Root Double- Before Crime * After Days - Kickstarter launched!

[Dark_blade64]

3 hours ago, Decay said:

I'm as big of a Steins;Gate fanboy as they come and I thought it was just fine? You're making a mountain out of a molehill, here.

Just saying but even if you think is fine that doesn't mean everyone will take it the same way.

[CeruleanGamer]

Since everyone is sharing opinions like a mother fucker, here's mine: It's not better than Steins;Gate because S;G is one of the best time traveling VNs in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE and it's impossible to top that...

[VirginSmasher]

24 minutes ago, CeruleanGamer said:

Since everyone is sharing opinions like a mother fucker, here's mine: It's not better than Steins;Gate because S;G is one of the best time traveling VNs in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE and it's impossible to top that...

Isn't it one of the only amazing ones because I've looked through all the really good Japanese VNs and none of the other time travel ones seem to interest me.

[CeruleanGamer]

3 hours ago, VirginSmasher said:

Isn't it one of the only amazing ones because I've looked through all the really good Japanese VNs and none of the other time travel ones seem to interest me.

Yeah because it's a rather complex read. It is very detailed in its storytelling unlike most sci-fi visual novels.

[VirginSmasher]

Just now, CeruleanGamer said:

Yeah because it's a rather complex read. It is very detailed in its storytelling unlike most sci-fi visual novels.

It's one of a kind, that's for sure. I don't think that kind of greatness can be replicated twice. Even the other VNs in the series like Chaos;Head don't come close in my opinion. Of course, this is all an opinion off of the anime because I still haven't had time to play Steins;Gate. This is the moment in time where I really hate exams because they distract me from the things I really want to do.

[Darklord Rooke]

Stein's Gate seems like more hard sci-fi, whereas Root Double more mystery/suspense. Comparing two stories of completely different genres is always a hard thing and often comes down to preferences and what you enjoy. Blick Winkel said he felt the characters of Root Double were more fleshed out, which tends to be what happens because hard sci-fi concentrates some of its time on the concepts/world/plot. He further said Root Double has more choice and consequence, again a valid point but how much weight you place on this depends on the individual.

Was it bad form for the TL to compare one project to another? No. I hope we haven't become so sterile a world that nobody can voice an opinion without people getting offended, have we...?

[ChaosRaven]

I really want this Kickstarter campaign to succeed. I enjoyed Ever17 quite a bit and this ones seems to be very highly rated and a worthy successor.

And not to mention that it has an ADULT protagonist who's NOT a school boy and it has a very interesting story premise which is NOT about school life. It's hard to believe that it's written by a Japanese writer. Over the years I almost got the impression that they are genetically programmed to write about school life or there's a law like mosaic censoring which forces them to include school life themes in everything they write.

The only exception seems to be if they're writing about tentacles, in which case they seem to be allowed to omit school life themes and... uh wait... I suddenly get a very bad feeling. That can't be true!!! 

Anyway, the campaign doesn't look that bad so far. It's slowly getting close to 50 %. If the Libra campaign is over public attention will move to Root Double I guess. Considering how much money Libra gained in the last days, I think Root Double should do well too.

[Darklord Rooke]

3 minutes ago, ChaosRaven said:

And not to mention that it has an ADULT protagonist who's NOT a school boy and it has a very interesting story premise which is NOT about school life.

Oh, thank God! 

[Clephas]

12 hours ago, Dergonu said:

It´s probably a mix of the two, but I think that few people know about it is the biggest issue right now. SP haven't done too much PR with this one. It´s kind of a shame. Then again, considering how popular they have gotten after Grisaia and Clannad there is still hope they get noticed more and more towards the end of the campaign. 

Also, seeing as the tiers have been improved thats a plus for future backers. 

Both.  The tiers were bad, but the very fact that I don't see advertisement on every VN-related site I browse says they aren't working very hard at it.

