Chatlands 2020 kickstarter!

Old announcement of past promotion rounds and updates to Wolfhome.
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Flore wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 2:38 am
I'm still on holidays, but I would love to put together a background team and do some art direction on some more streamlined art for the new site if you're still looking for artists. I work professionally as a layout artist for television and film and would love to spear head something like this if it needs being done.
One of my greatest challenges is getting this all organized. Please email me and let's talk. I am working with others but there are a lot of moving parts to this.
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https://www.kickstarter.com/help/fees

I am realizing that the funding goal of $5,000 may not be realistic but I don't want to raise it above that because of the all-or-nothing nature of how Kickstarter works. They're going to take more than eight percent of that money IF we reach the funding goal.

If I get precisely $5,000 that leaves me with $4,600. Sending rewards in an envelope costs me a minimum of $0.55 in the USA and $1.15 international for small and lightweight items (like a few stickers or maybe (?) a button...) That doesn't include the production and shipping costs to get the sticker/button made and sent to me so I can send it out with other rewards.

If we have 500 pledges that need to be sent a sticker, it will cost at a minimum around $775 (500 x $0.55 (postage) + 500 x $1 (sticker production and shipping costs)). That's probably too optimistic but even then the actual net on the kickstarter is about $3,825 and I haven't paid anyone on Chatlands for their help yet!

I don't want to raise the minimum funding b/c I am concerned that our community is so small now that $5,000 may not get funded. Consider that https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/he ... /fox-den-0 (which admittedly is not well known) only got two dollars after all the work they did setting up the kickstarter. Yes I know I will raise more than that but if I don't hit $5,000 or higher I have raised NOTHING. So it is a bit concerning.

UPDATE: So I am thinking that the minimum reward level for a physical reward is going to need to be upwards of $20 to $25 dollars for some stickers or a button. Reward levels below that don't justify the shipping and production costs. There's still the double deltas that every reward level is going to get regardless.

UPDATE 2: I am going to be updating that kickstarter notes page here http://chatlands.com/kickstarter later today with more accurate expectations on what the $5,000 funding goal will bring along with what I hope we can accomplish if the funding level is exceeded.
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If we could garner enough interest in the kickstarter and manage to keep it bare minimum, I wonder if a Patreon would be a good secondary step for further funding and future updates? I know a few longterm projects work with Patreon as a source for crowdfunding, that might be something to consider?

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Following this. How exciting! I hope we can breathe life back into this place.
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Flore wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 2:46 pm
If we could garner enough interest in the kickstarter and manage to keep it bare minimum, I wonder if a Patreon would be a good secondary step for further funding and future updates? I know a few longterm projects work with Patreon as a source for crowdfunding, that might be something to consider?
I like the idea of Patreon.

I think one idea would be early access/beta testing if you pay a good bit... lots of people like early access! Rather than it being open to all. I personally would probably throw money at the early access perk!!

"No one bad is ever truly bad, no one good is ever truly good."

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Here's something I really need help with soon. In the Kickstarter page I want to show screen designs for the new chat room interface (and other pages too like the improved bodyshop, mysts (no more text only pages)). If anyone has a good idea on how the web page for the chat room should look, let's talk about it. One thing I am thinking about there is having a side panel with everyone's name listed next to a small picture of their current pose. That way if someone is in the room on their phone they can appear over there instead of showing up as an actual avatar in the large room - which is kind of hard to use in today's code.

EDIT - I also am going to have a login page editor so each world can customize their home page (about TIME underdog!) and allow worlds to have other pages kind of like a blog or something. I am not sure yet how that would work but I am interested in hearing ideas. Some of that *may be stretch goals* I admit but I want to do what I can. The hope is that I can make enough money on this that I don't have to go out and find yet another "real job".
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Totem wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 5:09 pm
Flore wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 2:46 pm
If we could garner enough interest in the kickstarter and manage to keep it bare minimum, I wonder if a Patreon would be a good secondary step for further funding and future updates? I know a few longterm projects work with Patreon as a source for crowdfunding, that might be something to consider?
I like the idea of Patreon.

I think one idea would be early access/beta testing if you pay a good bit... lots of people like early access! Rather than it being open to all. I personally would probably throw money at the early access perk!!
Yes, we have been discussing the early access to the beta site as a pledge / reward level. What amount should I make that? I am not sure what to do there.
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One problem I have is that the ADMIN PAGES require a big overhaul and that alone is probably months of work. I really need to have that in the 1.0 version of Chatlands 2020 (man the version numbering is getting confusing). There are 47 separate items on just the first admin page and the site maintenance page has 22 more (although some of these are redundant since I am already talking about the room editor and map editor). But that's a lot of rewriting and I can't launch without it.
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underdog wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 5:21 pm
Totem wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 5:09 pm
Flore wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 2:46 pm
If we could garner enough interest in the kickstarter and manage to keep it bare minimum, I wonder if a Patreon would be a good secondary step for further funding and future updates? I know a few longterm projects work with Patreon as a source for crowdfunding, that might be something to consider?
I like the idea of Patreon.

