Hi guys,
looking for advice on my kickstarter campaign
Feedback on my kickstarter
Sat, 05/06/2017 - 19:20
Sun, 05/07/2017 - 07:02
#1
What sort of advice?
Ideally, you'd be looking for feedback before launching your KS. Repeatedly posting a link to your campaign and vaguely asking for advice is usually the sign of someone looking for backers rather than actual feedback. It would help if you could be more specific about what advice you're looking for.
Having glanced at the page itself and the rules, I'll give the obvious advice that I feel I need to give in most of these cases, which is you need an editor to re-write both. You over-use exclamation points like they're going out of style and make a lot of grammatical errors that mean you're making a bad first impression. You only get one chance to grab people's attention with your page.
Examples from the rules:
- "WarChu cards come in a few formats namely." is not a complete sentence.
- "the winners goes first." is obviously grammatically wrong.
- "A unit will always miss on a 1+ roll" means that every unit will always miss because every roll will be 1+.
In short, without even going into the page or the rules in depth, it's clear that this game is not ready for a crowdfunding campaign. You will likely be advised here and elsewhere to cancel, fix all the problems, build up an enthusiastic fanbase who will back on day one, then relaunch.
Sun, 05/07/2017 - 08:19
#2
Won't back, but good luck.
Ideally, you'd be looking for feedback before launching your KS. Repeatedly posting a link to your campaign and vaguely asking for advice is usually the sign of someone looking for backers rather than actual feedback.
This. Exactly.
I see...incredible issues with the campaign, not the least of which merits a nice little C&D from the LEGO company.
However, at this point, it doesn't appear like any advice would be taken since the site is already up.
Unfortunately, just like stevebarkeruk said, the post is merely trying to get people to back the project.
But since the campaign is already up, I'll give the obligatory "Good Luck". I won't back it myself, but hopefully others may see your vision.
Sun, 05/07/2017 - 18:01
#3
This is obviously going to fail.
No seriously, this feels like a bad idea to start with. But that is my opinion.
Why a bad idea?
Many war games can be "re"played with Lego. This includes Warhammer for sure. Heck, I even played Brick Wars for a while, with its own "unique" rules.
http://brikwars.com/
That is my 2 cents.
Good luck though.
Mon, 05/08/2017 - 08:41
#5
Wait, are you actually making
Wait, are you actually making minifigs? LEGO minifigs? That's legally inadvisable.
I see no advantage to having the "lego" style if you are going into production and if I as a player still have to buy your minifigs.
The advantage of LEGO is the modularity, from what I can see of your game it's a wargame that instead of minis it uses lego. You're not exploiting the system benefits.
As I see you should either integrate the modularity into the game or if you're going to use and produce static units it's better for you to design better looking minis than the legally questionable lego clone.
Mon, 05/08/2017 - 13:59
#6
humm
While I am not interested in fueling a debate on a topic such as this. There is something to Lego losing ground when it comes to some legal protection over the minifigs and compatible brick production. (See Trademark and patents)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lego_Group
Here is Lego's current stance on things
https://www.lego.com/en-us/legal/legal-notice/fair-play
I think it is almost always advisable to stay far away from the intellectual property of others unless you get full written permission from them prior to public release of whatever you are doing with it. This Kickstarter seems to be in violation of what the Lego Group wants. What they want does not make it illegal but it does mean they are very likely to start some sort of legal fight if you are not careful and become successful.
On the other hand, I applaud people who push the envelope when it comes to developing new versions of things that keep the marketplace fresh.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/3NY5VPGKT/neo-ego?optionId=42411694&li...
As to the Kickstarter page, I will not back a game project that does not have reviews that can be found on the reviews own websites. It would not hurt to have gathered advice prior to launch.
I feel it would be better to cancel and re-launch after you have had some unique "lego compatible" minifigs designed by a third party. This is something you should talk to a lawyer about prior to any re-launch.
@BHFuturist
Tue, 05/09/2017 - 23:13
#9
warchu wrote:thanks for your
thanks for your comments, really hit the nail on the head,
i like the modulairty of changing weapons from one model to another, thats why i decided to use lego minifigs
however, given the controversy around using lego, i am thinking i will have to mould some units that can change weaspons
Why not take it a bit further and include even more modularity? Legos minifigs can change at least pants-body-Head (and if you really want even arms and hands). You even have accessories for head and hands.
I think Lego can work as long as you let the players use the minifigs they already have, of course that would mean letting the theme go wild. But to be honest that's also the appeal of Lego.
