Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Kickstarter Live] [Demo]

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Roxie
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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#16 Post by Roxie »

Oh okay, well I think the game is underpriced if 20+ hours is the way to go. I think the minimum should be $20 in this case if we want to match up with other VNs and AGs with similar gameplay length.

And yes, you can do self promo in the Adventure Gamers forums. You can also do updates to maintain the thread there. I know STASIS also posted updates on there so it raised a lot of initial hype due to the quality level, prior to their own KS (which was also a big hit in itself).
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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#17 Post by JlmCx »

Cirrocumulus-Cloud wrote:-So far, are you happy with the graphics? Yes/No? Why?

Very happy. I love how smooth the graphics look. The heavy contrast in colours for shading makes the characters 'pop' and I like that. Makes you look at the sprites first and the backgrounds second - which, btw, are just as lovely as the characters themselves.

-If we ever release a Kickstarter, you think you would support it? Why?

I would. I cannot say how much because I don't actually have a job for the rest of this year (I need to take care of my mother, who will undergo surgery soon) but I would definitely spread the word and advertise this project as best as I could.


-Do you think somewhere between 10-15 dollars is an honest price? Why?


If we base the price on the length, the voice acting, the beautiful art as well as the dedication of your team, then I can certainly see 10-15 bucks working out. I'm a fan of week one sales and I think that strategy could lure in a lot of potential customers, too. ("Buy this week and save 30% of the price!" or something similar.)


-The game is a Visual Novel, however we're implementing puzzles zones (just like VLR/999) and a 1v1 battle system (complementary to the story). How does this make you feel?


As an avid lover of all RPGs (be it JRPG or western RPG) I can certainly say that I LOVE this idea. Battle systems can be a lot of fun and provide a breathe of fresh air after a long session of reading and making choices and puzzles, if implemented well, can be intriguing too. Puzzles are definitely one of the more dividing features of text based games, though. You can do a lot wrong with them by not implementing enough clues, or it might make the player feel dumb because you give half of the solution away. Maybe, if it isn't too difficult to implement, you could try to offer the player help for puzzles and the ability to disable them?

-There is high violence, nudes, murder. Would you still like to play it?

Yup. My preferred manga genre is thriller/psychological horror, so I'm fine with violence and all that stuff. It is actually rather funny, considering that I am a tiny, fragile girl who eats snacks during gorey or scary scenes while most of my older friends jump in their seats.

-As we before, we're doing our best to bring full interactive experience. This mean, most of the object will have some form of interactivity. Do you think this will affect the way you play/read Visual Novels?

Of course! It makes me think of Another Code and I LOVED that game. Interacting with stuff to establish lore, give characters personality etc. is very interesting in my opinion. And those that do not like it can simply ignore most of it.

I wish you guys a lot of luck and will definitely follow this project! =D
Thank you so much for taking the time answering our questions! We appreciate, really!
Roxie wrote:Oh okay, well I think the game is underpriced if 20+ hours is the way to go. I think the minimum should be $20 in this case if we want to match up with other VNs and AGs with similar gameplay length.

And yes, you can do self promo in the Adventure Gamers forums. You can also do updates to maintain the thread there. I know STASIS also posted updates on there so it raised a lot of initial hype due to the quality level, prior to their own KS (which was also a big hit in itself).
Thank you! Just made a thread there.

As for the price, I don't know where to put it yet. 15 the least, 20 the most. I know how hard and expensive can get buying games, and we want everyone to enjoy our game.

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It was supposed to be a gif and it took forever to render, but I dunno what happened...

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#18 Post by Kinmoku »

This looks awesome! I love the art style and attention to detail :) Looking forward to seeing more.

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#19 Post by JlmCx »

Kinmoku wrote:This looks awesome! I love the art style and attention to detail :) Looking forward to seeing more.
Thank you!

Well guys, we are almost ready to announce our Kickstarter. We are going to ask for an -honest- amount of money, and nothing out of this world. We want to make it simple and trustful.
A few question tho:

What would you like to see as rewards?

-We're going to offer Physical Copies[Game & Soundtrack] as rewards. But we need more suggestions!

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#20 Post by Cirrocumulus-Cloud »

JlmCx wrote: Well guys, we are almost ready to announce our Kickstarter. We are going to ask for an -honest- amount of money, and nothing out of this world. We want to make it simple and trustful.
A few question tho:

What would you like to see as rewards?

-We're going to offer Physical Copies[Game & Soundtrack] as rewards. But we need more suggestions!
Artbooks (digital or physical) are always great - they provide a neat little insight into the beauty of the game set apart from the product itself, so that you can always look at the art if you feel the urge. Drawing processes can be put in there as well - I always find myself studying those.

Stickers/Keychains seem very popular with anime fans in general. Owning merchandise, even if it is only a sticker or a simple (keychain) is always wonderful. Depending on what type of stickers/keychains you choose these can be produced for a decent price that isn't too overwhelming.

Being mentioned in the credits makes a backer feel very special and is a really easy way to give something back to the people who donate!

Extra stories are a great way to thank the really big backers - if you give them the freedom to shape their own tiny side story, then that makes them feel really special. It is also quite easy (but time consuming) to implement, as you do not require physical goods for those high end tiers.

That's everything that I can think of at the moment. I wish you good luck! =)

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#21 Post by HiddenCreature »

1) People LOVE early access to demos and final copies, so consider that.

2) An art book of some kind that has concept designs.

3) Some form of additional dlc. Have to use your imagination on this one.

4) Merchandise like shirts, mouse pads, coffee mugs, phone cases, etc.

5) A chance to design something in the game, like a custom character.

6) Insider access to the game's development.

