Divine Space: how we prepared for Kickstarter
As promised in previous articles, here I will talk about how we prepared for the Kickstarter our game Divine Space and on what basis, taking certain decisions on the campaign, revolutions, video and so on. I will start from the very beginning - with the idea of ​​appearing on Kickstarter.
The idea to go to Kickstarter did not arise by itself, but by the will of circumstances. Initially, Divine Space was supposed to be a small, trial version of the game for the iPad. However, we made a serious mistake in planning and assessing the complexity of the project. Namely, a small PC game can be huge for an iPad. First of all, this is due to the technical limitations of devices that we knew about - but which we had not previously encountered (before this project, we didn’t have development experience for the iPad). However, it was very interesting for us to try the new platform, we understood the risks - but underestimated them. As a result, we had to either very seriously cut the game and turn it into something between game and business, or accept the fact that we are doing a difficult, big game and follow this path. We decided in favor of a more difficult game.
The budget was originally limited. We did not fit in the established (completely unreal) time limits in any way, and it was necessary to think something. Either agree to the offer of publishers and get additional funding, but lose control over the development, or find some other way. By the way, I came across some brief review of Kickstarter - even at the end of 2011 I became interested in them, and here is a sign (this is, of course, the success of Double Fine Adventure and Wasteland 2). The success of these projects inspired us to test our strength on Kickstarter.
')
We thought that the preparation would take about a month and planned to enter the Constitutional Court in July or, in extreme cases, in August. It was not there. Reading articles, blogs, success stories, recommendations, communicating with successful project authors and researching their tips, observing projects that are similar to us — it took a month alone. It turned out that the COP is not a freebie at all, but the same serious work as the development itself.
In the process, the following key points emerged:
We had none of this at all. That is - none of the above points. The game is in a state of assembly, we are not stars, not residents of the USA and there are no connections. But the main thing - was the understanding that this is necessary before being launched.
I started by choosing to select forums, portals, blogs, and journalists' contacts on game topics. When the total volume reached 1500, finished, on the basis that if at least 10% of them write about us, that’s enough for our minimum Goal - $ 100,000. This amount is also enough (albeit with difficulty) to complete and release the first version of the game. At the same time, a Facebook game page was created, where people interested in the game and its development were supposed to gather, as well as where future backers or potential backers would come.
In addition, I invited the most active players (from my previous space game) and created a general skype chat, promising to help us spread information when we launch a campaign at the COP, and also created a forum to accumulate the future heart of the community.
Honestly, the activity is not very high: firstly summer, secondly - while the players still can not appreciate the game and the future gameplay. Nevertheless, the process is going on and many thanks to the guys: some feedback and suggestions have already been collected, many of which will be implemented in the game. It was not possible to attract the English-speaking audience to the forum - not enough time and materials.
Next, we started the creation of a small game site, where you can see some materials, read about the game, discuss all this, stick on Facebook or VKontakte, tweet, share and so on. How it will work - I do not know yet, but I will definitely share my experience in the post-mortem with the campaign.
I can not say that I am satisfied with the preparatory work on the formation of the community. There is not enough time for it to be done normally and correctly, and not enough time for it to have time to form. Yes, and there is no such experience - I think an experienced community manager would have coped many times better. In an amicable way, apart from a special person, one needs at least several months and at least some budget to form a community. But we have to work with what is within the limits of the limitations we are in. I consider the presence of an active community as the most important component of success on any crowdfunding platform, which significantly increases the chances of success. If there is no community, then 30 days for a campaign for an ordinary, non-brilliant project will most likely not be enough.
After the first steps were taken, it’s time to write the script for the video. I have studied about fifty videos of successful projects and about twenty failed ones. In most successful cases, the video was professionally filmed (although in many cases professional filming was disguised as ordinary amateur) and the scripts were very correctly, correctly and professionally written. Practically in all the rule of thumb was applied - humorous moments and neat jokes, light jokes. The failed videos, on the contrary, were full of stupid jokes or the lack of them, the lack of developers in the video, or excessive sponsorship of the authors, which also does not contribute to the emergence of trust and emotional connection with a person who invites people to support his development financially.
Having drawn conclusions, I wrote the script. In the script, I had to, as in most videos, tell about myself, about the team, our mission and of course about the game. Reveal USP, strengths and so on. I found a good operator at free-lans.ru, whose work I liked a lot, had previously agreed. The shooting was supposed to be at night, on the roof of some Moscow skyscraper. The roof was found on one of the Moscow City skyscrapers. The lights of the night city in the background had to be in harmony with the stars and skybox in the game inserts.
