My Kickstarter campaign, Train Defense!

General Discussions
1

Hey guys!

A few days ago, I launched my Kickstarter campaign.
It’s about a game Im making, called Train Defense.

Train Defense is a mobile Tower Defense-like game where you have to defend a train transporting precious cargo through a level.

Please help me spread the word about the game, as at this moment we don’t get much exposure where needed.

Also, if you got any feedback about the project or tips for exposure, please let me know!

You can find my project here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/344277906/train-defense

I hope you guys are interested enough to back, and I would be very happy if you share it around!
Thanks!

P.S. this is the reason why I wasn’t playing that much February :wink:

2

Looks cool Xander. I remember you showing it over teamviewer a while back. All the luck with the project :slight_smile:

3

Looks great! Good job!

4

I’m actually surprised of the graphics level (Over 9000)
Meaning do you guys will need to downgrade it for new content ? (Size wise)
You can count me in for a couple box !
One question still remain … With all that gold where are the dwarf ? (Tavern ?)

5

Thanks guys for the positive comments!

Tiloup:
At the moment we’re getting a very solid 40+ fps on Galaxy S3, with the current content.
We still have to do ALOT of optimization, a lot of materials are using unnecessary things, and there are a lot of unnecessary colliders (physics are costly).
Our game installed on android currently is 140MB with 3 levels, with this quality. We can easily downgrade alot of texture resolutions, so we can get that down, too.

We’re still concepting about a new level, so that can be an interesting idea you have there hehe :sunglasses:

6

I admit, I was skeptical when I saw the thread. In fact, I put off looking into it for some time, auto-dismissing it as low quality. I’m pretty darn embarrassed I did that, now, considering the quality your game displayed.

I did notice something: I saw quite a lot of monster pop-in. One moment there’s a tree, the next there’s a monster on top of it. Perhaps start with 100% transparency, and then roll the % down over 1-2 seconds? Would make it less jarring to look at.

7

Hey thanks Kaleo :slight_smile:

We plan to change the orc ‘‘spawn’’ system, where they are actually spawned indeed like that, and we plan to even add a little extra effect on that area.

I really hope the kickstarter will become more successful, now it’s just… well… going horrible!

8

Sweet game you have. I’m not sure what to suggest to build it’s popularity and interest, I will deffinately share it with my friends. Maybe add some humour to it, like a crazy guy who really likes trains at the shop screen? idk. If it’s addictive It could go viral

9

My first word was: >print: WOW !!!
Than I glanced at the game and …

  1. You need a HOOK, like something that makes the game imposibble to beat, and people are "forced" to contact each other via FB to get extra lives… +moneyshop for extra thingies.

2.ONLINE LADDER BOARD is a MUST. If people cant brag or show others what they have achieved its no use…

  1. Someone should consider suiciding in order to get the media’s attention. You can purchase that subject on silkroad for about 10-15 BTC.

4.Good luck :smiley: ( no.3 is a joke, please dont suicide or purchase someone that does it for a living ( get it ? for a living, lol ).

It hurts me to see so much work and such little interest, the main problem I have found is that the majority of the population think "coding" and "game making" to be a hobby and as such is psichologicaly coded in human brains that there is no need for a "payment" as you are an "indie" developer. Its all psichology of the masses.

My suggestion would be to continue with the project, but add different "skins" ( reskin the game, winter time, summer time, etc ), implement multiplayer !!!, cash shop, and ADDverts. ADD’s make you money even if the game is FREE.
You should consider finishing the game on your own, putting a DEMO or a LITE version on market for free and see where it goes from that.

Dont take my advice too seriously, im just blabering about :smiley: I have little to none of experience selling apps on the app store, but I have done some coding and gamedesing in the past ( some stupid projects for my GF and some automated light switches and sensors… ).

I could write here all day and give advice regarding stuff I dont really know much about, but im gonna end it with a thouth.
Your first goal in a project should always be to determine WHO you are selling to.

  1. a funny train game -> 9+
  2. a stretegic train defense game -> 13+
  3. a multyplayer train defense game -> 15+
  4. a train defense simulator ( like brakes, coal status, bla bla bla… ) 18+ <- CREDIT CARD OWNER

Thats how I see things from my economic point of view ( i have finished School for Economy, so my understanding of economy is over lvl9000 ).

