"With you, the game for 100 bucks!" Or why Indiegogo is not Go-Go
About a month ago, in parallel with the launch of the campaign on Indiegogo, I wrote an article on Habrahabr The heavy burden of a lonely Indiegogo. Since that time, I have received a large number of positive comments and words of support regarding the game I am working on, and from habouriors, and simply from people who have seen (managed in the first week) a project for indigogo. So why, despite this positive feedback, the fundraising campaign was completely a failure?
I suggest you enjoy the collection of wonderful rakes that I have assembled by me.
')
At the time of creating the page on indigogo, no one knew anything about the project anywhere. Moreover, nobody even knew about me, because I did not use any social networks. Before publishing an article on Habré, I had 150 video views a week, the next day after publication, 23 thousand. After that, everything stopped.
On the plains of obscurity, towering to the skies, the monstrous mountain "Habr" (Greenlight Concepts statistics)
Starting interest decreases very quickly, and eventually goes to zero. Yes, the first day is the most important, information about starting your company should appear on as many resources as possible. But! It is equally important to plan how you will maintain interest in your company for the necessary time. This could be, for example, a developing series of articles, like “How we do this. Part 1 - Idea ”, and then“ Part 2, continue / end / complement ”, etc. And it is better to abstract from the technical sides, not to describe “with what algorithm the enemy calculates the shortest path to the shelter”, but just tell people an interesting story - why in our game everything is so and so, how we came to this, and that this can be done.
About one of the creatures. Two weeks trying to start wanting to finish this video, although the work for half a day
You need to plan and agree in advance on which resources you will post information about your project. Do journalists from these resources want to write an article, or do you have to write an article for them yourself? If they want money, then at what time they will prepare an article about your project? In this case, it makes sense to give them all the information BEFORE you start the company.
As an example, here are a couple of the most successful fundraising campaigns in the gaming segment on Indiegogo. Immediately make a reservation - we are not talking about the evaluation of the projects themselves or their authors, but only about what their campaigns were built on.
asked for $ 240,000 to develop a game for touchpads received $ 644,301
requested $ 250,000 received $ 258,476. 1.43 - 2.00 Badroom candidates (could not resist, sorry)
Both of these campaigns can be reduced to one phrase: - We are not artists, not animators, neither composers, nor programmers, we have never worked in the gaming industry and we don’t know how to make games at all - but we need money to make a game that will be the best in the whole wide world for all the time before and all the time after.
Anyone can say that absolutely (especially a politician).
After half a year, top comments under one of the videos. Fan love
Nevertheless, these guys managed to collect the necessary amount, because there was a big fan base of several million subscribers to their YouTube channels. There were people who were just "joking" to support these guys, and not because they invented something ingenious there.
My mistake in the first days was that everything was served in an assumed “mysterious manner.” Like I talk about something interesting, but at the same time I don’t say anything concrete. This is my mistake as an author, because, knowing that it would be most interesting to people in the game, I tried to save it for the release of the game itself. And this is wrong, because everything has become like promises. No mystery is needed, it causes only extra mistrust. The appeal is concise, on the topic, based on facts and it should be formed in such a form that the person who has read it can, without straining to retell, tell a friend or acquaintance. If something is not in the project in working condition - then we must say "It will be so cool!" But not "I would like to try, and if possible, with probability, it probably all depends"
PayPal does not work with Kazakhstan - it accepts money, but does not send it to the country. Because of this, the opportunity to support the project was only through a credit card, that is, those who have a bank account. Does everyone have it? Not. Many will want to enter their card details on the site? Not. And how many people use paypal? The vast majority, including the same cardholders.
After this point, I can say scored on this whole company and how to get enough sleep
The only way for me to solve this problem was to open a company in my own country, go to another country (with which PayPal works), open a branch of my company there, open a bank account tied to a branch of my company, sign a declaration of double taxation (otherwise about 50% out of taxes!), return to my country,give a bribe to explain the tax, that I have a bank account in another country, show them a declaration to give a bribe . And only after these dances would PayPal be more affectionate. As you understand, this is at least a few months, and it was already too late to do so during a going company. Means what? - NO PROFIT!
Several people wrote to me like that - They gathered to pay, and it turned out that only with a credit card. Sorry, we can't help here.
