Welcome Back!

June was a busy month for The Temporal War. The Kickstarter campaign went live, and unfortunately it seams we will fall short of our goal. At the time of writing this article, the campaign only has two days left, and it is only slightly over 10% funded. However, instead of dwelling on it, we’re going to treat this as a learning experience and plan for the future.

In this newsletter, I’m going to go over the lessons that were learned over the last month and how they affect our plans going forward. There were also plenty of other interesting developments and so much more on the horizon.

Let’s get to it!

Kickstarter: Lessons & Plans

Here are three key pieces of knowledge gained from this first go around with Kickstarter:

1. Have your fanbase / potential backers ready to jump on the train as soon as it leaves the station. Speak with major supporters before launch. For this campaign, we focused primarily on social media marketing (which is always a must) but it isn’t enough on its own.
2. Set a reasonable goal. The goal of our campaign was to raise $10,000, in the hopes of funding a large portion of production costs for the beta launch. Looking back, this should have been a stretch goal. Luckily, we did decide on a factory, and their quotes are very reasonable. So despite not meeting the goal, everything is still on schedule. We’ll just need a small loan to get started.
3. Clearly define your target audience and objective. Our Kickstarter campaign is/was focused on raising general awareness for the game and selling everyone on its concept. That was too broad. Yes, one of the key features of the game is its intuitive nature. Players of all kinds can find something about it to enjoy, but there is a target market that was left out of the equation…

At the end of this month, The Temporal War will take a second shot at Kickstarter:

1. This go around, the focus is going to be on game stores and competitive gamers. The intention of this campaign is to fund an early print of the game for stores to have, in case any of their regulars want to test it! The initial goal is going to be small. We’re going to be looking for at least six local game stores to back this campaign at $200 a piece. However, if we attract the attention of game stores across the nation, that would be wonderful!
2. The timing of this Kickstarter launch is more strategic as well. It will begin on July 27th and end on Sept 5th. July 27th is the day before the Southern Fried Gaming Expo begins, which is a convention based out of Atlanta, GA. While Sept 5th is a few days after the conclusion of one of the biggest conventions in the world, Dragon Con, which is also based out of Atlanta. Since these conventions are close by, I will be attending both as a guest, networking and running pop-up demos in the free-play areas.
3. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be visiting every local game store that I can find in the greater Atlanta, GA area. The idea is to find six stores willing to back the campaign as soon as it launches. There will be six Alpha copies of the game ready for the first six backers in the area. They will receive their copies as soon as the goal is met. All other backers will receive their copies as soon as possible, after the campaign ends.

I could go into more detail about this upcoming Kickstarter campaign, but that would take up the rest of this entire article. For now, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Social Media & Growth

Despite the campaign falling short of its goal, there is definitely a bright side! Our efforts to promote it on social media haven’t gone unnoticed. Slowly but surely, awareness is rising. It’s only a matter of time before the ball starts rolling all on its own! For example, about a week ago, I was contacted by a news outlet called c506. They wanted to feature The Temporal War in an article on their site. Of course I happily agreed.

Click here to check out that article!

Part of this growth, is possibly due to the “How to Play” series I started on The Temporal War’s Instagram and shared across the other channels. By the time the series is done it will be six to nine episodes long (1-2 minutes each). At the time of this post, there are currently two episodes released and two more in the works. Making these has been great fun and will hopefully continue to stir the pot, in a good way!

I also have footage from an interview with the manager of a local game store, Win Condition Games. This footage will be edited and posted to social media very soon. In the video, we open the Elves vs Beasts Alpha set and talk about the game a little. More interview style videos like these will be coming in the near future as well.

Time Management

With so much happening in the coming weeks, you may be wondering, “How does one person find the time to do all this?”

First off, one person can’t do all this. I have a marketing agency helping with social media and some video editing, and their help is greatly appreciated.

Secondly, the time has come to shift gears. With so much work to be done, I’ve dropped my availability at my everyday, restaurant job down to only a couple days a week. The rest of the time I will be focusing intensely on The Temporal War.

I wholeheartedly believe, that if you believe in something, you will make the time for it. I believe in The Temporal War, and soon everyone will begin to understand why.

It also helps that the manager where I work is so supportive and willing to work with my schedule. Good people do exist!

I’m excited about the future and so grateful for the support of the community. There are many more developments yet to come, so stay tuned!