Bribing Feedback

Like every game designer, I'd love to have a fanatical core of players who champion my game on various forums, in their local game stores, at conventions or among their regular gaming clubs. Not a huge number of people, but enough people paying attention to my design work and spreading their love for it more than I could do alone.

I've thought about way to do this...but I'm not one of the "hipster elite" on certain forums, I don't live in striking dstance of any major "globally signficant" convention, and it seems that many other designers are struggling just as hard a I am in these difficult financial times.

To these ends, I've offered free games, I've given away physical copies of games at local conventions, I've done game trades with other designers I respect. I've shared my design methodology.

I'm now thinking about upping the ante.It might not be enough to have a few core fanatics, it might be more worthwhile to cast a wider net.

To these ends I'm thinking of a few things to boost the profile of Ghost City Raiders...

First, I'll be putting together the starter kit for Ghost City Raiders on RPGNow(and DrivethruRPG), using a whole heap of my accumulated "Publisher Promotion Points" to get the product as advertised as possible. This will probably be a series of the core rules along with 10 characters and 10 scenarios for $10. It'll be the highest cost thing that I've put onto the site, but hopefully the advertising will pay off.

Secondly, I'll be starting up a crowdfunded campaign to create a series of game hardcopies (each in a hand customised tin). These tins will have a slightly different range of characters and scenarios so that they retain some value as a collectible for those people who might have already purchased the downloadable PDFs. After the issues I faced with producing the Goblin Tarot Deck, I'm in two minds about producing a custom deck of cards for this project.

Finally, I'll be offering a special bonus character and scenario free of charge to anyone who blogs about their experiences with the game or posts about it on a forum (such a person would have to get in contact with me regarding their entry, post or comment).

It's this last bit that I'm hoping will generate a bit more of a community around the game.

We'll see how things go.

Comments

Rob Lang said…
I'll be watching with great interest! I think crowdfunding works for those that already have a community. Using Kickstarter is then a case of pointing your existing fan base at the kickstarter. Most kickstarters fall over because they do not have the fan base before hand.

Best of luck!

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