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[B]

ahaha, thanks everyone. we definitely wear our inspirations on our sleeves, though we still want to avoid infringement of course.

@Bluebutton oh yeah there are several camera related controls! I definitely understand that the camera isn't for everyone. try to think about most footage like, the upper limit of how extreme you can make it. You can check out this older video for a demonstration of how much control you have over the camera movement:





I've also got a new video today for you all! This is another special attack, which we're calling the KONGO WOLLOP. basically it's a ground pound that does minor damage, and stuns enemies up to 6 rows back. It doesn't do a lot of damage, but it's great for crowd control and getting a breather in the more crowded fights.





And lastly, I gotta mention that we're gonna be starting a small kickstarter soon, along with releasing a demo! in less than a week, assuming everything goes as planned. hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of fight knight in the coming days :D

[jctwood]

Excited for the kickstarter! Waiting with anticipation.

[STUpareidolia]

I keep thinking that if this was for VR it would be a KILLER app

[B]

only a few days to go now! in the meantime, here's a look at the gauntlet switching functionality

[B]

Captain Cooke is one of the first npcs you meet, he allows you to swap out special attacks called specialties

Wow the kickstarter is gonna happen tomorrow! you have no idea how anxious I am

[LobsterSundew]

For an upcoming Kickstarter campaign launch on June 30th, here are some notes that could be helpful.

I've been tracking video game Kickstarter campaigns for awhile. I observe that the timing of a campaign's deadline can be more important than its launch. If a campaign ends up struggling, then poor timing for the deadline makes it much harder to succeed.

First some information.

Kickstarter schedules campaigns in 24-hours increments by default. For example, launching at 8am would mean the final day of the campaign would be scheduled by default to end at 8am. Ending in the morning for the Eastern Time Zone really nerfs how much the final days of campaigns can raise. Most backers on Kickstarter are in North America. Potential backers could miss the campaign because they were asleep. Existing backers can also not be awake to upgrade their pledges near the end to help reach a close stretch goal.

Good news is Kickstarter added the option for a project creator to specify the exact time a campaign ends on the final day. Many project creators overlook it, but that option can really make a difference. It is usually best to end in the afternoon to evening for the Eastern Time Zone so that more backers can be around to enjoy the final countdown. What often happens is project creators try to help their campaigns with an extra early start on launch day, but the good intentions end up doing more harm on the final day by not specifying another hour to end than the default one.

Another note is to avoid ending on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays. Ending on a weekend can really nerf the potential for the final days due to less traffic overall. Saturday is the worst day to end a Kickstarter campaign by far due to a big drop in traffic. It may surprise some people that Friday is the second worst day to end. There is then a big improvement with Sunday being the third worst day (it gets much better on Sunday evening). Mondays to Thursdays generally work well for times to end a campaign.

A common piece of Kickstarter advice on the Internet is to run for exactly 30 days, but this sometimes runs into problems. Running as close to 30 days in length as possible is often best, but blindly following that advice sometimes puts the final countdown on a terrible date. It can be far more beneficial to add 1 to 4 additional days onto a campaign's duration if it avoids a bad time to end like a weekend or an event like a hugely hyped AAA game release.

Second, about launching on June 30th.

Running for 30 days from June 30th would end the campaign on Sunday July 30th.
Running for 31 days from June 30th would end the campaign on Monday July 31st.

I'd suggest running for 31 days instead of the standard 30 days. Monday is expected to be a much better end date than a Sunday.

Ending on Tuesday is also an option, but closer to 30 days is often better. Gold Rush is a popular Kickstarter campaign scheduled to end on Monday June 31st. A reason to run for 32 days would be to avoid ending at the same time as Gold Rush, but it probably isn't something to worry about due to a lack of overlap I see with each game's niche.

If you do end on a Sunday, then I recommend at least trying to end late on a Sunday for the Eastern Time Zone. 8pm often works well. What to try to avoid is ending early in the morning on a Sunday when the traffic is poorer.

