IP Incubator Club Thread 2013: Monthly-008: July 29-August 31- 2013

#41

Well that’s definitely an interesting kind of situation… but now your predicament is how to get there without it feeling contrived or forced.

The “bags”… I’m sure I cannot be told what they are for without spoilers… but I am assuming they have something to do with Anonymity or a Shame/Discretion element… these can be hard to establish.

Harder still is to establish how a “Level A Baghead” can end up in an intimate situation with an outcast (which I am assuming here is someone without a bag?)…

One NATURAL way… maybe…is they were BOTH Bagheads… but after making wild love to each other… the FEMALE Baghead… TOOK HER BAG OFF…“No more masks… let me see you” and 197A won’t do the same!

And this makes her an outcast… And keeps 197A under the shadow of a scandal… because now SHE IS HIS BAG… She won’t reveal what happened…

That probably could work.

#42

Haha brother stop right there now. You are spoiling the film :wink:
All I can tell you is the situations/scenarios that you are suggesting are already there. Along with a lot more elements. :twisted:

#43

CONCEPT NAME: Le Gouffre

PRODUCTION BLOG: http://legouffre.com/en

CATEGORY: Animation

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Le Gouffre is an 8-minute animated short film about two travellers who embark on the amazing journey of crossing an impossible gap. We are working full-time on this film, living on our own money, and we are basically trying to tell a great, dramatic story for everyone while creating a unique look that blends hand-painted textures with realistic animation.

PROJECT GOALS:

Win festivals, then make a big hit on the internet and gain the visibility and credibility that will allow us to eventually be able to live on telling our own stories.

STATUS NUMBER: 9

TEAM MEMBERS: 3

Carl Beauchemin - Animation and Rigging
Thomas Chrétien - FX and Compositing
David Forest - Animation and Art Direction

START DATE: July 2011

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: December 2013

WIP THREAD: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=153&t=1085457

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:

We’re meeting up with a producer tonight to show him what we’ve got so far. If we don’t manage to get some financing, at least we hope to get some tips or new contacts that might help us.

WHAT WENT WRONG:

We’ve lost some time preparing documents and rendering different parts of our movie for the meeting, but hopefully it will pay off!

SHOW AND TELL:

We posted a little teaser on our blog for our upcoming teaser!

Other than that, here’s a few tree textures I’ve been working on lately for some forest shots:

#44

CONCEPT NAME : Pole Force One
WEBSITE : www.combomash.com/pole-force-one/
PRODUCTION BLOG : www.combomash.com/category/production-blog/
CATEGORY : Video Game (OUYA, PC, MAC, Linux)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION :

In this tongue-in-cheek, co-op, beat 'em up game, you play as one of three sexy super-hero strippers as they travel the world fighting against injustices such as sex-slavery, violent drug lords, religious extremists, corrupt governments and greedy corporations. Along with the help of their trusty DJ and his robotic creations, you’ll be thrown into a wacky adventure reminiscent of many classics - such as Double Dragon, Streets of Rage and Battletoads - but with modern polish and gameplay.

STATUS NUMBER : 3
TEAM MEMBERS : 2

Chris Taylor - Concept Art
Grant Moore - Everything Else

NEXT MILESTONE : Kickstarter Campaign Launch, November 4th 2013

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK

I’ve been working my ass off to do the necessary prep-work in order to launch a Kickstarter campaign. Been doing lots of research, gathering resources, planning schedules and determining exactly what I need to run a successful campaign. The most important thing I’ve learned recently is to focus my efforts on generating money and not building the game. It’s tough, because I’ll need a prototype to do that, but I need to think in terms of marketing the concept and not what the best development practices are.

Please feel free to have a look at the rough draft (written only) of my campaign. A lot more will be explained through images and video, but it would be helpful to get any kind of feedback before I really commit to anything.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/combomash/85773688?token=3dcdd28c

Oh! I guess one big new thing is that I’ve decided to go after the OUYA Free the Games Fund, where the company will match dollar-for-dollar funds raised on Kickstarter if you agree to go for a 6-month exclusive on the console. I was already planning to release on it, so I figured it’s worth a shot to try for! The biggest challenge will be getting PC / MAC / Linux fans to not see it as a negative, but rather a positive… more money = better quality final product!

