Thoughts from a first time self-publisher before the Kickstarter part 9: Audience.
Sep 27
Welcome back! 3 weeks to go until the Kickstarter launch!
Best Part of my week (so far): Last week, I mentioned how William at The Hungry Gamer had connected me with Patrick at the Level Up Boardgame Podcast. On 9/22 the episode aired with a review of his experiences playing Super Snipers with William. To quote him, “This game, ROCKS!”. It was a really good overview of the game with some absolutely glowing praise. I was especially happy with how excited he is about the real-time aspect of the game. You can hear the segment on Super Snipers in Episode 71 at minute 29:00.
Most stressful part: The stress of nearing the big moment is definitely setting in. I am feeling significant anxiety about getting everything where it needs to be in time. I threw my back out on Friday and am still recovering from that. I’ve got a festival to play, a con to run a table at this coming weekend, and a Kickstarter page to make (a massive undertaking. DO NOT put this off to the last minute). Luckily, Hwa - Super Snipers Artist - is going to be doing the heavy graphic design lifting on that part. I just need to make all those scary “final” decisions around pricing, reward levels, shipping, add-ons, etc. Keep breathing….
The Numbers:
As of Wednesday at 2:30 pm compared to last week at the same time.
The Big Number: Nothing new this week: $22,399
FB page- 144 Likes 155 (+11) (195 Followers, haven’t been tracking this)
Public Group- 105 107 (+2)
Private - 68 No Change.
Pre-launch- 263 278 (+15)
Email list- 743 778 (+35)
Discord- 60 No Change
TTS- 136 143 (+7)
YouTube- 20 22 (+2)
Galen’s Games FB page: 165 172 Followers (+7)
Significant slow-down on the email and pre-launch numbers. I don’t want to make too much of it, but it does worry me a bit. I have a lot of stuff hitting in the next 3 weeks so I’m hoping to pump those numbers up.
Audience:
One piece of advice I know I have heard a lot when it comes to self publishing is to “know the audience for your game”. At first, I really struggled to even begin how to articulate the answer to that question. As I attempt to articulate it now, I will start with the disclaimer that I haven’t been successful yet so this is not meant as advice but rather just my own approach; for whatever it is worth.
A sum of its parts??
One way to think about your game, and the audience it appeals to, is to think about it in terms of mechanics, theme, and all the other features it brings to the table. So for Super Snipers, it would look something like this:
Theme: Post-apocalyptic; snipers; futuristic.
Style: Anime-inspired; arcade-like
Player Counts: 1, 2
Mechanics: Polyominoes; tile-placement; simultaneous turns; real-time; asymmetrical powers; racing; head-to-head; solo with automa; etc.
Now, think about all these individual things as circles in a Venn diagram. Those places where you see a lot of overlaps? That’s your audience.
What does this look like for Super Snipers? A couple of examples:
Head-to-head + polyominoes + tile placement: Couples who game together; fans of Patchwork; fans of polyominoe games; fans of Tetris.
Post-apocalyptic + Anime inspired + arcade-like+asymmetrical powers: Street Fighter and Tekken fans; COD fans who also boardgame; fans of games like Bullet Heart or other abstract anime games.
Now, the problem with this system (or perhaps my game, lol)? How much overlap is there between those two groups? Further, what kind of circles exist that totally eliminate players? Not every mega-fan of Patchwork will be okay with the sniper theme. And just the words “real time” scare off many folks (more on that, and my decision to have two ways to play the main game later).
Forging my own path: Two things are true: 1) There’s no point in making an original game that no one wants to play. and 2) Some of the most successful games have done something special that creates a new audience; one that didn’t exist before their creation.
Was their a huge audience begging to mash-up Euro mechanics and dungeon crawlers before Gloomhaven came out? Not really. While there were certainly gamers who enjoyed both Euros and Ameritrash, there weren’t many examples of successful games catering to both audiences (I’m sure someone will correct me). But Isaac knew he had something and made one of the biggest games of all time and, in the process, created his own audience.