Notable upcoming game release dates in this campaign period are:
June 20 - Crash Bandicoot PS4
July 7 - Fable Fortune
July 21 - Splatoon 2
July 25 - Pyre
July 29 - Dragon Quest XI

Splatoon 2 is expected to soak up some press, but the summer months are pretty mild for AAA released to worry about.

Notable upcoming events for summer:
July 9 - Rooster Teeth Expo
July 21 - Comic-Con San Diego
August 22 - Gamescom
September 1 - PAX West

Launching this week has the advantage of not needing to run during Gamescom. Gamescom, like E3, is one of the harshest times of the year to run a video game Kickstarter campaign. It is difficult for indie games to compete for press against AAA game reveals.

With enough pre-launch marketing and followers, any day of the week can work for a day to launch a Kickstarter campaign. FIGHT KNIGHT has a decent amount of Twitter followers. Good luck. I really like the art style.

[RobertGameDev]

For an upcoming Kickstarter campaign launch on June 30th, here are some notes that could be helpful.

I've been tracking video game Kickstarter campaigns for awhile. I observe that the timing of a campaign's deadline can be more important than its launch. If a campaign ends up struggling, then poor timing for the deadline makes it much harder to succeed.

First some information.

Kickstarter schedules campaigns in 24-hours increments by default. For example, launching at 8am would mean the final day of the campaign would be scheduled by default to end at 8am. Ending in the morning for the Eastern Time Zone really nerfs how much the final days of campaigns can raise. Most backers on Kickstarter are in North America. Potential backers could miss the campaign because they were asleep. Existing backers can also not be awake to upgrade their pledges near the end to help reach a close stretch goal.

Good news is Kickstarter added the option for a project creator to specify the exact time a campaign ends on the final day. Many project creators overlook it, but that option can really make a difference. It is usually best to end in the afternoon to evening for the Eastern Time Zone so that more backers can be around to enjoy the final countdown. What often happens is project creators try to help their campaigns with an extra early start on launch day, but the good intentions end up doing more harm on the final day by not specifying another hour to end than the default one.

Another note is to avoid ending on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays. Ending on a weekend can really nerf the potential for the final days due to less traffic overall. Saturday is the worst day to end a Kickstarter campaign by far due to a big drop in traffic. It may surprise some people that Friday is the second worst day to end. There is then a big improvement with Sunday being the third worst day (it gets much better on Sunday evening). Mondays to Thursdays generally work well for times to end a campaign.

A common piece of Kickstarter advice on the Internet is to run for exactly 30 days, but this sometimes runs into problems. Running as close to 30 days in length as possible is often best, but blindly following that advice sometimes puts the final countdown on a terrible date. It can be far more beneficial to add 1 to 4 additional days onto a campaign's duration if it avoids a bad time to end like a weekend or an event like a hugely hyped AAA game release.

Second, about launching on June 30th.

Running for 30 days from June 30th would end the campaign on Sunday July 30th.
Running for 31 days from June 30th would end the campaign on Monday July 31st.

I'd suggest running for 31 days instead of the standard 30 days. Monday is expected to be a much better end date than a Sunday.

Ending on Tuesday is also an option, but closer to 30 days is often better. Gold Rush is a popular Kickstarter campaign scheduled to end on Monday June 31st. A reason to run for 32 days would be to avoid ending at the same time as Gold Rush, but it probably isn't something to worry about due to a lack of overlap I see with each game's niche.

If you do end on a Sunday, then I recommend at least trying to end late on a Sunday for the Eastern Time Zone. 8pm often works well. What to try to avoid is ending early in the morning on a Sunday when the traffic is poorer.

Notable upcoming game release dates in this campaign period are:
June 20 - Crash Bandicoot PS4
July 7 - Fable Fortune
July 21 - Splatoon 2
July 25 - Pyre
July 29 - Dragon Quest XI

Splatoon 2 is expected to soak up some press, but the summer months are pretty mild for AAA released to worry about.