Come on, nothing terrible ... BLIIIIIN !!! (
And of course, as a way to collect money, you had to choose the option “all or nothing”, and not “flexible financing” which allows you to receive any amount collected. The essence is: “all or nothing” is investing, “flexible financing” is begging. If you are afraid that you will not collect the required amount, just put the most minimal. Flexible financing - it sounds like a safety net, but it doesn't work that way. It is easier for a person to give you money, knowing that if something is wrong with the project (and this can reveal the opinion of the masses), he will get money back. And here it goes like this: - “Aha ... I will now give my dollar earned for the year in the quarries, but the project will not collect the necessary amount. That is, I will throw my capital to the wind. No thanks, better buy gum „
New Year. And there are many small factors. All fun - but the game has a dark theme. Everyone spends money on gifts. The general mood is “I want something for someone,” and crowdfunding is more “I want something unique for myself.” During this period, no one has much to do with “helping” someone, everyone has a lot of their problems that they want to solve before the beginning of the new year. And the most important thing during this period is huge discounts - that is, people have a choice of what to buy: Hitman: Absolution for 3 (THREE!) Dollars, or it is not clear what for 10 (WHAT? !!) dollars and it is not known when you you will receive, and generally you will receive. And in general, I want to have a red Santa Claus hat! It is fashionable.
Hapi well, er! Gifts, nyashki and snacks
I did not have a website on which all information would be collected. Despite the fact that it seems like YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter accounts are linked, they are a complete mess. Especially on Google+, some circles, shmugi and in general it is not clear what. I once went to my Google+ page (which is created automatically) and went out in fear not to earn schizophrenia.
Seriously. What kind of elephants and candles on my page? And this ... rich design of empty space
That is, all the information on the project seems to be as it is, but it did not have an outgoing center. In theory, this should have been a page on IndieGoGo, but it did not work (due to "Reason 7" including). All information must be mutually intersecting. So that from any place, whether it be twitter, or you could get into any other, be it a page on indigogo, or just your email. In the end, it turned out that for the first two weeks of the campaign I was busy with all these accounts, pages, my website and I understood how it works.
At school I studied French, I taught English mainly on films. So it is obvious that some part of my writing, this is something illiterate at the level “I was so excited about the game, that you just give me money here, uncompromisingly accelerated!”. This is certainly exaggerated, but the essence is exactly that. Illiteracy causes only misunderstanding, doubt and disapproval. Hire a translator. It is very important to conduct a dialogue with people who are interested in your project. For me, this has become the biggest problem - it seems like there is something to say, but how can this be correctly formulated in English?
One of the most (I can't find another word) idiotic reasons is that - even if you know that the project is on the Indigogo website - you will not find it there. I don’t know why, but during the entire campaign period I’ve only seen my project in the “New This Week” tab. That is, a week after appearing on the site - the project disappeared somewhere, and it was possible to find out about it only by a direct link from an external source, or by scoring the name of the project in a search on the site.
Even in the “Final Countdown” tab, when the last days / hours remained, the project never appeared
There is no “history of old projects” and there is no “ALL current projects” tab. I don’t know why some projects go to the first page, and others don’t. Because, even at the time of the peak of interest in my page, it was not on the main page, everyone found it by direct link or through googol. By “main page” I mean the “Gaming” section, and not the Indiegogo start page. In short, like in the joke “See the gopher? - Not! - And I do not see. And he is! ".
Everything is very simple - I hurried, I was alone, and therefore did not cope. During the campaign itself, at least one more marketer with knowledge of English was needed, and that he would sit and write everywhere and respond to letters and comments, and I would at the same time prepare the missing material (video, screenshots, explanations). Looking back, I realize that I had no chance. All this has already been said in other articles. And it’s not that I’m somehow obstinate, who doesn’t listen to a different opinion, or doesn’t analyze someone else’s experience, simply when you alone don’t always get an adequate assessment of what is happening. It is impossible alone to perform such a volume of diverse work and take into account all the nuances.
HATRED!!! Only for innovative ideas, and for something “exceptional”. I am sure that the projects related to the environment, all sorts of social things and life-improving will go best. That is, in comparison, we can say that the kickstarter is more for entertainment, and indigogo for what the whole planet may be interested in (I mean the planet "Earth"). If you have a game project - look for ways to kickstarter.
The man did everything himself ... SIX YEARS! Many say that with a kickstarter would be a different alignment. I advise you to look.
And so the general impression is that people indignantly beg more “at random” than they ask for something concrete. A huge number of requests like "I want to buy a PS4. Give. "Or" I want to play Battlefield 3 for 24 hours, continuously, and at this time you can ask me to do anything, for example, go and take a microphone, and for this I want 5000 thousand dollars "(this is not a joke) . The resource of course works, and there certainly will appear a project that will collect more than Ubuntu Edge, but
Hey! Yes, all the rules guys. I did not give up. And still, I want to find a way to make an interesting game that you enjoy. And by the way, for indigo there is no possibility to cancel the project and return the money to people, so now I seem to be directly obliged to finish this game ... for 100 bucks!
