Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

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NocturneLight
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Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#1 Post by NocturneLight »

For those unaware, I'm working on a game called "Unsound: Minds" that I intend to get funded through Kickstarter if all goes well. To be brief, it's a dark yuri VN that combines Christianity and the Cthulhu Mythos.

I'm fully aware that if I just make the Kickstarter as soon as I finish the demo, the Kickstarter is probably going to miserably fail because no one even knew about my game.

So I've been thinking about ways I could get the word out about my game.

And then, an idea came to me that I THINK could be good.


If you've heard of John Titor and have heard of Ben Drowned, I'm going to take a page out of both of those books.

I'd post a series of Youtube videos using imagery and text (or voice acting if I ever found someone willing) about a person from the future trying to convince the viewer that every single idea that we've ever thought of becomes reality in another universe the moment we thought of it. This person from the future would tell us that the God of Christian Lore came into existence through this same way. Even later on, the person from the future would tell us the same is true for the Cthulhu Mythos. Some number of videos in, this person from the future would explain why he or she is revealing all of this to us people of the past. This would reveal that every horrific event in history that has occurred after Lovecraft was born has been because of all of the Cosmic Horrors Lovecraft thought up years ago. Specifically, that they're trying to invade our dimension but are being held back right now by God in our present day.

In each video, I'm thinking about hiding cryptic messages that, if solved, would give an answer to stopping a catastrophic event in the future or reveal some lore about the world in the future.

In the final video, the person from the future will reveal that he or she made a Visual Novel for us people of the past that will give us a glimpse of the future if we don't get off the path to destruction. This final video would link to the finished demo of "Unsound: Minds".

From there, the demo would contain cryptic messages as well, that when solved, would reveal the date the Kickstarter goes live.

So dear reader, does this idea sound interesting or should I go back to the drawing board?
When I asked my brother, he thought this wasn't interesting in the slightest, but what are your opinions?
Furthermore, if you thought my idea was interesting, I was originally thinking about referencing Trump and Hillary in the "every horrific event in history" part, but my brother thought that getting political would kill interest in "Unsound: Minds". Do you agree?
The Old Guard is at His Limit. The time is near to usher in the New Guard.

The Great Horror is soon to be free.

Clarevine is the key.


"Unsound Minds: The Clarevine Epoch" is a yuri visual novel that shatters english visual novel norms and aims to blend Christianity and the Cthulhu Mythos to tell a deep and dark story that you'll enjoy. You can follow the Kickstarter here.

Stay sound and persist through the chaos,
NocturneLight

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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#2 Post by Cindigo »

I think it is a very interesting idea, but in my opinion it doesn't solves Your problem - getting Your game to be known. It simply moves the focus to getting The Videos popular. So how do You plan on doing that then?
How do You plan on forcing people to notice Your cryptic messages? Why would they try to solve them?
I think You should stay away from politics unless You want to go about it in a funny, satirical way, but that would then not match with the atmosphere of Your game. If You need to go in that direction just use Illuminati and One World Order. That wouldn’t offend anyone.
that every single idea that we've ever thought of becomes reality in another universe the moment we thought of it
Why in another? It becomes the reality in this universe. It is called the law of attraction. That's kind of a common sense nowadays.
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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#3 Post by NocturneLight »

Cindigo wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2017 7:20 pm I think it is a very interesting idea, but in my opinion it doesn't solves Your problem - getting Your game to be known. It simply moves the focus to getting The Videos popular. So how do You plan on doing that then?
How do You plan on forcing people to notice Your cryptic messages? Why would they try to solve them?
I think You should stay away from politics unless You want to go about it in a funny, satirical way, but that would then not match with the atmosphere of Your game. If You need to go in that direction just use Illuminati and One World Order. That wouldn’t offend anyone.
that every single idea that we've ever thought of becomes reality in another universe the moment we thought of it
Why in another? It becomes the reality in this universe. It is called the law of attraction. That's kind of a common sense nowadays.

My initial thought is to link the video to r/weirdtube, r/lovecraft and other relevant conspiracy-ish/weird-ish sites and nudge them into taking the bait.

For your questions of how I would make them notice my cryptic messages and why they would solve them, I would make the videos in such a way that something doesn't seem right. Like something seems off about the audio or the screen got weird for a second or the title of the video isn't english but looks like there's some meaning there. Something to tip them off that something's not right here. For the curious, I would think that would make them try to look into it.

Why they would try to solve it is simple. To satiate one's own curiosity. I believe everyone, to an extent, is attracted to the unknown. That's why we have people that believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Look at Doki Doki Literature Club. Once one person thought something was up, they tried to look into it and found that files were being made as the game goes on. Then 2 people started looking into it. Then 3, and so on. Eventually, everyone uncovered and solved all these puzzles hidden in the character files.

Of course, I could also go the TribeTwelve route. I could hide messages in the video that someone with an observant eye could notice and then watch them speculate with others what it all could mean. Once they figure out what I wanted them to find, I could then give the next clue through a new video or something along those lines.


As for your question of why in another universe. No particular reason. I've been hopping between "in another universe" and "in another dimension" for a while now. Law of Attraction could actually work as another way of explaining how the Cosmic Horrors were brought into existence.
The Old Guard is at His Limit. The time is near to usher in the New Guard.

The Great Horror is soon to be free.

Clarevine is the key.


"Unsound Minds: The Clarevine Epoch" is a yuri visual novel that shatters english visual novel norms and aims to blend Christianity and the Cthulhu Mythos to tell a deep and dark story that you'll enjoy. You can follow the Kickstarter here.

