Read on Twitter
So ZineQuest 3 has been announced and I see a lot of people getting excited about it. I got excited last year, and launched Night Reign. I wouldn't do it again.
This has nothing to do with the quality of the game I put out, which I'm proud of, and was the best I could produce within the constraints.
1) How it has to look
Working within creative constraints can be inspiring, but all of the restraints enforced by ZineQuest are aesthetic. Zines have to be A5, stapled, sewn or loose binding, and black and white.
Working within creative constraints can be inspiring, but all of the restraints enforced by ZineQuest are aesthetic. Zines have to be A5, stapled, sewn or loose binding, and black and white.
So this means your zine will look a certain way, but you don't get any additional inspiration as a spring board. And frankly, the way it looks will not be as good as if you did it outside of ZineQuest.
Not having perfect binding means no spine, which means you can't display it sideways on a shelf, which severely limits your retail ability for additional sales once the campaign is over.
2) It's just as hard as a regular Kickstarter.
One of the key benefits I've seen touted for ZineQuest is that it's a good place to essentially "practice" running a Kickstarter before moving on to a bigger project. I found it just as stressful as running a full scale project.
One of the key benefits I've seen touted for ZineQuest is that it's a good place to essentially "practice" running a Kickstarter before moving on to a bigger project. I found it just as stressful as running a full scale project.
Because... Well, it *is* a full-scale Kickstarter project. When we're talking production of PDFs and printing and distributing books, the process is identical. They're cheaper to print, but people expect to pay less, so my profit per book on Night Reign and Quietus was similar.
3) There's not enough time
Campaigns can only run for two weeks, so you don't have the time you need to really build up steam like you do over a longer campaign. Looking at the analytics, there's a very good chance that Night Reign would have kept selling steadily.
Campaigns can only run for two weeks, so you don't have the time you need to really build up steam like you do over a longer campaign. Looking at the analytics, there's a very good chance that Night Reign would have kept selling steadily.
So I'd estimate that only having the two week campaign probably cost me £5,000 to £6,000, possibly much more as it was trending on a day per day basis better than Quietus, which topped out at just shy of a modestly successful £17,000.
4) Really, there's not enough time
There's no run up. With Quietus, I had a full year to book artists and writers, do promotion, do podcast interviews etc. Which makes it, in a lot of ways, more stressful than a full, longer campaign.
There's no run up. With Quietus, I had a full year to book artists and writers, do promotion, do podcast interviews etc. Which makes it, in a lot of ways, more stressful than a full, longer campaign.
It also means you can't time interviews and demo games as easily to provide a mid-campaign boost.
You get about a month to prepare between the announcement from KS and the start of the campaigns. That's not enough time to write a new game, and if you have an existing game written, it probably deserves a better release than you can give it via ZineQuest, at a time you decide.
5) The market is swamped
Whenever you launch an RPG Kickstarter, you're always going to be competing against a bunch of other projects, but launching at a time when hundreds of projects that look kinda like yours are launching far outweighs the promotional benefit of taking part
Whenever you launch an RPG Kickstarter, you're always going to be competing against a bunch of other projects, but launching at a time when hundreds of projects that look kinda like yours are launching far outweighs the promotional benefit of taking part
6) It maintains the idea that indie RPGs look cheap
Think about who's encouraging you to produce an objectively poorer quality product than you could and question what they have to gain from that.
Think about who's encouraging you to produce an objectively poorer quality product than you could and question what they have to gain from that.
If you've read all this and still want to take part, my final advice is don't make a game. You don't have the time or the space to do it justice. Think about what suits the zone format and run with it. Adventures, new classes, something quick and easy.