WHAT WENT WRONG THIS WEEK

Not really “wrong” but I didn’t get to work on the actual prototype at all this past week and longer. I did not adequately prepare myself for how much effort simply writing marketing materials and preparing a campaign would take. It’s more than a full-time job!

SHOW AND TELL

Nothing to really show off this week, but feel free to check out the website holding page here.

http://www.combomash.com/pole-force-one/

#45

@Frotze - That’s exciting news! Don’t worry about any of the “wasted time” because now, you’ll have the rendered sequence available to you for any future marketing needs. I hope it works out!

@Roberto - It would be awesome if we could get an “IP Incubator Club” banner or something. Just a nice little graphic we could all stick on our websites and promote this initiative a little.

#46

Sorry, had a lot of practice lately… so I can spot and make story patterns quickly. :stuck_out_tongue:

At least I know we’re on the same page about it on this story.

Since I recognize the patterns you will be using, I must add my vote in and say “It’ll work.”
Carry on. :wink:

:beer:

#47

@Grantmoore3D: I been looking through the white-and-pink Pole Force One page… I see the school girl and the punk girl and these various “Street types” on the bottom margin.

I’m honestly not feeling the “night club” vibe that I think this project calls for… I mean, you ever been to one of these places implied by your concept?

For a concept that claims it is going to be using strippers and street gangs, this feels like it is in another sphere that’s more “anime/high school life” inspired than inspired by garters, leather fetish gear, dim lights, nubile women losing clothing, and alcohol.

Not criticizing since of course that page contained only a couple of rough concepts and nothing else… but just saying I didn’t see what I thought I’d be seeing.

I’d feel like a hypocrite who didn’t care if I didn’t voice my concerns.

#48

Hey ya’ll.

I just got back from Japan. I was there on vacation and doing research and basically living one of my dreams since I received the opportunity to go.

So what went right the last couple of weeks? JAPAN!
What went wrong? Having to come back from Japan.

Anyways I am getting my Kickstarter together. It is not live yet but I wanted to share with you a clip from my campaign which will go live this month.

//youtu.be/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7AQ7s0x5aI&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7AQ7s0x5aI&feature=youtu.be

(why doesn’t the youtube button work for me?)

If you guys are trying to get a cool video together and do not have all the time to get some of the smaller tasks done you need to check out a great tool.

It is called Fiverr.com You can get folks to do testimonials, edit video, animate an intro, draw a quick picture, promote your website, and etc. Really great aid so far for me in helping me get some things I need done to help my project look a little slicker.

So that is where I’m at. I am working on a quick cinematic to show folks what I can do.

I’m finishing up story and outlining all episodes but basically working on a kickstarter which I will not post here so no worries about me breaking rules. I’ll keep the forum clean. I just wanted to share that little clip and share that resource with you.

#49

@Grantmoore3D: you might want to look up artwork by Luis Royo for “Battlequeen 2020” and the Malefic Time/Avalanch comic books. I think that’s going to really help in kinda injecting more “leather acid” into Pole Force One while still using the katanas and other exotic elements you were looking at… Take your audience/players to a kind of universe they haven’t seen.

Oh and I recommend making “pole spinning” a gameplay feature… your players will love it!

#50

@CGIPadawan - You bring up some really good feedback, thanks for being honest, that’s exactly what I need at this stage. I would have to largely agree with your summary and say that I DO plan to push it more in the direction you are suggesting. It’s an indie-game after all, I can do whatever I want so long as people are willing to throw money at it, right? It’s just that unfortunately right now, I don’t have anything visual to show that properly matches my intended vision and here’s why:

My friend is volunteering his time to create concept art that meets my requests, but the designs are purposefully being pushed into a “safe” zone. This is because he wants to be able to use them in his personal portfolio and unfortunately that means not having too many potentially “objectionable” materials. If I had cash on hand, I would hire an artist and get exactly the over-the-top designs that I intend to have in game… but for now I have to make do with what I can get because I can’t draw worth shit.

I can assure you that his designs are the “PG” version of what I intend to create when I get time to start sculpting these babes in Z-Brush, you’ll see a much sexier, over-the-top designs coming to life. There’s also some other concepts coming down the line which give a much better impression of the overall dark, night-club, neon pink/blue/purple lights vibe the entire game will be set in.

