Monday 14 November 2016

Post Kickstarter Joy...

Hello and welcome back to the Purgatory BLOG it's been over a month now after kind of went radio silent after the Kickstarter campaign went live.  What a good decision that was!

So to maintain the theme and style of a typical Purgatory post let's start with the easy bit... here's the latest from Purgatory...

* In case you have been asleep or have absconded from the interwebs, Purgatory reached funding very early in the campaign and managed to end funded. 
* Artists are lined up to bring the world to life.
* Sculptors have been assigned to make the models come to life and on to a battle mat near you, starting already with WIP pictures of Le Vulture.
* The background that accompanies the Rule Book is in the final stages of development.
* Our place at Salute 2017 is confirmed and we can't wait to see you again!

Phew... a small amount of news bit BIG stories to tell...

So how do we feel?

Kickstarting something with as much potential as Purgatory was always going to be intensive. There is so much to offer with out world that often we really don't know where to start.

The obvious and immediate answer is that we are elated to have funded. It means that we are already embarking on the next stage of the process to make our world that little bit more substantial. With rules, cards and the associated gaming equipment alongside a range of 25 models we are now in a place of real substance, if we weren't already.

The support we received during the campaign from Podcasts and from specific individuals was nothing short of humbling. That so many people wanted to see this project take a massive leap could warm the coldest of hearts and if you are reading this we are truly grateful for your support! Thank you!

What went right and wrong?

Some people might say "everything went right, concentrate on the positives" but the truth is very different. The positive as alluded to above is that we funded, what more positive is there?

However we do have some learning points. First and foremost perhaps a rigid and structured launch date is not right for small companies.  When we announced our Kickstarter we done so to give existing fans the chance to prepare for the campaign. We genuinely received a number of requests asking if we would hurry up and launch....

... however when we announced we were one of few but by the time of launch we were up against some real titans that secured funding in considerable excess of their requirement.

We would be naive to think this didn't have an impact on us and simply put as a small start up company, perhaps our offer didn't contain as much value as others, though £115 for over £300 of resin might be considered good value.

And it wasn't like we went against one, we weathered the storm of no less than 4 substantial campaigns! We almost feel like we deserve a badge that says "we survived xyz..."

We also learned that no matter how much you try, so many people want different things and perhaps our campaign was too complicated.  We received some excellent feedback along the way and we committed each piece of this to record so that we can consider it with the next campaign....

There's a next campaign?

Yes! Of course there is.... we promised you at the start that we wanted longevity for Purgatory and it doesn't stop at 2 factions, we will be bringing the Gangbangers and Refugees to KS in 2017 on very short campaigns. You asked for them, how could we not offer them right?

So what's next?

Alot. In fact, one hell of alot. We now are in the process of creating the pledge manager and giving people access a late backer so that you can get involved in the project and get hold of some of the limited stuff. Real life can get in the way at times and we want to give people the opportunity overcome that and get involved.

After that we will continue to work away, getting cards completed, models sculpted and produced ready for you to receive the game at the earliest possible time.

Will we be on time? Yes. Will we be early? Maybe not, we hoped to be, however a number of people defaulted on payment making our funding total alot less so depending on our progress in the coming months will depend if we can get this to you sooner rather than later but rest assured we will communicate our progress every step of the way.

Well that is all from us this time. We will be back in the coming weeks with more updates from the War for Heaven!

All the very best

Team Purgatory

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. You are neglecting what was the real issues in Purgatory.

    You didn't get a lesser funding because of other big kickstarters at the same time as Purgatory.
    To think that is the only issue (or even the most important issue) shows that you didn't took any feedback from facebook groups where you posted about Purgatory.

    There are currently 3 huge KS projects(Tiny Epic Quest, Pantheon, and.. Kingdom death), and at this time they are over 5.5M$ combined, and this is after the other big KS projects that run alongside Purgatory.
    Take special notice in Pantheon and Kingdom death, which are clearly miniature projects similar to Purgatory.

    If you still think that the biggest issue were competition from other projects in KS, then late pledges of Purgatory will be very high after the big projects fade out in KS.

    One of the real issue in Purgatory is that it is *not a game*, it's confusing and over complicated to be appealing.
    There might be value in Purgatory's minis but you should have enforced it was a miniatures project, not as a game, and there were several feedback regarding this issue before Purgatory's KS launch..
    Feedback about the complicated rules, about the excess of stats and abilities, about the lack of independent game reviews or any gameplay example (even with stubs).
    As recomended, you should have created a game page in boardgamegeek.com, this also shows how far from the community Purgatory is.

    There is always room to improve, I hope you take this feedback as construtive for the next step of Purgatory.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Kedulas

      Thanks for the feedback. Are you part of the Purgatory play testing group on Facebook? Do you have a copy of the latest version of the rules? How many games have you played?

      It would be great to hear specific feedback on mechanics and rules, rather than a broad brush, you didn't listen to me so your game and design is poor. We did listen to a great many people and some of their views were different, though some may have been the same.

      Please, please, please contact us at purgatoryenquiries@gmail.com and request a fresh set of the rules and we will happily send them out and we can begin constructive dialogue on improving the game in line with your expectations.

      It will be great to hear from you and we look forward to it!

      Team Purgatory

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