Thanks to everyone who supported and all the luck in the new year!
I suggest you enjoy the collection of wonderful rakes that I have assembled by me.
')
Reason number one: Starting interest
At the time of creating the page on indigogo, no one knew anything about the project anywhere. Moreover, nobody even knew about me, because I did not use any social networks. Before publishing an article on Habré, I had 150 video views a week, the next day after publication, 23 thousand. After that, everything stopped.
On the plains of obscurity, towering to the skies, the monstrous mountain "Habr" (Greenlight Concepts statistics)
Starting interest decreases very quickly, and eventually goes to zero. Yes, the first day is the most important, information about starting your company should appear on as many resources as possible. But! It is equally important to plan how you will maintain interest in your company for the necessary time. This could be, for example, a developing series of articles, like “How we do this. Part 1 - Idea ”, and then“ Part 2, continue / end / complement ”, etc. And it is better to abstract from the technical sides, not to describe “with what algorithm the enemy calculates the shortest path to the shelter”, but just tell people an interesting story - why in our game everything is so and so, how we came to this, and that this can be done.
About one of the creatures. Two weeks trying to start wanting to finish this video, although the work for half a day
You need to plan and agree in advance on which resources you will post information about your project. Do journalists from these resources want to write an article, or do you have to write an article for them yourself? If they want money, then at what time they will prepare an article about your project? In this case, it makes sense to give them all the information BEFORE you start the company.
Reason 2: Trust
As an example, here are a couple of the most successful fundraising campaigns in the gaming segment on Indiegogo. Immediately make a reservation - we are not talking about the evaluation of the projects themselves or their authors, but only about what their campaigns were built on.
asked for $ 240,000 to develop a game for touchpads received $ 644,301
requested $ 250,000 received $ 258,476. 1.43 - 2.00 Badroom candidates (could not resist, sorry)
Both of these campaigns can be reduced to one phrase: - We are not artists, not animators, neither composers, nor programmers, we have never worked in the gaming industry and we don’t know how to make games at all - but we need money to make a game that will be the best in the whole wide world for all the time before and all the time after.
Anyone can say that absolutely (especially a politician).
After half a year, top comments under one of the videos. Fan love
Nevertheless, these guys managed to collect the necessary amount, because there was a big fan base of several million subscribers to their YouTube channels. There were people who were just "joking" to support these guys, and not because they invented something ingenious there.
My mistake in the first days was that everything was served in an assumed “mysterious manner.” Like I talk about something interesting, but at the same time I don’t say anything concrete. This is my mistake as an author, because, knowing that it would be most interesting to people in the game, I tried to save it for the release of the game itself. And this is wrong, because everything has become like promises. No mystery is needed, it causes only extra mistrust. The appeal is concise, on the topic, based on facts and it should be formed in such a form that the person who has read it can, without straining to retell, tell a friend or acquaintance. If something is not in the project in working condition - then we must say "It will be so cool!" But not "I would like to try, and if possible, with probability, it probably all depends"
Reason 3: Payment Method
PayPal does not work with Kazakhstan - it accepts money, but does not send it to the country. Because of this, the opportunity to support the project was only through a credit card, that is, those who have a bank account. Does everyone have it? Not. Many will want to enter their card details on the site? Not. And how many people use paypal? The vast majority, including the same cardholders.
After this point, I can say scored on this whole company and how to get enough sleep
The only way for me to solve this problem was to open a company in my own country, go to another country (with which PayPal works), open a branch of my company there, open a bank account tied to a branch of my company, sign a declaration of double taxation (otherwise about 50% out of taxes!), return to my country,
Several people wrote to me like that - They gathered to pay, and it turned out that only with a credit card. Sorry, we can't help here.
