Kickstarter is hard (delaying the launch) 

If you used your youtube and your brand to market MB then I believe you targeted the wrong demographic. We follow you because of video games and interest in your style and presentation. I'm confident most of us are not avid card players. Hit the facebook and party themed groups. Clubs and persons who purchase board games and party games is your target. Us video gamers are waiting for your BBT :)

I think part of your problem Tim is your primary marketing platform is computer game developers not card game players. I know you've posted it on some board game forums but if you remember Philophobia, most of your purchases were from gamedevs and people who follow this channel, I don't think that audience is satisfactory enough for a card game. You're probably going to have to rethink your marketing strategy, maybe find some card game websites that can preview it or something, i dunno, but your safe space for marketing is not the place. I do wish you luck with your kickstarter though!

I was one of the 130 that clicked notify. I reached out to some of my friends. I'm sorry I couldn't make a bigger impact. But to be fully transparent with you, dev to dev, people judge things at face value, man. I've learned this from my own failed Kickstarter. People who don't know you or your art style, aren't biting. I wish you well and hope you can get this campaign up and running!

To be honest Tim, Unlike Philophobia, murder bunnies doesn't pull me in because I don't know much of it and don't have people to play with really. Especially during Covid not much people are gathering around and playing a card/board game. If murder bunnies came with an online version I'd totally be interested in supporting and buying the game.

Show actual gameplay. You only have 3 videos on it, and only one of them shows gameplay. If I hadn't caught part of the playtest stream I wouldn't have cared enough to get notified on kickstarter. And most people aren't gonna re-watch a 3 hour stream about a game they don't know if they care about. We need a 1-5 minute video showing gameplay of how cool the game is.

I wish you luck on this Tim. You motivated me to start my gamedev career. Right now I have a successful steam launch and gained more than 20k$ in its first 9 months. Some of that success was achieved by listening to your advice on RU-vid. If anyone in the world can do this - it’s you, man. I’ll be waiting for more info on the game. Also - will it be available for shipping in Russia?

Some random ideas for posting Murder Bunnies on socials: 1 high production vid of a group of friends playing the game that captures the kind of fun the group is having and showing the emotions the game is intended to elicit (vid can be recycled and chopped up for multiple posts), close up picture of the physical card held in your hand with finger pointing at a feature then short text explaining in a comedic way that feature (repeat this format for each card for many posts), candid and comedic tiktok-like vid of someone making a play on the opponent (needs to be understood by anyone who never seen the game b4).

Sorry for the delay but low key hyped I can back when it goes live on my birthday!

Love your videos! They are always so real and informative. Thank you for telling it as it is. You don't over glorify it to be better than it is, but you also acknowledge how good it can be. It's nice to know I'm not alone 😅

Physical card games in general are very hard to sell, much harder than video games IMO. We launched one in 2015 : indiegogo.com/projects/women-in-science-card-game#/ (+ a separate campaign in French) Lost or stolen packages, shipping costs were terrible, very high expectations from players (look at reviews of games you like on boardgamegeek you might be surprised), market is saturated, printing costs, very low margins, most stores don't care about indie games, translating means you have to do a print run and store the inventory which costs money, etc. Hopefully your experience will be better, but maybe you should consider launching a videogame version first ? (not Tabletop Simulator, but a standalone game that you can promote. Could be free, at least during the testing phase, to reach as many people as possible ?) It could help with playtesting too, because the frustrating thing with physical games is that once it's printed, you can't change anything.

Appreciate the honesty here. I couldn't keep up the posting on socials very long at the rate I wanted. Started dreading the post itself and making the content. I know I need to get back into it and keep posting. Still trying to figure out the right balance and how to efficiently "switch hats".

To be honest, I never click the notify my on launch button, but I still back devs I like, so I would back your kickstarter when it launches probably like many other people that don't click on the follow button.

Hi Tim I have clicked the notify me on launch button in Kickstarter,, I wish you the best, will be eager to see how you get on with it. Possibly the best video you have ever made in terms of connecting with someone like me in your audience. Touching video, thank you.

Tim - always love the transparency, keep making these type of videos! Your experience and insight always appreciated by other indie devs. Would love to see a video about tools and processes you use to keep things in order and stay sane (or not!). Stay strong!

Awesome content, thanks. Adding to the folks here saying you have really different markets in tabletop vs digital. TT isn't big on Twitter or Discord but they are HUGE on Board Game Geek. My last KS tabletop had something like 40% of traffic coming from BGG. Ads are effective but also regular forum posts. Get on the Hotness and you are guaranteed to get those wishlists up! GL!

board/card games are definitely a different beast. You typically are paying for manufacturing. You need a complete game at that point. (i'm mostly a analog game designer myself who dabbles on video games)

Board/card games is a tiny market compared to video games, and it's largely anti-indie. That would explain the small numbers. Best of luck!