[LightBladeNova]

Okay guys, so I asked one of my Ever17 Gamefaqs acquaintances, Funchal99, to personally request Kotaro Uchikoshi, whom you hopefully all know as the writer of the Zero Escape games and co-writer for Ever17, to spread the word about this Kickstarter himself, and that worked out well he's made a post on his Facebook and Twitter, so it'd nice if you could like/share/retweet them.

Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/kotaro.uchikoshi

Twitter tweets: https://twitter.com/Uchikoshi_Eng?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't think of this idea before... and why no one else did either.

[DavidB]

16 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

This guy's name is Chopped Liver.

Wanted to pop in and give a big THANK YOU to those of you who have supported RD and helped to spread the word.

Kickstarter and other crowdfunding campaigns can be very tricky. Not only do they rely on the creator(s) to push and help spread the word, but backers as well. Backers are the lifeblood of these campaigns. We read and take into consideration everything that gets posted on the campaign page.

And yes, we could certainly use your help to further spread the word. Be it a tweet FB post, carrier pigeon, etc. Show and tell the outlets that you frequent regularly that it is something that you feel passionate about and that their readers will be interested in hearing about. It's a team effort.

We have members of the team who are primarily focused on Root Double while my primary focus is on our current releases (Strawberry Vinegar, No One But You, Rabi-Ribi) and upcoming releases for Q1 2016. That's not to say that we aren't pushing the campaign, we have distributed news about the campaign's launch (https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/684464856435527680), plugged it in a couple interviews, and have been fairly active on social media in regards to further promotion of the campaign. We have also generated some pretty cool new backer rewards, and have been steadily posting campaign updates. We want to see this one blast past its goal just as much as you do.

We are still a relatively small publishing/lic. outfit and not even one month in to 2016 we have three releases in January plus the Root Double KS campaign ...not to mention several other titles on the horizon. It's a lot titles to be working on simultaneously and by such a small, dedicated team. Sure, it's not an ideal timeframe to be working on so many projects at once, but sometimes you have to work with what you've got and you can't always ask the development studios to wait while we release "Game X" ahead of theirs. As you can imagine, that doesn't go over so well. ;P

So if there are outlets that you feel that we should be speaking with, or ones that you frequent on a regular basis, please, by all means let us know. I will happily reach out to them to gauge their interest.

Overall, we love hearing from you and just redesigned our own forums too (http://forums.sekaiproject.com/). Not only do I welcome you to speak with us or ask me questions here or on our forums, but you can also reach out to me directly on Twitter. I love speaking with my fellow peers about games and other related topics.

It's all for THE GREATER GOOD!

Now back to pitching and sending out some more review keys.

Yours truly,

Chopped Liver ;3

[DavidB]

4 minutes ago, Zenophilious said:

Thank you for posting here.  I find it a little frustrating that nobody from SP seems to post on Fuwa very often, other than the few times @SP-AlpacaSan has materialized out of thin air.  I visit r/visualnovels regularly for news, but it's a little disheartening to feel like we're being ignored.  I appreciate the effort.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I was a little scared after posting that I'd get a lot of backlash.

There are a lot of things happening so sometimes it can be difficult to break free from email, team discussions, etc., but I can promise everyone here that I'll do my best to visit regularly and be more active in discussions. And if I slip just be like "Yo, don't make me come over there and slap chop that liver." ;P

[VirginSmasher]

8 hours ago, LightBladeNova said:

Okay guys, so I asked one of my Ever17 Gamefaqs acquaintances, Funchal99, to personally request Kotaro Uchikoshi, whom you hopefully all know as the creator of the Zero Escape games and co-writer for Ever17, to spread the word about this Kickstarter himself, and that worked out well he's made a post on his Facebook and Twitter, so it'd nice if you could share/retweet them.

Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/kotaro.uchikoshi

Twitter tweets: https://twitter.com/Uchikoshi_Eng?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

In hindsight, I can't believe I didn't think of this idea before... and why no one else did either.

