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[OneSlyFox]

Hey all!

I started showing material from my game in January and quite quickly started to develop a fan base through Facebook and Twitter (mostly Facebook).

People seemed really excited about the game. In order to continue it, I realized that I had to get funding for certain things, it was just unavoidable. So, I launched a Kickstarter yesterday. Even with a pretty good fan base and a few articles written up about the game, and putting the KS page in front of tens of thousands of people...it looks like it's doomed to fail. 

I'm just wondering what happened? (My game even has a soundtrack list that crushes Hotline Miami's soundtrack.)

Here's the KS page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1420158244/power-drive-2000

[OneSlyFox]

And how much do you think is feasible to make a video game?

[Tuba]

I have a gaming website, I never heard of your game until now... send some emails! Have you done that? Have you tried contacting any big websites like Kotaku, RPS, Killscreen or Polygon?

Your game doesn't look bad, visuals are nice but the video indeed looks a little boring. Seems like all you do is drive in a straight line.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

-asking too much for a one person team. (unless you're famous it's hard to work)
-gameplay actually looks fine at first and the graphics are gorgeous. But it feels empty .
-You should try to find people who are still into Knight Rider.
-Gamers don't really care about soundtrack first. You usually don't buy a game for it soundtrack.
Miami Hotline do fine without music.
-% of followers (facebook twitter) who will back your project is  less than 10% in general.
Excited people won't always pay and you don't have that much followers.

You're asking way too much. As a one man team you should try to find investors or sponsors first.
And the 90's feel vibe, it's a bit too late now to follow to trend i think. was at the peak of its popularity in the last 2 years.

[Rarykos]

Images fuel imagination but the trailer crushes it. There's no feeling of greater purpose, it feels like an usual racing game but with 80s look, doesn't feel interesting. The talking car is a good gimmick, but it doesn't fill the void.

I actually had a look around and I felt interested in it since I have fond memories of 80s classics and it seems I'm not alone. The problem is it doesn't offer anything to satisfy me or other people outside the visuals or references. I'd expect something crazy, something kitschy, something like Far Cry Blood Dragon but a racing game and after watching the trailer I don't feel that.

I'd say the crowd that loves the idea of an 80s-inspired racing game doesn't love standard racing games.

Maybe add something interesting to the trailer and to the description. Oh and to the game too.

[xier]

You should check out some of the content being released by another tigsourcer:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AlbertPalka/20150504/242571/5_tips_on_running_a_successful_Kickstarter_campaign.php?utm_source=Gamasutra&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=yfigama05

I agree with all points that have been already said, even if you have 700+ likes that doesn't mean 700 people will give you money. Marketing is key, and you really need to push it hard for even the smallest sliver of success.

[OneSlyFox]

I definitely agree with what's been said. I wouldn't have even estimated 10% of the fan base would pledge. Even saying 1% is in a high range. I have gotten a lot of exposure in the synthwave community. That demographic has quite a few gamers.

As for budget, when I actually sat down and tabulated it (painstakingly), it just kept going up and up. Rewards (physical ones) jacked it up quite a bit--KS rewards have their pros and cons, I suppose. Taxes and KS fees take a huge chunk too. Right now, I'm one guy, but I will have to bring somebody else on for the MP, most likely. Also, it's Canadian dollars, so it's really only about 33,000 USD (before all the deductions).

The gameplay is sparse at the moment. I'm still in fairly early development, but have taken a large bite out of the production. I've outlined game modes and have mentioned that there will be multiplayer numerous times. Problem is, people don't take the time to read (I'm guilty of this myself). Woke up to 30+ emails asking if there was going to be multiplayer. 

This looks like a good article. Going to read that now!

Thanks for all the feedback!

[StrayCatRock]

OK, I'll add my 2 cents:

1. A maybe big technical problem that highly lowers customer's first impression:
The music in the trailer abruptly stops at 20 seconds and then it's silent all the time ===>>> What the heck?
I tought it came from the web video player but I played another kickstarter video at the same time and it was fine so it looks like the problem come directly from the video in itself. Needless to say that's the equivalent of a stuttering video at low framerate with a bandicam watermark.... So fix that ASAP because even if I find the video interesting, I wouldn't give money to someone who can't do a basic video promo.