So, again, thank you again for the feedback, it’s incredibly valuable to hear what you said because now I have to think about how exactly I’m going to present the style I want, with the art that I have available to me. Suggestions are welcome. I think even throwing them onto a dark background with some “neon lights” highlighting them, might even do the trick. Will be hard though since he sketched them on a dark background so the values will be all messed up.

edit: OH, also forgot to say that YES! There will most certainly be a lot of pole dancing influence thrown into the character’s moves. I’m actually thinking of dropping by a pole fitness club some time in the future and see if I can get them to help brainstorm some unique moves. Plus… you know… have fun watching the athletic ladies do their thing :wink:

#51

@banman7 - First, to get YouTube all you have to do is put the YOUTUBE tag with the watch variable in the middle, like this (without spaces)

 [ YOUTUBE ] F7AQ7s0x5aI [ /YOUTUBE ]

Alright second, I’m not entirely sure why you would want to be using this video service. I suppose if you’re really not good on camera it could work for you, but I’ve been doing a lot of research into Kickstarter campaigns and one of the key ingredients to success is for the people backing it to relate to YOU. As much as people think they are donating to cool project, they are also donating to you as a person and I feel having a random person explain your project might not be seen as a vote of confidence, backers won’t feel comfortable not knowing who gets the money.

As an alternative, I would suggest designing your video such that the first portion of it describes the project and for this section you can absolutely hire a voice actor or personality to explain it. But you absolutely need to follow up that first 30 seconds with a short clip of you introducing yourself and your motivations behind the project. I guess what I’m saying is use this video tool effectively, but you cannot rely on it completely.

#52

Hello Grant, it’s very important that you were HONEST enough to reveal this element. Now everything makes sense! :slight_smile: Now we have to deal with it. :slight_smile:

I think you’re going to Kickstarter with this? The current artwork will not match the expectation of the product and people who invest. It’s like if you call your film “Mad Max” and you show images from “The Breakfast Club” but tell people “It’ll look different when it’s final”… It’s not going to be fair to what you are doing or what the market is expecting. It makes things VERY difficult for you.

I think when I was very enthusiastic about this I wrongly assumed that Pole Force One’s team involved people who can safely “do Heavy Metal”. This artist you got right now is actually pretty good… and I think maybe what I can recommend is… ask him if he doesn’t mind appearing in credits only OR if he doesn’t mind that he does REAL concepts for you then adds clothes on the girls for his portfolio version… Masamune Shirow does that a lot, and he’s as “dirty” an artist as they come for this subject matter. I’ve had the rotten luck of seeing all his “bare versions” and this separate sheet he keeps with “just the clothes”.

So it’ll be like you share this “dirty gallery” that will never see the light of day. His portfolio remains clean… and he has total deniability if anyone confronts him about it.

Also remember that you can always just “skirt” the issue (hehehe pun intended) by really just never actually showing any true nudity… you just need suggestive stuff… Again, in this secret gallery. The purpose of this move would be to “free” your concept artist.

I cannot emphasize enough how “evil” this thing has to look to sell. Again… It’s not that I personally love strip bars (they are really horrible places to meet people)… but it’s because the concept started from there… you really need to put it in black, drape chains over it… the entire shizzaz… and then be a bit thick-faced about where you’re taking it. It’s a game… it’s about gameplay first and T&A second. :slight_smile:

Good luck.

NEW SUGGESTION:

The Artwork that appears in KICKSTARTER and the GAME SITE can have all this “NSFW”… “Don’t Show Your Mom” Watermarks and things of that nature… with the original “Bad girl” art… WITHOUT your concept artist’s signature… on his portfolio site can be the same pieces but with different clothes on… and those he can sign…

You’re kinda honor-bound with each other that you just have to be discreet about referencing his role in the production.

Again, I’m not sure 100% what the situation of your concept artist is. I did deal at one time with a guy who was doing Race Awareness/Christian work… and he had REAL problems with what we were going to do… with the guns… the killing… and in the end we couldn’t make it work.

The best thing really is to sit down with your artist (who is REALLY talented) and just kinda agree on a way to cover for him without compromising what Pole Force One needs… which is really… the kind of … .art style that would damn you all to Hell… for the sake of entertainment. lol :stuck_out_tongue:

#53

Since I recognize the patterns you will be using, I must add my vote in and say “It’ll work.”
Carry on. :wink:

CGIPadawan,
I owe you a beer.