This'll definitely get the Kickstarter more attention because if a guy like him is promoting something, it's definitely gonna get more attention.

~~~

It's no coincidence that the funding went up by 4,000 after he promoted it. All this project needs is more advertising because this visual novel is worth it.

[LightBladeNova]

4 hours ago, Clephas said:

Both.  The tiers were bad, but the very fact that I don't see advertisement on every VN-related site I browse says they aren't working very hard at it.

May I ask what these VN-related sites are, Clephas? So I can either go check them out myself and send them a message or ask Sekai to do it. 

[Audi]

52 minutes ago, Clephas said:

Anime-sharing, Hongfire, Animesuki, etc etc (just how many otaku sites are there out there?). 

This is not strictly a commentary on the particular sites you refer to here, but I just want to clear up something related to us communicating with sites in general that get suggested to us because "everyone is there" which I get emails about quite often. We love talking to everyone and everywhere, but there are times where developers are quite clear that we cannot speak with sites that have a history or stigma, rightfully or not, that has shared pirated software through either their sites or forums. I am not interested in discussing the subject or validations of piracy, but for developers it is a huge no-no to have their product associated with any site which has shared pirated software and there's little that can be argued against that concern. A publisher cannot step in and just disregard that. Again I can fully understand if that sort of site is where some of you get all your news from and we are doodoo heads.

I however would gladly speak to each and everyone of you about how amazing Boyz II Men's entire discography is, regardless if you purchased or illegally downloaded it.

Yours truly,

Unreliable Bladder (Audi pr guy at SP)

[Audi]

7 minutes ago, Clephas said:

The fact is that a lot of VN-players who also buy tend to gather on these sites, though.  Not only that, since people who do buy their VNs go there looking for solutions to technical problems that come up in playing their imported games (as well as finding out where to get updates and other such game support), it isn't really correct to say they are purely pirate communities either.  Ignoring them for something so fundamentally idiotic as a matter of principal (Pragmatism>principles every time when it comes to intelligent business practices) is not very intelligent. 

Again, I am not personally saying these sites are purely about pirating software, and I am not interested in knowing why people have to pirate software cause of regional or financial issues. I'm not one to judge, nor one to decide whether that's right or wrong.

What I am telling you is that we as a company, publisher and business cannot step over a developer and decide for them to associate their product with a site they feel has pirated software in the past. Those communities aren't being ignored, but we can't directly go to them and say hey, here's this thing or that thing. This isn't just for VN's, this goes for nearly every entertainment medium out there. I worked with various video game companies and also music labels and none of them would differ from this. You are entitled to think its idiotic and that there are noble intentions and people everywhere, and I would fully agree with you on that, but I can't change perceptions based on your opinion for an entire industry. I can however, try to do good to the best of my abilities.

[Dark_blade64]

1 hour ago, Audi said:

Again, I am not personally saying these sites are purely about pirating software, and I am not interested in knowing why people have to pirate software cause of regional or financial issues. I'm not one to judge, nor one to decide whether that's right or wrong.

What I am telling you is that we as a company, publisher and business cannot step over a developer and decide for them to associate their product with a site they feel has pirated software in the past. Those communities aren't being ignored, but we can't directly go to them and say hey, here's this thing or that thing. This isn't just for VN's, this goes for nearly every entertainment medium out there. I worked with various video game companies and also music labels and none of them would differ from this. You are entitled to think its idiotic and that there are noble intentions and people everywhere, and I would fully agree with you on that, but I can't change perceptions based on your opinion for an entire industry. I can however, try to do good to the best of my abilities.

That is easily fixed by spreading the word in those sites who don't meet the criteria of having using pirate stuff in the past or present.

 

