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[eigenbom]

Thanks guys! If you're a gamedev, then I'd love it if you could post the game's kickstarter in your communities. I'll be ramping up my promotion in a day or two, once I finish this preview build. That'll hopefully spread the word and get the campaign moving again.

Octopus -- Hi, and thanks! The game is about exploring, not building a base. There is building in the game, but it's only in a simple form. For example: building a bridge to cross a chasm, building a moonlight chamber to set-up a spawn point, and constructing the star-machine in the starting region.

There may be a sandbox mode that I add later, that will let you build in a free-form, but the main game isn't about building.

[ZeroTec]

Backed!
Good luck with your campaign. I hope you'll reach your goal soon. Game looks like a ton of fun

[Octopus Tophat]

Octopus -- Hi, and thanks! The game is about exploring, not building a base. There is building in the game, but it's only in a simple form. For example: building a bridge to cross a chasm, building a moonlight chamber to set-up a spawn point, and constructing the star-machine in the starting region.

Sweet!  Sounds like my kind of game.  I'll be happy to back it.  Uhhhh... I've actually never backed anything on kickstarter, so I'm not sure how it works.  If I donate $25 will I get the alpha, despite it saying it's all gone in the $20 reward description? That's probably the dumbest question in the world, but I really can't tell.

[eigenbom]

Thanks guys. Octo -- yep, if you click the $25 tier (it says "select this reward" when you hover) then you'll get the alpha when it comes out (and the final game on release).

The $20 tier was a discount for really early backers.

[Octopus Tophat]

Awesome.  Backed :D

[eigenbom]

Thankyou sir :D

[Zizka]

Hello Ben!

I'm currently studying your KS campaign for my own (two members suggested that I check out your campaign as it's really well done). They were right!

To be frank, I thought you would reach your target in two weeks! Maybe I was overly optimistic but: 3/4 million views here, kickstarter staff pick... I don't know. You've also been covered by hardcoregamer and destructoid...

Are you happy as to how things are going at the moment? I really hope you reach your target. The presentation really is top notch.

I hope things start to pick up in the remaining days of the KS!

[oldblood]

Moonman is in an excellent position. About half way through the campaign and just under half of the goal. It's certainly beginning the dreaded "lull" but this happens to all campaigns. The longer the campaign, the longer (and generally more severe) the lull. Things will likely remain slow for likely another 7-10 days with volume picking back up in the final week. The final 48 hours will send generate a large number of clicks from Kickstarter sending out emails to people who've flagged the project as interesting but haven't backed it and it will appear on more curated pages. Typically campaigns that are "close" but not yet on target will generally see a flux of pledge increases from the more faithful backers who really want to see the campaign successful.

On some occasions during the lull, it may be worthwhile to notate statistics like Kicktraq indicating a "painfully close" 95% to goal etc to subtly encourage backers to increase their pledges. When things get tight at the end and you're pulling out all the stakes, more brazen techniques sometimes make it worth calling out that if X backers increase by Y dollars = success.

Regardless, I'm confident that Moonman will meet its goal and likely with a bit of buffer room to spare.

[Zizka]

That's great to read. So a KS really isn't a steady process.

Go Moonman!

[HopelessComposer]

With so many view in this thread, and the general quality of the game and campaign, I'm really surprised that the Kickstarter for this hasn't shattered its goal yet. It's a little worrying. Kickstarter starting to die, or what?

[Rat Casket]

With so many view in this thread, and the general quality of the game and campaign, I'm really surprised that the Kickstarter for this hasn't shattered its goal yet. It's a little worrying. Kickstarter starting to die, or what?

what we have here is somebody who drastically underestimates the power of clout and shit loads of marketing money. please do not touch the glass. if you must take photos please disable the flash.

[gimymblert]

Kickstarter was always successful to successful people doing new take on old success ... didn't mention success before success?

For new project with new people it is as usual

[HopelessComposer]

what we have here is somebody who drastically underestimates the power of clout and shit loads of marketing money. please do not touch the glass. if you must take photos please disable the flash.

The people who made HLD, Radio the Universe, and Shovel Knight had clout and shit loads of marketing money? If that's true, it's news to me. Really shitty news. Also, I'm not sure if I posted in your thread yet, but your game is looking good. I read a bit of your devlog, and it's obvious you deeply understand fighting games. I'm looking forward to your game. =)

Kickstarter was always successful to successful people doing new take on old success ... didn't mention success before success?