7) Hand written thank-you notes (If you have a tablet, you can make this digital instead to save on shipping)

8 ) Customized wallpapers

That's what I typically find in other kickstarters for games. Here's some pro tips to help you out from a guy that's been there. It will save you on having to read through more articles than necessary.

1) Have a $1 contribution option, and always make the reward a thank you. Almost everyone uses this.

2) Keep the number of rewards under ten, tops.

3) Only the highest contributions should receive physical merchandise. Trust me, shipping is not cheap, not even including taxes, which gets more complicated if you have to ship to other countries.

4) Twitter updates at least every two weeks. If you take longer than that, people will start suspecting you're falling behind on development.

5) Always account for taxes, or they'll rob you blind.

6) MOST IMPORTANT:Get as much exposure as possible before the kickstarter. If people don't know your game exists, they can't fund it. And you'd be surprised how few people casually browse kickstarter looking for something to fund. I once made the front page on indiegogo's game's category, and still got little attention, so that tells you something.

6b) Do NOT use forums as one of your main methods of advertisement. This is coming from experience, you just won't gain that much traffic. You can still use them, but don't expect to get that much attention from them.

7) Have a friend or family member make the first contribution, no matter how small. People are very self-conscious about being the first to contribute, so you need to take that stress off them. I think it's really silly, but it works.

Lastly, here's the truth no other article told me about: most contributors don't care how good your idea is. I repeat: most contributors do not care how great your idea is. I've seen great ideas that weren't close to funded. I've also seen dumb ideas (yeah, dumb, but I won't give names) that got massive funding. The key difference is how many people actually knew about the game before the kickstarter.

If you don't have a fan base before launching the kickstarter, you have to wait until you do.

That's pretty much everything summarized you'd need to know about a successful kickstarter. I met my goal with way less content and exposure compared to your project, and I'll admit, I got lucky. I know our idea was great, but I didn't get as much exposure as I ideally wanted.

I really like your game, and don't want to see it fail like sooo many other kickstarters. Your team has way more of an ideal start than mine did when making a campaign, so if you follow my pro tips, I'm confident you'll do just fine.

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#22 Post by JlmCx »

Thanks to both of you!

@Cirrocumulus-Cloud Thanks for your inputs! Never thought about Keychains/Stickers. Should we use original arts or "chibi" forms? I might just do both, haha.
As for being mentioned in the credit, yes! We have that for 1 and 5 pledges!

We want to included a extra story mode if we reach one of our stretch goal. I might just add a new one for those who do big pledge.


---------------------------------------
@HiddenCreature Thank you so much for all the suggestions!
We have been covered by a lot of Wii-U/Nintendo websites before. Some of them are going to help us to promote the Kickstarter, so I guess we have that little advantage for now.

I want to make the demo as good as possible so people can see the quality of the game and they don't think they're being rip-off. So I might just delay two/three weeks to add more content to the demo. I have taken notes for everything. Thanks for helping us to make a great Kickstarter!

Does this sound good enough? (Designs are not final)
Image
Image

We're thinking to make stretch goals for PSVita/Mobiles.

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#23 Post by HiddenCreature »

You're very welcome :) Always glad to help out great ideas like this game.

You have the right idea on polishing the demo more before you release it. My team is currently doing the same. While we could technically release a demo now, we're waiting until we have more, and better content to show.

Here's a few of my suggestions on your designs so far.

1) Instead of the digital game document, consider a "behind the scenes" type of video. Interviews with the team, and screen captures of you all working on the game. It lets people see all the work that went into the final game.

2) If you can afford it, only go with the physical merchandise, rather than having it both physical and digital. Consider titling them "Collector's Edition" as well, people really like that. For the soundtrack, if you have any of these, then definitely mention it contains "unreleased tracks." People really like that, too.

Have a thank you page dedicated to them in the artbook, or some other form of physical merchandise. It's more personal, and adds that extra incentive.

3) The other ideas like exclusive dvd cover, and designing your own npc sound great.

4) Lastly, always offer early access to something. People can't wait for games to be released, and they love knowing they'll get access to something before anyone else.

4B) You can try offering a demo to YouTubers who might agree to play your game. It offers a free form of marketing to better get the word out. While some people suggest you send your game to reviewers, that can take up to two months because of all their submissions. You should still try, just don't expect quick responses.

At least with YouTubers, you'll get an answer within a week, and likely a video by the next week. Don't forget that website called Twitch, as well. There's always a few members who could use a new game to cover.

Hope this helps you. Looking forward to your progress.

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#24 Post by occamsphaser »

this looks amazing!!! tell whoever does the background they're phenomenal, i think i'm in love. i think 10-15 usd is more than fair as a price for this as it looks solid all around.

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#25 Post by JlmCx »

Thanks for the kind words!
I'll make sure the artists receive your message, haha.

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#26 Post by JlmCx »

Here are two animations, one completed and one being in the works:

(Click to see the animation)
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Image

What are your thoughts ?

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#27 Post by Cirrocumulus-Cloud »

The animations look really good - I particularly like the perspective of the second one. The tiny wobble of the hair is really cute, too, gives it a more dynamic feel. The only thing that I find a little weird is the first, finished animation - namely the head. It looks a little too long, perhaps. More egg-like than it should be. Maybe reducing the lenght of the chin area might help with that.

Other than that, though, the animation looks really good. I especially like the little creases and folds of clothing 'popping' out. It makes the little action a lot more dynamic and realistic. Good job, you guys are amazing! =)

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#28 Post by JlmCx »

A demo will be up pretty soon!
We're giving the final touches and make sure everything works properly!

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#29 Post by HiddenCreature »

Looking forward to it!

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Re: Nostalgia: Two Worlds | One Soul [Drama/Suspense]

#30 Post by Sayashiro »

Everything looks incredible so far. I also really like the plot~ I should be following your progress for this game. =)
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