Hi everybody,

I would like to get some feedback for my kickstarter of animated game characters that is currently running:

I have changed the concept from premade stock characters to freely customizable characters that work like paper dolls.

The heads can be individually customized with a separate file to be used with the 2D skeletal animation tool Spine.

The body parts will be provided and can be freely exchanged between the toons, and the skeleton and animation data for Spine is also provided.

As things are not going as successful as expected, I would like some feedback on what I could do better.
Thanks in advance.

What's not working?

The funding goal was set very low (1600$), still there's less than 10 backers after 12 days of the campaign.

The feedback I got so far was that many people don't want non-exclusive characters. I have reacted to that by adding huge customization options within a few days (and by reducing the cost of some reward tiers).

This brought me about 4 new backers so far - I expected a little more ;)
The feedback on the quality of the art is throughout positive.

Is 20$ for a fully animated character that can be customized with a lot of different heads and skin colors too much? (not even the early bird tiers with reduced costs are sold out)

Oh I thought there was a problem with the art functionality. If you want to talk about kickstarter issues that would be more on topic in one of the forums in the "business side section". The art forum is for critiquing art and talking about art technique. Like, I'd comment that the human eyes seem to be staring blankly, while the monsters actually seem like they are looking at their opponents. And on the female body, the further-away breast seems to be down a little low on the chest. But it seems like a good idea for an art package, and the style is fun. :)

As far as the kickstarter goes, the big thing you are missing is the ability of high-level people to commission one thing to be added to your library. Like me, I'd be looking for cat ears and tails. I'd also like to know if there's a plan to do a follow-up with the same characters walking up and down, such that the library could be used for a 4-directional game instead of just a sidescroller/platformer.

But yeah, would you like me to move this thread to one of the business forums?

Thank you for the feedback. In the first version, I had the iris moving, but with the new customizations, this isn't possible anymore.
But I will look into the breast issue, this should be easy to fix.

As I am quite focussed on characters, there is only a high-level perk offering a commissioned character in terms of apperance and animation, so I'm afraid adding something completely different like cat parts, would cause confusion.
However, I am of course open to commissions.

Four directions would be a nice thing to have, but doing this with my approach would require me to create two additional versions for each skeleton, each animation and each body part, and I am not sure if this stands in relation to the extended range of users it would attract.

I wasn't sure about what caused the project to be less successful than I expected it to be, so it could have been the art or some business or market related things.
As people share their art and look for art for their games in this section, I thought it would be a good place to ask for feedback so people interested in art could maybe take a look at it and tell me what would make it more attractive for them, just like you did.

Thank you for the nice words and great feedback.

Hi,

An incentive to try your system is very important. Most dev companies offer a free trial, samples for free, and more price options - often rewarding someone for at least trying the product. The business aspects of a product can sometimes be a very major effort with upto 30% or more of cost going to promotion and advertising (such as a dedicated website and advertising costs to gain search engine ranking), so you might want to look into that, as well, and set a certain rate of budget toward marketing.

Thank you for the feedback. In the first version, I had the iris moving, but with the new customizations, this isn't possible anymore.
But I will look into the breast issue, this should be easy to fix.

As I am quite focussed on characters, there is only a high-level perk offering a commissioned character in terms of appearance and animation, so I'm afraid adding something completely different like cat parts, would cause confusion.
However, I am of course open to commissions.

The eyes don't have to move, I just thought they looked like they weren't quite pointing forward, but instead a little too much toward the player. Might be just my perception though.

I'm not sure how cat ears are different from the elf ears you have but ok. I do think that you should separate the ideas of people being able to commission an equipment (hairstyle or article of clothing), the idea of people being able to commission a full outfit (e.g. a suit of armor, but worn by a standard character), and the idea of people being able to commission anything exclusive, which should be at least twice as expensive as if they commission one that you can then have available for sale to other people.

I will see if I can provide a trimmed version of a toon for people to try out.
As I am doing this all on my own without having a budget to spend (that's why I'm taking the approach with kickstarter), I try to get in touch with people personally.

Although I enjoy connecting people, this of course takes a lot of time that could be spent to create more artwork.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of video games published every year (100 x 1000s), so for you to get noticed in the gigantic wilder beast sized herd, you must exert yourself by budgeting some of your time and DIY effort since you don't have the money, as you already see. What you will eventually realize is that people with lesser product than you are reaching more people than you by far because they invested a substantial amount of time in promotion and building a better marketing system.

What you will eventually realize is that people with lesser product than you are reaching more people than you by far because they invested a substantial amount of time in promotion and building a better marketing system.

Unfortunately that's true.

Maybe, in this case, it's also the fact that people want a bundle of all characters at a low price.

If I have to do it again, there will most likely be just one product, allowing you to create any individual toon.