Then, returning to the community formation point, I contacted one of the most active players on one of the projects where I previously worked and where I, as a developer, were loved and respected by the players. I planned to ask him for informational support, as he continues to communicate closely with many players and his portal has a high attendance and activity, and we communicated before. The player's nickname is the Director, we contacted, we found common interests in Kickstarter, and suddenly everything suddenly changed. The director turned out to be in fact a film director and offered me help in making the film. The next day I went to the city where I was born - Petersburg, to discuss everything at the meeting.
I prefer to travel to St. Petersburg by train: you can sleep, relax and be full of energy in the morning. In addition, there is time to think - and it was necessary to think about many things, including the new scenario, since the proposal was amazing: pavilion, green background, normal light and cameras, installation. We just need a new script, because we don’t have to film an ordinary documentary with such resources that have fallen from the sky. Two scenarios arose, both quite complex. I rejected one myself because of too much complexity, the second one described the idea and formed a vision in my head.
In the morning I was in the office of Michael (director) and we discussed the idea of ​​the script. We decided that the game requires game video. I liked the idea and we agreed that we are working. Along the way, we decided all the other moments, made a work plan for creating a video and I went back to Moscow.
Upon our return, we discussed the new scenario in the company and, although everything seemed unrealistically difficult and maybe even impossible, we decided to work. A week later, we had the final scenario ready - dialogues, storyboards, a list of necessary materials, costumes and all the rest.
The list turned out to be big and scary, the costumes were the most difficult. Since Divine Space is a space game, both the video and the costumes must be appropriate. On the one hand, it would be nice to find some space pilot suits; on the other hand, all the similar costumes that we found turned out to be poor and more suitable for a student party or Halloween in a cheap club. Making yourself is too expensive and time consuming. Plus, the genre of the game is solid science fiction, fabulous costumes would not be the topic ... and this suddenly clarified everything, we understood which costumes we would most like. After a week of searching, we found the appropriate store and bought the right suits there for us, the “pilots” of the spacecraft. For our opponents the costumes were simpler and we sewed them on our own. It only remained to print the stripes on our costumes - this was arranged by Mikhail in Petersburg and already in their studio, with the help of special adhesive matter, neatly stuck on our costumes.
The second difficult point was the text in English. It seems that everyone in the team writes and speaks English, so the dialogues, written first in Russian, were translated into English. The dialogues were mostly written by Mikhail, in just a few days of working together we corrected and approved them. On the train, we had to memorize our lines in English and, on the set, to pronounce them. Then professional actors, native speakers, had to voice us so that the film would not cut through the ears of an English-speaking audience (that is, supposedly 90% of the backers). In the train, however, almost no one began to teach anything, confident that it was enough to draw big tips and read them, or that everything could be learned right in the studio. I reacted responsibly, learning most of the replicas. About the value of this feat a little later.
Filming also took place in St. Petersburg, so the team went there. The pavilion, actors, cameramen, make-up artists and all other necessary people were organized by Michael. When we arrived at the pavilion, work was already in full swing there: lights, cameras, a green background were put. Gradually, the actors caught up and filming began at about an hour or two in the afternoon. We must pay tribute to Michael - everything was at the highest level, I did not expect this. The actors played, it was amazing to see how my script turns into something more, how the actors come to life and implement our idea. Hear what was written before and see emotions, life - it was amazing. Then came our time to show our acting talent. We got dressed, a dressing room, a light, placed tips - and let's go!
But it was not possible to go. In the light of spotlights, the text completely flew out of my head. It turned out that I could teach him, could not teach - without a difference. Reading the tips is also not an option, as it is clear that the person is reading. Additional complexity - in English, when you don’t remember Russian. In general, it was a complete file, at some point I thought that we would not make this video. But Michael knows his business; The English text flew into the garbage can and we rolled back to Russian. It was no easier with Russian - phrases, even the shortest, did not linger in the head at all. Then I appreciated the work of the actors and, since then, my respect for this craft has increased many times. We shot until late in the evening, according to phrases, hoping for installation. To shoot our part took more than a hundred doubles. Only at the end we relaxed a bit and were able to speak more or less normally, but it was time to take the pavilion - and its rent was only for one day, the tickets were bought back.
