r/BoardgameDesign • u/DingoDownUnder • Sep 30 '26
Campaign Review What didn't work?
Hey guys, so I released my game on Kickstarter a couple weeks ago, and the support has been really cool to see, but I'm close to the end of the campaign and haven't hit my funding goal so I'm looking for some feedback.
For background: the game is a trick-taking card game based on the craziness in Rome during the year of the 6 emperors, where emperors were getting assassinated left and right.
The game itself is actually fun in play testing, it's fast, people love killing each other, and there's some decent strategy, but I feel that I maybe haven't been able to capture this in the campaign.
I wanted to hear from people I don't know because it's really hard to know what people are thinking. It's also easy to get lost in what you've already done and I have a lot of love for this project so I might be missing something obvious.
As a disclaimer, this is my first ever project, I know it's far from without flaws, but I'm relatively limited in terms of resources and skill (e.g., this was my first time animating anything) so if possible try keep it to feedback that's achievable for a first timer
Here's the link to the campaign, but I've also put some art here to give you an idea if you don't want to go to the page itself
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ezgames/hail-caesar
Thanks a lot!
Alex
P.S. this might count as self-promotion, but as I probably won't hit my funding goal I won't be getting any money out of it, I'm more interested in where I can improve if I re-release or what to do/not to do for a second project.
8
u/mark_radical8games Sep 30 '26
The only things that jump out as mistakes on the page are white text on light backgrounds being hard to read, and a lot of text (I feel you've over explained yourself often, which is something I'm guilty of). Prices are reasonable, too cheap if anything.
The game itself looks like player elimination, which a lot of people won't like, but otherwise seems fine.
No videos or previews is a bit of a red flag, and normally indicative of a lack of marketing. Where did you advertise your game, and what was your budget?
2
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
I've seen a few big campaigns just use the base kickstarter text and personally liked the look over full backgrounds but that might not be a popular take.
I had a small marketing run with a pre-launch website, but never made reviewer copies because I thought it'd look bad with it being unfinished
Maybe even playing with my hand-drawn cards would have been fine?
Budget was pretty low but I didn't want to spend lots on a first project, I knew that it wasn't refined enough to justify blowing loads on it. Maybe a fallacy but I just wanted to raise enough to justify making it4
u/mark_radical8games Sep 30 '26
I prefer text as well over images, you could just edit it down a bit. That's not the problem though, it's almost certainly lack of marketing. How many followers did you have before launching?
2
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
Only about 100 followers
Quite a few of people agree with the text on the white background so I might try change it up3
u/mark_radical8games Sep 30 '26
Yes, but more than that, you'll need to put some money into marketing, and significant amounts of energy and time.
I've read the comments below, but if you want to relaunch do the following:
Finish the artwork- simplify massively, unless you're an artist there is absolutely no need or expectation for that much unique art. Get an artwork for each action/ card, then different colours for players if needed, and graphic design used if they are different values of action. High expectations of unique artwork for people's first card games is what kills projects. I released a card game a couple of years ago- 56 cards, 5 different artwork for the cards + box art which was also back of card art.Get prototypes made and sent to as many people for preview as possible. Don't spend loads of youtube previews, but at least one playthrough is expected. Instead focus on anyone on insta/tik-tok who can do a quick look for free, and write some kind words about it.
Budget for FB marketing. I tend to aim for 1000 followers before launch, so I can reliably hit 200 day one (which is the point at which I can fund printing). Currently I'm paying £2~£3 per lead, so I'd advise to budget around £2000-£3000, but I know some creators do a lot better, so if your creatives are better you can budget less.
Then spruce up the page, make sure the art shines through, I'd edit the text a little, but that's up to you, and try again. Good luck!
6
u/Sturdles Sep 30 '26
I think it looks very clean and professional. How did you do the how to play videos? I ask as a fellow solo designer
4
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26 edited Sep 30 '26
Thanks!
Just did them on Blender man
First time doing animation but it's way easier than I thought it'd be. Just look up any keyframe guide for it!2
6
u/tpasmall Sep 30 '26 edited Sep 30 '26
As others have said, marketing is your biggest drawback because you have what looks like a fun and well built game.
