This is it – we have just launched our Kickstarter campaign Our goal is to raise the funds necessary to finance mass production of Hereticle… no, that’s the wrong way to put it. Our goal is to bring the excitement of Hereticle gaming to wider gaming community! We’ve done our homework, we’ve built and tested a bunch of prototypes. We’ve seen Hereticle in action, we love it, and we know that you gamers out there are going to love it, too! Now you can help make it a reality, for your own enjoyment and for the benefit of thousands and thousands of gamers across the globe. Please support our campaign and help us spread the word!
Category Archives: Blog
Kickstarter campaign submitted for approval
We’ve just clicked on the green button! After the last round of checks and double-checks we submitted our projects to be reviewed by the good folks at Kickstarter. Hopefully they don’t find anything objectionable about it… and how could they, right?
We’ve put a lot of thought into the pledge levels and their rewards – we thought there shouldn’t be too many of them, and we wanted to make sure the rewards are fair. Here’s to hoping we’ve done a good job there!
The Hereticle Photoshoot
Phew! And I thought the video was the hard part… it was a hard part, but then I started working on making some more photos of the production prototypes for the website and for our Kickstarter page, and let me tell you – that’s no walk in the park either. We actually made several “simulating surfaces” in different colors out of Lego so that we could make photos of how Hereticle would work on monitors of different sizes. But the work has paid off – we’ve made some nice shots that demonstrate the gadget nicely.
Some more work on the text for the website, last design touches… This thing is coming together!
Kickstarter video is ready
The clip is ready!
After an entire day of filming with a camera operator who actually knows how to operate a camera (did you see how many buttons those things have?!) we had about 3 hours worth of video footage. Did I mention that the suggested length of a Kickstarter video is a couple of minutes?
Two more days for sorting through the footage, locating good scenes. Some additional filming of Hereticle in action. Then a day for sound recording. Then two days of editing. Then we had the first draft, which at first looked like a complete and abject failure. We looked it and thought “this isn’t going to work, we must re-shoot the entire thing”. But, little by little, we identified the problematic spots, cut some, replaced some others, added music, some video effects – and voila! The video looked much, much better! Our editing guy even said how impressed he was with our screenwriting and directing. Well, I don’t see any Oscars in our futures, but we’re pretty darn happy with ourselves right now.
Making the Kickstarter Video
In case you didn’t know, one of the most important steps in preparation for a Kickstarter campaign is making a video about the project. Piece of cake, right? Wrong! While we do have a range of great talents in our team of veteran FPS gamers, those talents – alas! – do not include film acting, directing, or editing. Quite the contrary, it appears that the entire team is camera shy and possesses the stage fright gene.
But make the video we must, so we’ve decided that while our oh-so-not-photogenic faces will appear in the video, we will ask for some professional help with the voiceover. I’ve put together a script to fit this plan, and it seems to be doing a pretty good job in describing the roots and the goals of the project, what we have already achieved and where we’d like to take this thing. On to filming!
Hereticle Works! On to Kicksrarter…
A great deal of work has been done since we first started working on this project. The proof of concept, the several prototypes (still finding Lego parts in various nooks and crannies of my office!), the field tests… We’re now confident in the enriching value Hereticle brings to the gaming experience, and that this gadget has the potential to inspire new gaming modes and new games!
And now the decision is made – we’re going to appeal to the crowds of gamers on Kickstarter to raise funds for mass production of Hereticle. This seems like a natural way to go for this project – both for its validation and for the feedback from its backers.