Oh come now, some of us spend so much time living on these forums that of course we'll grow to care a bit. If I were ever in the right part of the country for it, I'd love to just buy one of you guys a beer or beverage of your choice and hang out. But enough sentimentality.
Sure, I understand this intellectually. And I've been on the other side of things, too -- and indeed have come to know quite a number of you well through your actions and speech. But it's all very intellectual, isn't it? I just go into my office and work on stuff, and don't really speak verbally to anyone all day long, and that's that. So when I say that it's surreal, that's what I mean. I think there's a book or something called "alone together?" I guess that makes sense, though I think the premise of that book is negative, which isn't how I feel about it. Anyway, enough rambling.
A question: If and when the kickstarter... er, starts do you plan to offer a reward tier with the game in it? And if so, when will people get the game? Most kickstarters don't actually have a purchasable product ready to go, so people are happy to wait. But you don't get the money until the funding is done, so will people have to wait until then? Or will you recommend they just go buy the game instead of donating?
Probably there will be a reward tier with the game in it, yes; but that has to eb worked out internally since normally staff would get royalties on these things, and in the case of the kickstarter they would not -- so in one sense that would be eating into our own profits if we give away too many copies of the game. It's kind of a muddle, there, and I haven't yet decided what makes the most sense all in all. Given that this whole kickstarter is intended to be a side thing where it's not directly contributing to our income, having it actively draw away potential income might not be the best; though if the art really is that big a barrier and our audience grows then it all balances out. See how that logic can go round and round?
If we were to do that, anyway, then when the kickstarter was funded we'd hand those out. No reason to make people wait.
In terms of other reward tiers, I think there are plenty of compelling in-game things that we can make exclusive to the kickstarter. Custom characters or spells that only get unlocked for these people (sort of like a mini-expansion that has more depending on your tier), a few high-dollar ones for getting to custom-design something major in the game (a whole time period? it's a possibility), and so forth. We'll have to work on figuring out exactly what the compelling rewards will be, and we've got about 2ish weeks to do that. Suggestions are certainly welcome, although that might make for a better thread.
The idea is that whatever these rewards are, they wouldn't be balance altering, but they wouldn't be purely cosmetic either. I recall that Wizards of the Coast used to do promotional cards themed with some of their novels, and if you got those cards they were actually useful... just not moreso than other cards that were already in the game and more widely available. But the exclusivity of those cards was cool, and you got some unique art as well as some slightly unique mechanics out of it. That sort of thing strikes the right sort of idea to me.
