Kickstarter

Hello everyone,

On kickstarter, there are a number of ways to answer questions - the two most common being the FAQ at the bottom of the page and the Comments tab. Since not everyone checks those, I thought I would both provide an update here and answer a number of questions from the Comments section. I will be very open in answering and I hope my comments do not appear trite.

First, however, as you know, there are less than two weeks to go in the campaign and we are a bit further behind than we had hoped. In a year of great projects, I knew that funding the mysteries could go either way. Regardless of what happens, it has been an unbelievably great experience and I have been very thankful for the great response we have had and the relationships I have been developing! 

So let me answer a few of the most common questions:

Q: Are you contacting the gaming sites? Get on it Dave!
A:  I have spent a good deal of time contacting gaming blogs and review sites, conducted interviews, sending out press releases, etc. Of course, I'll continue to do my best to get this in front of folks who might be interested in Holmes, mysteries and adventures!

Q: If the campaign doesn't reach the goal, what is the fate of dear Dr. Watson?
A: I tried my best to be up front that this campaign was NOT about funding or kickstarting (heh) my company (I mean, $55,000 doesn't go very far). In fact, the amount wouldn't be enough to pay taxes on the pledges. It was about getting others involved and on the game team and getting the games released in a timely way. We will continue to work on these mysteries and release them as we are able.

Q: So, kickstarter is an all or nothing deal?
A: Right. If we don't reach the goal, your card is not charged and you now have the funds to buy that thing on Ebay that you once had when you were 6 before that red-head kid who lived next door broke it.

Q: I think the levels could use some changes if you want more people involved. Come on Dave! Change those levels!
A: Well, the way kickstarter works, a level (and associated rewards) can't be changed after you have at least one person pledging against it. I have never done a campaign before and I agree that some levels could have changed. I tried to make them as accessible as possible ($9 for 9 mysteries) and for the in-game rewards, we only had a certain number that would work within the game. So, outside of adding new levels, they are what they are. Hindsight is a terrible/wonderful thing.

Q: You should have done a box game. I would have pledged $1billion dollars for a box game!
A: At this time, Zojoi is primarily a mobile game company but knowing these games were originally on PCs/Macs, we wanted to release them there as well! That said, the costs associated with releasing a full-blown box game (cause really, doesn't it deserve to be full-blown if we're gonna do it) was just too much for the smallish amount I was asking for in the campaign. Would big boxes = pledges? Perhaps. Dunno.

Q: What about Shadowgate and Deja Vu and the other adventure games? Are you gonna do those and will you kickstart them?
A: Yes. No. Yes, we are going to do those (in fact, Shadowgate has been officially started (taking advantage of touch screens in cool ways!) No, I won't kickstart them. I think if I were to kickstart another project, it would be a new game like Beyond Shadowgate (which we have a great design for). But that is unclear at this time. I will do my best to keep everyone updated on the status of the games - most likely thru the Zojoi site in the future.

Q: How are you doing, Dave?
A: Good! Thanks for asking :)

I try to answer email as quickly as possible. You can always email me at dmarsh@zojoi.com if you have further questions and/or rants and/or ideas.

Best,

Dave