Today, “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth” has officially entered it’s Kickstarter campaign!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1618944138/drew-and-the-floating-labyrinth-a-hand-drawn-3d-in

This hand-drawn 3D puzzle platformer needs your help on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight! Help today!

Technically, “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth” has been on Kickstarter for almost 24 hours now. And the results are disappointing… at the time of this writing, I have 4 backers, about 2% towards my modest $1,000 goal. And I happen to know 2 of those 4 as personal friends being pity backers. And my Steam Greenlight page has no change whatsoever so far in number of votes, still stuck in Greenlight limbo.

I still love Kickstarter, and think it’s a fantastic excuse to get more advertising and press for your projects. But it takes a little bit of magic to be successful with it. I had another Kickstarter earlier this year for “James – Journey of Existence,” a very similar game. But that had less polish, and many backers were uncertain of what it was trying to be. And somehow, that got more backers early on then “Drew” did, which so far is almost every bit exactly what I intend the final game to be. Also, I think I’m getting more spam this time around from “companies” able to promote my campaign for a fee.

Part of the problem may be that this is the middle of summer, and most people just aren’t looking to back projects at this time of year. Part of the problem may be that I didn’t hype up the campaign before it opened (although with next to no one reading this site, I can’t imagine that was it). Part of the problem may be that “Drew” just isn’t that great a game. Part of the problem may be that Kickstarter is finally starting to loose momentum. Part of the problem is, most likely, that “Drew” is almost complete, that it will be released within the next several weeks, and that backers ultimately have little to no impact on the game’s development (only to add features that are likely not of any importance to them).

I was worried this would happen. I’ve seen other projects that state that “the game will be made regardless of success or failure,” being perfectly sound projects, and not getting a single backer. It makes sense in a way. Part of the allure of Kickstarter is that backers feel important, like they are helping make something happen, like they have a voice and input into development. That’s not true with “Drew,” this far into development (rather, input from “James” led to “Drew’s” creation). But then, I see Kickstarter projects every day with no gameplay footage, or with release estimation dates 1-2 years after the campaign’s end. Is that so much easier to give money to? The last thing I want is to trick people into giving money to something they don’t fully understand, without knowing exactly what they’re getting.

… but then, if I don’t leave a little bit of mystery, no one cares. I sent my game to a number of websites and press release sites, but if things don’t pick up in the next week, I might do what I thought I’d never do and end the campaign early. I’m sure I’ll use Kickstarter again, one or two projects in mind would be perfect for it. But this isn’t it.

(on the other hand, serious progress has finally been made regarding releasing and promotion. I’ll get back to development and tell you later…)