Thanks for the video! I know what you are going through. (we'll be launching a Kickstarter for 'Unsung Warriors' in 15 days). I wish you all the best during your launch!

Hi Tim you are awesome!! Your audience doesn't like card games~ I don't like card games at least haha. Maybe get some tabletop streams/news article writers to play your game? You gotta find card players, us video game makers probably don't care much about a card game haha( but we do care about you!). PS. Maybe you need a fun Hearthstone like Lore trailer, cartoon panels and cards flying up?

Kickstarter is tough. Like you said, it is a launch. For both physical and digital. For digital you need a full vertical slice of your game ready - and looking really, really good. You need a demo. It takes a lot of time and money to get to that point. Not to mention the months of marketing leading up to it.

Following on the kickstart now! :) It defiantly seems like you need sometime to re-energise. I always feel more productive after I take that time and let it sit in my unconscious for a little bit.

B.T.W. - wishlisted Battleborn Tactic a few months ago and will buy it at release.

You are great bro! Looks interesting that game, you are an inspiration for a lot of people like me and i am not a english speaker, thank you, i apreciate your honesty a lot!

I'm not on all of your advertising channels (the mailing list, etc) but from what I can see it just feels like you haven't shown much of this game so it's not too out there that people aren't just blindly following the KS page with little to no idea of what the game is or how it plays. If you've already pushed the link out to 100,000 people I feel you're going to need to do that again but with more to actually show of the game itself... Even a simple website that has videos and photos and an explanation would be great, and then just link to the Kickstarter there as well. Just saying "I'm making a card game" and linking to the KS will get you exactly the results you are seeing... Just in my own opinion.

Hey Tim been following you off and on since 2018 I can feel the pain in your voice in this delay sucks 10 times for the developer than it does for the consumer I'm sure but hopefully you can look back at this as a lesson rather than a failure I worked in marketing for a while and I know it is a beast on its own to combine it with game dev and doing all that solo must be exhausting on a daily basis there's a reason the marketing budget for games is the same if not double the dev cost I hope you find success with this game and everything after it, just try to stay positive , "This too shall pass"

I feel ya Tim. My game Sweet Pea is sitting at 221 wishlists and release is in 8 days. Scary stuff.

I'm curious as to why you had the conclusion you did. If 100000 saw the game and you got 100 interests, that is a CPI of 0.1%. When you see these metrics in any games business, you know the right move is to can the project...

The lesson here is, ooh shiny will get you behind the 8ball but one track focus will be successfully boring. Take your pick.

I support you Tim! Make that Kickstarter count 179 💪

Maybe a reasonable advertisement pricing in physical games places that have good traffic might bolster it, I don't have a kickstarter account yet but since you've given me some good knowledge on game dev ill make one right now and sign up

12:05 Cypherpunk yay! 🤞

It is tough for a game dev to wear all the hats. It is easy to get caught in the trenches working hard every day and losing sight of the big picture. I recommend that my small business clients set aside dedicated time each week to wear the CEO hat and (separately) the marketing hat for at least an hour. It is a helpful exercise that can really make a difference. Tim, I always love your content and integrity--keep fighting the good fight.

I feel your pain and frustration, Tim! I would have the same thoughts and feelings. I'm sure later you will find the reasons for everything - it is much easier after the fact.

Welcome to the club :) happens man I stopped with RU-vid videos when I was getting under 100 views with 3-4 hours of Edit then meh is not worth it I use that time to be better at coding. But anyway stay strong, many people didn't click the link but they support when page will be up.

It’s time for a whole video on physical games

Tim, the problem is the product and the audience. You're suffering from the same problem as me (in another medium, comics). I've realized that if I don't release a manga/manhwa/whateverf*ckingcartoon, the sale numbers will be so low the business is unsustainable. With a very specific niche, I faced a huge issue to find the right audience (try to sell 100 Bullets or Criminal to BTS fans... And I have NY Times Best Seller and an award under my belt. It's not enough for the audience. But I noticed this kind of thing is useful in the INDUSTRY. Comics publishers listened to me, which gave me hope. With 100K people in your potential audience list, YOU can find a game publisher for sure!). P.S.: Seems the popular thing is 3D survival games on Steam. Well, I'll never understand mainstream taste...

I might be wrong, but maybe there is not too much overlap between the people who watch your content and play with physical games.

I'm with you man!

Love ur videos big fan. If i could offer some feedback- i went on the kickstarter and i see the picture of murder bunnies and...i dont know what it is. It says card game but...no video and no pictures of the game..so why do i want it to notify me when its up? Im not a hardcore kickstarter user,i just went on the link for the first time and that was my reaction. Im saying all this because i hope this info helps you succeed. Id be more motivated to click notify me if i knew what the project exactly was or had more info on it. And maybe there is info somewhere but this was my first reaction. I hit notify just to support you after writing this. Good luck!

