Kickstarter is hard (delaying the launch)

Board/card games is a tiny market compared to video games, and it's largely anti-indie. That would explain the small numbers. Best of luck!

While I agree the stats are bad here you also need to consider other things. Most projects that get funded come from people that didn't support a kickstarter before, meaning these people that follow you likely don't have an account. Also if they follow you already why follow you on a kickstarter page? we are fucking lazy just tell us here... that's the mentality so you can't assume that follow count is the people interested. 131, does seem low but watch that number grow from just this video because you talked about it. 1-2k views will get you more followers than your whole advertisement you done in terms of views /follow ratio.

I was one of the 130 that clicked notify. I reached out to some of my friends. I'm sorry I couldn't make a bigger impact. But to be fully transparent with you, dev to dev, people judge things at face value, man. I've learned this from my own failed Kickstarter. People who don't know you or your art style, aren't biting. I wish you well and hope you can get this campaign up and running!

It is tough for a game dev to wear all the hats. It is easy to get caught in the trenches working hard every day and losing sight of the big picture. I recommend that my small business clients set aside dedicated time each week to wear the CEO hat and (separately) the marketing hat for at least an hour. It is a helpful exercise that can really make a difference. Tim, I always love your content and integrity--keep fighting the good fight.

I feel ya Tim. My game Sweet Pea is sitting at 221 wishlists and release is in 8 days. Scary stuff.

Hi Tim, I learned from you that key to marketing is understanding your audience, so I will try to make you understand yours. As an aspiring indie game dev (as probably large chunk of your audience), I mostly spend my time on my own game and whenever I'm stuck on it I will go to your channel and GDU discord to hang a little bit to catch some fresh air. I'm mildly interested in your games, but will check on them if theres a prompt video update to see where they are going. I might consider support from the shared sentiment of game dev struggle - best in a form of a cheap steam release or a wishlist, and give feedback whenever needed. For this one - I'm not particularly interested in tabletop but the game description from the link gives almost no information about the product - how much of a contribution I need to make to get a copy, that this is a physical tabletop (i don't feel this information is conveyed enough), what if I'm not interested in physical copies (I know shipping might be an issue in my case for example) will there be digital version available? Hope that helps, best of luck!

You mean everyone else doesnt just do it all?

Show actual gameplay. You only have 3 videos on it, and only one of them shows gameplay. If I hadn't caught part of the playtest stream I wouldn't have cared enough to get notified on kickstarter. And most people aren't gonna re-watch a 3 hour stream about a game they don't know if they care about.

We need a 1-5 minute video showing gameplay of how cool the game is.

Hi Tim you are awesome!! Your audience doesn't like card games~ I don't like card games at least haha. Maybe get some tabletop streams/news article writers to play your game? You gotta find card players, us video game makers probably don't care much about a card game haha( but we do care about you!). PS. Maybe you need a fun Hearthstone like Lore trailer, cartoon panels and cards flying up?

board/card games are definitely a different beast. You typically are paying for manufacturing. You need a complete game at that point. (i'm mostly a analog game designer myself who dabbles on video games)

It IS discouraging man. Even if your game is good is there a formula to make people care?

I'm not on all of your advertising channels (the mailing list, etc) but from what I can see it just feels like you haven't shown much of this game so it's not too out there that people aren't just blindly following the KS page with little to no idea of what the game is or how it plays. If you've already pushed the link out to 100,000 people I feel you're going to need to do that again but with more to actually show of the game itself... Even a simple website that has videos and photos and an explanation would be great, and then just link to the Kickstarter there as well. Just saying "I'm making a card game" and linking to the KS will get you exactly the results you are seeing... Just in my own opinion.

It sucks how the best way to make money is not by making cool things, but by looking at charts all day to make hypothetical money (investing). A company could spend a whole year doubling 100 million dollars by making a cool movie or they could have just bought Bitcoins 3 months ago and sat on their ass watching movies other people made.

im following this kickstarter for sure, but im not bothered to sign up with kickstarter making an account, i think thats really dumb of them to force that rather than just entering an email address

I can't wait for Murder Bunnies to come out Tim! I'm rooting for it's success. It really is a well-designed and fun game and I absolutely love card games
I'll definitely support the Kickstarter when it goes live ^^)b

Love ur videos big fan. If i could offer some feedback- i went on the kickstarter and i see the picture of murder bunnies and...i dont know what it is. It says card game but...no video and no pictures of the game..so why do i want it to notify me when its up?