Summarizing this moment, I will advise everyone who will make a movie for the COP or an analogue: lay for at least two days, a day - without cameras, at a rehearsal. Memorized text will also greatly help. Without rehearsal, if you do not have an innate acting talent, or experience shooting, you will most likely encounter the same problems.
However, we did it. Without Michael, we would not have done it in any way, a separate public thanks to him for his incredible patience - during all these hours of our shame, he never uttered a single harsh or harsh word, which certainly helped us a lot. I probably could not.
The editing was also carried out in Petersburg, and this turned out to be one of the most important moments when making the film. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a composing specialist and had to do it on our own. Therefore, I consider the effects to be the weakest side of the film - with more resources, they would look much better. Nevertheless, for the "home" video - the result, I think, is worthy.
Next was the voice acting. Before our voices were recorded and replaced - the video was a pitiful sight. However, after the voice acting, everything changed. Whether it’s a psychological perception of our recorded voice, or we were on the set so tightly that we couldn’t speak normally - but the duplication changed everything for the better. Minus - sometimes there is not falling to the lips, but in principle everyone is used to it. We tried to do the maximum synchronization and, I hope, this is not too striking.
We do not specifically show the insertion of game video, so as not to break the perception of confrontation between us and our opponents. Instead, we made thematic holograms that serve to diversify what is happening in the frame and keep interest. Another crochet was the background outside the station window, which slowly changes and gives rise to a subconscious desire to see what will happen next, what will come up from the edge of the window? In addition, this video is part of the game itself and, thus, shows the game with a second plan.
We spent a month on editing and effects in total, mainly due to the fact that we didn’t have such functionality in the game and had to write it. Thus, we caught two birds with one stone at a time: we added cutscenes to the game and made effects for the video.
By the end of the editing, we already had a site, (small) heart of the community, arts, several videos (including experimental gaming, taken from the iPad), a relatively lively forum, all English texts for Kickstarter, several self-written press releases and quite a lot of contact with the press.
We did not have a PR agency or our PR manager. A rather unpleasant story happened: a month later we were preparing a campaign with Australian PR managers, and a week before the launch of the campaign they suddenly abandoned our project. The reason for the refusal was that they considered that our goal ($ 100,000) was too high, and we refused to reduce it (because less - it does not make sense). In case of failure, they would not receive bonuses for their work and therefore, instead of increasing the likelihood of our success (as a good PR company should), they tried to minimize their risks and push us to reduce the goal. You can understand them, but they spent a month of our time in which we could work with someone more professional and obligatory.
All the rest charged high price tags with 100% prepayment and did not guarantee anything, which made their offers meaningless. At the time of this writing, we still have no PR people, which increases our risks, and we spent two months searching for them - the project could have been completed if we started then. What divine space can lead to is such a delay - it is likely that I will write a post-mortem soon.
The second significant risk is the ideology of our company to make games accessible to everyone that even children can play without being able to pay for them. This means - shareware model of payback (aka fremium, aka free-to-play). But we also know that the main motivator for supporting the project is “buying” a copy of the game at half price (or even cheaper). That is, the game will cost $ 50, and backers can get it for example for $ 20, if you support the project at the COP. Therefore, we have prepared more promotions and buns than non-premium projects. How they work, time will tell - in general, for the players, these prizes should be very seductive.
The next risk is that we are not Americans, or even Europeans. We are Russians who drink vodka, where bears walk along the street, political chaos is created and, in general, fear and horror. On the other hand, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg for a recent visit and excellent promotion - he raised the rating of Russian programmers and developers worldwide.
But the most important thing is that we do not yet have a combat video. This is the biggest risk, since according to the results of the collected feedbacks, everyone is mainly interested in the action. Despite the fact that we already have a balance of objects, weapons, shields, ships, and in general all the devices that it works - artificial intelligence is now only in the process of development. Ideally, it should be finished first and show how the ships fight, how the battle takes place, how they fly and react to events - but the deadlines are tight and we have to launch a campaign without this crucial part of the game. Probably, we can show it through the update after a while, but not a fact. Of course, this is a good informational occasion to spur the falling interest of the audience, but it is better to have such a video from the very beginning.
The last of the main risks is the “Kickstarter fatigue effect”. Briefly - the press got tired of writing about Kickstarter, and was tired of the constant requests to write about this or that project. In some forums it is even forbidden to create relevant topics. This makes the life of indie teams on crowdfunding sites much harder; at the same time, stars like Brian Fargo or Tim Schefer will be written with joy and pleasure. Thus, Kickstarters and analogs are becoming increasingly difficult for indie teams (for which they position themselves) and more accessible for stars. At least, such a situation in the video game industry, probably in other areas, indie teams easier.