Come on, nothing terrible ... BLIIIIIN !!! (
And of course, as a way to collect money, you had to choose the option “all or nothing”, and not “flexible financing” which allows you to receive any amount collected. The essence is: “all or nothing” is investing, “flexible financing” is begging. If you are afraid that you will not collect the required amount, just put the most minimal. Flexible financing - it sounds like a safety net, but it doesn't work that way. It is easier for a person to give you money, knowing that if something is wrong with the project (and this can reveal the opinion of the masses), he will get money back. And here it goes like this: - “Aha ... I will now give my dollar earned for the year in the quarries, but the project will not collect the necessary amount. That is, I will throw my capital to the wind. No thanks, better buy gum „
Reason 4: Bad Campaign Start Time
New Year. And there are many small factors. All fun - but the game has a dark theme. Everyone spends money on gifts. The general mood is “I want something for someone,” and crowdfunding is more “I want something unique for myself.” During this period, no one has much to do with “helping” someone, everyone has a lot of their problems that they want to solve before the beginning of the new year. And the most important thing during this period is huge discounts - that is, people have a choice of what to buy: Hitman: Absolution for 3 (THREE!) Dollars, or it is not clear what for 10 (WHAT? !!) dollars and it is not known when you you will receive, and generally you will receive. And in general, I want to have a red Santa Claus hat! It is fashionable.
Hapi well, er! Gifts, nyashki and snacks
Reason 5: There was no focus.
I did not have a website on which all information would be collected. Despite the fact that it seems like YouTube, Facebook, Google+, Twitter accounts are linked, they are a complete mess. Especially on Google+, some circles, shmugi and in general it is not clear what. I once went to my Google+ page (which is created automatically) and went out in fear not to earn schizophrenia.
Seriously. What kind of elephants and candles on my page? And this ... rich design of empty space
That is, all the information on the project seems to be as it is, but it did not have an outgoing center. In theory, this should have been a page on IndieGoGo, but it did not work (due to "Reason 7" including). All information must be mutually intersecting. So that from any place, whether it be twitter, or you could get into any other, be it a page on indigogo, or just your email. In the end, it turned out that for the first two weeks of the campaign I was busy with all these accounts, pages, my website and I understood how it works.
Reason 6: Language
At school I studied French, I taught English mainly on films. So it is obvious that some part of my writing, this is something illiterate at the level “I was so excited about the game, that you just give me money here, uncompromisingly accelerated!”. This is certainly exaggerated, but the essence is exactly that. Illiteracy causes only misunderstanding, doubt and disapproval. Hire a translator. It is very important to conduct a dialogue with people who are interested in your project. For me, this has become the biggest problem - it seems like there is something to say, but how can this be correctly formulated in English?
Reason 7: Navigating the site
One of the most (I can't find another word) idiotic reasons is that - even if you know that the project is on the Indigogo website - you will not find it there. I don’t know why, but during the entire campaign period I’ve only seen my project in the “New This Week” tab. That is, a week after appearing on the site - the project disappeared somewhere, and it was possible to find out about it only by a direct link from an external source, or by scoring the name of the project in a search on the site.
Even in the “Final Countdown” tab, when the last days / hours remained, the project never appeared
There is no “history of old projects” and there is no “ALL current projects” tab. I don’t know why some projects go to the first page, and others don’t. Because, even at the time of the peak of interest in my page, it was not on the main page, everyone found it by direct link or through googol. By “main page” I mean the “Gaming” section, and not the Indiegogo start page. In short, like in the joke “See the gopher? - Not! - And I do not see. And he is! ".
findings
Everything is very simple - I hurried, I was alone, and therefore did not cope. During the campaign itself, at least one more marketer with knowledge of English was needed, and that he would sit and write everywhere and respond to letters and comments, and I would at the same time prepare the missing material (video, screenshots, explanations). Looking back, I realize that I had no chance. All this has already been said in other articles. And it’s not that I’m somehow obstinate, who doesn’t listen to a different opinion, or doesn’t analyze someone else’s experience, simply when you alone don’t always get an adequate assessment of what is happening. It is impossible alone to perform such a volume of diverse work and take into account all the nuances.
Personal subjective opinion about indigogo
The man did everything himself ... SIX YEARS! Many say that with a kickstarter would be a different alignment. I advise you to look.
And so the general impression is that people indignantly beg more “at random” than they ask for something concrete. A huge number of requests like "I want to buy a PS4. Give. "Or" I want to play Battlefield 3 for 24 hours, continuously, and at this time you can ask me to do anything, for example, go and take a microphone, and for this I want 5000 thousand dollars "(this is not a joke) . The resource of course works, and there certainly will appear a project that will collect more than Ubuntu Edge, but
PS
Hey! Yes, all the rules guys. I did not give up. And still, I want to find a way to make an interesting game that you enjoy. And by the way, for indigo there is no possibility to cancel the project and return the money to people, so now I seem to be directly obliged to finish this game ... for 100 bucks!
Thanks to everyone who supported and all the luck in the new year!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/208122/
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