Ooof, it's been more than two months since I last posted. I've been super busy and lost track of the time. What have I been doing, you might ask? Welp. I've been working with my artist to get the spaceship and box art completed. I've been working with my graphic designer to get the rulebook ready and start transitioning the game from the preview version to what we'll be actually sending to the printers. I've been in talks with a company to do the main video for the Kickstarter page. And, I've been doing the one thing I never thought I would do myself...
Advertising.
Yeah, marketing is totally not my thing. I am a software engineer and game designer, and getting the word out about products doesn't fall into either of those skill sets. So, to that end, I've been working with a company called LaunchBoom. They basically gave me a crash course in marketing, from defining my product, to creating a landing page, to taking out ads on Facebook and Instagram, with probably a hundred steps and considerations in between. I'm nowhere close to being an expert on the subject now, but at least I know more now about it than I did two months ago.
Part of this process has been ad testing. This testing consists of running test advertisements, several at a time, with only one key difference between them. (Could be a difference in the ad image or in the text of the ad.) I think they called it single-variable testing? The idea being that, since all else is equal, the version of the ad that gets the most attention must have the best of whatever that variable piece is. So, if I'm running ads with different images (like, oh say, two different 'product' photos, one photo of the game in progress at a con, and some image I put together in Photoshop using the game assets), whichever one gets the most attention must have the best image. So... there you go. (The winning image, btw, is the one above. Apparently I'm better with Photoshop than I am with a camera. :)
One side effect of this ad testing is that I've been getting attention on Stellar Drift. I have a brand new shiny email list with not quite two hundred email addresses on it, all people interested in the game. I've also been accumulating 'reservations', which is a marketing gimmick that LaunchBoom uses to secure backers before the campaign even starts. Basically, backers do a pre-pledge of $1 (they call it a 'VIP reservation') before the campaign starts, and in return they get preferred status during the KS campaign. Generally this preferred status comes in the form of a discounted price during the KS. However, LaunchBoom also has an alternate strategy that is supposed to attract even more of these reservations, and that is to offer some extra goodie along with the Kickstarter product.
As it so happens, I was recently at a gaming local convention, and we happened to run across a pair of ladies that made hand-sewn cloth and canvas goods. We got to talking, and somehow managed to get them to agree to make some upgraded goodies for Stellar Drift. Specifically, they are willing to make handmade canvas and cloth bags to hold the game's cubes. This works out perfectly, as I was already considering having upgraded bags be a stretch goal or something similar. The bags that will come with Stellar Drift will be functional but not necessarily impressive. Single color plain cloth or velvet, the only distinctive thing being that the bags are 'wide' (large mouth but shallow, so it's easy to reach into and grab cubes) compared to a typical dice bag.
The upgraded bags will be dual layer (cloth interior with a canvas exterior) so they will be highly durable. The canvas will be a single color but we're considering being able to offer a choice of colors. And the interior cloth will be printed with some sort of outer space pattern. We're still working out the details but I've seen a couple of prototypes of the bags and they are very impressive. (I will go into them more in another post.)
So, for my KS campaign, anyone that has donated the $1 before the campaign starts will be entitled to one of these bags at no extra cost. Of course I will make the bags available to everyone, but they will cost significantly more. (I haven't worked out the exact number yet, but I'm thinking $10 to $15.) At least the bags will go out with the games, so there shouldn't be any significant increase in the shipping cost to backers.
So yeah, learning about marketing and getting all the worked out has been my focus for the recent months. The landing page for gathering email addresses and $1 reservations is up and running. The ad testing is winding down soon and I think I'm close to having the winning ad worked out. Still working on the bags but I think we're getting the details worked out too.
Oh, and if anyone is interested in taking a look at the landing page and adding their email into the mix, here ya go:
https://tinyurl.com/4xjk8wxt
More to come! I have art to show off, and of course I want to give a closer look at the upgraded bags!
Advertising.
Yeah, marketing is totally not my thing. I am a software engineer and game designer, and getting the word out about products doesn't fall into either of those skill sets. So, to that end, I've been working with a company called LaunchBoom. They basically gave me a crash course in marketing, from defining my product, to creating a landing page, to taking out ads on Facebook and Instagram, with probably a hundred steps and considerations in between. I'm nowhere close to being an expert on the subject now, but at least I know more now about it than I did two months ago.
Part of this process has been ad testing. This testing consists of running test advertisements, several at a time, with only one key difference between them. (Could be a difference in the ad image or in the text of the ad.) I think they called it single-variable testing? The idea being that, since all else is equal, the version of the ad that gets the most attention must have the best of whatever that variable piece is. So, if I'm running ads with different images (like, oh say, two different 'product' photos, one photo of the game in progress at a con, and some image I put together in Photoshop using the game assets), whichever one gets the most attention must have the best image. So... there you go. (The winning image, btw, is the one above. Apparently I'm better with Photoshop than I am with a camera. :)
One side effect of this ad testing is that I've been getting attention on Stellar Drift. I have a brand new shiny email list with not quite two hundred email addresses on it, all people interested in the game. I've also been accumulating 'reservations', which is a marketing gimmick that LaunchBoom uses to secure backers before the campaign even starts. Basically, backers do a pre-pledge of $1 (they call it a 'VIP reservation') before the campaign starts, and in return they get preferred status during the KS campaign. Generally this preferred status comes in the form of a discounted price during the KS. However, LaunchBoom also has an alternate strategy that is supposed to attract even more of these reservations, and that is to offer some extra goodie along with the Kickstarter product.
As it so happens, I was recently at a gaming local convention, and we happened to run across a pair of ladies that made hand-sewn cloth and canvas goods. We got to talking, and somehow managed to get them to agree to make some upgraded goodies for Stellar Drift. Specifically, they are willing to make handmade canvas and cloth bags to hold the game's cubes. This works out perfectly, as I was already considering having upgraded bags be a stretch goal or something similar. The bags that will come with Stellar Drift will be functional but not necessarily impressive. Single color plain cloth or velvet, the only distinctive thing being that the bags are 'wide' (large mouth but shallow, so it's easy to reach into and grab cubes) compared to a typical dice bag.
The upgraded bags will be dual layer (cloth interior with a canvas exterior) so they will be highly durable. The canvas will be a single color but we're considering being able to offer a choice of colors. And the interior cloth will be printed with some sort of outer space pattern. We're still working out the details but I've seen a couple of prototypes of the bags and they are very impressive. (I will go into them more in another post.)
So, for my KS campaign, anyone that has donated the $1 before the campaign starts will be entitled to one of these bags at no extra cost. Of course I will make the bags available to everyone, but they will cost significantly more. (I haven't worked out the exact number yet, but I'm thinking $10 to $15.) At least the bags will go out with the games, so there shouldn't be any significant increase in the shipping cost to backers.
So yeah, learning about marketing and getting all the worked out has been my focus for the recent months. The landing page for gathering email addresses and $1 reservations is up and running. The ad testing is winding down soon and I think I'm close to having the winning ad worked out. Still working on the bags but I think we're getting the details worked out too.
Oh, and if anyone is interested in taking a look at the landing page and adding their email into the mix, here ya go:
https://tinyurl.com/4xjk8wxt
More to come! I have art to show off, and of course I want to give a closer look at the upgraded bags!
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