From what we haven't had yet - material revolutions (artbook and one more thing). Ideally, the manufacturer of revolutions should be located in the United States or China and send it to the world itself so that the cost price of revolutions would not grow to be internationally shipped, or even double. So far we have not solved this problem completely, with the exception of the artbook. Now we are looking for a reliable manufacturer of souvenirs in China, which would also take over the mailing but to different addresses and hope that such exist. But it is already easier to solve and can be developed in the course of the campaign.
The main question I’m asking is how we solved the problem with the resident in the USA. We decided with the help of a trusted person, a Russian, who has long been living and working in the USA. In Kickstarter I was told that this person should be part of a team (collaborator). Since he also works in the IT sphere, we signed a contract with him and became partners. Thus, he is our representative in the United States and interacts with Amazon through his company.
Other options are to fly to the USA yourself, get all the necessary documents, open a legal entity. a person and a bank account (a legal entity in order not to pay the insane taxes that a private person will have to pay, at least so they told me in a law firm that offered their services of mediation at the Constitutional Court). Actually, this is the third option - to find a respected law firm (not a one-day or a young one) and they, in a fixed or a small percentage, will become your representatives in the USA.
The fourth option is to find compatriots who have already been to the Constitutional Court and agree with them about representing your interests at the Constitutional Court.
It took almost a month to register on Amazon (Amazon has approached a bank account for a very long time and, while they did not call it several times, it hung in pending status). I think if they had called earlier, they would have done it faster, but we had no such urgency. But if they hadn't called, then most likely the bill would have hung like that.
The most important moment after the start of the campaign is to create a peak of interest and backers in the first three days. According to the studied statistics, the first three days are the most active, then there is a decline, a plateau and the campaign ends another three days of increased interest (why - I explained in my previous article ). Therefore, it is very important on the first day to notify journalists, forums, players, friends as much as possible - anyone who might be interested in this project. If you manage to create such a peak, the campaign begins to live its own life. The first active backers appear that help developers spread information and who morally support both the team and other backers. If there is no such vigorous start, then everything will be much slower and sadder. For example, again according to statistics, if the project in the first third of life collected 30% of the total, then by 90% it will be successful. 30% can be collected only if you manage to create this peak. The first days are completely devoted to communication with journalists, portals, answering questions and communicating with the Beckers.
But this is not about us. Our growth (most likely) will be gradual and without sharp peaks at the beginning (why - in the same article). So it will not be a one hundred meters, as for the stars, but a marathon, according to the results of which the future of our project will be decided. In a sense, it will be a test for relevance - is it really necessary for the players and does it make sense to do it. Success will mean yes; Fail - that you should switch to something more in demand, and Divine Space to freeze and, maybe, try sometime later.
Then - updates. They should be prepared to know what you will talk about, why, and for what. Updates support the interest in the project and stimulate the faithful active backers to continue their mission, and also show the doubters or passive backers that life is in full swing, the project grows and develops, and the developers do not spit on the players. Updates every 2-3 days - this is good. Less often, it may be insufficient, more often - too annoying. And, of course, updates should be interesting. We prepared about 30 different updates, some had to be merged into 1, in order not to overload the backers and the project. Basically, this is an outline, a draft plan - I will write every update in detail, based on the circumstances. If the update is a video, then it is better to prepare it in advance, as then most likely there will be no time for it.
The duration of our project is 43 days (so that the end of the campaign would have an evening in the USA on Friday, why - it is told in this excellent article ). Although statistics show that the period of most successful projects is 30 days, the experience of domestic projects shows that this is not enough to get into the foreign press. The two-week supply is taken precisely for this reason: so that we can get publications and alerts in foreign media before the campaign ends, and not in recent days.
The start day is today. You can see how our campaign is going, whether the result corresponds to expectations, whether the game was worth the candle, here: Divine Space on Kickstarter.com
In the Russian group on Kickstarter, I will talk about my impressions and how the process is going on, maybe even daily, making a kind of diary. Let's see how it will be with time and energy.
The emergence of ideas
The idea to go to Kickstarter did not arise by itself, but by the will of circumstances. Initially, Divine Space was supposed to be a small, trial version of the game for the iPad. However, we made a serious mistake in planning and assessing the complexity of the project. Namely, a small PC game can be huge for an iPad. First of all, this is due to the technical limitations of devices that we knew about - but which we had not previously encountered (before this project, we didn’t have development experience for the iPad). However, it was very interesting for us to try the new platform, we understood the risks - but underestimated them. As a result, we had to either very seriously cut the game and turn it into something between game and business, or accept the fact that we are doing a difficult, big game and follow this path. We decided in favor of a more difficult game.