Im not a hardcore kickstarter user,i just went on the link for the first time and that was my reaction. Im saying all this because i hope this info helps you succeed.

Id be more motivated to click notify me if i knew what the project exactly was or had more info on it. And maybe there is info somewhere but this was my first reaction.

I hit notify just to support you after writing this. Good luck!

Very honest and informative! keep it up :) I personally also think you need a better Capsule art for the Kickstarter.

Maybe a reasonable advertisement pricing in physical games places that have good traffic might bolster it, I don't have a kickstarter account yet but since you've given me some good knowledge on game dev ill make one right now and sign up

I feel your pain and frustration, Tim! I would have the same thoughts and feelings. I'm sure later you will find the reasons for everything - it is much easier after the fact.

Sorry for the delay but low key hyped I can back when it goes live on my birthday!

Hi Tim I have clicked the notify me on launch button in Kickstarter,, I wish you the best, will be eager to see how you get on with it. Possibly the best video you have ever made in terms of connecting with someone like me in your audience. Touching video, thank you.

"In my Burnout Phase..I made a game" That's the way my mane.

🔥

The lesson here is, ooh shiny will get you behind the 8ball but one track focus will be successfully boring. Take your pick.

Where is the website for murder bunnies? When I google 'murder bunnies' then I get whole page of links for Killer Bunnies.

Kickstarter is tough. Like you said, it is a launch. For both physical and digital. For digital you need a full vertical slice of your game ready - and looking really, really good. You need a demo. It takes a lot of time and money to get to that point. Not to mention the months of marketing leading up to it.

I feel like you should be showcasing the actual cards in your kickstarter thumbnail, and actually show people from there what they are getting, and start seeking people in the trading card community that would be interest, even collaborating with collectors/channels. I may be saying the most obvious thing in the world to you but I think it's all about marketing it to the audience that is actively seeking these kinds of products, and your thumbnail isn't selling the product visually as it should be for what it is.

If you keep slamming at it from all over, it's not going to help you if your marketing is focused and funneling the right people.

Well isnt that a tiny market anyway? Those numbers dont surprise me at all. Thats not your fault.
Also it seems like you invested way to much time in financial/marketing stuff and not rly in analytics and now wonder why a physical card game isnt realy wanted.
Its an very old concept and i dont see a indie game dev creating something like a Pokemon or YuGiOh hype.
Again, its not your fault, but your expectation was way to high. This is not a marketing failure. The Problem is the Genre itself.

I'm curious as to why you had the conclusion you did. If 100000 saw the game and you got 100 interests, that is a CPI of 0.1%. When you see these metrics in any games business, you know the right move is to can the project...

The game is too dark. That image on twitter with bunny guts is a put-off. Murder your friends, I don't think so. Also, I don't think anything's changed regarding marketing and what you know to be true. You know this doesn't look good. Just break it to Alyssa man and move onto another project. OR make it family friendly and funny, then I am in.

Appreciate the honesty here. I couldn't keep up the posting on socials very long at the rate I wanted. Started dreading the post itself and making the content. I know I need to get back into it and keep posting. Still trying to figure out the right balance and how to efficiently "switch hats".

Some random ideas for posting Murder Bunnies on socials: 1 high production vid of a group of friends playing the game that captures the kind of fun the group is having and showing the emotions the game is intended to elicit (vid can be recycled and chopped up for multiple posts), close up picture of the physical card held in your hand with finger pointing at a feature then short text explaining in a comedic way that feature (repeat this format for each card for many posts), candid and comedic tiktok-like vid of someone making a play on the opponent (needs to be understood by anyone who never seen the game b4).

I support you Tim! Make that Kickstarter count 179 💪

Yeah, how are we supposed to be excited about a game we know very little about? You didn't even mention if it will be limited to the US, or also international.