3 hours ago, LightBladeNova said:

May I ask what these VN-related sites are, Clephas? So I can either go check them out myself and send them a message or ask Sekai to do it. 

I know a couple of sites if you are interested of knowing them. For example gamefaqs is a gaming site with lots of information about game and also a site to discuss gaming stuff. You should probably commenting on the anime or PC section though. They won't be friendly of course but if the point is to gather some backers you might aswell give it a try. Now if you don't want to that would be an another matter. 

[Dergonu]

9 hours ago, DavidB said:

Wanted to pop in and give a big THANK YOU to those of you who have supported RD and helped to spread the word.

Kickstarter and other crowdfunding campaigns can be very tricky. Not only do they rely on the creator(s) to push and help spread the word, but backers as well. Backers are the lifeblood of these campaigns. We read and take into consideration everything that gets posted on the campaign page.

And yes, we could certainly use your help to further spread the word. Be it a tweet FB post, carrier pigeon, etc. Show and tell the outlets that you frequent regularly that it is something that you feel passionate about and that their readers will be interested in hearing about. It's a team effort.

We have members of the team who are primarily focused on Root Double while my primary focus is on our current releases (Strawberry Vinegar, No One But You, Rabi-Ribi) and upcoming releases for Q1 2016. That's not to say that we aren't pushing the campaign, we have distributed news about the campaign's launch (https://twitter.com/sekaiproject/status/684464856435527680), plugged it in a couple interviews, and have been fairly active on social media in regards to further promotion of the campaign. We have also generated some pretty cool new backer rewards, and have been steadily posting campaign updates. We want to see this one blast past its goal just as much as you do.

We are still a relatively small publishing/lic. outfit and not even one month in to 2016 we have three releases in January plus the Root Double KS campaign ...not to mention several other titles on the horizon. It's a lot titles to be working on simultaneously and by such a small, dedicated team. Sure, it's not an ideal timeframe to be working on so many projects at once, but sometimes you have to work with what you've got and you can't always ask the development studios to wait while we release "Game X" ahead of theirs. As you can imagine, that doesn't go over so well. ;P

So if there are outlets that you feel that we should be speaking with, or ones that you frequent on a regular basis, please, by all means let us know. I will happily reach out to them to gauge their interest.

Overall, we love hearing from you and just redesigned our own forums too (http://forums.sekaiproject.com/). Not only do I welcome you to speak with us or ask me questions here or on our forums, but you can also reach out to me directly on Twitter. I love speaking with my fellow peers about games and other related topics.

It's all for THE GREATER GOOD!

Now back to pitching and sending out some more review keys.

Yours truly,

Chopped Liver ;3

So awesome to see you post on here! Thank you!  

[Maxel]

You guys should just take an example from Muv-Luv KS, because it was the most successful VN Kickstarter ever. Look at the rewards, the images, the desription etc. and compare them to Root Double... Layout is pretty important thing too!

Look at the tiers on the right for Root Double, pretty simple, and they look... pretty poor/bland? even with the added mugs etc. (it should be prepared beforehand...):

Spoiler

Now look at the Muv-Luv one. Everything looks pretty, right? Way more information than in Root Double KS, we even got them pointed... :

Spoiler

Don't get me wrong, but I also think that images/assetsfor tiers prepared for Muv-Luv KS looks way better than the ones for Root Double. Don't get me wrong, but people like things to look pretty... 

Spoiler

 

vs

 

 

Could point more things out. When you do a kickstarter, you should try to "sell" the product as best as you can. Don't know if your tactic with this one was: "Let's start with "shit" tiers and get them to somewhat acceptable ones by the end of kickstarter" or if you just failed in praparation stage? 

I really thing you could do way better with this and every each one of upcoming SP kickstarters. Let me say this again, take example from most successful kickstarter... Hire someone with high photoshop skills, pay him xxx/xxxx$ to make layout etc. of kickstarters and you'll see increase in backers. You announced KS 6~~ months ago, and you come up with something like this? 

