I am currently developing something and I am wondering at what point I should make a Kickstarter and submit it to Steam Greenlight.
There isn’t too much information to find on this subject, so lets discuss here when it is the appropriate time to do so.
When you are past the prototype stage and are in at least alpha. You have to be able to show some of your art and gameplay in action!
Can you please elaborate on what a prototype stage is?
When you’re trying to figure out if your game idea will work. You don’t do all the art only to find out that the mechanics won’t work. Think of it as the proof of concept.
I am already past that, how much should you show in a Kickstarter/Greenlight video and what points make it so that people will like it? What do you tell people?
When it’s done. You can only launch a game once, so it had better be pretty polished and complete by the time it gets to Greenlight.
Your game should be at the point where you feel like its almost done. When you’ve finished the first 90% and are ready to move on to the second 90% you should be about ready for greenlight at minimum.
Ideally though you’d wait until you’re fully done so you can make the best impression out the door and not waste your single first impression you’ll get.
I would say that you should have a feature complete playable demo.
Get people interested in your concept (or find out that no one else thinks that it is fun), and then raise cash to finish it.
Overall you want something with lots of content and is very polished. No one wants to see something that looks like its still in very early alpha or does not have any actual substance.
Use kickstarter once you have a complete demo to show that encompasses much of your game, especially if your looking for funding to finish it. If your farther ahead, do the same, but make sure you don’t run out of content. And like said, you can only launch a game once. You need to give the best first impression possible.
In a Kickstarter video, what are specific points you need to address/show and how long is the optimal length of a video?
You need to sell your game through the video. Dont make something thats just bland and boring, it needs to be catchy and enticing, something that makes the consumer actually want to buy and play your product.
I’d say any trailer (at least to me) past 2 minutes would get boring and would lose interest, but I’m not exactly sure on that part.
This is very important. Most people just throw garbage on greenlight and expect a positive reaction. Needless to say, there is a cancerous trend of followers which will upvote anything because they believe the developer will deliver the evolutionary product they expect. This is likely never the case, and only shames the product, developer, and it’s naive followers.
Most “productions” exclusively begin their projects based on the deliverance of funds through kickstarter. A fine example would be mighty #9. They’re given the funds and nothing extraordinary happens.
If you want your name to be sullied by your lack of understanding of the business and production process, along with any expectations your audience may have, then use a prototype and pray for the best, otherwise? WAIT TILL YOU HAVE THE FINISHED PRODUCT OR A FULLY FUNCTIONAL DEMO OF AT LEAST 20% OF THE GAME.
A lot to ask for but realistic. You either launch like every other idiot, or you make it to the moon.
The more complete the game is when you start looking for support, the easier it will be to convince people to support you.
Wait as long as you possibly can, in other words!