2. Taking the most important lesson from your two main concurrents:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1857884659/distance-a-next-generation-arcade-racer/description
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1910344764/drift-stage/description
You can analyse the texts, rewards, etc. but the key thing for the success of these two campaigns were that the public had something to play and judge to decide if they want to pledge or not. Distance is practically an enhanced  version of Nitronic Rush which is a freeware and Drift Stage has its playable demo on itch.io. Other posters here have said your game feels a bit empty but it's not emptier than Drift Stage so you really should take a chance and quickly make up a circuit track. It's also very important because in racing games, the controls and car feelings are the main point: you don't play Ridge Racer like you play Mario Kart, Outrun 2 or Burnout and the player/customer can only get that with a controller in hand.

3. 12$ and upper tiers:
As a customer, I feel insulted that I have to pay more to have a DRM-free game. Maybe you mean that you will update the drm-free copy at each stage of the beta/alpha and it would be some extra-work compared to a steam update (although it doesn't take hours to make a new standalone executable, depending on your workflow) but yeah honestly, both from business and customer POV, it's facepalming until you can give some good reasons for that.

4. You, life, costs, etc:
"Without Kickstarter, it would not be possible to have such a TUBULAR soundtrack with these AMAZING music artists!"
I like synthwave but that shouldn't be the main focus of your campaign (otherwise I would just go to bandcamp) and I quoted this sentence because it goes a bit in contradiction with your costs graphic where SFX&Music are only around 15% of the budget. Also, and it goes with the "risk&challenges" part, dev&software is the biggest share and it's clear that the kickstarter is there to mainly provide you with an income to cover your life expenses during development as you work alone (with some possible outsourcing). What bugs me is that you insist a bit too much that the project relies mainly on you, problem is that "we" don't know anything about you aside that you worked 10 years in the industry => games? type of jobs? In this case, you just appear like the random "senior" guy who comes out of the wood, asks for money and then, only future will tell... So, potential customers  should know that you're reliable (I don't care if your infos are on facebook, short attention span rules so no "extra search" for the common internet guy).

So far, I would likely buy your game when it's finished because I like the general concept/direction but I pinpointed what bugs me in your campaign so feel free to make some adjustments or not 

[lithander]

And how much do you think is feasible to make a video game?

This is not the point. The question you need to ask is: How much money can I reasonably expect from my kickstarter campaign?

To expect your full development costs to be funded from kickstarter alone is very unrealistic. It's also not necessary because it would mean that every copy you sell later would be a net profit but your goal is not to become rich, right? So, why not spend some of that (expected) money on development? The classical way to fund video games is to estimate the amount of copies you can sell and how much money that will earn you and that's the development cost you can spend more or less. Of course you don't have that money yet which is where publishers come into play. They fund the development and reap the rewards (more or less).

If you don't have a publisher you need to get the money from other sources. And, yes, this his is why kickstarter and early access is handy for indie devs (there are other reasons, too) but it usually covers only a small fraction of the cost. In other words: If you are not very lucky, talented or famous you will have to invest some personal money, too.

I've been involved in two sucessfull KS gameprojects and both covered only a fraction of the cost (one ~30% and the other ~15%)

[LyndonHolland]

And how much do you think is feasible to make a video game?

This is not the point. The question you need to ask is: How much money can I reasonably expect from my kickstarter campaign?

To expect your full development costs to be funded from kickstarter alone is very unrealistic. It's also not necessary because it would mean that every copy you sell later would be a net profit but your goal is not to become rich, right? So, why not spend some of that (expected) money on development? The classical way to fund video games is to estimate the amount of copies you can sell and how much money that will earn you and that's the development cost you can spend more or less. Of course you don't have that money yet which is where publishers come into play. They fund the development and reap the rewards (more or less).

If you don't have a publisher you need to get the money from other sources. And, yes, this his is why kickstarter and early access is handy for indie devs (there are other reasons, too) but it usually covers only a small fraction of the cost. In other words: If you are not very lucky, talented or famous you will have to invest some personal money, too.