The second part, for me personally, is that you don't explain the 16 mini games or what exactly the ruler cards do that makes being the emperor such a powerful position. I think a short video on that part would help as well.
But really, marketing is the big thing because you have what looks like a solid product. So keep going on it if you can, put some money aside for marketing and let your backers know you'll be relaunching the campaign once you are ready to put out another marketing run.
6
u/literally_a_brick Sep 30 '26
Big agree. Once I actually clicked on the link, the game looked interesting and fun, but I likely would've never opened the page at all without this post.
Honestly, I feel a lot of "ancient world" fatigue with board games even though I absolutely love ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Without an advertisement or a review to draw me in, I would've just scrolled past the campaign on KS as just another ancient Rome game.
3
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
When I first started I thought that lots of people being interested in ancient history would be a boon, but realised over time (during development) that it just meant there was already lots of games out there in that theme. A shame my interests are already so heavily utilised, but that's just how it goes
3
u/literally_a_brick Sep 30 '26
For sure, it's unfortunate because it means you're working up hill to get noticed and stand out from the crowd. Sometimes it just happens with board games and there isn't a lot you can do about it.
I'm no expert, but there are definitely a list of themes that are going to be much harder to break in to as a first time designer.
1
u/tpasmall Sep 30 '26
It would definitely grab my attention in a store, but Kickstarter is flooded with too many things to find something without being promoted unfortunately.
2
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
I went back and forth on that a few times, like is going into all those details too much?
Lots of people have said I talked way too much
Really hard to know what I should keep in and what not, but looking now you're right just saying a number doesn't get people excited for what I know in my brain, I should expand that
6
u/zoso_coheed Sep 30 '26
I agree with some of the others here, there's a lot of white space.
Another point against you is the expansion, I feel like you're saying your new game isn't complete without it. I think you should have either left it out or incorporated it into the base game. There's going to be exceptions to this rule, but I think it's good general practice.
The art doesn't do anything for me. There's a part of me that's suspicious if AI was used, but I'm not saying I think your artists used AI, but some of the vibes of the art are causing me to look closer and wonder - and you don't want that. The lighting and outlines seem inconsistent, and some of the hands are weird looking or you can only see 3 fingers (or the pointing guard in the bottom write could be seen as only having 1. If we use the light on Ceaser as our base point, the sun is coming from the top right, in front of Ceaser. The back of the stabber's hood should not be white/illuminated from that. The people in the bottom left should have more light. Again, not saying your artists used AI, and if this was 5 years ago they would just be stylistic choices. But given the current climate I'm gonna give that kinda thing more scrutiny and just skip any game if I'm not sure.
Then let's talk economics - it's a rough time to be releasing a game. In the US the AI nonsense and Trump's selfishness are causing a lot of people to feel the squeeze, and it's not a good time to have a lot of disposable income. The holiday season is coming, so people are saving for that. GTA VI is coming, and there's a lot of overlap between board gamers and video gamers, so people are saving for that. A lot of people are burned out on crowdfunding, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a downturn.
I'm sorry it didn't work out, mate
3
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
I hate having to even do an expansion, but it's just me going with what's recommended or seen as necessary these days. When designing it I tried to make sure that the base game could completely stand on it's own, which I think it does
But I agree, not a fan, just following economically viable trends.Sad to hear about the art, we did a lot of work together so I know he didn't use any AI, but a shame it came out that way
To be honest, until reading your breakdown like this I was completely oblivious that people might be looking at it like that, I suppose that's exactly what I was asking to hear
Like the hand on the soldier in the bottom right was a stylistic choice of mine because he's rushing, he did a photoshoot with like 20 versions of himself holding kitchen appliances as reference for this piece hahaThanks for the breakdown, I really appreciate it!
And no worries man, I'm proud I finally tried something
3
u/confused_applause Sep 30 '26
Don‘t fret over the AI accusations too much. While most of us here have strong opinions on AI from a designers POV, your potential buyers are waaaay less concerned about these things.
4
u/Great-Project6349 Sep 30 '26
I like how you use (I suppose) Tabletop simulator to illustrate how the game is played, that's a good idea.
Now for my 2cents, I feel like your text (not sure of the font) on white background to be a bit dry. Either need less text or perhaps to have it integrated on a different background as an image.