Notable upcoming events for summer:
July 9 - Rooster Teeth Expo
July 21 - Comic-Con San Diego
August 22 - Gamescom
September 1 - PAX West

Launching this week has the advantage of not needing to run during Gamescom. Gamescom, like E3, is one of the harshest times of the year to run a video game Kickstarter campaign. It is difficult for indie games to compete for press against AAA game reveals.

With enough pre-launch marketing and followers, any day of the week can work for a day to launch a Kickstarter campaign. FIGHT KNIGHT has a decent amount of Twitter followers. Good luck. I really like the art style.

wow.

[B]

[big awesome post]

Wow thank you so much! This is really well thought out, insightful advice, I greatly appreciate it! As you mentioned, we've been trying to stay conscious about avoiding big events like E3 and Gamescom. We'll definitely be taking your advice regarding paying attention to the specific timing of the end date.

[joey4track]

Yes! The world needs more 1st person brawlers, good luck on the KS!

[B]

TRAILER IS HERE! DEMO IS HERE! KICKSTARTER IS HERE!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1139574598/fight-knight

try the demo at: https://boen.itch.io/fight-knight-ks

I hope you all enjoy trying the demo out! It's been in the works for quite a while, and we're really proud of it. Thanks!

[wednesday]

Woooo! Just popping in to say I really love the attention to the movement and UI jitters because it looks so satisfying and really make me feel like the game has that impact. Any plans to bringing it to a convention/show?

[LobsterSundew]

The campaign is scheduled to end at 8pm EDT (5pm PDT). Very good.

Fight Knight received a "Project we love" badge from the staff very soon after launching. Fight Knight is currently ranked 2nd for popularity in the videos games category. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is currently ranked 1st, Gold Rush is 2nd and Space Odyssey is 4th. The top 20 spots are the best for traffic because people are lazy and to get the next 20 they have to click the "Load more" button in the discovery area. Fight Knight likely will not need to worry about dropping out of the top 20 during its run like some project creators have to worry about.

Here is some data about the launch day.
http://i.imgur.com/PnvfhX0.png

The turnout of backers was about the size that could be needed for a campaign with a $70,000 minimum funding goal to scrape by 100% by the end of a standard duration of 30 days. Since the minimum funding goal is $13,000 that goal was surpassed in the afternoon on launch day. Fight Knight had more pre-launch marketing than many campaigns asking for much larger goals.

Looking at the distribution of backers, what stands out first is how many are at the $80 tier. The simple answer appears to be they have no other tiers beyond $80 to upgrade to. There is untapped potential there, but also no rush to tap into it since the campaign is not desperate to reach 100%. Another note is the lack of high-priced tiers like "your likeness as an in-game NPC" or "design a monster". Again, there is much less urgency to do any reward tier modifications because the campaign is already over 100%. There is time to fully think things through and get feedback.

The number of backers from the $20 to $33 to $45 tiers looks good. No sharp drops. I consider a drop of less than 75% to be good from one tier to another.

BackerTracker currently shows a trend to $181,580 (1,396.8%) and Kicktraq shows a trend to $374,752 (2,882%). Understand that both of these tools need more days of data. This early in the campaign the trends are often greatly over-optimistic. After the first week Kickstarter campaigns usually enter a slower period called the Kickstarter trough. Fight Knight has a great chance to raise over $50,000.

The campaign hasn't received coverage from many of the largest gaming news sites yet, so the momentum of the campaign might not be at full speed yet. The current phase of the campaign is often about trying to get press coverage. A problem with weekends is that it can delay press coverage until Monday because many Let's Players and bloggers want to take weekends off too.

