Kickstarter Trials and Tribulations

The last two days were a bit of a rollercoaster over on the Haunts Kickstarter page. I made an announcement about changes to the game's focus and content, and did so in a decidedly unclear way that led a number of supporters to feel justifiably upset and concerned. It took me a lot of back and forth and thinking to realize that I hadn't made myself understood very well at first. And then there was a lot of constructive feedback from supporters that helped me chart a new path forward that most everyone seems happy with. 

The big takeaway for me was that it's easy to forget that not everyone knows what you know. I wrote that we were cutting back the single player story a lot because we are - by comparison with the sprawling, overly-ambitious, and impractical vision I'd originally had for the story. But none of the supporters had any idea how crazy-complicated what I'd been planning really was. What we're actually going to do is not very far off from what they were expecting (ie, something reasonable and fun). So they thought I was giving up on doing even that much, which was never the case.

Anyway, things seem to have worked out for the moment anyway, and it's a good lesson for me about clarity and thinking about things from the audience's point of view and answering the questions they're likely to have rather than writing to respond to my own internal monologue. 

Comments

[R Flowers]

I only became aware of your project through an article at Gamasutra. It was about your Kickstarter project troubles, so sorry to say. I think you're handling it well, and you may not be licked yet. The game-play-to-date video looks fantastic!

[Robby]

Are you dead? No post since Sept. A reference from this page (http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/05/my-favorite-programming-language-googles-go-has-some-coders-raving/) sent me to your kickstarter project and then this site.