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Facebook

Thu, 04/12/2018 - 14:08 — Jay103

Okay, so I bit the bullet and started a Facebook page for my game.

https://www.facebook.com/HeroesAndTreasure/

Not quite as bad as I was expecting, though the whole social media marketing thing is just not in my wheelhouse. Having to constantly post updates, for example.

HOWEVER..

Facebook makes stuff pretty easy. I was pleasantly surprised that it was easy and obvious how to schedule posts for the future, so I can write up a couple of posts in the evening and have them appear at different times the next day. Makes this much more doable.

Pricing

Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:19 — Jay103

I thought I had this locked down, but then I really ran the numbers including shipping costs and all that, and now I'm not so sure.

Was thinking about a $49 price point, including shipping in the US (subsidized to ship elsewhere). $18k Kickstarter goal.

When you include handling costs, KS fees, and all that, with a 1000 unit minimum print run, I will lose money outright at $18k (350 units). That's not even including sunk costs like art and marketing. I'd have to sell about double that ($35k) to break even overall.

More Photoshop

Fri, 03/30/2018 - 16:26 — Jay103
Heroes & Treasure, Player card for cleric

Well, I've been getting better at doing layout stuff in Photoshop (still GIMP, not actually Photoshop).

I did a mockup card (which I won't post here) in nanDECK. My artist made a nice frame for it (she also chose that font), and I spent a couple of hours making the attached image, plus three more on the same template. Think it was probably 2.5 hours total.

Kinda fun :)

Photoshop

Thu, 03/22/2018 - 11:33 — Jay103
Heroes & Treasure Map (draft)

Okay, not actually Photoshop.. I'm using GIMP, which is free.

This is a good skill to acquire if you're making a game. For a while I was doing everything in MSPaint. It's not terrible for basic things, and I even did my maps in it (example attached).

But for some things, especially color things that are templates you'll use multiple times.. gotta have a real editor.

Website!

Tue, 03/13/2018 - 16:46 — Jay103

I has website.

After some research, I settled on kickofflabs for my host. They're set up specifically to do landing pages and collect emails and run contests, three things I was interested in. Eventually it will point to my Kickstarter page. In the meantime, I can collect email addresses from interested people, and get people interested.

www.heroesandtreasure.com

I'd love to have any feedback!

A Press-Your-Luck Dice Game with Cards

Mon, 03/12/2018 - 11:35 — Jay103

Okay, a recent post made me want to get this idea down in writing somewhere.. It's totally unplaytested and exists only in my head. After my current game is done, maybe I'll look into a real design.

In the spirit of Farkle, you have 5 dice, which you roll on your turn. You can reroll multiple times, but on each roll you MUST save at least one rolled die, and not re-roll it.

Fulfillment

Fri, 03/09/2018 - 15:18 — Jay103

I've been spending some time trying to work out Kickstarter fulfillment. The two competing options at this point are:

Amazon: Using Amazon in the US, plus also .ca, .uk, and .de (at least) to fulfill everything, and then I can use FBA to sell on Amazon afterwards.

Other: Using a set of different partners in different countries, e.g. Fulfillrite.

Mind = Blown

Fri, 03/02/2018 - 10:54 — Jay103

Okay, so I made a rough estimate of game weight, not including shipping box, and came up with 3.3 lbs. That seems like a lot. It's mostly the chipboard.

I'd already decided to go with 1.5mm chipboard for my big map tiles instead of 2mm.. that's by far the heaviest component.

Prototyping

Wed, 02/28/2018 - 12:29 — Jay103
Dice photo

Just some notes on my prototyping.

http://spielpro.com has some great stuff, cheap. Free shipping over $20. I got plastic card stands there, plus blank dice. They also sell small wooden things like cubes and disks.

Some blank dice will take a Sharpie, but some won't, or it smudges over time. Get "paint markers" instead. They're cheap and work much better.

For life counters, go on Amazon and pick up a bag of bingo chips. Can also use bingo supply stores online. Not too expensive.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DV7LZ2K

My tile/token solution was this chipboard:

Combat Mechanics

Mon, 02/26/2018 - 10:46 — Jay103

The fundamentals of combat are this:

Each player has some health, basically between 6-16 depending on class and level. Not a ton. It's counted with bingo chips. Monsters, same. A typical basic monster has 2-4 health.

Each player is one of the four basic character classes (fighter, rogue, wizard, cleric). Each class has a weapon they use. That weapon is represented by a die, or sometimes two dice, which are custom. (Casters obviously have some spells, and the ones that are attack spells act like weapons here)

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