Love 2 Hate - the Editorial Pass and Going to print

I write this in a time of exciting news for Green Ronin - see http://greenronin.com/blog/2015/04/02/press-release-wil-wheatons-new-rpg-series-to-use-age-system/ for more...

At this stage of the Love 2 Hate story, Green Ronin was in possession of the full set and the list for Kickstarter expansion.  We had hoped to make enough on the Kickstarter to have the product printed in the US - it would have been *way* more expensive, but also quicker.  As we just got over the mark, GR had to look elsewhere to print, which added a small, but necessary delay.  This wasn't helped by a dockers strike, which i am not sure has yet been fully resolved, which meant a lot of cargo ships - including some containing GR products, were not being unloaded and there was (is?) a large backlog building up.

Chris was now to do his editorial pass.  I was not expecting this to be be fully honest.  I had thought, in my first-time-designer naivety that we had somehow wordlessly agreed on the final formation of the cards.  As it was, Chris suggested removing less than 10% of the cards and suggested replacements.  I was initially stunned a little. i looked at what was to be removed and felt it might dilute the nature of the game.  The purpose of this editorial pass was to remove any cards which could trigger upset in the players. Now I designed the game with the intention that it would not cause offence or upset so I was 100% behind this idea, but I felt that some of the cards should remain.

I emailed Chris back with what I felt I could be happy with, what cards I wanted, some alternate suggestions to his alternate suggestions, if you follow.  Chris, being the wonderful fellow that he is, was fully of compassionate patience at my newness and innocence and took on board a lot of suggestions and we reached a compromise with which we were both happy and, it is my earnest hope, with which the players will be able to thoroughly enjoy safely and happily.

I think the importance on not reacting to editorial passes and the willingness to compromise are so core to the realisation of any creative project to final product.  So, too, the realisation on the behalf of the creator that the final version is, indeed, a product and that the publisher has as much vested interest in its final incarnation as the creator, if not more so - the publisher has image integrity, company profile and the jobs of the people who work for the company to think about.

I have always said that when you create a piece - poetry, writing, game, whatever - it yours, but as soon as you send it out there, it becomes a fusion of you, the editor, the players, the publisher, the director, the audience and whomever else may be involved.  You cannot be over-precious and should always be willing to collaborate and compromise - it is not dilution of your ideas - it is rather their evolution to final form.  Having been through this process, I hold this to be true with greater certainty than ever.

The, it was off to print!  Which is exciting.  I can almost hear the click-clack of the printers.  in this, I am completely supportive of the delay for cheaper printing - it means that we can have the game retail at under $20, which was always a central desire of mine - and of GR's, I think.  People will pay over one note for a game in a market where the average price for a full game is well over $20.

All that is left now is to get the game, and go through a round of demos and see what I can learn from them!

Lessons Learned:

1. Editorial passes happen just before printing.

2. Always be willing to compromise - that goes for both sides I think - but realise that the final product is the companies game as much, if not more so, than "your" game.

3. If you feel that there is room to negotiate, and feel that it is required, be reasonable, polite, open and ready to have your suggestions rejected - in my case with L2H, I feel the compromise was fairly even.

Roll on the final game!

Love 2 Hate : So - we funded. What next?

So, Love 2 Hate was funded on 9th August 2014.

The next steps largely took place within Green Ronin.  Hal and co came up with concept art which quite honestly blew me away.  Chris had asked me about preferred colour schemes but the design was purely there's and I really couldn't be happier with it.  The bomb/heart motif is fantastic.

We had previously got a few demo decks prepared - we had hoped to have them for Warpcon 2014 where Chris, Nicole and Kate from Green Ronin were attending, but they arrived in the hotel on the Monday after the con!  In the meantime, team GR also had decks in the US, so I could take the ones that arrived then.

These demo decks did a tour of cons as the kickstarter was going on and again  - I LISTENED TO PLAYER FEEDBACK.  The main issue was the font of the finisher cards.  I mean, there were a few typos, but these were only demo decks, so I was less worried about that.  So, the feedback went back to GR HQ and it was agreed that, in the final set, the font on the finisher cards would be block caps as opposed to cursive - thanks for that feedback guys!  Player feedback does (and should) inform the final product.

There was also the kickstarter pledges who wanted to be part of the game and paid for a card of their own to be included (thanks!).  Another lesson on kickstarter - there will be a surge of people coming back to on you on such pledges and then ... nothing.  I took on the job of talking to the pledges regarding their cards myself as the creative guy behind Love 2 Hate (man, that sounds more pretentious than I wanted it to be).  I wanted to say thanks to some pledges and work with them.