I can't wait for Murder Bunnies to come out Tim! I'm rooting for it's success. It really is a well-designed and fun game and I absolutely love card games I'll definitely support the Kickstarter when it goes live ^^)b

You mean everyone else doesnt just do it all?

To help you understand what is happening I can tell you why I didnt click the think on kickstarter. First your youtube serves as a learning platform (I dont follow you to see what is the next game I will buy). Second I dont like kickstarter, it has such bad rep that even if I found something awesome that I liked, I would not "invest" in it. Third I m not a table top game kinda guy. I hope my message helps you to dissect what is going on, and wish you the best :)

Very honest and informative! keep it up :) I personally also think you need a better Capsule art for the Kickstarter.

i love how real these talks are and glad you delayed the campaign because it got funded! keep up the great work and finding that balance! :)

im following this kickstarter for sure, but im not bothered to sign up with kickstarter making an account, i think thats really dumb of them to force that rather than just entering an email address

Hi Tim, I learned from you that key to marketing is understanding your audience, so I will try to make you understand yours. As an aspiring indie game dev (as probably large chunk of your audience), I mostly spend my time on my own game and whenever I'm stuck on it I will go to your channel and GDU discord to hang a little bit to catch some fresh air. I'm mildly interested in your games, but will check on them if theres a prompt video update to see where they are going. I might consider support from the shared sentiment of game dev struggle - best in a form of a cheap steam release or a wishlist, and give feedback whenever needed. For this one - I'm not particularly interested in tabletop but the game description from the link gives almost no information about the product - how much of a contribution I need to make to get a copy, that this is a physical tabletop (i don't feel this information is conveyed enough), what if I'm not interested in physical copies (I know shipping might be an issue in my case for example) will there be digital version available? Hope that helps, best of luck!

Where is the website for murder bunnies? When I google 'murder bunnies' then I get whole page of links for Killer Bunnies.

paid facebook ads that target the right audience could help a bit more... but I mean even on pax online event and any online events where we manage to get around 300k impressions and still get .005% of wishlist. but 1.5k wishlist is still completely worth it when you stop to think that the people reached all have their own type of things they like, what is your niche in there ? where are the people you wanna reach ? is it a silly card game ? then target the people that follow cyanide and happiness or somthing along the line, exploding kittens, Bears vs Babys target ads on facebooks and stuff up where this niche is. maybe you'll also get 0.005% of the total impressions as well but the reach can be insane nonethless.

"In my Burnout Phase..I made a game" That's the way my mane.

🔥

Thx for the info! Maybe rethink the name of the game.. as a parent would not buy a game for my kids with "murder" in it..

It sucks how the best way to make money is not by making cool things, but by looking at charts all day to make hypothetical money (investing). A company could spend a whole year doubling 100 million dollars by making a cool movie or they could have just bought Bitcoins 3 months ago and sat on their ass watching movies other people made.

While I agree the stats are bad here you also need to consider other things. Most projects that get funded come from people that didn't support a kickstarter before, meaning these people that follow you likely don't have an account. Also if they follow you already why follow you on a kickstarter page? we are fucking lazy just tell us here... that's the mentality so you can't assume that follow count is the people interested. 131, does seem low but watch that number grow from just this video because you talked about it. 1-2k views will get you more followers than your whole advertisement you done in terms of views /follow ratio.

where we at and why are we there :D

Miss you Tim.. any chances of getting back to daily uploads?

Esa imagen del Kickstarter se ve bien cutre XD

Yeah, how are we supposed to be excited about a game we know very little about? You didn't even mention if it will be limited to the US, or also international.

why not make murder bunnies a digital card game?

The game is too dark. That image on twitter with bunny guts is a put-off. Murder your friends, I don't think so. Also, I don't think anything's changed regarding marketing and what you know to be true. You know this doesn't look good. Just break it to Alyssa man and move onto another project. OR make it family friendly and funny, then I am in.

I feel like you should be showcasing the actual cards in your kickstarter thumbnail, and actually show people from there what they are getting, and start seeking people in the trading card community that would be interest, even collaborating with collectors/channels. I may be saying the most obvious thing in the world to you but I think it's all about marketing it to the audience that is actively seeking these kinds of products, and your thumbnail isn't selling the product visually as it should be for what it is. If you keep slamming at it from all over, it's not going to help you if your marketing is focused and funneling the right people.

Well isnt that a tiny market anyway? Those numbers dont surprise me at all. Thats not your fault. Also it seems like you invested way to much time in financial/marketing stuff and not rly in analytics and now wonder why a physical card game isnt realy wanted. Its an very old concept and i dont see a indie game dev creating something like a Pokemon or YuGiOh hype. Again, its not your fault, but your expectation was way to high. This is not a marketing failure. The Problem is the Genre itself.

It IS discouraging man. Even if your game is good is there a formula to make people care?