Okay ANers and everyone reading this. Hold onto your hats cuz you won't believe this but it's true.
Want to see the real potential of crowdfunding? Want to see what it can really do and how it can influence our industry and change it forever? Well, here's a great example of the power of this new norm and what it can mean for us all.
A new project has just been launched just 2 DAYS AGO and you will be astonished at the results so far.
Well their campaign had lots of momentum before they started. They have a strong fan base from previous works and are all professionals. This isn't a case of Joe Six Pack coming up with an idea and making gravy.
However, it does show that established companies that might have capital access problems can call on their fandom to rise to new heights. Often what the fans want the companies may not be able to provide due to money problems.
In this case the creators and fans win out big time and it makes the property so strong it can't be defeated.
I agree its a big plus to have a strong fan base in place. But supports the idea that artists who work on big studio titles can make a break much easier. Using the fan base around the concepts they develop for big companies to launch their success. Makes me wish I would of stayed in the studio monster a little longer. hahahaha
Your fans are your lifeblood and treating them like royalty is a must. How many times have we seen movie franchises or tv shows ignore the fans and then die on the vine?
With a crowdfunding campaign you have to get the word out. Having fans means you have people who will do that for you and in droves. Facebook and Twitter being the new vehicles for this. If you have 5,000 friends who have 5,000 friends each you're bound to succeed with crowdfunding.
Yes that's true! My point being that you don't have to have high level studio experience to develop a fan base or take advantage of what crowdfunding has to offer. You go with what you got and work on expanding that base.
I started a personal art blog last may and now I'm getting as good and sometimes even better traffic that AN's homepage. This weekend I saw what a little bit of viral can do and it gave me an added shot of confidence.
And I'm learning how much fans can love you. Fan love is different than what you experience among professional colleagues. You may feel like nothing in the biz community but to the outside world they just love you and your art no questions asked. If you give them love in return they'll keep it coming back. It's a beautiful thing to embrace. You see it on Kickstarter all the time. Guys with no experience in our end of things but huge amounts of fan love who support them to levels beyond what one would see doing work for hire in a studio.
All I was saying is having some known titles helps with the fan base. But absolutely, there's still success with those who don't have that under their belts. And you don't need a lot of initial fans to generate some decent income. Just the right campaign.
I plan on campaigning a print. Keeping it simple. But in my campaign I want to share what it could potentially fund. I mean, a print is dope, don't get me wrong, but the fans want to know they are apart of something bigger, or then contributed to you finishing something. Not just printing something.
Fans are process junkies too!They want to be apart of it.
But for me, doing it in tiers, like print first then art book, story book, short films, music..etc...Exposing fans to building the franchise. They will be part of the experience. Keeping each tier simple with simple incentives. Clear agendas. Milestones. The fans online become the new board members and its our job to walk them through the business plan.
Here's what they have to say on their Kickstarter page under the heading of Why Kickstarter? Why Now?
"Our experience with crowd funding has been wonderfully positive for us at inXile and has opened our eyes to the power of a direct relationship with the gamers. We want to create RPGs in a fashion and style that helped to make the true classics. And along these lines we've abandoned the typical developer/publisher model and placed our future in the hands of RPG gamers. We've embraced the crowd in every aspect. YOU are our publisher...and you are the best publisher we've ever worked with!"
See how he focuses on direct contact with the gamers?
This must be driving the 'old boy networks' totally insane! The vice like grip that they had on distribution and production is withering away like crazy. The music and film industries are dirty, nasty, and violent. Now with crowdfunding and web distribution artists can bypass that old nonsense and not need radio airplay that was bought and sold for decades.
The good guys are winning like I said they would years ago when we started crowdfunding. I'm hoping when I get back into the game I do well. I'm studying how the successful campaigns are done. You can learn a lot by just chatting with the people who have had successful campaigns.
My emphasis is on medical right now. Getting people money they need for alternative treatments. Some win some lose but we keep on trying.
This video game success means the fans get what they want the way they want it. They're part of the creative process now and see the value of it. It's a lot like how us original Trekkies felt when we fought to keep Star Trek on the air back in the 60s. That scared Hollywood that people would stand up and fight for a tv show like we did and most of us were probably under 12 years old.
Keep fighting, get some AN crowdfunding success from you Charles and Bite and make AN a hub for artists and crowdfunding. I'm chatting with a few pals of mine with huge traffic websites to cut out a niche for crowdfunding. We'll see how that goes as one of them is a friend of AN.
I just gotta get me a job at a dead end work for hire couldn't care less about me in the process of downsizing outsourcing or going out of business mega studio!
The no question about it future is here my friends! And it's so bright ya gotta wear shades!