Some people pledged and didn't want cards, I guess, but we got the vast majority of the bidders' cards in and worked with them on their suggestions.  I then filled in the blanks and sent it to Chris for the final editorial pass.

I also finalised the card list for the main game, again based on feedback form players, toning some cards down and taking out others to produce a friendlier set - the game is fun and rude and naughty but genuinely (I hope) not offensive and we have done out best not make it a trigger for anything.

So the next step was work, more refining and working with the bidders.  Important lessons learned were:

1. Not all bidders will reply.

2. Have more cards / components than you need ready in the early design stage and keep them, as you never know when you will need them.

3. Bidders are not designers.  They ideas may not fit with your vision.  Accommodate them as bets you can - remember they *paid* for this and deserve their input.  But the are also people and understand compromise for the best product.  But be gentle and work towards their desires, rather than you own.

4. Keep refining.  Keep play testing.  Keep listening you your players.

Next entry will be sooner, I hope, and on the experience of the editorial pass up to current day!

Thanks for reading

Love 2 Hate: The Kickstarter Experience

Love 2 Hate: The Kickstarter Experience

 

Green Ronin (GR) and I decided to go down the kickstarter route to raise $15,000 required to print a few thousand copies of Love 2 Hate. 

The main reasons for this choice were:

 

1.       GR were relatively new to card games and possibly may not have had as many ready avenues to support card games as it did RPGs (preivous RPG kickstarter launches with GR were very successful).

2.      I was an unknown quantity in terms of games designer, though a little bit known in some quarters as an individual.

3.      It presented an opportunity of free marketing.

4.      To give GR printing capital up front.

 The usual desire is to hot about 40% of your target in the first few days of the kick-starter as the graph follows a bathtub design – that is hits high at the start, dips to almost static during the middle and rises to a peak at the end.  Hopefully.

 The start hit just under 30%, which was a little concerning, but it was early days. 

The middle bit was tough.  It is a tough balance to ensure it is life in peoples feed and mind without, frankly, p*ssing people off too much and seemnig too pushy.  I hope that we got the balance right.  There were a couple of small peaks after cons and publicity shots, but the middle was pretty static.

It is quite emotionally tough to log in every day or a few times a day and see no bids.  One tends to lose faith in oneself, the product and it is difficult to remain positive.  I had great friends around me and continuous encouraging words from GR, friends and the Irish Gaming Community at large, which was entirely invaluable.

 My kickstarter experience became a back issue in the middle of it as a personal family tragedy hit and hit hard.  I am not going to provide details here, but suffice to say it pretty much took me out of any monitoring of the kickstarter and related issues.  GR were fantastic in the support they offered here.  It means I cannot talk much about the science of updates, but I am sure there is good stuff out there on that.

Cutting to the end, we were actually approaching target.  As it was going to be a nail-biting finish, GR decided to run with the larger game (which had been a stretch goal) to get it over the line, which was very good of them and meant they would have to absorb a good whack of cash.  I think I spent about 6 nervous hours of refreshing that page, right up until about 2am (it finished at 3am my time.

 What I will never forget is the wonderful support of dear friends into the final hours, who were with me on various forms of social media, and the rush of dozens and dozens of messages and notes of congratulations once it was funded – which told me that there were at least 20 other people watching the bids as closely as I was.  I cannot over-emphasise the power of this support.  Put simply, I will never forget it and it truly meant the world to me.

We funded, which was great.

The main thing left open was those people who bid to have cards made and, several months after the close of the kickstarter, many have yet to contact me with cards!  I hope to resolve this delay shortly, but it is tough when one is depended on any quantity of other people :)  (anyone reading this who has a card outstanding, contact me).

The game release date has been pushed back to March – which I think is something people expect form kickstarter these days.  But there is good reason for it in terms of costs and also in terms of being able to get it ready and fresh for GAMA!

I am 98% sure I will be at Gencon Indy as well to actually have a game in my hands and sell the heck out of it.

 So, what I learned from the kickstarter experience

1.      It's tough to get a balance between publicity and annoying people

2.      It's a tough emotional journey.

3.      Nothing happens in the middle bit, which does not help the emotional level

4.      You may have to add more towards the end to boost it.

5.      Other people's signal boosts help exponentially and always remember to thank people when they do boost the signal.

6.      The end is exciting, but hold off drinking too much coffee to stay awake as you will NOT sleep at all that night.

7.      Post bidding delays happen, especially with things outside your control.

8.      Some bidders will be slow sometimes to add their bits, should they have bid for something to add.

Next time – the Game!