Silences in The Void – Dev Blog 61
The Void can be a place full of noise – the screams of the peons, chanting of eldritch ceremonies, shrieks of unknown creatures, howling of winds and the crunching of bones. But sometimes it can be incredible silent as well. Like the entire universe is waiting for something to happen…
… and the universe is waiting for you to check out the Fringe Planet Kickstarter!
Yup, it’s another blog post about the Kickstarter! Alas, it doesn’t seem to be going that well, there is a bunch of interest (and getting some great press coverage now) but the flow of backers at this rate has now completely dried up alas. But I am still optimistic! So a few of my thoughts/observations for this week.
Firstly, I’m getting a lot of folks suggesting that I give up on the Kickstarter. Personally, I think that would be a bad idea. With the Kickstarter running this is a great opportunity to talk about the game, as well as try different ways of further spreading the word. Supporting a Kickstarter is a definite call to action, which is something tangible that I can monitor my various success rates at. It’s also got me thinking very creatively about marketing, and trying things that I normally wouldn’t try. For instance, I’m currently running a competition to win a Fringe Planet T-shirt on twitter. Simply be following the Fringe Planet account and like/RT this tweet to be in for a chance of winning!
#Competition time!
Simply like, RT and be following for a chance to #win a Fringe Planet Logo T-shirt! Fringe Planet is a survival simulator game that looks like #Minecraft but plays like #Rimworld – and it’s on Kickstarter right now!https://t.co/vRvMcbYAaR pic.twitter.com/lX5CdEHtgM
— Fringe Planet is on Kickstarter! (@FringePlanet) August 28, 2019
Not something I’ve tried before, so I’m interested in seeing the results.
Secondly, I’m seeing a lot of folks who want to support the Kickstarter but can’t because there is no option to use alternative payment methods with Kickstarter. So I’ll be setting up a system to allow you to support the game via Paypal next week. This should actually be quite an interesting challenge, I’m quite looking forward to it. There are various choices to be made with how this will be set up but I’ve been talking to a lot of folks who have set up things like this in the past, so I’m quite sure I’ll find an awesome solution.
Thirdly (and actually most importantly), some folks aren’t backing now because being this far through the campaign and not seeing anywhere near the required level of funding it makes them think it is pointless to back because it will fail. Let me say, backing at any level even five minutes before the end of the Kickstarter is far from pointless. This is primarily for two reasons:
1. Not backing because it won’t be successful is a self fulfilling prophecy. You aren’t backing it because it will fail and therefore it does fail. If there were 500 other people thinking exactly the same thing – then if they had all backed, the game would have been funded. So I urge you (and not just for my Kickstarter, but for any Kickstarter) – back when you can – it potentially can make all the difference.
2. Backing, even at the lowest levels (there is a £1 tier (shows your interest) and a £3 tier (really shows your interest AND gets you an awesome physical postcard)) – shows support for the game. It shows me that there are folks who are excited for the game who will become customers/players of the game once it is released. This is great because it allows me to look into demographics, see where it is popular in the world, help prioritise localisations, all sorts of things.
I’m still going to be focusing on spreading the word of the Kickstarter – and I’ve, once again, have to say how incredibly humbled I am by the amount of support I’m receiving. It really is incredibly appreciated! Thanks for reading!
There is a lot more to read about Fringe Planet… why not try: