Appetizer For The Main Campaign
“We are launching a Mystery Puzzletale Box on Kickstarter in March. But before that, we will launch the Prequel as an Online Game Experience on Kickstarter too. Yes, that’s two Kickstarter campaigns!“
I posted the above text and people got intrigued, so I thought I would expand more on that. We’re running 2 Kickstarters campaigns back to back, the first one for 1$ funding goal with just a 1$ pledge.
How it all started?
Few months back, I asked people’s feedback about launching a 3 months long Prequel leading to our Kickstarter campaign with a physical product — a Prequel taking the form of an interactive online investigation.
“Come on man, it’s too long”. I was told. “Who’s going to stay engaged for that long?” They’re right. And honestly, if I was a player, I myself wouldn’t stay engaged that long.
And why 3 months?
I heard rumors, the good ones though. People say -rightly so- you should engage with your audience at least 3 months before the kickstarter, but a year is better. And I thought I can do that, I can make a story that last 3 months and slowly immerses players in the narrative.
What’s that Prequel anyway, you think you are Georges Lucas?
No, no. I’m just a small potato who likes to make my stories as Tangible as possible. Being based on true events, people and places, and to be faithful to the story which says that it’s an old wooden box belonging to a secret society — I thought, wouldn’t it make sense to let players know how we came to possess this box, and show them that this box didn’t just came out of thin air.
Nice touch. But come on man, just tell us what is this Prequel already
All right, here is the Prequel theme:
“The only remaining box containing the secret of the World Travelers Society was last sighted in 1939. A clue about its location resurfaced recently in Shanghai.”
So we need to find that box, right, otherwise no Kickstarter with a box!?
The Prequel will take you on a journey — gathering evidence and deciphering clues that will ultimately help us find the box! We’ll be investigating and solving puzzles together — I’ll be your eyes on the ground (through videos) while roaming the streets of Shanghai searching for the box.
Sounds good but what’s in it for the backers/players?
- The Prequel will set the mood and slowly immerse players in the narrative.
- When they’ll finally get the box in their hands, it will be much more meaningful to them.
- For just 1$, they got to test an entire game (before committing to buy the box) and feel what kind of game’s narrative they will get with the box.
- The final product will be moulded out of their feedback.
Are you going to tell us sometime soon why 2 kickstarters?
Ok, ok. Here it is. As we know the first 48 hours of a Kickstarter campaign are crucial, and I am coming with too little followers. So, I decided to put all my efforts and run the Prequel one month before the campaign (instead of 3 months), but then I thought why not run the Prequel as a Kickstarter campaign itself, a full online game experience with 1$ funding goal and 1$ pledge. Then a few weeks after that, I will run a Kickstarter campaign around the box, a physical product.
The pros:
- I have a concrete project to share.
- I will benefit from Kickstarter internal traffic.
- I will learn the ropes of Kickstarter as it is our first campaign.
- I will get invaluable advice from people.
- I will make connections.
The con:
- It might not give me enough followers, and would have to postpone the 2nd kickstarter with the box. I’ll be a little sad, shed one or two tears, go hug my dog, then back at work continue making an even better campaign with some new followers. Yeahhh…
Summary, please!
We’re running a first Kickstarter with 1$ funding goal, where for 1$ people can play (during the length of the campaign) a complete online game that will last about 3 weeks and which will include about 9 chapters and 6 puzzles. It won’t be about raising funds but to get attention to our next Kickstarter which will run like a normal campaign with a physical product.
Discover this project on Kickstarter
Click on the image below to jump to our upcoming Kickstarter campaign and
click “Notify me on launch”, well to get notified when we launch 😋 .