One thing I love to see with Super Snipers is how players who are excited by the theme coming in, leave really excited about the mechanics. Then, there are players who love polyominoe games but are highly skeptical about the theme, who walk away amazed with how much they love the game and just how well the theme integrates (The polyominoe puzzle represents focusing on your shot, and it really delivers on that theme). For both of these types of players, they often get really excited about the possibility of their partners playing this game with them “Finally, a polyominoe game I can get my partner interested in!” or “Finally, a competitive, intense game, my partner will play with me because it’s like Tetris”
I don’t know how well Super Snipers will do in capturing its “crossover” audience, but I know I’ve done something unique and fun with it, and I’m seeing it through. I was encouraged early on to adjust the theme by many well-meaning and well-informed people, but as it developed, those suggestions disappeared and were replaced by players really getting it and getting into it.
Real-Time:
Real Time games are interesting in that they appeal to a very niche audience in the hobby market while still being a mainstay in the mass market.
There is a lot to like about real-time: it increases the intensity and pressure; it keeps things moving; it feels amazing to win by seconds or fractions of seconds; and it is (surprisingly) a relief for many people with AP (analysis paralysis) to “have” to make a decision instead of agonizing over the “best” decision without a time limit constraint.
There are issues with real-time too: some players find it too stressful; you have to be in the right “mood”; it is a skill and the separation between players who are really good at thinking on their feet and those that aren’t may be too great to overcome, leading to one player always dominating; and some people just really enjoy thinking through their turns.
Super Snipers uses a semi real-time mechanic for its “Quickdraw Mode”. Every turn, you flip a 10-second timer and when the timer is up AND you’ve placed your piece, you can start your next turn; no need to wait for your opponent. This mode is super intense and so fun. The time pressure also really underscores the theme of out sniping your opponent. I love playing it in Real-Time.
It also has a “Duel Mode” played in simultaneous turns. Each turn you place your piece and then wait for your opponent to be ready before taking your next turn. Still intense, still a ton of fun. This is the best way to learn the game. And you can come up with some epic plays without the pressure of the timer.
Again, many well-informed and well meaning people gave me the sage advice of picking the “best” mode and making that the face of Super Snipers. The funny thing was, all of those people (including the Cardboard Edison judges) were split down the middle as to which mode was the best! And they all felt very strongly which it was!
The prevailing wisdom is that having a bunch of modes makes it look like the game doesn’t know what it is supposed to be/ is underdeveloped. Also, if players start with a mode that they don’t enjoy, they are unlikely to keep going. I will explain why I have chosen to take the direction of keeping both modes with Super Snipers.
1) You have to learn the game. The fact is that you are unlikely to be able to play your first game of Super Snipers in Quickdraw Mode. There would be too many pauses to clarify the rules (this isn’t Chess, but it’s also not Blink). Even if I decided that real-time was THE way to play, I would still need a teaching mode for the game. Players directed me to Captain Sonar as a game that did this well.
2) Accessibility: Much like the Cardboard Edison judges, playtesters are almost perfectly split down the middle about which mode they would prefer; and many of them feel strongly about it. I’ve both heard “I would never play this in real-time” and “I would only play this real-time” dozens of times. The fact that the game can cater to either and both sets of players is a strength. Even if you love the real-time, it is a nice feature that you can still play it with folks who would never play it that way.
3) Identical Ruleset: At the end of my teach of Duel Mode (simultaneous turns), I tell players that Quickdraw Mode is exactly the same except that you use a 10-second timer for your turns and can take your next turn as soon as the timer is up and you’ve placed your piece; no need to wait for your opponent. That’s it. That’s the whole difference between the modes. But there’s a world of difference in the game experience within that small change. Players don’t need to re-learn the game to switch between modes and can 100% get what the other mode would be like with this short explanation.
“Fixing” real-time:
I would really like people to try Super Snipers in real-time. There are a few things I’ve done with the game to try to address some of the common “problems” with real-time:
1) The 10-second timer represents the fastest you can take a turn, not a hard limit. You can take longer to think about your turn if you want, and sometimes that can pay off!
2) The game allows for handicapping. If one player is just better at real-time, the game has ways to increase their difficulty independently until it feels “fair”. The game is already tuned with strong catch-up mechanisms that keep games close. This, along with the ability to handicap players (they get tougher target puzzles) should make the game fun to play even between players of different skill levels.
Alright, this week was a little more design focused, but hopefully still helpful. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this or other topics you would like to see covered. Thanks!
-Galen-