For new project with new people it is as usual

I dunno. For the longest time, it seemed like even shitty projects were reaching their goals over on Kickstarter. Maybe it's just my imagination, but it really feels like this game would've had a much easier time a year or two ago.

[oldblood]

It's true that its harder for a  project to "blow up" in 2014/2015 in comparison to 2012/2013. Additionally, there are more projects on the site now than ever before (many of which are terrible) so the %'s of failed projects are a bit higher. BUT-- a very large number of game projects are funded every month. Kickstarter is far from dead, it's simply matured. In fact, if you look at the number of small to midsize game projects, you will find success rates are almost the same now as they were 2 years ago. The bigger gap is fewer "concept" games are funded and dramatically less games crack the $500 or $1mm status anymore. But projects of Moonman's size are still quite successful. That being said, a project like Moonman launching in 2013 would have certainly done better than one in 2015 simply because expectations are much more tempered now.

As I said, I definitely see Moonman funding successfully, I simply don't see it exploding. Comparing it against projects from several years ago is like comparing stock prices in different industries. Not the same market anymore.

[VampireSquid]

One thing to think about might be the estimated delivery dates you have listed for your rewards on kickstarter.  Everything is set to May 2015.  So even for the lowest tier you have a delivery date of may 2015 but it says elsewhere that you plan to work on it for a year.  So what happens in May if it's not out for another year?     Is it that the alpha for the next tier that is out in May?  Either way, it would help if there was more clarity on that.  I personally am more likely to back a project if I can get an alpha fairly soon.  I know you have a mammoth dev log and I am sure you will finish it but for someone new to your project, from that perspective, I like to get an alpha release as soon as possible just because I am impatient and never 100% sure the project will finish.

Just my opinion, it doesn't seem like anyone has a problem with that so feel free to ignore this.

[CyangmouArt]

gratz for getting green light. THe project deserves it.

[Rat Casket]

what we have here is somebody who drastically underestimates the power of clout and shit loads of marketing money. please do not touch the glass. if you must take photos please disable the flash.

The people who made HLD, Radio the Universe, and Shovel Knight had clout and shit loads of marketing money? If that's true, it's news to me. Really shitty news. Also, I'm not sure if I posted in your thread yet, but your game is looking good. I read a bit of your devlog, and it's obvious you deeply understand fighting games. I'm looking forward to your game. =)

Kickstarter was always successful to successful people doing new take on old success ... didn't mention success before success?

For new project with new people it is as usual

I dunno. For the longest time, it seemed like even shitty projects were reaching their goals over on Kickstarter. Maybe it's just my imagination, but it really feels like this game would've had a much easier time a year or two ago.

the shovel knight dudes had hella clout from WayForward. not to mention virt doing the music. they had an incredible amount of connections and were able to get a lot of press because of it. they also showed shovel knight at PAX during that time (which aint cheap). press releases, events, etc all of that is marketing. being able to pay people on the team to create that marketing material = marketing money.

if you were to take a game exactly like shovel knight, with nobody worth knowing behind it, and just drop it onto KS for 30 days you would not succeed. or if you did it would be by the skin of your teeth.

[kleiba]

Well, I don't want to be a spoil-sport, but it looks to me that the Kickstarter has pretty much stalled now. :-( I hope I'm wrong, of course.

I remember that someone suggested a while ago that you should do more video updates, Ben. I specifically remember that a "let's play" kind of video was proposed in which you show footage of actual gameplay.

Do you think that could that something like that could revive the campaign again? What else can we do?

[Rat Casket]

Well, I don't want to be a spoil-sport, but it looks to me that the Kickstarter has pretty much stalled now. :-( I hope I'm wrong, of course.

I remember that someone suggested a while ago that you should do more video updates, Ben. I specifically remember that a "let's play" kind of video was proposed in which you show footage of actual gameplay.

Do you think that could that something like that could revive the campaign again? What else can we do?

All KS have a lull in the middle. Every single one of them.

The simple fact is early on in the campaign, press has a reason to report on it. 15 days in... now what? What has changed? What reason does the press have to report on your game again? What is driving people to this page? When the lull hits, successful campaigns have something in their back pocket to drive attention back to the page. Updates, streams, lets players, whatever the fuck.

Ben is operating very well at this point. There is no reviving necessary.

Also don't forget that towards the end of the campaign there is *always* a surge and the amount gets a boost. The campaign ending is one of those things that people will report on, or share, etc.

[kleiba]

It would be great if you were right. There's certainly be a lull for the lust couple of days. But now it seems that new pledges have almost come to a halt. It would be great if things picked up by themselves toward the end of the campaign.