Community is the heart of crowdfunding. Developers who figure out how to utilize and grow an enthusiastic following are more likely to succeed with their campaigns. Indie newcomer, Twirlbound is hoping to utilize their growing backer community to fund their new action adventure title, Pine.
We previewed the project back in January and it has finally come to Kickstarter seeking $106,970. The campaign has gotten off to a decent start. Now Twirlbound is reaching out to their backers to help them spread the word.
In a recent Kickstarter update, Twirlbound announced the addition of crowd achievements to their campaign goals. Unlike traditional stretch goals unlocked through funds raised, fans can unlock crowd achievements just by participating in the campaign. This can take the form of sharing posts on social media, creating fan-works, visiting websites, or subscribing for updates. It’s a great way for developers to keep backers engaged with the project after their initial pledge while hopefully reaching new backers as well.
Failbetter had tremendous success with this during their recent campaign for Sunless Skies. Backers completed 25 social goals during the campaign unlocking additional rewards across all three games of the Fallen London universe.
Growing Together
Pine may not claim the fanbase of a Failbetter title, but over 1K backers have already thrown their hat in with the project. Getting fans talking about the upcoming title on social media is Twirlbound’s best shot at securing new backers.
Too often you get inexperienced developers who come to crowdfunding with their hand out, who don’t know how to build their community. Crowd achievements give more power to a project’s most vocal supporters, regardless of their pledge level. Hopefully, Twirlbound’s gamble will pay off and Pine will get, not only the funding it needs to succeed, but also the dedicated community.
That game looked like a shit.
Didn’t this go through the Square Enix Collective? I feel like it should have built up some kind of community at that point… but then again, I don’t suppose it did it at a time where they could take it anywhere (I know they’re taking indies to EGX Rezzed, for instance).
It looks good (Juril; you’re crazy, man), but sounds suspiciously ambitious. Particularly the claims regarding advanced AI that learn your tactics and enemy tribes that evolve or devolve based on your actions. Definitely seems like the type of game where they’re maybe too ambitious for what they can actually accomplish at the moment… but I’ll go in for a few bucks. Eff it 😉 That’s the joy of crowdfunding, eh? A lot of people giving a little, NOT treating it like a pre-order platform. If they fail, who cares – I’m out a cup of coffee or something. Meh. If they succeed though, awesome possum! We get a cool indie game.
Some of their AI claims have a definite Peter Molyneux vibe to them.