Thx for the info! Maybe rethink the name of the game.. as a parent would not buy a game for my kids with "murder" in it..

paid facebook ads that target the right audience could help a bit more... but I mean even on pax online event and any online events where we manage to get around 300k impressions and still get .005% of wishlist. but 1.5k wishlist is still completely worth it when you stop to think that the people reached all have their own type of things they like, what is your niche in there ? where are the people you wanna reach ? is it a silly card game ? then target the people that follow cyanide and happiness or somthing along the line, exploding kittens, Bears vs Babys target ads on facebooks and stuff up where this niche is. maybe you'll also get 0.005% of the total impressions as well but the reach can be insane nonethless.

I might be wrong, but maybe there is not too much overlap between the people who watch your content and play with physical games.

Awesome content, thanks. Adding to the folks here saying you have really different markets in tabletop vs digital. TT isn't big on Twitter or Discord but they are HUGE on Board Game Geek. My last KS tabletop had something like 40% of traffic coming from BGG. Ads are effective but also regular forum posts. Get on the Hotness and you are guaranteed to get those wishlists up! GL!

Tim, the problem is the product and the audience. You're suffering from the same problem as me (in another medium, comics). I've realized that if I don't release a manga/manhwa/whateverf*ckingcartoon, the sale numbers will be so low the business is unsustainable. With a very specific niche, I faced a huge issue to find the right audience (try to sell 100 Bullets or Criminal to BTS fans... And I have NY Times Best Seller and an award under my belt. It's not enough for the audience. But I noticed this kind of thing is useful in the INDUSTRY. Comics publishers listened to me, which gave me hope. With 100K people in your potential audience list, YOU can find a game publisher for sure!).

P.S.: Seems the popular thing is 3D survival games on Steam. Well, I'll never understand mainstream taste...

i love how real these talks are and glad you delayed the campaign because it got funded! keep up the great work and finding that balance! :)

It’s time for a whole video on physical games

You are great bro! Looks interesting that game, you are an inspiration for a lot of people like me and i am not a english speaker, thank you, i apreciate your honesty a lot!

why not make murder bunnies a digital card game?

Esa imagen del Kickstarter se ve bien cutre XD

So I tried to start a kickstarter project, I have a good idea but they make it impossible to fill out their forms on their website. They make it confusing. I am not able to access google sheets and I am unabel to understand their rewards and Items. Its like I do not know English anymore. I am unable to fill out their website it will not accept anything I put in. It is like they really do not want me to be able to launch. Its like my idea is really good so they are making it impossible to launch. I can not make it work. I can not launch. I can not complete their trick questions. They want me to put in rewards and addons and I have no idea what that is about. Their forum does not fill in the blanks. Kickstarter just wasted my time. It was a complete waste of my efforts. I have no idea what they mean by rewards or addons. I have no idea why I can not access google sheets. Its like instead of saying to me no we wont even let your try they just make me jump through hoops and keep me in the dark about what the hell they want. They want me to do things that make no sense. Like I rewards and addons what do they me with the * you need to include all items What items ? none of it makes any sense. Kickstarter wasted a lot of my time.

Kickstarter is not intuitive, they do not make it so you can understand how to create a project. They do not make it so I can understand what they are after in order for me to launch. The things I am required to do are things I have no way of knowing what they mean, They use weird words and they do not define those words so I know what they mean. I am not able to access google sheets and they wont accept my spreadsheet. They keep aksing things of me that I have no idea how to provide. Its like they have a whole world of things that they are not sharing with me the meaning. Its like they have a whole secret encyclopedia of words that they wont clearly define, yet I am suppose to know these things in order to launch a project. Its as if they see I have a great idea but they have put forth bugs to stop me from being able to launch. It have gone back to this project 5 times over the last year to attmpet to launch I can not make it launch and I can not make them make it so I know why. Google sheets blames kickstarter and kickstarter blames google sheets. yet It wont let me launch unless I do SOMETHING with google sheets. Some kind of plan. It seams kickstarter has a crowd of people who know how to make it work and they aint gonna share. I do not see why they bother allowing me to even join and try if they have no intentioin of allowing me to launch. They have no intention of letting me launch.