3 interesting games now on Kickstarter & indiexpo

Recently a lot of new Indie Games were uploaded on indiexpo website!

A lot a small teams or solo devs use this platform to upload also their free demos to reach feedbacks and improve their game to prepare a good crowfounding campaign!

During November there are three interesting crowfounding campaigns started on Kickstarter of games already released on indiexpo!

The first one is Heat Fragments!

It already passed Kickstarter, reaching over 12.000 $!

It is a very professional visual novel, with a small team but with amazing skills! We love anime and manga and here the level is very high!

Heart Fragment is a psychological otome game where your choices play an important role not just in the route you're on, but in the game as a whole. 

The result is hundreds of player choices to make, more than 100 CGs, two art styles to choose between, 6 routes, a highly customizable finale where you choose the "true ending", and an estimated total of 40 hours of content!

Make your way through 40+ endings - romantic, platonic, even a mix of the two for "the hope of romance to come". Stay on guard for bad endings... or dive headfirst into them and learn what information they can reveal to further advance the plot!

Kickstarter Page | Game Page

The second one is River Tails!

We noted and loved this game from the first time that it was uploaded on indiexpo!

The cartoon style is great and the animations are perfect!

Now it is live on Kickstarter and just passed the 50%!

River Tails: Stronger Together is a 3D co-op adventure platformer with a colourful cartoon aesthetic. Teammates must work together to defeat end-of-level bosses and solve puzzles across a range of natural-world environments. River Tails is perfect for all sorts of gaming partnerships: friends, couples, siblings, and even parents with their kids.

The main characters aren’t the most obvious partnership. In fact, these animals are often cast as enemies. Meet myth-busting mates Furple the cat and Finn the fish!

Play either as Furple, the curious and excitable purple kitten, or Finn, the independent fish with a bit of an attitude problem. You’ll embark upstream with these unexpected allies, towards the icy mountain where Furple’s family are in mortal danger. Can you save them in time? To make progress up the river, you’ll need to master just two core actions: jumping and grabbing.

Good luck guys!

Kickstarter Page | Game Page

The last one is ONA.

Never seen a game like this. It is an exploration game about the Indian culture.

An allegorical story mixing different visions and interpretations. Every visit will be different, everybody will see unique content. Explore all continents, visit lost temples and mystic places. Meet sages from different civilizations and discover ancient revelations. Solve puzzles and visual paintings to unfold hidden messages. Find special keys in the game and access deeper thought.

ONA allows you to travel around the world in a meaningful and immersive journey.

Reveal the meaning of your quest. Wander through a universal and timeless adventure that will lead you into the unexpected depths of the world and of yourself.

Kickstarter Page | Game Page

Are you preparing a Kickstarter campaign for your indie game?
Contact us! We will try to help you to share it!

Is Crowdfunding Right for Your Game ? Analyzing Xydonia

First of all : Crowdfunding is a form of alternative finance, which has emerged outside of the traditional financial system.
Excluding debt funding there are two main types of crowdfunding platforms:

1. Gifting crowdfunding sites such as www.kickstarter.com or www.indiegogo.com where no equity is involved. The “donations” can be as small as €10 and can involve rewards such as tee-shirts, invites to launch parties and products that have been produced post-funding. Often this type of platform suits creative industries and social enterprise.

2. Equity crowdfunding, such as www.crowdcube.com and www.seedrs.com where, in return for cash, a person can play Dragons Den and take a tiny stake in a company that potentially could produce a healthy return on investment. The individual investor or crowd will have no say in the company but often there can be several other fringe benefits to being an investor, similar to the gifting sites above.

With both types of crowdfunding you upload your pitch and then have typically 60 days to secure the full amount of capital you require. If you fall short of the target funding, all the capital raised gets returned. The costs are usually 5-7% of capital raised.

We can analyze one of the latest game on Kickstarter, posted also on indiexpo : Xydonia.
Result :
728 backers pledged € 25,925 (the Goal was € 20,000)  to help bring this project to life.

So why was Xydonia so successful?

Let's take a look at five critical factors for Xydonia's success when raising crowd funding:

1. Xydonia already had an active and responsive database of gamers, built up over two years, that had already played their game or seen gameplays on youtube. Although many crowdfunding sites have over ten thousand registered investors, if they do not know you it will take a lot of convincing to get them to buy into what you are doing. The team of game developers that secure crowdfunding usually already have a good following before they even ask for the money.

2. Not only is it important to have your own database, but you need a strong pre-launch campaign delivered through email, face-to-face and social media for at least two weeks before you release the deal on a crowdfunding site. I discovered their game at the Svilupparty 2016.


3. Their pitch was outstanding in its clarity of vision and its description of the past, present and future. People could buy into the compelling narrative emotionally and wanted to be a part of it. The business plan is less important than the emotional impact you can make through video, images and graphics. Invest most of your preparation time on your one-two minute elevator pitch; without an excellent pitch you will never gain enough interest to get your deal funded.

4. They demonstrated a clear work,  through credible visuals and a free demo to try. "XYDONIA is an old school arcade horizontal shoot 'em up, inspired by the Japanese milestones of the genre, such as R-Type, Gradius and Darius".
With a comparison (Gradius and Darius) the users immediately associates in their head a very precise and clear idea of the game.

People need to be able to understand your big game within 10 seconds, and then be able to tell other people about your game with ease. If your gameplay or design has a high degree of complexity it may not be for the crowd but for more specialist investors.

5. The budget is not impossibile. You can see several campaigns on Kickstarter where the developers looking for huge goals. Watch your game and watch on kickstarter what's the budget requiered for a game like yours. It can help you.

Is it right for your game?

Crowdfunding will continue to gather hype in the months ahead.
This is good news for developers, as it means high valuations, a much quicker route to capital, and access to a large base of enthusiastic investors spreading the word about your business.

Should this option not suit your business however, it's important to remember that crowdfunding is just one of many alternative routes to funding.

But how do you know whether equity crowdfunding is right for you? If you can tick off all the five points above for your game – then go for it!

P.s. If you're looking for a good campaign on Kickstarter using indiexpo, read also this post.