Kickstarter Post Mortem

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Like the heroes who pilot giant robots, we never give up

On October 4th, we launched a Kickstarter campaign for the retail release of A.E.G.I.S. In case you weren’t following it, here are some facts:

  • It was a 23 Day Campaign launched by our publisher Greenbrier Games
  • It was launched Tuesday, October 4th, and ended on Thursday, October 27th
  • The campaign was not successful
  • However, we raised $30,500 of our $40,000 goal with 335 Backers!
  • The campaign had a number of things wrong with it that we’re looking at
  • People love the game! A vast majority of the criticism was towards aspects unrelated to the game itself
  • We will be relaunching the campaign early next year

So now we’re ready to keep moving forward with A.E.G.I.S.: the dream we love and believe in.  We made it far our first time running a Kickstarter and the support we received from friends and fans was incredible. Keep an eye on the game’s Facebook and Twitter, and on the website for news of things on the horizon.

So with that, here’s what we accomplished during October:

final-gif

Achievement Unlocked: Rules Judge

Our rulebook has turned into a communal Google Doc!  We’re masters of the rules of A.E.G.I.S., and we want you to be as well.  A lot has changed in the last few months, and we need your help to ensure our rules are clear and concise so if you need to look anything up, it’s super simple. This document is mostly text with no diagrams, and the final rulebook will be very graphical, much like our first one.

  • Everyone has commenting access.
  • The rules in the Google Doc will become the final rulebook, so help us, help you, make the rulebook the best it can be.

 

Achievement Unlocked: Play A.E.G.I.S. Online!

Here’s something awesome and new. We’re on Tabletop Simulator! We regularly stream games of A.E.G.I.S. on Twitch Every Wednesday, so you can be the first to see new game play!  Want to play us?  Send you challenge to zephyrworkshop@gmail.com, just name the time and place!

table-top-sim-demo

Video Killed The Radio Star

Also new and exciting, we have some playthrough videos, interviews, video reviews and all sorts of other cool stuff to look at!

Interviews

Achievement Unlocked: Social Butterfly

During the Kickstarter, our Social Media presence skyrocketed, which did unlock some new pieces of art for the game.  It’s thanks to you guys liking us on Facebook, sharing us on Twitter and supporting us.  We also worked hard to find new avenues of people who hadn’t heard of A.E.G.I.S. which led us to set up our Twitch and Instagram streams.

That new robot art is being created as we speak, keep an eye out for it!

socialmedia

Achievement Unlocked: Kickstarter Guru.

So let’s talk about the campaign and what could’ve been done better. We’ve learned a lot about running Kickstarters. This campaign definitely hit the ground running after several delays, and we had to work through a lot of logistical problems at the start of the campaign. We recouped a little ways in, but a very shaky start definitely hurt us in the long run.

  • Our day 1 wasn’t strong enough. Our initial spike got us up to around $14,000, which was very good, but getting to at least 50 or 60% and over the middle hump much earlier would have helped a lot.
  • We drew in money and backers steadily until we hit $20,000, where the campaign hit a hard stall
  • It wasn’t until the last handful of days that we gained another $10,000, lead us up to $30,500

    Some Key Take-Aways:

  • The campaign being 23 days was a worthwhile experiment, but it confused some backers at the start who thought we were several days in and failing.
  • Our add-ons, stretch goals, and high-level tiers were not prepared enough at the start of the campaign, and left backers with a lot of questions
  • Having a “teaser video” rather than an informative one did not play to the game’s strength of being a quick, easy pitch
  • Our Game-Play and Interview videos could have also been put together with more polish
  • The scheduling of the Kickstarter interfered with the schedule of a lot of the video reviewers we had lined up, so we didn’t have a lot of high-quality videos going in.
  • Our Pledge Levels had no descriptions for the first week, and a solid explanation of what the game is didn’t become clear until a few days in. A good amount of people were extremely excited, but they were the folks who took the 10 minutes to navigate our campaign page and absorb everything.

The best thing to come out of this Kickstarter is knowing next time we’ll crush it, and with the feedback we’ve gotten,  we know what to do right next time. visuals and videos that grab attention, and most importantly, we grew our fan base so more people know how cool A.E.G.I.S. is.  We also made some awesome new friends through our love of robots.

well-return

What’s Next?:

Achievement Unlocked: Live and Learn

Zephyr Workshop doesn’t know how to give up, it’s not in our nature.  We’re tenacious, self-reliant, and nothing short of scrappy and we’ve been through much more dire circumstances and come through.  All the work we’ve done for the Kickstarter has only strengthened our resolve to getting this game in the hands of fans.  A week after the Kickstarter ended and we’ve already discussed what to do next, had a post-mortem on our Kickstarter, and planned out our convention schedule for the new year.  All your feedback we’ve taken to heart.  We’re ready to continue forward and we’ll get this game in stores.  Tell your friends and keep banging the drums, and of course, stay in touch Zephyr will be streaming and offering plays on Tabletop Sim right along.  This has been great, and none of it could have been done without you, the true fans.

If we missed anything or you have anything to add emails us at zephyrworkshop@gmail.com.  We want all of your insight and feedback. It’s only through you and people like you that this game is gonna land in your hands, so we would love to continue to hear what to do better.

Fight and Unite!

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