Kickstarter

When my alarm woke me up this morning, I switched it off, and immediately checked the Kickstarter page. Who knows, it could have made a huge jump overnight. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Everybody was at the office during the final moments of the campaign, but we knew that we were not going to make our goals.

Even though the reasons for our failure are being discussed right now, I think it's important to take our time and reflect on what we've done and what we were able (or failed) to achieve over the past month. Fortunately, the gloomy situation turned into productive discussion. And we come up with a plan on how we would improve ourselves, and show our project to the world again in the near future.

So in the end, we can't help feel disappointed about not making our goals. However, we have learned that a lot of you believe in our project and that gives us the drive to continue, and make Cross of the Dutchman the best game it can be.

In case you're left with questions, let us know and we'll update the list below with our answers.

Q: What can I do now that Kickstarter is not successful?
A: We would love for all of you to register an account on crossofthedutchman.com and join the discussion about the development of the game. You can also Like our facebook page, and make sure you're up to date on the most important bits of news.

Q: What will happen to the project?
A: We are still committed to have this project see the light of day. We will have to search for alternative ways to fund the features we have set during the Kickstarter campaign.

Q: When will we be able to see and play the game?
A: We will announce our new plans very soon. You can expect new information within the next week or so.

This is it. For one full month, this campaign has kept us awake, pushed the limits of what we were able to write, create and show to the world. And now, with little less than 24 hours left on the clock, we will continue to push until the very end, and bring you the latest about Cross of the Dutchman.

First; Yesterday and Friday, Pascal Brander was hosting a Livestream where you could witness the creation process of the Kickstarter poster. A lot of you joined us for hours on end, asking questions about the game and about Pascals' techniques. For those of you who don't have 12 hours to watch the whole thing, we've compressed the second session in a video of about 11 minutes (much better, isn't it?). And of course, we're happy to show the final result. This A0-sized poster has tremendous detail and quality, and we can't wait to see it in real life! You too can receive the poster simply by backing us at the $250 level.

Second; the good people at FOK! dedicated a second article to Cross of the Dutchman on their website. Even though the interview is in Dutch, it's definitely a good read if you want to know about the specifics of running a Kickstarter project, and gameplay decisions in Cross of the Dutchman.

And finally, I would like to thank everybody who stood behind this project so far. You are our most avid supporters, and I sincerely hope that you will keep supporting and following the project beyond Kickstarter. Personally, I believe that Cross of the Dutchman is a game well worth playing, and it warms my heart to see that many of you have already shown your dedication to the project. Please consider sharing this message with your friends one more time, and let's hope for something great to happen!

We've got about 48 hours left in our Kickstarter campaign, and it's safe to say that we need a real miracle in order to reach our funding goal before the time runs out. Getting featured by Gamespy got us a nice boost during the weekend, but we will need many more articles like that to make a standing chance. Our Reddit Thread went pretty good as well, a lot of people asking questions and upvoting us as much as they could. The livestream drew a nice crowd, with people asking questions and watching Pascal create the poster throughout the day.

But with only two full days remaining, and almost $38k left to go, all we can do is keep pushing, and keep hoping for that last minute turn around in the campaign. But we won't let anything drag our spirits down, so we stopped being sad, and started being awesome instead!

Today, we are continuing the Livestream, and you will be able to see Pascal finish the epic poster that goes along with the $250 pledge reward, it is really something to look forward to! (click here to tune in, make sure you watch all day long)

Today, we are releasing four more awesome screenshots from completely new environments. This time, we're showing Workum and and Stavoren, the small harbor towns show how diverse the environments in Cross of the Dutchman will be.

And finally, Today, we are putting up a one-time-only "Legendary Savior Pledge". Simply put, you are capable of funding this project single-handedly, and you care enough about Cross of the Dutchman to grant us the ability to continue working on this awesome project. We will invite you over to our office for a hug, a firm handshake and a meeting behind closed doors where we will discuss your exclusive promotion deal for Cross of the Dutchman.

That's it for now. Remember to share the news as much as possible, even though your friends might have already become tired of you sharing all these updates with them, it's the best way to get awareness of our project out to the people. Thanks again, and see you tomorrow on the final update.

In yesterday's update, we let you know that we will be hosting a live stream of the creation of the Kickstarter exclusive poster. As of 9:00am UTC+1, the stream will be running and throughout the day you will be able to see how our art director, Pascal Brander, turns an empty canvas into a masterpiece.

Follow the livestream at:
*** http://www.livestream.com/crossofthedutchman ***

Also, yesterday we hosted a topic on Reddit to let a completely new community know about our project, we had a lot of support and we're already seeing the first Redditers join the Kickstarter campaign, welcome guys! We will keep an eye on the topic today as well, so feel free to head over to Reddit and ask us anything!

Reddit link: http://redd.it/u2tp4

As for press, our German neighbors are giving us a lot of support! The blog kopftreffer.de wrote an article about Cross of the Dutchman, calling on all their readers to support us! (read it here in German).

New Reward: Designer Pledge
Let me ask you something, have you ever thought about being a game designer? Well, because this is an awesome project, we are now giving you the chance to design part of our game. When you choose this new Designer Pledge, you will be given the tools to design your very own Cross of the Dutchman quest. 

You are able to decide everything from dialogue, enemy types, mission objectives, surroundings and much more. You will host your own topic on the Ambassador boards and at the time of the Beta you will be able to tweak your quest to perfection. Your name and quest will be mentioned in the credits as well as any contributors who helped you design your quest.

We offer this great and unique opportunity at the level of $1000 the cool thing is, you will also get all of the other pledges on top of that. Is that an awesome pledge or what?

Only six days to go, but who are we to lose our spirits? The Kickstarter dream doesn’t end until we say it does! On to the topic of the day. We can announce that tomorrow, Pascal Brander will run a Livestream that shows how the CotD Poster that goes with the $250 pledge is created! You will be able to follow the stream at the following location: http://www.livestream.com/crossofthedutchman. The stream will start approximately 9am UTC+1, and will last the entire day!

Today, we will be invading the Reddit boards, and try to get the support form the internet legion. You can help us directly by upvoting our topic, and of course by participating. We will be available live for four hours, and we will answer any question about Triangle, Cross of the Dutchman, Game development and all other things you would like to know.