The average pledge per backer metric has been around $34 per backer. Some campaigns have the average pledge metric stay very stable for the entire campaign if no changes are made to the reward tiers. Some see it rise slightly after an early-bird tier is filled. This makes the average pledge useful for estimating how many backers are needed at different funding amounts. You divide the target amount by the average pledge to get an estimate of how many backers are needed. For example, $50,000 divided by $34 per backer would be 1,471 backers.

About 60% of backers are picking the cheapest available tier for a copy of the game. This is good. Closer to 40% often indicates a lack of backers. I usually see a range of 40% to 80% picking the most basic tier for a copy. Closer to 80% often indicates a problem upselling backers to the next reward tiers. 50% to 60% picking the cheapest tier for a copy of the game is a sweetspot.

I did not see beta access offered in the reward tiers. That is usually a very commonly seen reward offering for video game projects. Some backers are willing to pay more to wait less. A tactic to be aware of are add-on rewards. The main problem with add-on rewards is complicating the backer survey process if done poorly. There is also the opportunity to use beta access in promotional ways like "all backers before July 4th get beta access for free, tell your friends".

122 backers (17.91%) are brand new accounts that previously have not pledged to a Kickstarter project before. Overall comments outside of Kickstarter are very positive. The demo is also building confidence. Gamers that might often shy away from standard Kickstarter campaigns may be deciding Fight Knight looks like a safe-enough project to support.

The FAQ tab for the project page has no entries yet. Questions about supported platforms are very common on Kickstarter. The comments area was very supportive so far on the decision not to announce stretch goals. Also expect to get asked frequently about adding new reward tiers. There is less pressure to overhaul the reward tiers when the campaign is already over 180% funded.

Good luck tomorrow.

[B]

Wow thanks again for the really insightful post! I'm glad to hear that everything seems to be going well, analytically. It certainly feels that way for us right now! Also, we definitely need to start filling out the FAQ and make an update and everything else. I just need to sleep first! it's been a crazy 24 hours for us

[fall_ark]

That was fast!  Glad to see the game got funded on its first day.

I know you guys said no stretch goals, but with potential much higher funding than you expected, you probably should address it again in your update. Porting to consoles, modding, skins etc. is always a possibility.

Personally I would love to see (and help) the game have Chinese localization, but considering the font size it's probably going to need quite some extra work (Chinese kinda needs 12x12 pixels minimum to work properly), so it's okay if you don't want to consider it.

[B]

Thanks! it's crazy. Regarding localization, that's definitely something we'll be considering, and that insight into the specific requirements of localizing to Chinese is definitely something to think about! We're probably going to focus on just making the game for a while, but I could definitely see some localizations happening around or after the game releases.

-----------------

I've just written a Kickstarter update that goes into the specifics of why we're not doing stretch goals, as well as a few other things. Feel free to read this if you're interested!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1139574598/fight-knight/posts/1926340

[Tuba]

Game looks beautiful and really enjoy the sense of humor.
The demo is quite fun but I must say that the default controls feel a little off, I would prefer using standard FPS controls with A and D for strafing instead of turning and the mouse buttons to attack/defense. I should note that I play a lot of FPS and might be biased towards this.

Congratulations on reaching the Kickstarter goal so quickly, totally deserved.

[joey4track]

Grats! Can't wait to see the game 

[Sersh]

gratz on the successful campaign!
I think the opening gif with the knight punching the shit out of the skeleton sold this game

[LobsterSundew]

Here is more data about Fight Knight's campaign.
http://i.imgur.com/9QQZo4K.png

Pay attention to the shape of the $20 tier in the number of backers by reward tier over time graph. This shape acts like a canary-in-a-coal-mine for the campaign momentum since most backers are just interested in the cheapest open tier for a copy of the game. Fewer y-axis (backer) gains per day makes the shape more rounded.

While slowing down, the campaign's momentum is still strong. Think of it more as returning to normal after an overly strong launch. The number of new backers per day is still above single-digits which put Fight Knight in a way better momentum situation than many of the completely stalled out campaigns that did not survive Steam's Summer Sale and the 4th of July.

