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帮助开发者准备Kickstarter融资的5个步骤

发布时间:2016-09-12 17:49:02 Tags:,,,,

作者:Matt Kramer

以下是根据我所接触的一些专家和顾问所提供的意见以及我自己在准备Woven Kickstarter所获取的经验教训而得出的5个步骤。

Kickstarter(from knewone)

Kickstarter(from knewone)

1.创造一款出色的游戏并让它发光发亮

首先你必须拥有一款出色的游戏。你必须拥有一个人们肯定会喜欢的游戏概念,但只有这个也不足以帮助你通过Kickstarter。你应该前往像Steam Greenlight等基于平台的社区,它们能够帮助你明确是否走在正确的方向上。仔细浏览每一条评价,不管好,坏,甚至是非常难听的内容。

当你浏览了评价后,你将对游戏进行优化,并最终创造出一款优秀的游戏。这时候你需要马上将其带到Kickstarter上。你应该想办法让你的游戏页面足够吸引人,对此你需要投入足够的时间。在这里尽量去呈现基于游戏风格的图片并确保所有人在一开始就都能感受到游戏是怎样的。让朋友,同事和家人能够帮你看看起草页面,并听取他们的评价。当你对该页面越来越有信心时,你便可以选择一些能够提供给你有关页面内容(游戏邦注:即有关你想要传达的布局和信息)更多反馈的外部人士。

2.确保游戏足够清晰

随后你便需要确保人们可以清楚看到游戏的突出之处。清楚每个前往你的游戏页面的访问者并不会看完全部内容,他们甚至有可能略过一些关键元素。所以你必须确保清楚地表达出所有关键元素和游戏的卖点,确保这些内容足够言简意赅。

如果你希望访问者能够为你买单,你就必须让他们清楚他们所面对的是怎样的内容。这并不是像明天就是世界末日一般的Steam Summer促销。

你必须清楚,即使你和团队对视频感到非常满意也不表示其他人便能完全理解你想要传达的内容。而这一步能帮助你清楚你所呈现的信息,游戏是否足够清晰明了。

不管怎样你都必须足够清楚地告诉访问者你的游戏是关于什么。

呈现给那些来到你的游戏页面的人你的游戏视频。

为那些并未观看视频的人呈现简单明了的文本内容。

为那些未阅读文本内容的的人呈现相关图像。

为那些还是不理解的人呈现可轻松理解的游戏架构。

3.尽所能的给予

第三步便是让人觉得资助你是一种很棒的选择。你可能会误以为Kickstarter便是关于你与融资。但相信我绝对不是这样的。其实在这里资助者才是王。他们可能会愿意冒险赌一赌,而你也将能够因此去创造你想创造的游戏以及他们想玩的游戏。你应该大方地报答对方。让他们觉得自己的付出是有价值的,并尽可能提供更多在Kickstarter独有的内容。例如让他们能够获得官方音轨,图像,皮肤包等等,或者给予对方游戏主角的吉祥物。

必须好好衡量自己的能力。或许你承诺给予所有人一只彩虹独角兽,但是你的公司可能会遭遇破产,最终人们将不能收到他们所喜欢的神兽,而你的游戏也将不可能完成。或者更糟糕的是你将拥有一款人们并不想玩的游戏,因为他们想要的是你并不能负担得起的独角兽。

所以你必须事先衡量这么做的成本并确保你能够兑现承诺,即考虑到这将包含邮费,奖励产品的成本,Kickstarter费用(通常是收取5%至10%的抽成)以及税费。运费是非常昂贵的,但是你并无其它选择。将实体产品寄往不同国家将耗费你好多钱,所以你必须真正考虑你将使用的包装材料的成本,去完成这些工作的人力所需要投入的时间以及运输时间。

4.不要限制选择

你必须确保你能够适应不同人拥有不同预算的事实。创造足够多层的奖励选择并避免承诺间的差距过大。即让那些想要给你30美元支持的人和愿意给与你50美元的人都拥有选择权。

让那些预算不足的人也可以自行做出决定。添加早期层,即为前100个支持者提供较低的游戏标价。

并为那些想要支持你的努力的热心人士留出足够的空间,确保他们的投资是有价值的并提供给他们一些特有的游戏商品。

5.伸出手

所以现在你拥有一个人们会喜欢并能够理解的游戏概念。你已经考虑过投资者的预算和意愿,所以现在只剩最后一步了;你应该向那些人伸出手并让他们能够认识你以及你的游戏。

在你考虑Kickstarter之前几个月,你便需要去接触那些可能喜欢游戏的人,并提供给他们一些出色的图像,与他们建立起友好的关系并让他们能够编写有关你的游戏进程的文章。

你可以通过博客,简报,社交媒体等方式做到这点。向媒体投放信息,将你的演示版本发送给Streamer和Youtuber。即你需要真正投入时间去做这些事。

你必须花时间去接触你的用户,毕竟到最后你的游戏将呈现在他们面前。

最后的建议

你可能没有什么Kickstarter经验,但别人有啊,你尽管去问他们!你会注意到所有人所提供的建议都是不同的,有时候甚至是矛盾的,但不管怎样你还是能从中学到许多并找到适合自己的方式。就像本文一样,看完这篇文章后你可以自行忽视一些内容并吸取对自己有帮助的内容。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

How to prepare for Kickstarter in 5 steps.

by Matt Kramer

Here are five steps derived from the knowledge of the experts and advisors I’ve talked to, plus my own experience in preparing the Woven Kickstarter.

