Post by The Konishoner on Mar 14, 2023 7:44:31 GMT -6
As this Kickstarter comes to an end, I would like to share some thoughts that I've had since the very first one up until now...
Most everyone knows how things came about with the game and how it lead to the first Kickstarter. That first one, I was excited, but knew nothing about what I was really doing. I thought that people will love our story and it'll be a breeze. Little did I know that it's not that easy and no one was really going wild for it. As the campaign went on, it made it and I was grateful for all of those that pledged. I still felt a little empty inside, but proud of what we did. The emptiness was my expectations and hopes that a "ton" of people would see the game and back it. I didn't really expect to keep going much past this, as our goal was to create GLITTER for Paige, that's all I really wanted was to get her what she wanted. One thing to note: I spoke with a "Kickstarter Guru" who told me all of the things I did wrong and that I should cancel the campaign and start over. Get the game in the hands of reviewers and people to critique it and build an audience, then launch. I nearly took his advice and quit, but I didn't, I had to see if what I did would work. I am a proud person and didn't like this guy telling me this. I wasn't some huge game company here.
Fight Pass- With the idea of trading cards floating in my head, a good friend of mine reigned me in and told me that right now wasn't a good time, as our small fan base (maybe 25 people at the time) wasn't big enough for the amount of cards needed to truly make the packs. I shelved the idea. Monthly subscriptions were a thing, so I thought I would try that. I came up with some characters and had them made. With the math on subscribers, I wasn't going to make it break even. I had to come up with an idea, and that's when I allowed people to create their own character. This would help subsidize things and make it through it.
On to Glitter...people were getting our IFC and Free Agents was out. I felt hopeful with Glitter, and even though it was much the same feeling as before, it didn't happen like I'd hoped. We got a few new people from it, and I was satisfied with that. I still had hoped that we'd still hit it big and show the world what a great game they'd been missing out on. At this point we have IFC 1, Free Agents and now Glitter.
I realized that there was no turning back now. We had a forum, people were invested in the set and what we believed in. My creative bug couldn't just end here, we had to keep going. We released IFC 2, our first set outside of a Kickstarter, and it was scary. People dug it and I was happy.
International Incident came later, and we were rolling. People would trickle in here and there, some would stay and some would go. The ideas were there, I had to keep going.
Fast Forward to Champions of Time Kickstarter. I was eager to get back at it and see what was out there. I had this great idea that I'd worked with on with my good friend in the game, Doug. The story was set, and so was the future. I knew with Champions of Time that I wanted the story and big roster to play a part in to Lost Sectors. I had the Sectors plan for some time and needed a build up. With CoT, I went big with things. 54 cards, tuck box, a huge Free Agents 2 set, lunch box and more. I even went and had some reviewers for the game. We got more people to the game and I was happy with how things went.
From this point on, the game was doing good. More people were coming in and playing, staying. The community on here was budding and more ideas kept coming...I really didn't think that I wanted to do another Kickstarter, I didn't have a reason to.
Streaming...With in the last couple of years, people got our games and featured them on their streams. This put a lot more eyes on the game. People were seeing what we were about and they were coming back for more! They would tell me they saw it on this channel or that channel. They found it via search for wrestling or tabletop games. My stubborn self still was numb to the fact that all of these people were doing what I've wanted all along: they were discovering and immersing themselves in OUR game!
GFP: Rumble - I am part of a MUSCLE group on facebook (the little flesh colored guys from the 80's). One guy posted some fan art for a minotaur fighter he drew for something called "Undefeated" Rex Kaiden. I didn't think much about it, then a couple days later I googled it. This is the point that ignited the trading card idea. This guy was an individual who draws his own comics based on this MMA guy transformed into a minotaur. He was more interested in his comic, using the idea of trading cards to bring traffic to that. He just wrapped up a Kickstarter for it, but I was too late. That didn't matter, I was hooked on the idea of trading cards again. I spoke with him, found out that there's only like one guy that can be found to still make wax packs, and he lives in Minnesota. So not only trading cards were in, but wax packs, not foil packs like today.
So I got together one weekend for a visit with one of my best friends in life that I met through games, Kerry. That's where I told him of my idea. That's where I learned about parallels, uncommon, rare and foil and how they work. That's where I heard about Redemption cards and other things.
The bug was back. I had to do this. I've seen another guy do it, I had all of the fun information, now to hatch this plan. I put it out in the Fight Pass that Kickstarter Feb 2023 was coming...that's all people knew.
