Where else can you get the word out about a Kickstarter?

[LuvianBlue]

Several of my friends are trying to turn their student project Pulse into a full game. They launched a Kickstarter about a month ago, but now it's ending in about 4 days and it looks like they're not going to hit their goal

They had a Reddit Q&A, they've been on the local radio, they went to GDC, they have had articles on Gamasutra, Polygon, Kotaku and several other sites.

Despite a decent amount of coverage and positive feedback, it still looks like they're not going to make it.

Where else can they go to get the word out about their game? Is there anything they can do to turn things around in the next few days?

[Tama]

Have they tried doing a Let's Play or a brief demo on Youtube?

[KhirasHY]

See if Penny Arcade likes it? Although 4 days isn't long for them to notice it and want to mention it...

[LuvianBlue]

There is a brief demo on their Youtube channel, and several people have done Let's Plays of it on Youtube. Most of those were done before the Kickstarter though, but a lot of them have gone back and linked to the kickstarter.

I don't think Penny Arcade has mentioned it, Extra Credits mentioned it during their credits a couple of weeks ago.

[Gravekeeper]

Ouch, that really sucks. To be brutally honest with you I don't think there's any advice I or anyone else can provide this late in the Kickstarter. Barring a random miracle from Penny Arcade.

If its any consolation, I think its more a matter of timing and polish/presentation than any sort of outright failure on your part. Hell, my first project met the Bad End(tm) too when I was your guys whippersnapper age. Feel free to PM me if you need to any advice or anything.

[PepperElf]

That's some of the problems with KS - getting the right level of response for what you're prepared for.

Too little response: it costs you money. And I suspect this happens more than people realize.

Too much response: that can delay projects too cos it also means an increased amount of product that may have to be moved etc.
(that happened with a company my BF ordered from. they weren't prepared for the number of orders they received and it set them back a half-year in production)

[Gravekeeper]

Too little response: it costs you money. And I suspect this happens more than people realize.

Too much response: that can delay projects too cos it also means an increased amount of product that may have to be moved etc.

Yeah, with a physical product. But this is a game project. AKA a digital product. Going over their set goal is actually a good thing. They don't need to manufacture a physical product. So every dollar they get over their stated goal actually makes their final product better as they have more money for better tools, better art, better sound, more man hours, more platforms, etc

Its a good thing when a Kickstarter for a computer game gets too much response. There have been a lot of awesome Kickstarter games that got a huge response which ended up with the dev team being able to make a bigger, better game with more content. Such as Torment or Shadowrun.

[LuvianBlue]

They do have some physical rewards that would need to be made and shipped, like a plushie and posters, but yeah, most of their rewards are digital to try not to have to worry about the time and cost of dealing with physical items.

Bargle. I'm still hoping they make it, but you're probably right that their best chance is something.someone big mentioning them like Penny Arcade. They started out really strong :\ I think it's probably going to shoot up on the last day, but I don't know if that will be enough.

[Gravekeeper]

They do have some physical rewards that would need to be made and shipped, like a plushie and posters, but yeah, most of their rewards are digital to try not to have to worry about the time and cost of dealing with physical items.

Yeah, but those have a set amount of slots so not too big a worry.

Bargle. I'm still hoping they make it, but you're probably right that their best chance is something.someone big mentioning them like Penny Arcade. They started out really strong :\ I think it's probably going to shoot up on the last day, but I don't know if that will be enough.

There may be a spike, but unless they hit a fresh and large new route of exposure like PA I don't think they'll make up that last big chunk =/

May have to go back to the drawing board for the next swing at it. The core concept is sound and inventive. So the short fall is in the marketing so to speak Even with an inventive idea, you run the risk of a being a seen as a gimmick. You're already in a bit of a niche market to begin with. Pulse can essentially be summed up in 3 quick paragraphs. There's surely much more to it than that bouncing around in the heads of the team. Gotta convince people that there's more to discover than just those 3 paragraphs. So they don't feel like they know everything about the game from just glancing at the Kickstarter.

If that makes any sense.

[PepperElf]

good point. in my bf's case it was shirts not downloads.

only way i can imagine downloads going kablooy is if they had so many that it melted the switches or something like that, but i rather doubt that would happen.


marketing: that sounds like a good approach. in my opinion some of the best ideas for businesses have died simply because of marketing.

[RayvenQ]

I'm gonna download the demo, give it a try, and then make a thread on a gaming forum or two I go to, that should help things out a bit (Given that one of the forum has 32k active members and approx 3-4k online at any given time plus a couple thousand guest users.

[LuvianBlue]

I would appreciate that a lot, thank you.

I'm racking my brain trying to think of where else I can try to get the word out.

[LuvianBlue]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

THEY MADE IT THEY MADE IT THEY MADE IT!!!

3 Hours to go and they've made it!! I don't even-what? How!?? I wasn't paying attention for a couple hours and suddenly they make 20k!!

DJKLEGHRLWHGRKLJEB YESYESYESYESYES

[Gravekeeper]

Wow, nice!

Did they get a last influx of little donations or a few sympathetic people with deep pockets that were holding out till the end?

[KhirasHY]

/cheers, says me.