Kickstarter is live!

[kasnavada]

An update to AI War and the last federation is in the works, I believe.
I kind of hope they put a big advertisement on the front page of both games, so people see it.

[eRe4s3r]

I think the problem is that the video doesn't show gameplay (combat), only conceptualized ideas and early development stuff, for most of us this is not a problem, but for non game developers and techies this is a big turn-off, this would also explain the video style, as I can tell this was noticed when making it, and the narration (which is great) was put in so that it has a nicer, less techy, feeling. But normal people can't really see how the gameplay would be from the video or from the images in the text and this makes for poor conversations outside of this forum as well. And then there is also that I swear I must have already said that, but I think the whole "feeling" of the video and ks front isn't fitting the doom/dread feeling of AI War. It should have hammered home the 4x aspect far more, I looked at the KS page, could see no mention of 4x whatsoever. Even though AI War isn't a rts, it's a goal oriented asymmetric 4x / RTS hybrid. And in an age where we are devoid of any decent space 4x games as usual this would create far more talking points, especially for people new to the game.


So please think about reshaping the "front" page of the KS... push "asymmetric 4x with fancy 3d real time battles" more ;P And show some explody shooty stabby stuff....



Ps.: As an artist I am also not super keen on the various ships being that glowy and "simple shaded", it reminds me of PA and I detested that art-style sadly :/ But yeah, that is just my personal artistic critic, doubt that is a problem for the KS... still the art-style bothers me really really a lot.. especially as games from 8 years ago.. looked.. far more epic with hardware a lot less powerful, and on a grand scale as well.

[PokerChen]

Along eRe4s3r's line of reasoning, do your guys have time to make a combat mock-up with destruction of units? Something to show the idea and scale of battles.

[Matruchus]

Maybe not just combat. You could show animated gameplay that you envision, essentially a big teaser trailer with developer interviews included. At the moment you only have a trailer that doesn't show much besides concept graphics for ships and planetary systems. You need to make a hype trailer for ordinary people. Plus show more of what Ai War classic was and compare to what Ai War 2 will be with animations included. I mean until you push the ingame update for Ai War 2 in to Ai War and Last Federation its not going to move much.

Plus there needs to be a big Steam sale/free weekend or whatever done combined with Kickstarter so that you can generate some hype.

[jenya]

daily graph, rather disheartening:
https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii/#chart-daily

[Mick]

daily graph, rather disheartening:
https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii/#chart-daily

It is disheartening. Projects tend to have a bump near the end though, but they usually want to be much closer to their goal to encourage such a bump.

[jenya]

Fresh Reddit thread for self-promotions on r/IndieGaming
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/57wk8c/self_promotion_megapost_17_october_2016

it even says in the rules: "this is a good place for kickstarter reminders"

[Aklyon]

daily graph, rather disheartening:
https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/arcengames/ai-war-ii/#chart-daily

The projection and the trend aren't exactly encouraging either.

[Captain Jack]

Fresh Reddit thread for self-promotions on r/IndieGaming
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/57wk8c/self_promotion_megapost_17_october_2016

it even says in the rules: "this is a good place for kickstarter reminders"

Forwarded to the proper channels. Please kick if it's not there within 24 hours. 

Also, are you new to the forum? If so, welcome!

[garion333]

There's no lack of stuff to present, each "chapter" of the DD could be a news to be discussed, for example. Some news about art. Some news about the music.

The issue isn't a lack of interest or a lack of subject matter, the issue is that I work full time and Chris wears too many hats already. 

Now that we're aware there's of the slowdown points we're going to put together a lot more content ahead of time. Should be the last time you see an update drought.

Wait, are you saying that you didn't have most of the posts laid out ahead of time? There isn't more video to show? There isn't more art to show? Etc. Sounds like this came in really hot. That might not bode well...

[Captain Jack]

There's no lack of stuff to present, each "chapter" of the DD could be a news to be discussed, for example. Some news about art. Some news about the music.

The issue isn't a lack of interest or a lack of subject matter, the issue is that I work full time and Chris wears too many hats already. 

Now that we're aware there's of the slowdown points we're going to put together a lot more content ahead of time. Should be the last time you see an update drought.

Wait, are you saying that you didn't have most of the posts laid out ahead of time? There isn't more video to show? There isn't more art to show? Etc. Sounds like this came in really hot. That might not bode well...

Both myself and Chris have a list of subjects we plan to cover. We don't have more than an outline for any given subject. Can't speak to any of the other content, but I don't believe a load of new content in updates would attract new people to the campaign. Updates are for people already supporting the project, news outlets don't tend to pick up updates.

[Tigris]

At the moment if you want to somehow reach more people you should use other channels not kickstarter.

Post nice gifs on twitter (with #indiegame tag or something. You have posted it on twitter but not on indiedev or another well known hashtag).

Use youtube and twitch (stream a video and put it onto youtube!) And post on reddit (facebook twitter (with hashtags!) etc. about the devstream.

Use facebook a bit more. Make a small "Win an AI War classic key by reposting this post" (which links to kickstarter). And post this on websites which notify people about such things.

Make a gamasutra article, write about challenges of making a sequel to AI war.

Reach out small youtubers (best people who have covered your game allready).
Or you could give them a key for AI War (original) such that they can make a new video about it and mention the campain.

Make nice Instagramm pictures. (You have gifs concept ART etc.)

Give interviews if possible, if needed promise some exlusive content (for IGN).

Send everyone you have the email adress from a nice email!

Ask the people from Easy Allies nicely if they say something about you (send them a key to AI wars 1).

Try to make community goals on Kickstarter (in an update). It is maybe too late, but maybe it helps a bit.


AND TRY TO MAKE THE KICKSTARTER PAGE MORE APPEALING! Maybe you have noticed now that it isnt...
Even if you can get traffic, it is not worth it if they don't like what they see on the kickstarter...
If you work on updates, add the nice stuff you add to the mainpage (and delete ugly or unneeded elements).


And a small hint: All the people involved should now work for the duration of the whole campain only on kickstarter.
Use all favors they have.
Use all means necessary.

At this point you could even ask Steam if you are allowed to enter Steam Greenlight with AI War 2.
This would at least give some more visibility.

Find as many places as you can where you can post about the game.
Use all hashtags on twitter, all subretits on reddit which you can.
Call in all favors you can.
Use all measures necessary.

(I still cant believe that you added a SMALL notification about AI War 2 in AI War. You were nice too long allready!)

[jenya]

I'm not sure this KS can be saved. But I'm sure the project can be relaunched, with proper notification in all Arcen games in advance, and maybe with a tiny bit smaller goal.

[keith.lamothe]

Tigris, your concern and the effort you've put into expressing it are appreciated, but the addition of caps, vulgarity, and general shrillness will not improve the impact of what you say.

Suffice it to say you're not saying anything we haven't thought, in one form or another.

This isn't the last move in the chess game.

[yllamana]

I made a kickstarter account just to back the game. I've got to admit, your kickstarter page reads more like an ad for AI War than for AI War II!

But I'm sure you can still do it. Don't lose heart. Good luck.