Since the $15 and $80 tiers are capped, the campaign only the $20, $33 and $45 tiers available. Fight Knight is already so overfunded, it has much less need to insert new reward tiers. There are so few tiers there isn't as much for me to critique as usual.

Another note about the launch being strong is that 58.22% of the current total number of backers have been there by the end of day #1 (623 out of 1,070). The campaign covered as much funding distance in 1 day as some decent small projects take 30 days to cover.

Kicktraq currently shows a trend to $158,588 (1,219%), but this trend is still very optimistic. Expect slowdown as the campaign enters the mid-campaign "trough" period. It would be unusual for a campaign not to slow down in the middle. Remember the shape of the $20 tier.

BackerTracker is often more accurate and it is showing a trend to $62,717 (482.4%). Backer tracker does try to take into account the slow middle and final surges of campaigns.

Frequent backers on Kickstarter notice that it can be difficult for video game projects to price their games beyond $15 on Kickstarter. $10 to $15 is a pricing sweetspot. Since Fight Knight has a $20 priced tier for a copy of the game and is doing well at that price, it means Fight Knight is in a way a bit more efficient than many of its peers right now. One of the reasons mobile game projects do so poorly on Kickstarter is they are forced to use very low prices for the games. It takes 12 backers at $15 each to reach $180 and 18 backers at $10 each to reach $180. By comparison, it takes 9 backers at $20 each to reach $180.

The average pledge per backer has stayed around $32 to $34 per backer. The average might have been around $40 per backer if there were high-priced tiers like $500 and $1,000. This is offsetting the good efficiency of the $20 tier. The average is lower than it could be from what I see, but again that isn't much of problem when overfunded.

Fight Knight is currently ranked 4th in popularity for the category. It is still receiving excellent visibility within Kickstarter. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is nearing the end of its campaign in 1st place. Arcana Hearts 3 is in 2nd thanks to excellent pre-launch marketing. Harold Halibut is a good looking adventure game that just launched into 4th place. Gold Rush is 5th. Space Odyssey is 6th.

178 backers (16.59%) are brand new accounts. Most backers are expected to be American (currently 704 or 65.61%), but Fight Knight is seeing lots of Canadian backers (104 or 9.70%). The United Kingdom is the 3rd largest source of backers (97 or 9.04%).

Stretch goals are often a motivating factor in the final 48 hours surge for a campaign like this, so it will be interesting to see what the final 48 hours is like. A downside to significant overfunding is less urgency. It still looks like Fight Knight's campaign should be able to surpass $50,000 by the end. It has the potential to do more, but that would depend on what large exposure it gets.

[B]

Apologies for the late reply, but thanks again for the great analysis LobsterSundew! I'm curious about how the final days will go as well. One thing we're considering is increasing the limit on the Tshirt reward near the end, since people seemed to grab that one up really quickly. We'll see if that helps us out!

----------

Thanks for the replies and kind words everyone! This week has been super busy, but I did get some time to work on the game at least a little bit.

I've made a bunch of small tweaks/improvements to the demo over the last week. If you've been waiting to try it out, I think now is a pretty good time to do so

here's the changelog:

-retooled the falling head puzzle at the end of zone 2
-rebalanced enemy spawn rates in zone 2
-slightly streamlined button/waterfall layout in zone 1
-fixed bug where you could fall out of the map in zone 2
-fixed bug where getting an encounter while getting sunk caused a crash
-increased armored skeleton poise
-increased skellotaur poise
-increased king casket poise
-slightly modified zone 2 head layout
-added "indoor" palette color shifting in zone 2
-streamlined entrance/exit layout of zone 2 head puzzle
-improved map readability
-created dynamic music system, created & added a couple tracks to utilize it
-added additional opening "save nag"

as always you can download the demo here: https://boen.itch.io/fight-knight-ks

And just so this post has something neat to look at, here's what the "indoor palette color shifting" looks like