with it frantically during the campaign itself. Thirdly, for writing press releases, it is nevertheless desirable not only to translate them from Russian into English, but to write them immediately in English, and this should be done by a person for whom it is a native language.
What would you recommend to people who will start their crowdfunding project in the future?
Study, see what others are doing, contact others, ask for advice - the experience of others is always very useful, and, as they say, it is better to learn from the mistakes of others.
upd: meet the hero of the interview with Alexander Dergay under the nickname aterdux . After the publication of the article, good people gave him an invite.