CONCEPT NAME: Le Gouffre
PRODUCTION BLOG: http://legouffre.com/en
CATEGORY: Animation

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK:

We’re meeting up with a producer tonight to show him what we’ve got so far. If we don’t manage to get some financing, at least we hope to get some tips or new contacts that might help us.

Frotze,
Those tree textures are beautiful. So looking forward to the teaser. How did the meeting go? Hope you guys made it.

CONCEPT NAME : Pole Force One
WEBSITE : www.combomash.com/pole-force-one/
PRODUCTION BLOG : www.combomash.com/category/production-blog/
CATEGORY : Video Game (OUYA, PC, MAC, Linux)

grantmoore3d
Nice looking site and campaign plan. Remember to touch up your artwork before the launch. Perhaps sculpt some R rated over the top characters that you are planning and post some nice renders rather than concept art. That should also help you in getting attention. Good luck!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7AQ…eature=youtu.be

banman7
Nice! Perhaps you should get the logo for “I love Kaiju” etc. in the video itself. Good luck.

#54

@redCigarette - Oh yes, I will absolutely have at least one of the characters created in high resolution and working in the game prototype before launching. The Kickstarter Crowd will definitely want to see the actual game working before they would hand over any funds, and rightly so, they need some proof I can pull it off.

#55

The other way to “get away with it” is to sort of go in a totally different “Rival Schools VS Yakuza” type of direction that might still get you some of that racy quality that you were after:

//youtu.be/8NJYHt-0Nvk

This type of thing might require a re-write where Schoolgirls-Schooljocks fight against a “Yakuza White Slavery Ring”…You can even make them cops… you know… like “21 Jump Street”. Then you rename the game as “White Slave Alley” and that way ALL the artwork your artist made before on the bottom margin applies (especially that guy in the white jacket and pants cause he looks like a pimp).

You can still have the poledancing thing, but it might actually be now more subdued and level-specific… the other levels can have gags like Varsity Sports gags, etc. Then later Yakuza/Pachinko machine gags

The whole “Fight the Yakuza White Slavery Lords in an Amusement Park” thing has FANTASTIC gameplay possibilities:

//youtu.be/RbB6g_zXiFc

Imagine that but with Schoolgirls dialed up to 11 attacking the Amusement Park!

The above images illustrate what I think should be a good “modesty” target for both you and the artist you got so now you can just focus on having fun with the idea. :buttrock:

#56

Thanks, but I don’t drink. My imagination is “crazy” enough without alcohol or drugs. :stuck_out_tongue:

#57

Alright second, I’m not entirely sure why you would want to be using this video service. I suppose if you’re really not good on camera it could work for you, but I’ve been doing a lot of research into Kickstarter campaigns and one of the key ingredients to success is for the people backing it to relate to YOU. As much as people think they are donating to cool project, they are also donating to you as a person and I feel having a random person explain your project might not be seen as a vote of confidence, backers won’t feel comfortable not knowing who gets the money. As an alternative, I would suggest designing your video such that the first portion of it describes the project and for this section you can absolutely hire a voice actor or personality to explain it. But you absolutely need to follow up that first 30 seconds with a short clip of you introducing yourself and your motivations behind the project. I guess what I’m saying is use this video tool effectively, but you cannot rely on it completely.

Oh yeah it is only a part of the video. I’m also changing models.

This is an outline of the video

Intro
Technical Show off (shows what I can do with even stock models)
Girl Intro (the part you saw, but changing it)
Me telling the details and begin introduction of characters (more personal)
Morgan Freeman voice introducing characters

What went really right this week was getting past my writers block for the Kickstarter. I didn’t know how I was going to do it and kept coming off goofy but in the end I just have to be genuine and just tell it like it is.

Okay so I’ve searching around on how to promote Kickstarter projects and trying to get past just the facebook stuff. It talks about forums with simliar themes. Like if you are doing Furries go to furry forums and such but honestly most I’ve seen have a no Kickstarter policy.
Even this site has one so we can’t really drum up that kind of support here either. Even Reddit.com has a simliar policy on personal web comics. I know forums are not the only way but do ya’ll have any ideas to hit up.

I do have Fiverr promotion and setting up backlinks and such.
My own personal website and some comic posting sites where you can post comics.