The budget was originally limited. We did not fit in the established (completely unreal) time limits in any way, and it was necessary to think something. Either agree to the offer of publishers and get additional funding, but lose control over the development, or find some other way. By the way, I came across some brief review of Kickstarter - even at the end of 2011 I became interested in them, and here is a sign (this is, of course, the success of Double Fine Adventure and Wasteland 2). The success of these projects inspired us to test our strength on Kickstarter.
')
Start preparation: study
We thought that the preparation would take about a month and planned to enter the Constitutional Court in July or, in extreme cases, in August. It was not there. Reading articles, blogs, success stories, recommendations, communicating with successful project authors and researching their tips, observing projects that are similar to us — it took a month alone. It turned out that the COP is not a freebie at all, but the same serious work as the development itself.
In the process, the following key points emerged:
- You need to be a resident of the United States to at least start a project at the COP;
- You need to have a great video where the team is represented. If there is no such video, then the chances of a campaign's success (according to statistics from the COP) are reduced by about 20%;
- In the case of game projects, if there is no world name, game video is mandatory;
- You need to have an adequate target amount of the collection, which is enough to complete the project on the one hand, and that does not scare backers - on the other;
- For Russian developers, 30 days per campaign is not enough;
- We need established contacts with journalists on top thematic portals, since one post there is approximately equal to hundreds of posts in small blogs and on forums;
- You need an active community supporting the development and participating in its life;
- We need at least a primitive site of the game, one page and forum is not enough;
- You cannot count on organic traffic - it simply may not be at all. You will have to create traffic either by yourself or with the help of a PR agency.
We had none of this at all. That is - none of the above points. The game is in a state of assembly, we are not stars, not residents of the USA and there are no connections. But the main thing - was the understanding that this is necessary before being launched.
Community Formation
I started by choosing to select forums, portals, blogs, and journalists' contacts on game topics. When the total volume reached 1500, finished, on the basis that if at least 10% of them write about us, that’s enough for our minimum Goal - $ 100,000. This amount is also enough (albeit with difficulty) to complete and release the first version of the game. At the same time, a Facebook game page was created, where people interested in the game and its development were supposed to gather, as well as where future backers or potential backers would come.
In addition, I invited the most active players (from my previous space game) and created a general skype chat, promising to help us spread information when we launch a campaign at the COP, and also created a forum to accumulate the future heart of the community.
Honestly, the activity is not very high: firstly summer, secondly - while the players still can not appreciate the game and the future gameplay. Nevertheless, the process is going on and many thanks to the guys: some feedback and suggestions have already been collected, many of which will be implemented in the game. It was not possible to attract the English-speaking audience to the forum - not enough time and materials.
Next, we started the creation of a small game site, where you can see some materials, read about the game, discuss all this, stick on Facebook or VKontakte, tweet, share and so on. How it will work - I do not know yet, but I will definitely share my experience in the post-mortem with the campaign.
I can not say that I am satisfied with the preparatory work on the formation of the community. There is not enough time for it to be done normally and correctly, and not enough time for it to have time to form. Yes, and there is no such experience - I think an experienced community manager would have coped many times better. In an amicable way, apart from a special person, one needs at least several months and at least some budget to form a community. But we have to work with what is within the limits of the limitations we are in. I consider the presence of an active community as the most important component of success on any crowdfunding platform, which significantly increases the chances of success. If there is no community, then 30 days for a campaign for an ordinary, non-brilliant project will most likely not be enough.
Scenario for video
After the first steps were taken, it’s time to write the script for the video. I have studied about fifty videos of successful projects and about twenty failed ones. In most successful cases, the video was professionally filmed (although in many cases professional filming was disguised as ordinary amateur) and the scripts were very correctly, correctly and professionally written. Practically in all the rule of thumb was applied - humorous moments and neat jokes, light jokes. The failed videos, on the contrary, were full of stupid jokes or the lack of them, the lack of developers in the video, or excessive sponsorship of the authors, which also does not contribute to the emergence of trust and emotional connection with a person who invites people to support his development financially.
