Tag: kickstarter

Art of War, “Savage Worlds Black”, and You. #savageworlds

Over on our kickstarter, a backer asked:

@Timothy asked: With Savage Worlds Black on the horizon, do you plan to do a rule update after its release?

A: We are slated for a print run of December this year. That is somewhat on purpose. Shane Hensley(creator of Savage Worlds) mentioned in a few places that Project “Savage Worlds Black” is scheduled to kickstart in the Fall of 2018, post GenCon.

We plan to have it incorporated into the book before we publish. We have that foot path already in place. We just need to pave over it, once the material is released.

In addition, using Flash Gordan as an example, since it already has material that has been confirmed will be in the next iteration. Such the Athletic skill. This new skill justified our need for a separate Acrobatic skill.

Some Chi Techniques might need to be revised, but we do anticipate that.

If by chance things do not line up the way they should but our ducks are in a row, we are ready to hit the print button. . . we will.

This means a conversion document will be released for free, in a printable PDF format for hard copy users. We plan to update the PDF versions to accommodate all that have purchased it.

OR if it is radically different, all backers will receive an additional “Savage Black” version of Art of War via PDF. Print backers will receive an “at cost” print-on-demand coupon.

I hope I answered your question on that one. If anyone has any others, ask away.

More lessons learned from KS & Relaunch

Lessons Learned

The last two days I have been working through the budget of what can be cut, added and rearranged. I still need funds to guarantee I can pay for an editor or editors. That’s priority number one. I don’t need more art, but it I do want art to accent some areas of the book; mostly in the techniques chapter. I don’t like the map that was commissioned, which is why it wasn’t shown in an update. That needs reworking.

Some art for techniques & new map is a universal simple cost. Savage Worlds needs an editor. 5e needs an editor and a writer to flesh out mechanics for classes and archetypes.

Meanwhile looking at Kickstarter rewards can have a direct influence on how the project makes money to fund future budgets. A kickstarter has rewards that need to be covered and included in your funding goal. A PDF reward has no material cost, but should have a reasonable cost/value associated. Retail value for PDFs should be half or 3/4 the price of your physical reward. Money earned through a PDF reward does go straight to the project.

Physical rewards such as Books & Miniatures, have a physical cost that is directly deducted from the reward and should be listed with a margin above cost, close to shelf sales price. Most kickstarters will mark these rewards at shelf price, so they can count their profit as money to the project. Most books are marked up 4x production cost. So if you mark the book reward 3x production cost, but sale price is 4 or 5 times cost, backers tend to see it as a good discount. This does mean, you need to sell more physical reward pledge levels in this section to make it worth your wild. After you deduct your cost , the “profit” then goes straight to the project.

My initial goal was a cost margin spread across both versions of the book. If we keep half and make the next project focused for strictly on one version of the book, that covers cost and helps with more adventures and additional material resources. In addition, this gives time for the other version to catch up and finish development. Savage Worlds is finished, except for the editor. I think I have my next direction.

Trying something new

I have reworked my stretch goals and compared them to other kickstarters. I have also adjusted pledge levels to be a little more inciting. I want to try a short run campaign like I have seen others do in the past. They are exciting and at half price, it’s all or nothing. The goal will be to raise money for just an editor. It will be a 15-day campaign, and will will launch it on May 29. Art of War for Savage Worlds will have a goal of $1,000.00 or $1,250.00.

48 to the end of Art of War Kickstarter

We have (had) a kickstarter

After a too long of a hiatus, I’m back for another riveting rendition of the things we have been working on at Amora Game.

As many of you may or may not know, I have been publishing material from our Xeno File series here and on the Open Gaming Store under this moniker. My last article was November 2 of last year. What have I been doing with myself? What have you been doing without us?

This Tentacle has been busy working on a little project called Art of War. We are currently in the last 48 hours of our Kickstarter, and I have learned on this project.

  1.  Political Correctness: Very briefly we had someone perform their due diligence and say our project was appropriation. One thing to check during a PC environment is to make sure you do your best not to offend anyone. Having an anime Eastern fantasy setting can bring up such a challenge. While I having taken great pains to make sure nothing of the sort has incurred, I could see where one backer was a little offended saying, this was cultural appropriation. I get it. I do. While I could say it is actually appreciation, admiration and love for the history and countries that I have personally visited, that coming from a middle aged, middle class, white American gringo it sounds like just an excuse. But big companies like Paizo or Wizards or Fantasy Flight Games can introduce an Eastern setting without the internet proclaiming Orientalism. I get it. I can lay before you, saying this project is a love affair. The 1000 of artists and game designers out there are inspired by such rich and deep tradition, are wounded when things are said. All you can do is reassert your love, and continue with the project. Luckily we have been okay.
  2. Backers Cancelling pledges: It’s very interesting the answers you get from former backers if you reach out to them after they cancel their pledge. I never honestly assume a truthful answer is coming, but if I have offended someone, I want to do my best to correct it (see #1). Change your mind, awesome, I get that. Can not afford it, I get that too. I ask them if there is anything I can do to change their mind, or ask what they would like to see and sometimes we’ll get feedback. Then the random sort of “I don’t think your project will get funded, so I am canceling my pledge. I might back it when it has more funding.” If you cancel your pledge, that means that a kickstarter will not get funded. But if the kickstarter isn’t doing well and the time runs out, you don’t get charged. You are not out any money. Maybe it’s a way to save face, so they can say, “I didn’t back that project, I knew it was going to fail”. You see where my statements of not getting charged if it fails comes in.
  3. My complete lack of advertising: This is my fault. I didn’t advertise too much before the Kickstarter. I did a small Facebook and Tweet blast when it launched spontaneously without really thinking about it. I did not use all the tools at my disposal. This is my failing. However, I did do a small circuit around the web with two articles on OGN, Pinnacle put us in the Licensee Spotlight, the podcast Wild Die gave us a shout out, we released both a 5e and a Savage Worlds intro adventure South of the Wall Savage Worlds adventure pdf; South of the Wall 5th Edition adventure pdf; a teaser here Art of War Savage Worlds teaser PDF and we made an old Kemonomimi product free: Kemonomimi Race preview for 5th Edition; and an interview article is here. 

 

We are sitting at over 50%, but will it reach a new height. We’ll see.

Check us out if you want. Back if you love it. Once the KS is over, I’ll have time to start blogging again. 100s of anime to cover.

~TG out.