I hope this wall of text will be of any use. English is not my primary language so there are going to ge some grammar issues and such. +the style of my writing is more for a "white board" not a forum :smiley:

P.S.: Are you doing the texturing and other stuff in 1080p native ? or are you doing it so its future proof ( my phone is 2560x1440 res. and I have a credit card :stuck_out_tongue: )

10

Hey Fenix!

We actually thought about many possible ways to monitize our game.
We personally aren’t that fond of the social game and pay to win type of strategy.
We also will have 2 type of game releases (if we proceed with it), which is the old (and loved)
Demo - Full version model.
We call it ‘‘freemium’’. Therefore we won’t bother players with advertisements in a free game, and people who really like the game, can give money for a solid piece of gameplay.

I agree that many people now look different to game development than in the past, as alot of ‘‘hobbyist’’ are fucking around with programs and release shitty games with very low quality.
We like to separate us from this thought by providing a solid and quality game, where we are passionate about.

Right now the concept stands to be a singleplayer game, but if the game grows, it maybe will grow naturally in a multiplayer game, but as for now this is way too much work, and will differ the game alot from the current vision.

We have implemented textures on a pc quality, which states that on a 4K screen you will not see ‘pixel art’.
And offcourse, with mobiles not having a very large screen, we can downgrade the texture resolution even more for optimization (if needed)

Our target group are people to the age of around 25, who love management and strategy games.
The game has alot of elements of a Tower Defense game, so this is a good example if you think about the people who will play it.

After all, if the Kickstarter is a failure, I can’t say for sure when the game will be finished (if even).
So we can’t change alot about the game, or add much content.
We do have a sound designer now who is interested in implementing music and sounds in the game, even if the Kickstarter fails.

Thanks for taking interest in my game! much appreciated!

11

Finishing the game and realising it to the market is your no1. priority. You need reference and a game on android market is a good way to start. You need to get as many clients as possible, if nothing else people will see and recognise you as a developer and you might also get people that are interested in working with you.

Marketing is no1. If done properly can provide huge benefits. If you would have maybe contacted a twitch streamer or some youtube sub god and provided them with some khm stimulation ( € ) you could spread the word a bit further.
(This is me speaking without knowing what you have actually done for marketing etc. feel free to correct me. )
But that costs. And it sucks. But thats how the internet works :smiley: in my opinion at least.

On a side note, are you good with Unreal ? I think the 2015 SDK released a few weeks ago, along with a remake of Unreal Tournament MP Arena ( hard as hell, but the graphics are… to die for :smiley: ). Multiplayer is GOD of moneymaking.

And if you hurry, you can probably dish out a demo with a WW2 theme, some sort of Brothers in Arms remake bullshit,
go wild on the media, raise 100mil, take the money, buy the moon and write "TOPKEK" on it, so its visible from earth.

12

Hey!

Not to be rude, but I know perfectly where my priorities lie.
The things you’re saying now are really offtopic and not very helpfull, sorry :anxious:

I might have misread you’re text above, if so im sorry!

If you’re interested in getting to know about Game Development processes, you can always have a chat with me on teamspeak!

13

I was just trying to be funny. To put some positive thinking into you. Might not have worked :smiley:

I will look you up on team speak for sure.

14

Not to be rude but from 1 dev to another…

don’t we have enough TD games yet? Let alone the best ones are free flash games on multiple platforms your competition is really harsh!

Good luck but you might be better off aiming at a different market if you want to make it with your first game.

that being said I do wish you all the best we need more Game Devs in Holland!

15

Sooo… What game are you currently developing?

16

Game development is tricky… You can make the game you want to make but more often than not expectations are too high. I’ve been a witness to that a number of times during development of a HL1 mod named The Specialists and later the HL2 mod Double Action:Boogaloo.

Anyway, I don’t play games on my phone (#pcmasterrace / #readbooksonthebusandcry) so all I can say is good luck!

Whether this becomes a commercial success or not, it still is a notch on your belt of achievements and experiences. :thumb:

17

Arma 4!

Jk no I’m currently still working on a RTS/Business game however the bigger your idea the more Workload and @ the moment ill never get any free time to do anything.

TD games are a small amount of coding and a large amount of art assets and sound compared to most other genre’s.

All i was trying to say was that trying to offer buy-able game in a genre where a lot of free games dominate your gonna have a bad time unless you have a really good concept and to be brutally honest I don’t think this idea has what it takes to beat the free Tower Defense games.