Stay sound and persist through the chaos,
NocturneLight

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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#4 Post by FluffyCakeFactory »

Do you know about Petscop? It's kinda a let's play series by a guy named Paul. There is an uncanny feeling about it... People are trying to make sense of it, there even is a subreddit dedicated to it.
Those videos also came from nowhere and are decently popular now. So your idea can work if it is well executed I guess. But you have to put a lot of thought in it.

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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#5 Post by NocturneLight »

FluffyCakeFactory wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2017 9:20 pm Do you know about Petscop? It's kinda a let's play series by a guy named Paul. There is an uncanny feeling about it... People are trying to make sense of it, there even is a subreddit dedicated to it.
Those videos also came from nowhere and are decently popular now. So your idea can work if it is well executed I guess. But you have to put a lot of thought in it.
I'm very aware of Petscop. I was going to mention it in my original post, but the name escaped me.

Putting a lot of thought into it is a given. I have no intention of letting anything look or feel mediocre.
The Old Guard is at His Limit. The time is near to usher in the New Guard.

The Great Horror is soon to be free.

Clarevine is the key.


"Unsound Minds: The Clarevine Epoch" is a yuri visual novel that shatters english visual novel norms and aims to blend Christianity and the Cthulhu Mythos to tell a deep and dark story that you'll enjoy. You can follow the Kickstarter here.

Stay sound and persist through the chaos,
NocturneLight

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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#6 Post by TellerFarsight »

Your original idea reminds me of the story of Ask A Ninja, which started out as this same kind of viral marketing plan and took on a life of its own.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ask_a_Ninja
Current Project: Vora
Also Check Out: Devil Survivor [Reverse-Engineered]

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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#7 Post by Cindigo »

I see. You have thought it out well.

If You will succeed at making Your bait good (a pink elephant taking up half the screen isn’t going to work) this could actually work out. Just stay on the safe side – those people can be dangerous to say the least.

When making the demo You should think about not alienating people who haven’t seen Your videos and don’t know their contents, but I’m sure You already figured that out on your own :D
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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#8 Post by NocturneLight »

Cindigo wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2017 9:17 am I see. You have thought it out well.

If You will succeed at making Your bait good (a pink elephant taking up half the screen isn’t going to work) this could actually work out. Just stay on the safe side – those people can be dangerous to say the least.

When making the demo You should think about not alienating people who haven’t seen Your videos and don’t know their contents, but I’m sure You already figured that out on your own :D
I don't think anyone but the most crazy of people would think a pink elephant taking up half the screen would work. But, if someone were crazy enough to think that would work, they may be able to pull it off for all we know.

When you say dangerous, are you saying that because the people on the Petscop Reddit went and spammed an unrelated website?
The Old Guard is at His Limit. The time is near to usher in the New Guard.

The Great Horror is soon to be free.

Clarevine is the key.


"Unsound Minds: The Clarevine Epoch" is a yuri visual novel that shatters english visual novel norms and aims to blend Christianity and the Cthulhu Mythos to tell a deep and dark story that you'll enjoy. You can follow the Kickstarter here.

Stay sound and persist through the chaos,
NocturneLight

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Cindigo
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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#9 Post by Cindigo »

I meant getting hacked or stalked, or attacked by some crazy person :D But Your version is a bit more realistic. Things sometimes happen.
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NocturneLight
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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#10 Post by NocturneLight »

Cindigo wrote: Sat Dec 09, 2017 3:28 pm I meant getting hacked or stalked, or attacked by some crazy person :D But Your version is a bit more realistic. Things sometimes happen.
I see. Have there even been instances of these sorts of things going horribly wrong?



On another note, I've gotten into an argument with my brother about whether I should be marketing "Unsound: Minds" to everyone or to only a specific demographic.

I'm on the side of marketing to specific demographics.
My brother thinks I should be marketing to everyone.

Even if I thought it were possible to market to everyone, how would I even do that?
The Old Guard is at His Limit. The time is near to usher in the New Guard.

The Great Horror is soon to be free.

Clarevine is the key.


"Unsound Minds: The Clarevine Epoch" is a yuri visual novel that shatters english visual novel norms and aims to blend Christianity and the Cthulhu Mythos to tell a deep and dark story that you'll enjoy. You can follow the Kickstarter here.

Stay sound and persist through the chaos,
NocturneLight

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Cindigo
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Re: Need some opinions on an idea for catching people's interest in my VN.

#11 Post by Cindigo »

I see. Have there even been instances of these sorts of things going horribly wrong?
No, I haven't heard about something going really terribly wrong :D

To answer to your question I would say that You need to think about what is Your player, how does he “look”, what are Your goals, what You want to do with Your game and what is Your personal preference and the answer will come to You.

I, for example, am focusing on a very very small and specific initial player base which I have been thoroughly exploring. I’m making a game which is somewhat tailored to my own tastes (never do that commercially, it is going to be a disaster) and my main goal is making the product I want and building a small, friendly community around it. (Should be read – have wasted 1.5 years of my life and will waste at least one more :D)

I can only generalize about Your case.

You can make a game that would appeal to wider audiences, but that will require from You either being extremely genial (having that super cool feature that everyone loves and can’t get anywhere else) or making the game softer in flavor, simpler and more accessible. Indies do the first, big publishers normally do the second, the safe one.

The other option is making a game which requires player having certain preferences, having certain knowledge and being well versed in the topic so that he can feel at home with Your game. That will often confuse and offset anyone else.

Doing both ends in a disaster with no one really being satisfied with the game. Doing either poorly will end the same :D

You should appeal to an audience as wide as it is possible for You, but Your focus should always be on YOUR PLAYER. I don’t think You have a budget of a few millions for marketing :D

I personally would go for collaborations with some more or less popular YouTubers and Twitch streamers. That’s how I get to know most of the games I play and that’s how I’m going to popularize my own game.
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