Having drawn conclusions, I wrote the script. In the script, I had to, as in most videos, tell about myself, about the team, our mission and of course about the game. Reveal USP, strengths and so on. I found a good operator at free-lans.ru, whose work I liked a lot, had previously agreed. The shooting was supposed to be at night, on the roof of some Moscow skyscraper. The roof was found on one of the Moscow City skyscrapers. The lights of the night city in the background had to be in harmony with the stars and skybox in the game inserts.
Then, returning to the community formation point, I contacted one of the most active players on one of the projects where I previously worked and where I, as a developer, were loved and respected by the players. I planned to ask him for informational support, as he continues to communicate closely with many players and his portal has a high attendance and activity, and we communicated before. The player's nickname is the Director, we contacted, we found common interests in Kickstarter, and suddenly everything suddenly changed. The director turned out to be in fact a film director and offered me help in making the film. The next day I went to the city where I was born - Petersburg, to discuss everything at the meeting.
Scenario for video 2
I prefer to travel to St. Petersburg by train: you can sleep, relax and be full of energy in the morning. In addition, there is time to think - and it was necessary to think about many things, including the new scenario, since the proposal was amazing: pavilion, green background, normal light and cameras, installation. We just need a new script, because we don’t have to film an ordinary documentary with such resources that have fallen from the sky. Two scenarios arose, both quite complex. I rejected one myself because of too much complexity, the second one described the idea and formed a vision in my head.
In the morning I was in the office of Michael (director) and we discussed the idea of ​​the script. We decided that the game requires game video. I liked the idea and we agreed that we are working. Along the way, we decided all the other moments, made a work plan for creating a video and I went back to Moscow.
Upon our return, we discussed the new scenario in the company and, although everything seemed unrealistically difficult and maybe even impossible, we decided to work. A week later, we had the final scenario ready - dialogues, storyboards, a list of necessary materials, costumes and all the rest.
Preparing to shoot
The list turned out to be big and scary, the costumes were the most difficult. Since Divine Space is a space game, both the video and the costumes must be appropriate. On the one hand, it would be nice to find some space pilot suits; on the other hand, all the similar costumes that we found turned out to be poor and more suitable for a student party or Halloween in a cheap club. Making yourself is too expensive and time consuming. Plus, the genre of the game is solid science fiction, fabulous costumes would not be the topic ... and this suddenly clarified everything, we understood which costumes we would most like. After a week of searching, we found the appropriate store and bought the right suits there for us, the “pilots” of the spacecraft. For our opponents the costumes were simpler and we sewed them on our own. It only remained to print the stripes on our costumes - this was arranged by Mikhail in Petersburg and already in their studio, with the help of special adhesive matter, neatly stuck on our costumes.
The second difficult point was the text in English. It seems that everyone in the team writes and speaks English, so the dialogues, written first in Russian, were translated into English. The dialogues were mostly written by Mikhail, in just a few days of working together we corrected and approved them. On the train, we had to memorize our lines in English and, on the set, to pronounce them. Then professional actors, native speakers, had to voice us so that the film would not cut through the ears of an English-speaking audience (that is, supposedly 90% of the backers). In the train, however, almost no one began to teach anything, confident that it was enough to draw big tips and read them, or that everything could be learned right in the studio. I reacted responsibly, learning most of the replicas. About the value of this feat a little later.
Filming
Filming also took place in St. Petersburg, so the team went there. The pavilion, actors, cameramen, make-up artists and all other necessary people were organized by Michael. When we arrived at the pavilion, work was already in full swing there: lights, cameras, a green background were put. Gradually, the actors caught up and filming began at about an hour or two in the afternoon. We must pay tribute to Michael - everything was at the highest level, I did not expect this. The actors played, it was amazing to see how my script turns into something more, how the actors come to life and implement our idea. Hear what was written before and see emotions, life - it was amazing. Then came our time to show our acting talent. We got dressed, a dressing room, a light, placed tips - and let's go!
But it was not possible to go. In the light of spotlights, the text completely flew out of my head. It turned out that I could teach him, could not teach - without a difference. Reading the tips is also not an option, as it is clear that the person is reading. Additional complexity - in English, when you don’t remember Russian. In general, it was a complete file, at some point I thought that we would not make this video. But Michael knows his business; The English text flew into the garbage can and we rolled back to Russian. It was no easier with Russian - phrases, even the shortest, did not linger in the head at all. Then I appreciated the work of the actors and, since then, my respect for this craft has increased many times. We shot until late in the evening, according to phrases, hoping for installation. To shoot our part took more than a hundred doubles. Only at the end we relaxed a bit and were able to speak more or less normally, but it was time to take the pavilion - and its rent was only for one day, the tickets were bought back.