I've been involved in two sucessfull KS gameprojects and both covered only a fraction of the cost (one ~30% and the other ~15%)

I think this is fine if you have secured that money before running the campaign and are completely transparent about it. I'm actually hugely skeptical when I see kickstarter campaigns with very low targets as I just assume they don't understand much it costs to create a video game.

Personally, I don't think you asked for too much money. I like that you detailed in your pie chart where it will be spent. Looking at your target certainly wouldn't put me off - it looks very reasonable to me.

Visually, I think your game looks slick, but I guess other than the obvious aesthetics, it looks sort of like a standard racing game. Or at least that's how I read it from the trailer alone - it's a shame you didn't include the vehicle voice to ingest more personality. You'd probably do better if the trailer showed a bit more!

[richardatlas]

I agree with what some of the others have said.

The KS page / video

I think the video has a cool look, but it does lack some higher purpose or goal. Is there multiplayer? Is there an adventure where you explore new tracks? Is there GP? Doesn't explain much. I also think it's super important to talk about the game, and talk about yourselves and why you need funds. Doesn't have to be super high quality video, but something decent that shows your face. For our video, we split the video in half, gameplay at the beginning / explanation of the game, then ourselves and video of people enjoying the game in the second half.

Outreach

Before our Kickstarter, I called literally every single person I know, sent tons of Facebook messages, and emailed all the contacts I've developed (in and out of the game industry). On the first day, we got at least 150 backers that were just friends and family, and we managed to reach 10% in the first 6 hours or so just through that. A big start will lead to a big campaign, and while ours isn't done yet, I think that push at the beginning was huge if we do succeed.

Have you contacted press? Have you contacted big Twitter personalities who like driving games? Retro gaming communities? Racing game communities? Forums? Facebook groups? Subreddits? I imagine that you would have well more than the backers you have through all of these places. Granted none of these will get you 30k of your 45k, but it's somewhere to start.

I'm going to shamelessly put myKickstarter link in here in case you want to look or ask more questions about the video.

[dhondon]

I've never backed a kickstarter without a video where the creator pitches the game. If the video gets me interested, then I'll read about the game.

[OneSlyFox]

This is all great advice and great critiques! I still haven't given up hope. I did a ton of messaging and emailing yesterday and then was up all night working on a demo that's suitable for release. It's almost ready. I'll reply more in depth to your responses when I can!

Thanks for all the feedback, it's REALLY helpful!

[owendeery]

Just stopped by to say that I've been following your game on twitter, and I really love the vibe and style that it has. It's totally something I look forward to playing one day. That said, I wish I could contribute but can barely fund my own game at the moment so money is tight.

I'm going to go against what everyone is saying, at least for the trailer. A big part of this game seems to be atmosphere and style, and the trailer reflects that really well. I do understand that it's probably not enough to get some people to open their wallets though.

Best of luck!

[oldblood]

I think on paper, you did a lot of things right with your campaign. When things are looking down, its easy for people to nit-pick and over analyze what you woulda/coulda/shoulda but that's always easier said than done. Simply put, I've seen way less polished Kickstarter campaigns raise more money. So I don't know that this is about "What did I do wrong with my Kickstarer?"

In fact I think it's quite the opposite. I don't think its you at all...

Take this with a grain of salt because this is simply my perspective. To me? This is a VERY niche game. I can see people on Facebook and Twitter seeing pictures and thinking "Wow thats old-school! That brings me back. Cool!" Will they like it on Facebook? Yes. Favorite on Twitter? Sure! Spend hours playing it? Uh, hmm. I dont know... Pay money for it? Well...

My impression from the outside looking-in is that: I appreciate what you're doing, I can immediately tell how much effort and love you've poured into this project. BUT-- do I want to play a 90's inspired racing game verses the plethora of untouched games currently in my Steam library? No. Most gamers are saturated with games and while its easy for people to appreciate what you're doing, I dont know how big a market there actually is for it.

Niche' projects usually only succeed because the handfuls of people that do support it, support it at insanely high levels to insure they get their niche product. Your average backer size is about $25 and you realistically should be aiming for probably double that to have a realistic shot of hitting your goal. I think you have too many reward levels spread out across lower levels but again-- easy to nit-pick.