Be careful with manufacturing your own pieces if you don't have experience with production, specially with plastic moulding. It can be really expensive and only worth it if you're sure you're going to sell thousands of units. In this case modularity will be really really helpful.
Wed, 05/10/2017 - 04:40
#10
be aware
thanks for your comments, really hit the nail on the head,
i like the modulairty of changing weapons from one model to another, thats why i decided to use lego minifigs
however, given the controversy around using lego, i am thinking i will have to mould some units that can change weaspons
Why not take it a bit further and include even more modularity? Legos minifigs can change at least pants-body-Head (and if you really want even arms and hands). You even have accessories for head and hands.
I think Lego can work as long as you let the players use the minifigs they already have, of course that would mean letting the theme go wild. But to be honest that's also the appeal of Lego.
Be careful with manufacturing your own pieces if you don't have experience with production, specially with plastic moulding. It can be really expensive and only worth it if you're sure you're going to sell thousands of units. In this case modularity will be really really helpful.
Adding on this. Be aware if you're going to create something new and unique as far as "LEGO-like". Since it's a physical product, you'll need to patent the design or someone else will possibly steal your design idea, market it and you won't see a dime.
They can essentially profit off of your idea in the same way you're potentially profiting off of a LEGO-like design. The difference is that LEGO has a patent, they have money, and they have lawyers.
So yes, using "LEGO" figures should give you grief as they worked hard to protect their IP and they don't want anyone to profit off of it without their permission.
Wed, 05/10/2017 - 05:20
#11
radioactivemouse wrote:
So
So yes, using "LEGO" figures should give you grief as they worked hard to protect their IP and they don't want anyone to profit off of it without their permission.
I`ll just leave this here.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/JoshuaACNewman/mobile-frame-zero-ra...
The concept of selling a game based on using lego bricks can work if done right.
I don't believe it will work in it's current form though.
Wed, 05/10/2017 - 05:39
#12
Patents
Adding on this. Be aware if you're going to create something new and unique as far as "LEGO-like". Since it's a physical product, you'll need to patent the design or someone else will possibly steal your design idea, market it and you won't see a dime.
They can essentially profit off of your idea in the same way you're potentially profiting off of a LEGO-like design. The difference is that LEGO has a patent, they have money, and they have lawyers.
So yes, using "LEGO" figures should give you grief as they worked hard to protect their IP and they don't want anyone to profit off of it without their permission.
Red herring.
A patent is a limited term protection for a novel invention, and it expires after that term allowing other people to use it without needing licenses, etc. A quick Google search suggests that the last patent on Lego expired in 1989, and this is why you see so many similar ranges these days. What you would be going up against with Lego are more likely to be issues like trademarks, trade dress, and so on. Effectively, if they did come after you, they would be looking for a way to show that you are trying to pass your product off as theirs, and this is nothing to do with patents.
As always, never take legal advice from random folk on the internet. If you are worried about legal protection for your work you really need to discuss this with a qualified legal professional, if only to ensure that you aren't wasting your money worrying about the wrong thing.
Wed, 05/10/2017 - 07:29
#13
Mobile Frame Zero
I`ll just leave this here.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/JoshuaACNewman/mobile-frame-zero-rapid-attack
Yeah, MF0 looks pretty awesome. :)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/JoshuaACNewman/mobile-frame-zero-rapid-attack
Wed, 05/10/2017 - 08:42
#14
Legal protection for
Legal protection for manufactured goods is really really complicated and for small business is usually impossible to enforce. I know of people who started manufacturing their own designs and a week later there were Chinese manufacturers offering the same thing.
I remember a famous designer telling about the time he went to china and saw a factory that was producing knocked off copies of his chairs. Since he knew it was almost impossible to legally stop them he just complimented them on their good taste in design and moved on.
Mobile Frame Zero looks great! I love the designs and it's a perfect example of what we're talking about as it tells you to buy Lego instead of manufacturing knock offs so it shows that a project using Lego is possible.
Wed, 05/10/2017 - 08:29
#15
Lego sidetrack
Just to go off topic for a minute (sorry!), I was recently talking to a guy working at one of the science labs here, and he was saying that they often use Lego to build custom frames to hold samples that get put into their giant x-ray rig. The reason for this is that apparently the Lego manufacturing tolerances are so tight that they rival many scientific equipment manufacturers at a fraction of the price.
thanks for the feedback, i am doing the kickstarter mainly to do some bulk productions of the minifigs...
the feedback is a bit mixed to date, with some saying it is too close to lego which is fair point
i am probably going to have to do some more on the game mechanics and the minifig design