Summarizing this moment, I will advise everyone who will make a movie for the COP or an analogue: lay for at least two days, a day - without cameras, at a rehearsal. Memorized text will also greatly help. Without rehearsal, if you do not have an innate acting talent, or experience shooting, you will most likely encounter the same problems.
However, we did it. Without Michael, we would not have done it in any way, a separate public thanks to him for his incredible patience - during all these hours of our shame, he never uttered a single harsh or harsh word, which certainly helped us a lot. I probably could not.
Editing and effects
The editing was also carried out in Petersburg, and this turned out to be one of the most important moments when making the film. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a composing specialist and had to do it on our own. Therefore, I consider the effects to be the weakest side of the film - with more resources, they would look much better. Nevertheless, for the "home" video - the result, I think, is worthy.
Next was the voice acting. Before our voices were recorded and replaced - the video was a pitiful sight. However, after the voice acting, everything changed. Whether it’s a psychological perception of our recorded voice, or we were on the set so tightly that we couldn’t speak normally - but the duplication changed everything for the better. Minus - sometimes there is not falling to the lips, but in principle everyone is used to it. We tried to do the maximum synchronization and, I hope, this is not too striking.
We do not specifically show the insertion of game video, so as not to break the perception of confrontation between us and our opponents. Instead, we made thematic holograms that serve to diversify what is happening in the frame and keep interest. Another crochet was the background outside the station window, which slowly changes and gives rise to a subconscious desire to see what will happen next, what will come up from the edge of the window? In addition, this video is part of the game itself and, thus, shows the game with a second plan.
We spent a month on editing and effects in total, mainly due to the fact that we didn’t have such functionality in the game and had to write it. Thus, we caught two birds with one stone at a time: we added cutscenes to the game and made effects for the video.
By the end of the editing, we already had a site, (small) heart of the community, arts, several videos (including experimental gaming, taken from the iPad), a relatively lively forum, all English texts for Kickstarter, several self-written press releases and quite a lot of contact with the press.
What we did not have, as well as the risks
We did not have a PR agency or our PR manager. A rather unpleasant story happened: a month later we were preparing a campaign with Australian PR managers, and a week before the launch of the campaign they suddenly abandoned our project. The reason for the refusal was that they considered that our goal ($ 100,000) was too high, and we refused to reduce it (because less - it does not make sense). In case of failure, they would not receive bonuses for their work and therefore, instead of increasing the likelihood of our success (as a good PR company should), they tried to minimize their risks and push us to reduce the goal. You can understand them, but they spent a month of our time in which we could work with someone more professional and obligatory.
All the rest charged high price tags with 100% prepayment and did not guarantee anything, which made their offers meaningless. At the time of this writing, we still have no PR people, which increases our risks, and we spent two months searching for them - the project could have been completed if we started then. What divine space can lead to is such a delay - it is likely that I will write a post-mortem soon.
The second significant risk is the ideology of our company to make games accessible to everyone that even children can play without being able to pay for them. This means - shareware model of payback (aka fremium, aka free-to-play). But we also know that the main motivator for supporting the project is “buying” a copy of the game at half price (or even cheaper). That is, the game will cost $ 50, and backers can get it for example for $ 20, if you support the project at the COP. Therefore, we have prepared more promotions and buns than non-premium projects. How they work, time will tell - in general, for the players, these prizes should be very seductive.
The next risk is that we are not Americans, or even Europeans. We are Russians who drink vodka, where bears walk along the street, political chaos is created and, in general, fear and horror. On the other hand, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg for a recent visit and excellent promotion - he raised the rating of Russian programmers and developers worldwide.
But the most important thing is that we do not yet have a combat video. This is the biggest risk, since according to the results of the collected feedbacks, everyone is mainly interested in the action. Despite the fact that we already have a balance of objects, weapons, shields, ships, and in general all the devices that it works - artificial intelligence is now only in the process of development. Ideally, it should be finished first and show how the ships fight, how the battle takes place, how they fly and react to events - but the deadlines are tight and we have to launch a campaign without this crucial part of the game. Probably, we can show it through the update after a while, but not a fact. Of course, this is a good informational occasion to spur the falling interest of the audience, but it is better to have such a video from the very beginning.