I had 16 cards drawn up that are in the current line-up. I gave them some stats and decided to give them all one look for now. When would be a good time to do this? Aha! Black Friday we always try to release some stuff for the holidays. We would do a bundle where people would get sets, and also a couple of wax packs to rekindle that excitement that we had as kids. The pack sealing didn't work the best as we all know, but I learned from that. People were digging it. They told me how awesome it was to get them and open them. They said how excited they were for the Kickstarter. The hype was building...new people were finding us and tell me how they're excited too. I knew not to get too excited yet...it didn't want to let myself down.
Here we are today...the Kickstarter launched, we funded in an hour. I wasn't expecting that. I was worried about the $3,000 itself. The day went on, more people kept backing and adding on the goodies. There were 3 stretch goals up to $5,000 and 18 more cards. We hit that in ONE DAY! The knot was gone, now it was a fever pitch to keep stretch goals for you guys, as we kept busting through them. We met everyone of them and I couldn't have been more proud. That empty feeling from the other campaigns? It was gone. Seeing all of these people that told me they were excited for what we had, they showed up. New people showed up and made it happen. Finally I felt like I'd made it. Not from the money, that was never my thing, it was the pride and passion that had. I was thankful for the regulars that made it happen each time, but what was magic was there's so many new people that took the chance and will now get to see what a wonderful game we have. That right there has been my goal all along. We created something, we kept it going...and now it keeps going. There were people that didn't think we'd evolve. There were others that didn't think we'd make it. There's you still here reading this. You may have joined last week, you may have been here from the beginning. What matters is that you're here.
I say it all the time, and I mean it each and every damn time when I say, thank you. THANK YOU! Everyone (new and seasoned) that took that chance from IFC 1 Kickstarter to GLITTER and CoT...to Fight Pass and all the other things, thank you. I am a very humble person, and remain that way with all of this. You can bet that all of what we raised will go back in to the game. I don't know if it'll be a Kickstarter, but once the smoke clears and the dust settles and if you want it, we will do a Series 2. This may be the future of the game, but only a part. We are still doing sets, those won't go away.
Sorry if I took up your lunch break or made you go to sleep early with this, but I have had a lot to say for a long time and needed to share this.
Thank you for reading. Have a great rest of your week. We made it. Save your wrappers. We have arrived!
-The Konishoner
Most everyone knows how things came about with the game and how it lead to the first Kickstarter. That first one, I was excited, but knew nothing about what I was really doing. I thought that people will love our story and it'll be a breeze. Little did I know that it's not that easy and no one was really going wild for it. As the campaign went on, it made it and I was grateful for all of those that pledged. I still felt a little empty inside, but proud of what we did. The emptiness was my expectations and hopes that a "ton" of people would see the game and back it. I didn't really expect to keep going much past this, as our goal was to create GLITTER for Paige, that's all I really wanted was to get her what she wanted. One thing to note: I spoke with a "Kickstarter Guru" who told me all of the things I did wrong and that I should cancel the campaign and start over. Get the game in the hands of reviewers and people to critique it and build an audience, then launch. I nearly took his advice and quit, but I didn't, I had to see if what I did would work. I am a proud person and didn't like this guy telling me this. I wasn't some huge game company here.
Fight Pass- With the idea of trading cards floating in my head, a good friend of mine reigned me in and told me that right now wasn't a good time, as our small fan base (maybe 25 people at the time) wasn't big enough for the amount of cards needed to truly make the packs. I shelved the idea. Monthly subscriptions were a thing, so I thought I would try that. I came up with some characters and had them made. With the math on subscribers, I wasn't going to make it break even. I had to come up with an idea, and that's when I allowed people to create their own character. This would help subsidize things and make it through it.
On to Glitter...people were getting our IFC and Free Agents was out. I felt hopeful with Glitter, and even though it was much the same feeling as before, it didn't happen like I'd hoped. We got a few new people from it, and I was satisfied with that. I still had hoped that we'd still hit it big and show the world what a great game they'd been missing out on. At this point we have IFC 1, Free Agents and now Glitter.
I realized that there was no turning back now. We had a forum, people were invested in the set and what we believed in. My creative bug couldn't just end here, we had to keep going. We released IFC 2, our first set outside of a Kickstarter, and it was scary. People dug it and I was happy.
International Incident came later, and we were rolling. People would trickle in here and there, some would stay and some would go. The ideas were there, I had to keep going.