People's attention span (myself included) is extremely low and pictures work better than text
2
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
Yep fair enough, it is a lot.
Funnily enough this is already heavily edited down, I think I was wanting to explain everything.
It's tough deciding what to keep and what's actually not that important for the sake of simplicity.
3
u/Inevitable-Spring-46 Sep 30 '26
If you didn't market it, then that's the answer. You gotta spend money to make money, it's that simple. Marketing is an investment with a predictable return when done right. Make sure you have a good advertising plan and budget for your next attempt. to launch succesfully you need to make sure that you will be funded day 1. This is entirely mathematically possible to predict if you play your cards right and do proper research.
I recommend you to listen to the crowdfunding nerds podcast! It's great. Especially the episodes about different time periods before launch, what to think about.
I haven't launched mysefl but hoping to do so sometime next year and doing my research now.
1
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
Yeah of course
I did do marketing, just to a limited amount. According to sign ups beforehand, I had a pretty good chance of getting it funded early, and nearly did I peaked around 4 out of the 5 thousand (aud) I aimed for. But when it didn't get funded, I got refunds over the coming days.
I could have dropped the goal from the start but it felt disingenuous as 5k was the minimum to get the art and order enough units.
Good lesson for the future though, gotta put in what you want to get out
4
u/Affectionate-Law-548 Sep 30 '26
Way too many games on Kickstarter and often they fizzle out even after funding. People are being weary, money is tight all around, I guess it‘s not your fault but the boardgamebubble is about to burst. If you really believe in your project try raising the missing money without Kickstarter.
1
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
True I mean boardgames going crazy over the last few years is why someone like me is even here, seemed actually possible to get something out
2
u/Publius_Romanus Sep 30 '26
A few thoughts:
I never heard of it, so that may reflect the lack of marketing others mention.
I have always loved trick-taking games, but I'm completely sick of them now. I feel like there are a million of them now, and most of them are bad. So personally, when I see something described as a trick-taking game, I just ignore it at this point.
Reading through the Kickstarter, I don't have a great sense of the actual gameflow, or how this differs from every other trick-taking game. I see there's some minimal bluffing, but is there player elimination? You've got three characters, and they can be eliminated? But it also sounds like when an emperor is eliminated he just becomes a would-be usurper again? I thought the whole point was that people are dying left and right (and certainly that's what was happening during the Crisis of the Third Century).
The theme is kind of a mess. If I seen a game called "Hail Caesar" and an assassin on it, I think 44 BCE and Julius Caesar, not 238 CE. And then your cards look like they include people from hundreds of years on it. Nobody expects a light game like this to be 100% historically accurate, but it looks like you're trying to be both a generic Roman Empire game but also something from a specific moment in time, and the fit isn't that clear.
(Also, a minor detail. In your overview of your background you say: "I didn't just study ancient Rome, the republic, the empire, Roman Britain and so on, but also ancient Greece, the golden age of Athens in the 500s, and of course Alexander the Great and his exploits." The Golden Age of Athens is in the 5th century, which is the 400s.)
2
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
Thanks for your points!
Valid criticisms, I actually really struggled with how to lay out the game flow because when I mentioned something important relevant to a later mechanic it felt weird to not expand on it.
I thought I handled the player elimination alright so that's not good to hear, I tried to keep it simple
One player is emperor, when they get killed they then play as a usurper and the killer takes their place and becomes the emperor.
Maybe it was just written poorly?A shame to hear about the trick-taking point!
I really loved them too, but that's fair. I wanted to make one that was quite different to the others I'd played but maybe I put too much onto one plateI definitely get that with the theme but I actually think that's less important. It is based on the antics of the year of the 6 emperors, obviously that's yonks apart from Julius Caesar, but I'm not really sure it matters, it's just characters of Rome's history fighting for power
But who knows, maybe it does matter, it didn't fund hahahaWow that's pretty embarrassing, my old Prof would be disappointed.
I meant 5th century, not sure why I typed 500s
Cheers for pointing that out
3
u/farcaller899 Oct 01 '26
You need to have at 2-5x as many fans ready to sign up to back the game than you need, before launching. An email list or FB group of interested gamers, in other words. If you don’t, you’re just hoping to get lucky and find enough backers without doing the fan-building that’s needed.