The last of the main risks is the “Kickstarter fatigue effect”. Briefly - the press got tired of writing about Kickstarter, and was tired of the constant requests to write about this or that project. In some forums it is even forbidden to create relevant topics. This makes the life of indie teams on crowdfunding sites much harder; at the same time, stars like Brian Fargo or Tim Schefer will be written with joy and pleasure. Thus, Kickstarters and analogs are becoming increasingly difficult for indie teams (for which they position themselves) and more accessible for stars. At least, such a situation in the video game industry, probably in other areas, indie teams easier.
From what we haven't had yet - material revolutions (artbook and one more thing). Ideally, the manufacturer of revolutions should be located in the United States or China and send it to the world itself so that the cost price of revolutions would not grow to be internationally shipped, or even double. So far we have not solved this problem completely, with the exception of the artbook. Now we are looking for a reliable manufacturer of souvenirs in China, which would also take over the mailing but to different addresses and hope that such exist. But it is already easier to solve and can be developed in the course of the campaign.
Jur. face and amazon
The main question I’m asking is how we solved the problem with the resident in the USA. We decided with the help of a trusted person, a Russian, who has long been living and working in the USA. In Kickstarter I was told that this person should be part of a team (collaborator). Since he also works in the IT sphere, we signed a contract with him and became partners. Thus, he is our representative in the United States and interacts with Amazon through his company.
Other options are to fly to the USA yourself, get all the necessary documents, open a legal entity. a person and a bank account (a legal entity in order not to pay the insane taxes that a private person will have to pay, at least so they told me in a law firm that offered their services of mediation at the Constitutional Court). Actually, this is the third option - to find a respected law firm (not a one-day or a young one) and they, in a fixed or a small percentage, will become your representatives in the USA.
The fourth option is to find compatriots who have already been to the Constitutional Court and agree with them about representing your interests at the Constitutional Court.
It took almost a month to register on Amazon (Amazon has approached a bank account for a very long time and, while they did not call it several times, it hung in pending status). I think if they had called earlier, they would have done it faster, but we had no such urgency. But if they hadn't called, then most likely the bill would have hung like that.
Start!
The most important moment after the start of the campaign is to create a peak of interest and backers in the first three days. According to the studied statistics, the first three days are the most active, then there is a decline, a plateau and the campaign ends another three days of increased interest (why - I explained in my previous article ). Therefore, it is very important on the first day to notify journalists, forums, players, friends as much as possible - anyone who might be interested in this project. If you manage to create such a peak, the campaign begins to live its own life. The first active backers appear that help developers spread information and who morally support both the team and other backers. If there is no such vigorous start, then everything will be much slower and sadder. For example, again according to statistics, if the project in the first third of life collected 30% of the total, then by 90% it will be successful. 30% can be collected only if you manage to create this peak. The first days are completely devoted to communication with journalists, portals, answering questions and communicating with the Beckers.
But this is not about us. Our growth (most likely) will be gradual and without sharp peaks at the beginning (why - in the same article). So it will not be a one hundred meters, as for the stars, but a marathon, according to the results of which the future of our project will be decided. In a sense, it will be a test for relevance - is it really necessary for the players and does it make sense to do it. Success will mean yes; Fail - that you should switch to something more in demand, and Divine Space to freeze and, maybe, try sometime later.
Then - updates. They should be prepared to know what you will talk about, why, and for what. Updates support the interest in the project and stimulate the faithful active backers to continue their mission, and also show the doubters or passive backers that life is in full swing, the project grows and develops, and the developers do not spit on the players. Updates every 2-3 days - this is good. Less often, it may be insufficient, more often - too annoying. And, of course, updates should be interesting. We prepared about 30 different updates, some had to be merged into 1, in order not to overload the backers and the project. Basically, this is an outline, a draft plan - I will write every update in detail, based on the circumstances. If the update is a video, then it is better to prepare it in advance, as then most likely there will be no time for it.
The duration of our project is 43 days (so that the end of the campaign would have an evening in the USA on Friday, why - it is told in this excellent article ). Although statistics show that the period of most successful projects is 30 days, the experience of domestic projects shows that this is not enough to get into the foreign press. The two-week supply is taken precisely for this reason: so that we can get publications and alerts in foreign media before the campaign ends, and not in recent days.
The start day is today. You can see how our campaign is going, whether the result corresponds to expectations, whether the game was worth the candle, here: Divine Space on Kickstarter.com
In the Russian group on Kickstarter, I will talk about my impressions and how the process is going on, maybe even daily, making a kind of diary. Let's see how it will be with time and energy.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/153711/
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