TLDR: Realistically, how big is the market for a game like this? I think a lot of people can appreciate what you're doing without feeling inclined to financially support it. I think this explains why your social media is generating above average responses but when it comes time to put money behind the support, its falling short...

[LobsterSundew]

I quickly skimmed the project page. 135 backers have currently pledged $3,957 towards a goal of $45,000 with an average pledge amount of $29.31 per backer. The project is in Canadian dollars.

It feels like a cross between Drift Stage and Distance. As others have mentioned, there is an empty feeling to some of the footage. Some of the more busy scenes don't have this empty feeling. There could be more information about the project creator and details about the game such as leaderboards in project updates. The 1980s and 1990s retro fun over-the-top presentation style is starting to become more popular. Many of the backers have backed a few projects before. There were only 8 first time backers. With drifting games what can be very important to the buy decision of a potential customer can be the feel of the controls. If it feels good then even if the levels are a bit empty feeling it can still be a great time-attack experience. It is good to see a demo is in the works.

Project goal
$45,000 is not too large to prevent this game I see from getting funded. It does make it more difficult. Getting above $30,000 can be tough without external exposure. The project would be looking at a target of around 1,500 backers just to reach 100% funded. It currently has 9.3% of that many backers. For a smooth run the campaign would need to aim for about $13,500 in its first week.
Launch date: Monday May 4th
Very good. Aligns beneficially with many cycles for traffic, press, etc. It is good to not have launched on Friday May 1st like some projects did. The weekly traffic cycle is more important than the monthly traffic cycle. Launching on a Friday means wasting precious time in the recently launched section on a slow Saturday. It did launch against some heavy competition like Yooka-Laylee which is soaking up a lot of backers.
Deadline date: Wednesday June 3rd
A good day to end, but it ends 22 minutes past noon PST which is a bit early. That can harm how much the final day raises.
Project thumbnail
I like it. I like the use of the older Windows and Mac platform logos. The "Play" button is positioned just above the car which is good because the button doesn't block it. The colours grab my attention. I don't see it as a problem. When the demo goes online the thumbnail can be updated to advertise this.
Pitch video
The first 13 seconds are a slow Hollywood rating screen parody and the studio logo. The remainder is actually really good for showing off some wow moments and pacing. Moments like at 00:45 feel a bit sparse sometimes. Audio levels like the initial static may need some slight tweaking. The video isn't looking like a problem.
Project description field
"An 80's sci-fi inspired arcade racer...with a talking car." is not the strongest description. Information like drifting or other elements of the game could be mentioned.
Project images
No animated GIFs which feels like a very wasted opportunity. The game looks much better in motion. The banners are very good with details like damaged VHS box corners. There isn't a photo to let people know who is behind the project. An infographic quickly summarizing information like platforms and answering frequent questions can do well.
Marketing
The Steam Greenlight campaign was launched the same day. This is good. The May 6th update said a demo is being worked on. With a bunch of GIFs an album in the blog format could be posted to Imgur's gallery for some views. That Imgur album could then be posted on Reddit. What results there were on Reddit had some good responses from commenters. I see the MegacomGames Reddit account responded to a comment on a post in the /r/TwoBestFriendsPlay subreddit. Drift Stage received a lot of support from that YouTube channel. Doing an Internet search shows that getting exposure through gaming blog posts looks to be by far the biggest problem. A lot of the top results were forums threads over the last 2 days. Kicklytics shows some decent sharing on Facebook and Twitter.
Project updates
Not much happening. There is an update about the $12 tier that was added. Project updates are very important and can consume a lot of time. One of the disadvantages of a single person team is if the project updates aren't prepared in advance the single person can burn out trying to manage press and a demo at the same time as making updates. I'd suggest prioritizing the demo because it can be update content and used to get coverage from bloggers and YouTube channels.

Here are graphs about the rewards:
http://i.imgur.com/NemSXs4.png

There is $76 in unallocated funding not traced back to any rewards tier. The number of unallocated backers that did not select any reward tier is a healthy low 4. The $37 is contributing more than normal. It is just below 35% of the allocated funding. To me it looks like an indicator of both a lack of smaller backers due to low exposure and that the soundtrack is a strong point for this project.