Any idea on advertisements and reaching a lot more people?
CGI Padiwan.

I have come up with a separate business plan.
I’m teaming up with a few artists who create cool toys, games, etc and I use my cartoon to advertise for them. They pay me only when they sell something. Right now I’m trying to work with an artist who creates cool statues and stuff out of junk and recycled metal. I put an add in there with a code. If a user puts in a code and they make a sale using that code I make a percentage of that sale. Say they sale something for like $200 then I get 10 dollars or something to that effect. Plus I make my own Tshirts not of my characters but of crazy things people would like to buy.

When my characters get a fan following then I’ll do my own merchandise and toys. Hey it works for Hasbro and Anime has tons of merchandise with it. :slight_smile: My goal is to make at least 10k as a side income and hopefully when I reach 40K I quit all day job work. That is my goal. I know not riches but something realistically attainable and I can live off that. If somehow I make a million dollars then that would be great but trying to focus on making a living and moving to Latin America to live cheaply and make cartoons, comics and toys for a living.

#58

Thanks man! I guess the meeting didn’t go as well as it could as we didn’t walk out with a pile of money, BUT he was super interested and helpful and will to see if he can at least get us some free sound studio rentals and such. He also convinced us to try applying again for that grant we’ve been aiming for (supposedly, almost no project is accepted before the third time, same goes for feature films) and he’ll be giving us a letter of recommandation. Deadline is next friday but we already have most of the documents from last time so that shouldn’t be too hard.

#59

PROJECT NAME: Blaster X HD by 2GMG

Blaster X HD: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blaster-x-hd/id615851024?mt=8

COMPANY: 2GMG LLC (2 Guys Making Games)
CONTACT INFO: www.facebook.com/2GMGames and www.twitter.com/2GMGames

CATEGORY: Games

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Blaster X HD is an Arcade Action-Puzzler that is designed for all generations of iPad and iPad Mini. Experience Over 400 Levels of non-stop gameplay spanning across 9 Diverse Worlds. You have free-reign to start from almost anywhere on the screen - Fling, Guide, and Manipulate your Blaster as you try to collect all of the Power Orbs. These Power Orbs are the fuel to your Blaster and keeps it moving. A perfect mix of reflexes and wit are needed to propel yourself to the next level!

STATUS NUMBER: 9

TEAM MEMBERS: 2
Rudy Gjurkovic / Co-Founder
Joshua Chapman / Co-Founder

START DATE: End of 2010

COMPLETION DATE: 5-1-2013 (Released)

WHAT WENT RIGHT THIS WEEK: We have been working on making a couple of more tweaks to our game and also working on the Metadata for the AppStore. I have a new idea that I wanted to try, which would be to target other markets beyond the US. First, I am going to see how it works tailoring our Metadata to Germany. We have been getting some more exposure from Germany, including a really great review from Appgefahren. I think translating our Metadata to German will help greatly, so we are in the process of doing that.

As I mentioned in the above paragraph, we just received a great review from a German review site, Appgefahren. Google can translate it for you, but there is a lot that is lost in the translation, esially the impact of the words that they use.

***Appgefahren Review: http://www.appgefahren.de/blaster-x-hd-indie-leckerbissen-mit-uber-400-physikbasierten-puzzle-leveln-78635.html

We also have been getting contacted by more individuals and our Twitter and Facebook members,etc. have been growing.

WHAT WENT WRONG THIS WEEK: My Twitter Blast Bash that I did on our twitter account where I gave out a Promo every hour, did not really go as well as I hoped. While giving out a free Promo, I just asked if the person who used the code could please re-tweet my tweet that has that Promo-code so I can see that it is used. It would also help in marketing. Well, it turns out that only 1 company re-tweeted and they didn’t even use the Promo. However, all of the Promos were grabbed very quickly - just would have been nice if people could have done a simple re-tweet, especially when they just got the game for free.

SHOW AND TELL: Nothing for right now.

2GMG on Facebook
2GMG on Twitter
2GMG on YouTube

Thanks,
Rudy

#60

Hey heres a good method to build followers on Twitter.

http://www.eagerbeaverwebwerx.com/2012/07/twitter-tips-how-to-get-more-twitter-followers-strategies/

Its worked well for me so far. I’ve actually taken a small break from marketing to focus on some of the conceptual stuff for Wrath.

This weekend im back on it though.