Andromeda Acolytes Kickstarter – 6 days to go

Playing Project Announcements
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Greetings all. I’ve got six days to go on my sci-fi adventure Kickstarter, and more than six days’ worth of pledges to collect if I’m to hit the target.

While the odds are against it, one thing I know for sure now in life is that you have to keep taking actions as if you will succeed if you want to have that chance of succeeding. So I’ll be tackling the last six days in the same reaction-and-opportunity manner I’ve tackled the preceding fifteen.

You can definitely help! If you haven’t already, back and/or promote the project:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wadeclarke/andromeda-acolytes-a-state-of-the-art-sci-fi-text-adventure

I’ve got some cool rewards, like this key feelie that is a prop appearing in the game, manifesting in our world as a laser-engraved USB key:

usb - andac proto small
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or a double-signed poster with Marco Innocenti’s artwork.

There are also opportunities to get your name in the game, create news-in-the-game headlines or craft an artist NPC cameo.

More links!

The game’s presskit with a pile of media

The Spread The Word page, from Aaron Reed’s template

I know a ton of you have backed me already, and thank you again.

For everyone else, this is your chance to join in something exciting. Thanks for taking a look. I expect my next post will be when I’m down to the last 48 hours.

-Wade

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Many forum regulars will recognize Wade from the recent Let’s Play of Cragne manor, where his Music Room has been one of the very few to unsettle the usually unflappable M. Russo. If you’ve been thinking – “that was great, but if only I had more Wade Clarke playthough content to enjoy, ideally filtered through another Ryan Veeder / Jenni Polodna collaboration” – I have great news for you:

Of course, the best option is to back the Kickstarter and grab the demo. Fingers crossed for the home stretch!

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C’mon, y’all. Chances are that Wade has helped you with a technical problem in a thread here. We’ll get a phenomenal game out of it. We’re all very used to getting high-quality IF for free, and that’s nice, but think of all those free games you’ve played. Think of how much you would have spent if you had paid App store prices for those, and how it would have been worth it.

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Let’s gooooooooooo.

A lot of us are going through hard times, but we still have a voice. Even when everything seemed bleak, our ancient ancestors would still find time to paint artwork across the walls, because art and expression are inherently important.

So even if we don’t have monetary capital right now, and even if times are really scary, we can still paint on the walls of the Internet, because art is important.

Things are counting down, but time is still opportunity!

If you have a Tumblr account, or an account on any site that has tag-based search, hype this Kickstarter over there.

Use all permutations of tags for “interactive fiction” and “text adventure”. Use tags for this genre of sci fi and literary science fiction. IF is more likely to attract mainstream readers than mainstream gamers.

When you hype it up, keep in mind that we are REALLY NICHE, so market it for people who don’t even know what interactive fiction is.

“Do you enjoy reading science fiction? What if you could send a wide spectrum of commands and tasks to the main characters of the book, and work alongside them?” Etc, etc.

Reach out to the Expanse crowd; reach out to the Neuromancer crowd, reach out to the Starfish crowd! Get the eyes of tag-based search engines! Any other books that might have a similar style of worldbuilding, hype those similarities up, too!

Even if you don’t have an audience on a site, the tags will still find the people who would be interested in this game.

Use the images from the press kit when you post! Catch the eyes of people scrolling by!

Make sure to mention that this is for an indie game! Latch onto that direct support initiative! These donations are not going to Disney or another major corporation; they are going to directly support someone who cares about this community, and would like the resources necessary to give back!

If you’re not able to donate, then that’s totally fine! We can still attract more people who can and want to, and that only costs a single post of space on a few pages!

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I admit, I upped my pledge to help get AA closer to crossing the line. I suppose I’m invested in it more since Wade sent me the beta early.

I’d forgotten about Clash of the Type-Ins, but now I remember that episode. It’s been six years? Wow. Also, there were some episodes I missed. It’s also good to see all those high ratings too. The hosts definitely earned it. I hope they find time to bring it back, but there’s more than enough, for people who haven’t looked.

It occurs to me we need more stuff like Clash, and I think we have podcasts that do boost the signal of text adventures so KickStarters like this could set the goal higher.

That sort of community-building is really hard work, though.

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Just 24 hours to go!

And less than 2700 $ to reach the goal.

Let’s help spread the word!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wadeclarke/andromeda-acolytes-a-state-of-the-art-sci-fi-text-adventure

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With some 20 hours to go, it’s close. I ended up bumping my bid. I think that’s the only way it will cross the finish line. Hopefully, some others can bump up theirs too.

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I just bumped up too - only $2,300 to go, that’s tight but it could happen!

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I just did the same. Shipping costs mean I’m less interested in the physical rewards, but I’m adding some extra money on to my pledge just because of the Music Room in Cragne Manor. That writing deserves it.

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I posted it in a large (in IF terms) group where it hadn’t yet been announced. Maybe that’ll get a few people.

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Man… 13 hours left, and approx US$1,500 left. So close. I’ve been posting this where I can, and tagging the hell out of it.

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I upped my pledge today twice.

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Oh hey, I joined the donation-adjustin’ cool kids’ club too just now!

There’ve been some people who’ve come through with big donations.

I’m also amused that one of Wade’s works came up randomly at an unexpected source: one of the daily spotlight puzzles for webpbn.com! (When this rotates, remember it’s 21108. For those who like paint by numbers, it’s kind of fun. Okay, really fun.)

The odds of this happening are no better than 2 in 5000 (I think) because I’m guessing there are 25000 puzzles and 5 levels of difficulty. So I really enjoyed the coincidence.

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Since it doesn’t look like the Scott Adams KS is going to make (sadly), I was able to up my pledge a little bit.

About $600 USD to go

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I just realized, you know, my pledge is in a weird amount in US dollars since the tiers are Australian dollars - so I can just round up, that’s no big deal. Just an idea for other folks thinking of how they can help!

About $500 left - I don’t want to jinx things but OMG I think we might be doing this!

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Upped mine!
I just did the math… if 24 people pledge only $30 AU (about $20 US), this will be a go!

TWENTY BUCKS, y’all.

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I don’t have any friends outside of here that play IF, but I’m asking around to anyone who might have a vague interest and might not have heard of IF yet. Hopefully they might know other people who play IF. Here’s hoping! Might even get some new players out of it, too, lol!

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Oh my gosh, with nine hours to go it looks like it’s exactly funded!! Congrats @severedhand (and everybody who helped!)

That was a real roller coaster - I was honestly doubting it was going to happen, but wow, what a comeback!

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AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! WELL DONE, EVERYONE!!!

CONGRATS, WADE!!

I feel like that was a really close call, given all the factors! But we did it!!

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There were just so many factors at play here … I was resigned to it probably not happening, too, but Wade put out regular updates, etc.

It was cool to see Kickstarter superbackers write comments on the project page, as they probably have developed a good eye for who will follow through and who won’t.

So my hot take is that there must’ve been a nice critical mass of community backers that helped the project get in the ballpark of being funded, and superbackers who were paying attention may’ve been looking for this sort of thing, where the person asking for funding is well organized and competent and communicates well, and they may need a push to hit a reasonable goal. So it’s cool Kickstarter has/seems to have a network, formal or informal, for this sort of thing.

(I’m still greedy. I’d love to see the nice round number of 250 total backers! But that’s not critical now.)

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