There is a huge gap in the rewards structure between the $86 and $365 tiers. $100 is often a hotspot and a well performing tier. Not bridging this gap will prevent more backers from upgrading beyond $86. This is a serious problem. It can result in a lower average pledge amount. The project should be aiming for about $36 per backer. Significantly higher than that could be an indicator of an incoming stall.

$18 was too high a price in my opinion. $12 is much more acceptable for what has been shown. Going above $15 on Kickstarter requires a good history or a lot to show. Now that the $12 tier is effectively the introductory tier, that first adds a copy of the game. The $18 to $37 tiers kind of stumble along, but they are just kinda good enough to work. There needs to be more days of data to see if the $37 to $50 tier needs to be fixed.

The largest priced tier is $730. Higher priced tiers are good to have because if there isn't a tier large enough to hold a pledge, that is a disincentive to make such a large pledge. It doesn't have to span up to $10,000, but I'd recommend at least spanning up to the $2,000 to 3,000 range. For medium sized campaigns it can be good to have a $5,000.

Here is very good news. The project's momentum is accelerating. The number of backers can be more important than the amount they pledge at this early phase. Look at the y-axis gains for the green May 7th bars. This is also visible on Kicktraq in the number of net new backers in the daily data tab. The true performance of this campaign is currently unknown because its exposure has been limited so far. Getting a demo out and getting more exposure could salvage this campaign's run.

Something people need to realize is that just putting the game on Kickstarter does not automatically mean thousands and thousands of views. There are levels of exposure within Kickstarter. Power Drive 2000 worked its way up from ranked 236th in active projects to ranked 45th in the games category. To rise up the rankings often takes exposure outside of Kickstarter. Project creators have a pitch video play counter in their dashboard. It is a good idea to monitor that number to assess how well a game is being received. I've yet to see the project appear in the top 20 which is where most of the exposure within a Kickstarter category happens.

The campaign is about to go into its first weekend. This can be stressful for a project creator because it is easy to do poorly for new backers on weekends. Weekends do have some /r/gamedev Reddit opportunities to promote screenshots and the soundtrack.

If the campaign can get over $20,000 then it could have a good shot at a reboot. Just getting over $20,000 could be a short-term goal to push towards.

[BishopGames]

I find a lot of the comments in here are a bit harsh, but they have some truth to them.

Don't give up yet, you know what man? We're running a Kickstarter as well for Light Fall and we will try to share yours to our backers and on our social medias. Might not be of much help but hey that might give you a little boost.

There are also numerous campaigns that were successful even though they didn't have the dreamed start. Don't give up until it's over. Keep reaching out, maybe make a new gameplay video in a more interesting light, post updates that will start a discussion and generate interest.

Keep your chin up and good luck. We'll do what we can to help out a fellow indie dev.

Cheers,

[DanglinBob]

Just as an aside about keeping your chin up. Two of my clients over the last several years failed their first kickstarter and succeeded in their second... with the same game! Don't forget that the #1 kickstarter of all time (Coolest Coolers) ALSO failed their first kickstarter for the product.

Sometimes you just have to take the first one on the chin and learn from it (lots of Chin references) to make your next one all the better!

[OneSlyFox]

I'm still hard at work on the Kickstarter and haven't given up hope yet! Succeed or fail, I'll write up my experience here when the dust finally settles.

@BishopGames - I gave Light Fall a shout out in my latest Kickstarter update and have been following the game as well. The Power Drive 2000 KS is always trailing behind the Light Fall KS by about 1-20 backers, and it seems like you're going to reach your goal since it's lower--and you've got a few extras days on me.

[HopelessComposer]

Your graphics looked pretty good, and the music wasn't terrible. Still, nothing in the trailer made me want to play your game, let alone buy it. I imagine that's how it was for most people. It was a good effort, but wasn't quite there. "Meh, looks pretty good, I guess," isn't going to get people to fund you.

With a little more gameplay, and a more exciting, cohesive trailer, you should be fine. The trailer just felt empty right now, for a lot of little, hard to pin down reasons.