1: Have an awesome game and make it shine.

Step one is to have a great game. A great concept people will obviously love, but this isn’t enough to get you through Kickstarter. Going through a community based platform like Steam Greenlight will help you get a sense of if you are going in the right direction. Read each and every piece of critique carefully – the good, the bad and the outright ugly. Check out my blog about Greenlight here

Ok, so you’ve stopped reading, thought long and hard, polished and condensed, came back, and now you have a great game. Great! This will need to be presented the right way on Kickstarter. Make your page look as awesome as your game and you will need to devote a lot time to this. Have lots of pictures in there in the style of your game and be sure to let everyone know how your game feels, right from the start. Get close friends, colleagues and family to look at your drafted page, get their criticisms and adapt. As you become more confident with the page shaping up, give access to a select few outsiders who can, once again, give you even more feedback on the page’s content, the layout and the message you’re attempting to portray of your beloved title.

2: Make your game clear.

Step two is making sure that people know exactly why your game is great. Please understand that the average visitor to your page will not read the entirety and will scan for key elements that they deem important. Be sure to have all of the key elements and USPs (unique selling points) absolutely clear, concise and incredibly easy to understand.

If you expect visitors to draw out their credit cards to support you, they will need to know what it is they are getting themselves into. This is not the Steam Summer sale in which everyone starts spending like there is no tomorrow! ;)

Remember just because you and your team are pleased with the video, it doesn’t mean that an outsider will totally understand the message you’re attempting to convey. It really helps to get a few fresh sets of eyes on the video to see if they totally understand your message, game and what it is you will deliver – should you be successful.

In every way you can think of, communicate clearly what your game is about.

For those that come to your page, show it in your video.

For those that don’t watch your video, make it clear in the text.

For those that don’t read your text, make it clear within your images.

For those still unsure, have a playable build easily accessible; you can get ours at the top of our page.

3: Give as much as you can.

Step three is make funding you a truly great experience. You might be mistaken in thinking that the Kickstarter is about you and, ultimately, getting funding. Trust me; it is not. It is about the backers – your community. They are willing to take a risk so that you can make the game that you’ve always wanted to and that they want to play. Give back generously. Make it worth their while by giving as much Kickstarter exclusive content as you can. Access to the official soundtrack, artbooks, skin packs, give them a say in the game-design, or even hand out mascots of your main character, as we did with the Stuffy stuffed animal.

However, be mindful to give only as much as you can. You can promise everybody your game plus a rainbow Unicorn, but you will go bankrupt, people will not be receiving their beloved mythical beast, and your game will never be finished. Or worse, you have a game nobody will play because they actually wanted the Unicorn you can’t pay for.

Calculate all your costs beforehand and make sure that you actually ARE able to deliver your promises, which includes taking in account shipping costs, reward production costs, Kickstarter fees (they take 5-10%) and taxes. Shipping is costly, there’s no two ways about it. To get a physical product delivered in various countries around the world will potentially cost you thousands – make sure that you account for the cost of the materials you’re actually going to use to package the items within, the man hours it’ll take to get these things secure and for the actual shipping itself.

4: Don’t limit the options.

Step four is making sure you accommodate different people with different budgets. Make enough tier reward options and don’t allow for large gaps between pledges. Let someone that wants to support you for $30 have an option as well someone that would support you with $50.

Help those people with smaller budgets at their disposal. Include early bird tiers, in which you offer your game digitally at a lower price tag for the first hundred backers or so.

And make room for those special KS enthusiasts that do want to support your efforts big time, and make sure it’s worth their while with exclusive collectibles and game merchandising.

5: Reach out

So now you have a game concept people will like and understand. You have thought about their budget and their wishes; there is just one last step; reach those people and let them know you and your game exists.

Steven long writes very nice blogs about this very matter. Months before you think of doing a Kickstarter, you need to communicate with the people that might like the game, give them cool art, build up a relationship with them and keep them posted on your progress!

You can do this through blogs, newsletters, social media channels and many more ways. Put out messages to the media, send your demo to Streamers and Youtubers. Dedicate time to these tasks.

Dedicate time to your audience, because, after all, in the end, it’s for them that you make your game.

Don’t have extensive ties with the media? Hire a team that does. Like the PR-hound. They are well connected and do an awesome job at helping you set up the KS as well. Lots of what we’ve learned comes from them, and they know lots more ;)

Last bit of advice

You might not have much experience in Kickstarter, but other people do; ask them! You will notice everyone gives different advice, sometimes contradictory, but you will learn a lot and find out your own way of doing things. Just like with this post. Read it, ignore atleast half, and learn atleast one thing.

We are on Kickstarter now so if you liked this article, check out the page here and if you like the concept; don’t hesitate to support us any way you would like. (source:Gamasutra

 


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