I think one idea would be early access/beta testing if you pay a good bit... lots of people like early access! Rather than it being open to all. I personally would probably throw money at the early access perk!!
Yes, we have been discussing the early access to the beta site as a pledge / reward level. What amount should I make that? I am not sure what to do there.
Just from grabbing at a few other kickstarters early access- (video games) there are different tiers... so of course lower side comes with less and I see everything from 20 USD to 50 USD

IMPO I think we should do different tiers with different goodies! And to drive more income, different set times for each tiers early access.

To make things easy lets say August 1st 2020 is the launch for early access..

Tier 1: Early access with beta testing on August 1st 2020
Deltas x amount
Stickers buttons etc
(if artist is up to it custom sketch?)

Tier 2: Secondary access on September 1st 2020
Stickers and buttons
Deltas x amount (obviously lower than tier 1)

Tier 3: Final early access on October 1st 2020
stickers and buttons

Lets say it opens to public October 31st 2020- of course this is just random dates! I would price Tier 1 at 75$ tier 2 at 50$ and tier 3 at 25$... anyone is welcome to give their input and change it of course this is just an example from my 10 minute research and ideas based on some kick starters for video games:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dr ... escription
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bo ... Q0IYmOHPeU


Here you can see different tiers- pay more get earlier! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/su ... rly-access



--

as for the admin boards- I know they are a big job I remember the workload when I was on the team and the mass amount of pages... I definitely think it could be condensed just the work of course is a lot.. If I come up with anything in that aspect I will let you know

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dr ... rly-access I really like their idea of introducing the stretch goals up front with the funding levels baked in. I might try that so I can tell people about the Artists Market or the Sprite Animation when they might not be in the strict rewrite of the code (although I am still trying to figure out how to wedge in the artists market!).
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Ideas for kickstarter rewards:

Mailable goods:

Enamel pins (yes these are becoming all the rage lately) The guardian and guardianess (a few websites from quick google search) http://www.pinmakers.com/ https://www.thestudio.com/ https://enamelpinfactory.com/
Bumper stickers
Maybe patches?
Car decals of a silhouette of guardian (I may be able to do this one I would need a silhouette of him) These can also go on laptops for instance
Magnets? https://www.vistaprint.com/marketing-ma ... 0243&GNF=0

Tote bags? They can be customized and with states now banning plastic this is a good idea too! shipping costs of course is where it would get tricky. Flat rate envelopes may fit one though depending on size


Digital goods:

Sketches
Deltas
One month ultimate subscription and so on.
Perhaps artists can get together and do a collab of premades, you're only able to get if you donate

I will update this as I go but these are a few ideas..

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Oh I *really really really* want to do things like enamel pins (my child, Jo, now living in the UK, recommended that to me out of the gate a month or two ago) but ... consider that this takes a percentage of the pledge money.

Enamel pins are a little bit pricey because they are so nice, and shipping (especially *international* shipping) is also quite pricey.

What percentage should I spend on the "physical product" reward? I can do double deltas and rooms and post names to hall of fame pages, but if I spend say 10% of the pledge money on the reward, that is in addition to the 8% or more that kickstarter is taking for themselves so that's about 18% of the total leaving me with about $4100 out of the original $5000.

BTW I am just "spitballing" the costs of the enamel pins here. I don't actually know what it costs to get them made*, and then sent to me first, so I can package them up with the other things that pledge level inherits from earlier levels, like stickers or whatnot.

I *really* would like to do that but the pledge level for that would need to be at least $50 or $100 to get to the enamel pins.

So, I think I am going to put off enamel pins and see how this goes first, so that I don't spend all of the money before I get started coding.

I haven't made up my mind on this yet but the costs seem to be too high to manage that and leave me with any of the actual funds from the Kickstarter.

*to be clear I did check and it was too high but I've forgotten now. :)
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BTW folks! I need suggestions for the names on the pledge levels. I could go with something basic like precious metals or gemstones (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, ruby). Or with titles. Someone recommended I go with the Greek letter system we've used for ranks but I don't want to confuse the issue there so giving someone a 'gamma' or 'beta' title might make people think that they're a 'beta' on the site.

I could go with "Chatlands Fan" for the $1 pledge level, "Chatlands Supporter" for the $10 level, etc. Make some suggestions and IF I choose yours I will award you 5 deltas. :)

===underdog===

(disclaimer: if I've already had it suggested before you won't get the award sorry)
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Not sure on percentage wise on goods- mailable wise.. from what I'm gathering most goods will be on the pricier side- stickers of course being on the lower. I think 10% of more than fair again- if it reaches the goal I think maybe if we can gather enough artists on board or more digital goods instead it would for sure be better than having to deal with mailing things out and then shipment to you etc etc. Of course the higher spending could get actual mailable goods.. I will have to look further into what items could be done reasonably. :razz:

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I am reading through everyone’s responses just so everyone knows <3 I really love seeing the passion people have for Wolfhome come to light again. Considering some of the negativity I’ve seen from some wolfhomies in terms of the idea of Wolfhome growing and adapting, it’s really beautiful to see the lighter side.

Personally, I don’t see it being worth it to send anything physical for anything under a $50 pledge. If I was only spending $20-30 I wouldn’t be expecting to receive any physical merch. Especially considering the price for shipping international, it just doesn’t seem to be a good idea (in the interest of having enough money leftover from the Kickstarter to actually get things going.)

If you’d be interested though Underdog, I would love to draw up a sticker sheet of the site mascots. (Eventful, Celebria, Artie, etc)
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