Everything in Muv-Luv KS looks pleasant to eye, while I can't say the same about Root Double KS, the images etc. seems pretty low quality...

[DavidB]

10 hours ago, Maxel said:

You guys should just take an example from Muv-Luv KS, because it was the most successful VN Kickstarter ever. Look at the rewards, the images, the desription etc. and compare them to Root Double... Layout is pretty important thing too!

Look at the tiers on the right for Root Double, pretty simple, and they look... pretty poor/bland? even with the added mugs etc. (it should be prepared beforehand...):

  Reveal hidden contents

Now look at the Muv-Luv one. Everything looks pretty, right? Way more information than in Root Double KS, we even got them pointed... :

  Reveal hidden contents

Don't get me wrong, but I also think that images/assetsfor tiers prepared for Muv-Luv KS looks way better than the ones for Root Double. Don't get me wrong, but people like things to look pretty... 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

vs

 

 

Could point more things out. When you do a kickstarter, you should try to "sell" the product as best as you can. Don't know if your tactic with this one was: "Let's start with "shit" tiers and get them to somewhat acceptable ones by the end of kickstarter" or if you just failed in praparation stage? 

I really thing you could do way better with this and every each one of upcoming SP kickstarters. Let me say this again, take example from most successful kickstarter... Hire someone with high photoshop skills, pay him xxx/xxxx$ to make layout etc. of kickstarters and you'll see increase in backers. You announced KS 6~~ months ago, and you come up with something like this? 

Everything in Muv-Luv KS looks pleasant to eye, while I can't say the same about Root Double KS, the images etc. seems pretty low quality...

 

What's a Muv Luv?

I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

If only it were that easy, friend. That is sort of like comparing an apple to an apple pie. Like CLANNAD, Muv Luv has strong ties to other forms of media, and can use/rely on preexisting art assets, physical products, ect. By doing so this provides the campaign with a greater chance at a more diverse set of backer rewards, and more reward tiers to pull in a larger spectrum of backers for a bigger overall funding goal.

[Deep Blue]

it's picking up the pace again, if it keeps like that it will get funded. Let's hope for the best.

[Maxel]

2 hours ago, DavidB said:

 

What's a Muv Luv?

I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

If only it were that easy, friend. That is sort of like comparing an apple to an apple pie. Like CLANNAD, Muv Luv has strong ties to other forms of media, and can use/rely on preexisting art assets, physical products, ect. By doing so this provides the campaign with a greater chance at a more diverse set of backer rewards, and more reward tiers to pull in a larger spectrum of backers for a bigger overall funding goal.

Yeah, you might be right with the assets thing, but that doesn't justify "meh" quality boxes/images... They look as simple as they could be.

David, honestly, don't you think it's offensive to fans to set up 1,000$ tier with only signs added from 275$ tier? I'm feeling bad for people trying to save KS by choosing 1000$ tier...

[Decay]

3 hours ago, Deep Blue said:

it's picking up the pace again, if it keeps like that it will get funded. Let's hope for the best.

I suppose the Uchikoshi promotion really helped. I believe Root Double now surpassed where Libra was at this far into the campaign. But Libra's campaign was a bit longer and had some good spikes in the end. Still, this is a good pace and they can make the goal if this keeps up.

[DavidB]

2 hours ago, Maxel said:

Yeah, you might be right with the assets thing, but that doesn't justify "meh" quality boxes/images... They look as simple as they could be.

David, honestly, don't you think it's offensive to fans to set up 1,000$ tier with only signs added from 275$ tier? I'm feeling bad for people trying to save KS by choosing 1000$ tier...

Offensive? No. Hopefully a campaign creator would never offer a tier that fans would find deliberately offensive.

However, do I feel that it shows the backer's passion and dedication to a project they want to see come to fruition? Yeah, I feel that it might.

[Deep Blue]

I will love to back this project but I just don't agree with some things that sekai is doing and also i'm out of money for the moment, but a tier of 5 dollars would be perfect for now probably I can pledge more the next month. I don't know why there is no 1 and 5 dollars tiers, even if it's a little it does help. All campaigns so far had one but this one doesn't seems weird   :/