One of the key aspects of crowdfunding that most new developers overlook is the whole “crowd” part. It’s difficult to meet your Kickstarter goal if nobody knows about your project. This is why successful developers typically start marketing before the campaign launches. Standing out in the already saturated sandbox survival horror genre can be even more perilous. When Alderon Games wanted to pitch their newest project, Breaking Point on Kickstarter, they decided to enlist in a little help from their friends.
The persistent multiplayer survival game is set after society’s downfall due to a deadly viral outbreak. Gameplay consists of a mix of survival realism and modern shooter action. Breaking Point originally began as an Arma mod, but has since taken on a life (and engine) of its own. The team is seeking $300,283 on Kickstarter to bring their idea to Unreal Engine 4 with the help of a bevy of “partners.”
The campaign page boasts a list of over 30 broadcasters whom the team has tapped to help spread the word and take Breaking Point through its paces. One of their partner creators, Twitch Streamer, Sacriel has even joined the team as Lead Game Designer for the project. This collaborative method of development has its own blend of risks, but leveraging the already established communities of successful content creators like Sacriel can make a huge difference in getting a campaign noticed.
Prestigious Precedent
One recent example of this was Gun Media’s pre-launch content creator release for Friday the 13th The Game. The devs distributed the game to Streamers and YouTubers two days before its official release. The gameplay videos the creators produced helped Gun Media secure the top spot on Twitch, reaching a massive audience. All without an expensive ad campaign. Of course, their backers felt put out at not being the first to have access. Alderon easily side-steps this potential pothole by having Streamers participate in the game’s creation from the very beginning.
It’s a clever marketing maneuver that we’ll likely be seeing more often. So long as content creators continue to draw in enormous audiences. On it’s own, Breaking Point isn’t anything exceptional as far as sandbox survival goes, but its backer community is already over 1,460 strong and growing. That alone makes the campaign significant and certainly one to keep an eye on.