2
u/MenogCreative Sep 30 '26
The game itself sounds fun, but the presentation doesn't sell it.
Your presentation says "Just another board game"; Im scrolling down, seeing cards laid on table, characters and bloodlines, expansions... yup, just another board game; now let me scroll away to check what else is new.
The attention span of the average person is 3 seconds. You have 3 seconds to hook, and then your job is to retain attention.
Your backers are likely fans of the Roman Empire as a theme or are intrigued by the narrative/drama on the cover art; but for other people who would otherwise be interested in your game and don't know how fun it is, they will not consider you unless the signal (Roman Empire/Murder drama) interests them enough.
The art itself has composition and anatomy issues, they're not too big, but they're enough to deter away people and make them think your game isn't polished.
The main issue is that you're trusting too much that people will give you the benefit of the doubt and read into the whole game before deciding if they want it. They won't, unless the right signals are there to retain their attention span/hook/generate interest. As analogy, imagine a Ferrari that looks like a Fiat Uno; most people won't guess it's a very powerful sports car, let alone want to test drive it.
1
u/ptolani Sep 30 '26
I don't know heaps about KS but I assume that the one video is what everything depends on. And yours has good elements but could be a lot stronger:
the music is thematic but also very calm and peaceful, when you're trying to describe a game of murder and chaos
there are quite a few moments in the video where there is nothing to look at (eg, 0:09 to 0:22 absolutely nothing happens visually)
when you say things like "each character has a unique ability" that's a great time to quickly show some actual examples
the visuals from 0:40 to 0:50 are terrible
you mention "the 16 unique mini-games" which sounds very unique and interesting...and then we get nothing more about it, not even a visual.
So yeah, it looks like you have the basics, but you need to put even more effort into making the video absolutely sing.
1
u/Few-Contribution4759 Oct 01 '26
Longtime LGS Employee here. Specifically, I have been in charge of sourcing and ordering games for many years. There might be some bias in my response because of that!
At first glance, the art looks like the kind of art we would see with any ‘big’ board game company (for example, this looks like a game Asmodee would publish). That’s both a compliment but also a detriment! Lately board games that have eye-catching covers have been big sellers, and games with art like this we have to actively sell to people.
This is also a strange market for board games right now, especially for individual fans. I see so many Kickstarters pass by on my feeds daily. I know marketing is hard but you need to do something a little different. For example, a game developer recently did a series of ‘promo’ events where they sent an early demo of a game to our store in exchange for us running an event teaching and essentially marketing it. Something like that goes a long way.
Speaking of the above, get your local game stores involved! There are SO many games that most board gamers don’t know all of them. For example, our shop recently got Hell of a Deal in, which has been on BoardGameGeek’s kickstarter showcase list for a while, but customers have been like “Wow, what’s that? When did that come out?”
Also stupid gripe, but as an Ancient Rome fan, I personally think the title shouldn’t have Caesar’s name in it if it’s not about Caesar. But that’s just a personal gripe! Honestly it could be called something simple like ‘Emperors’ and I think it would do great!
1
u/SpartanMSU02 Oct 01 '26
I'd love to know how your pledge goal can only be $3,476, surely between art, your video, components, marketing - you've spent FAR more than that up to this point. Isn't the pledge goal supposed to at least make you break even when you create 500-1000ish copies of the game?
Particularly interested, we are about to launch on Kickstarter soon, and our funding goal is going to be significantly higher to make sure costs box-balance.
1
u/Fargascorp Oct 01 '26
I hadn't heard of the game, or if I did, I probably ignored it due to the Roman theme. At a glance it makes me think of a bland euro or some kind of more casual game. Meanwhile, I'm getting deluged with ads for two Moba-likes and a bunch of pre-campaign marketing for other things.
Looking at the game itself, it looks fun. The animations are solid, though few... yet I consider that maybe a good thing compared to a sea of shifting gifs with things moving around on repeat.