Fast Forward to Champions of Time Kickstarter. I was eager to get back at it and see what was out there. I had this great idea that I'd worked with on with my good friend in the game, Doug. The story was set, and so was the future. I knew with Champions of Time that I wanted the story and big roster to play a part in to Lost Sectors. I had the Sectors plan for some time and needed a build up. With CoT, I went big with things. 54 cards, tuck box, a huge Free Agents 2 set, lunch box and more. I even went and had some reviewers for the game. We got more people to the game and I was happy with how things went.
From this point on, the game was doing good. More people were coming in and playing, staying. The community on here was budding and more ideas kept coming...I really didn't think that I wanted to do another Kickstarter, I didn't have a reason to.
Streaming...With in the last couple of years, people got our games and featured them on their streams. This put a lot more eyes on the game. People were seeing what we were about and they were coming back for more! They would tell me they saw it on this channel or that channel. They found it via search for wrestling or tabletop games. My stubborn self still was numb to the fact that all of these people were doing what I've wanted all along: they were discovering and immersing themselves in OUR game!
GFP: Rumble - I am part of a MUSCLE group on facebook (the little flesh colored guys from the 80's). One guy posted some fan art for a minotaur fighter he drew for something called "Undefeated" Rex Kaiden. I didn't think much about it, then a couple days later I googled it. This is the point that ignited the trading card idea. This guy was an individual who draws his own comics based on this MMA guy transformed into a minotaur. He was more interested in his comic, using the idea of trading cards to bring traffic to that. He just wrapped up a Kickstarter for it, but I was too late. That didn't matter, I was hooked on the idea of trading cards again. I spoke with him, found out that there's only like one guy that can be found to still make wax packs, and he lives in Minnesota. So not only trading cards were in, but wax packs, not foil packs like today.
So I got together one weekend for a visit with one of my best friends in life that I met through games, Kerry. That's where I told him of my idea. That's where I learned about parallels, uncommon, rare and foil and how they work. That's where I heard about Redemption cards and other things.
The bug was back. I had to do this. I've seen another guy do it, I had all of the fun information, now to hatch this plan. I put it out in the Fight Pass that Kickstarter Feb 2023 was coming...that's all people knew.
I had 16 cards drawn up that are in the current line-up. I gave them some stats and decided to give them all one look for now. When would be a good time to do this? Aha! Black Friday we always try to release some stuff for the holidays. We would do a bundle where people would get sets, and also a couple of wax packs to rekindle that excitement that we had as kids. The pack sealing didn't work the best as we all know, but I learned from that. People were digging it. They told me how awesome it was to get them and open them. They said how excited they were for the Kickstarter. The hype was building...new people were finding us and tell me how they're excited too. I knew not to get too excited yet...it didn't want to let myself down.
Here we are today...the Kickstarter launched, we funded in an hour. I wasn't expecting that. I was worried about the $3,000 itself. The day went on, more people kept backing and adding on the goodies. There were 3 stretch goals up to $5,000 and 18 more cards. We hit that in ONE DAY! The knot was gone, now it was a fever pitch to keep stretch goals for you guys, as we kept busting through them. We met everyone of them and I couldn't have been more proud. That empty feeling from the other campaigns? It was gone. Seeing all of these people that told me they were excited for what we had, they showed up. New people showed up and made it happen. Finally I felt like I'd made it. Not from the money, that was never my thing, it was the pride and passion that had. I was thankful for the regulars that made it happen each time, but what was magic was there's so many new people that took the chance and will now get to see what a wonderful game we have. That right there has been my goal all along. We created something, we kept it going...and now it keeps going. There were people that didn't think we'd evolve. There were others that didn't think we'd make it. There's you still here reading this. You may have joined last week, you may have been here from the beginning. What matters is that you're here.
I say it all the time, and I mean it each and every damn time when I say, thank you. THANK YOU! Everyone (new and seasoned) that took that chance from IFC 1 Kickstarter to GLITTER and CoT...to Fight Pass and all the other things, thank you. I am a very humble person, and remain that way with all of this. You can bet that all of what we raised will go back in to the game. I don't know if it'll be a Kickstarter, but once the smoke clears and the dust settles and if you want it, we will do a Series 2. This may be the future of the game, but only a part. We are still doing sets, those won't go away.
Sorry if I took up your lunch break or made you go to sleep early with this, but I have had a lot to say for a long time and needed to share this.
Thank you for reading. Have a great rest of your week. We made it. Save your wrappers. We have arrived!
-The Konishoner