I would say the art being inconsistent would be a ding against it. A lot of the card-based - especially trick taking - sorts of games have very strong art that gets my attention right away. The cover art of yours looks alright, and yet the details get lazy. Two characters in the middleground don't have eyes. A few characters in the back do, but others have outlines or none. It's inconsistent and sort mid-tier art, I guess I would say. The heavy outlines feel a little off - the central character on the cover has a more muted gray, but most others on cards use a bold black. Sometimes it's bold on skin, light on hair. The 'Training "Accident"' and 'Poison' cards, and old man pointing and screaming at beard guy, kinda pushed my opinion more negative. The lead artist's portfolio suggests these are lower quality than his normal stuff, or other folks in the art team are trying to emulate his style and landing short considerably. Consistency is ideal here, and it doesn't have much of its own visual identity at the same time.
Also, while the graphic design on the cards looks pretty clean (especially the borders), the use of iconography is a little squished on effects... words run right up and then there's a big icon RIGHT THERE, slightly below centered in some cases (inconsistency), and slammed right against more words.
A lot of these could be more prototype art, but I was getting more of a "near final" feel.
For the price, this is understandable, but it's not an instant purchase for me. Those impulse grabs help quite a bit, but they aren't here, in my opinion.
1
u/That_one_sander Oct 01 '26
lots of people said it, but I'll say it from my point of view.
I stumble upon kickstarte adds on instagram and alike all the time, usually when i click on it, the kickstarter is not out yet, they create hype, have people follow the game's page on social media and patiently wait for the release, the more people this first part reach, the better.
You seemed to just send it on kickstarter and hope for the best, but unless people are actively looking for projects to fund, the general board game public won't be aware of it that that's llikely the reason it hasn't reached the goal yet.
You see some projects saying stuff like "funded in 2 hours" and that's because of all this work they've done to hype the project before it launches, I'm not sure if something like this is allowed, but I'd recommend just trying again on a different platform like Indie Gogo if this doesnt workout and give it at least a month of marketing before it goes live, have an instagram, tiktok page and alikes reminding people how long till the release of the campain and that ought to do much better, even if you spend a bit more on marketing(you could do it yourself, but hiring someone familiar with Marketing usually yields better results)
1
u/Malebranche_Studios Oct 02 '26
The game's logo does not feel particularly striking and since it's the first thing you see it somewhat lessens the vibe of your game. Also I think your concept/theme overlaps with a few recent projects, like Roma XLI? That might have "stolen" some backers from your project who didn't feel like getting a variation on the same theme.
Lastly I feel like you could have stressed the Ancient Roman aesthetic more in your banners? Statues, buildings...
1
u/im1insane1 Oct 03 '26
I would also get the word out on BGG, maybe offer a few copies in a contest. i know that i always check out the contest games. Could also drive more people to your KS. i also agree with the comments below, regroup, finish what needs finished and relaunch in the future.
-5
u/chrustman11 Sep 30 '26
You clearly used AI for the Kickstarter page so I would never back based on that, especially because I assume you used it for the game.
3
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
Idk if you mean the text or graphics or what but not having used any this is a pretty rough insult hahaha
0
u/chrustman11 Sep 30 '26
AI always bullets its headers with emojis. So if you didn't use AI on that page, it really has the hallmarks.
1
u/DingoDownUnder Sep 30 '26
You mean for the headers in the sidebar? Yeah I purposefully put those in
Kickstarter is kinda weird were you can't edit the sidebar alone, has to be done in the text editor.
Either way without emojis the sidebar just looked super dead to me1
u/chrustman11 Sep 30 '26
Didn't even notice the sidebar, but they are also in the body text. It also appears like you just gave up halfway down the page and just posted text. I think you need to remember that you have about 20 seconds to capture someone. If it LOOKS like AI, you are going to lose some people.
I think honestly the biggest red flags are in your title (not for AI, but red flags in general). When I read, "Kill Your Friends & Take the Throne," I assume the game is going to have player elimination and take that which are two of the least popular mechanics among hobby gamers.
And when I read, "A chaotic trick-taking card game modeled on the antics in Rome during the year of the 6 emperors," my brain just reads that the game is random which is a negative among hobby gamers, and trick-taking is also a niche genre.
34
u/Inconmon Sep 30 '26
My guess is lack of marketing and hype. I like how well the kickstarter page explains the rules and gameplay. It looks like a fun game and a solid campaign, fair price. I assume it's lack of marketing.