I failed making my VN so I made a comic instead...which went viral AMA

[Black Sands Entertainment]

Hey guys. Remember me? Well I killed Black Sands about 5 months ago due to production costs being too high but I shifted my efforts to a much more cost efficient comic series in the same universe.

I wanted to share with you my personal story because I feel it is a very interesting perspective from an EVN developer.

 

The PAST

I worked on Black Sands, Legends of Kemet for a little over a year.. I had updated my project page here close to 50 times and I had this very unusual story. In 2015 I launched my first kickstarter and failed miserably. Most people when they fail, they blame others for not reading their story and getting immersed. 

I didn't believe this at all. 

I felt I failed because my art was subpar and thus people never got the chance to read my story. I then recruited an amazing artist by the name of hydriss to create my VN. We worked for a year to get it ready for a kickstarter relaunch and overhauled the story to be more engaging.

We had success finding major investors but they never had time for our production so after waiting months for a cash injection, we cut ties. We were then 10k in the hole.

I killed production of Black Sands then and there and decided to do a much easier comic book series that was targeted at kids and their parents who were fans of DBZ and what not.

I named it Kids 2 Kings. Not because it was a good name, but because it was a memorable name. It's really hard to forget.

 

We created our first issue and released it on the madefire app and had great reviews. We then launched our kickstarter, which is in its last days now.

The funny thing is we recently made a trailer for kids 2 kings and it went viral and facebook and twitter.

Now sitting at 190 retweets and 235k views on facebook, Kids 2 Kings, is becoming my dream come true.

Now it is extremely unusual for people to completely turn around and do something else but it is a very UNIQUE experience that you might want to learn more about so I AM OPEN FOR ANY AND ALL QUESTIONS.

BTW, thanks Fuwa for keeping me motivated all these years when i was developing black sands. I couldn't have gotten to this point without you guys.

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/165752716/kids-2-kings-comics-about-4-kids-7-kingdoms-and-1

 

 

 

[sanahtlig]

Sounds like you had a rough time, but made the most of it.  Good luck on your new path.

[Black Sands Entertainment]

1 minute ago, sanahtlig said:

Sounds like you had a rough time, but made the most of it.  Good luck on your new path.

Yeah, talk about pushing through the rough patches lol

[Suzu Fanatic]

I've been quietly watching your work for a long time - really happy to see you've found some traction.

[Dergonu]

I was wondering what had happened with the project for a while, because of the lack of updates. Sucks to hear things went badly for you guys. Though congrats on the success of the comic, it looks great! 

I don't really have a question, but yeah, congrats. (Might back it myself actually, it looks really nice.) 

[Kurisu-Chan]

Your experience would be really interesting to share with everyone.

I'm actually proposing you something : don't you think it would be more interesting to take the most interesting questions asked here, and answer to them in the form of an interview? i think the inside of someone who actually tried to make a VN would really help a lot of people out there who wants to jump into the adventure.

 

Also, i'm quite happy for you to have succeeded in making a Comics, at least, good luck man. 

[ChaosRaven]

I liked your art designs so it's kind of sad to hear that you had to bury the project. It would certainly have been a bit of a fresh wind to the VN scene. Still, the best of luck with your new project. 

[Black Sands Entertainment]

11 hours ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

I've been quietly watching your work for a long time - really happy to see you've found some traction.

thanks a ton.

 

4 hours ago, Kurisu-Chan said:

Your experience would be really interesting to share with everyone.

I'm actually proposing you something : don't you think it would be more interesting to take the most interesting questions asked here, and answer to them in the form of an interview? i think the inside of someone who actually tried to make a VN would really help a lot of people out there who wants to jump into the adventure.

 

Also, i'm quite happy for you to have succeeded in making a Comics, at least, good luck man. 

yeah i'll definitely do that after the campaign.

[babiker]

Yo. You might recognize me as one of your old followers. I was really looking forward to this VN, and I recall you being quite active over here, sharing the development of your characters and everything. When you suddenly disappeared for a while I feared the worst, that this project had failed that you abandoned it all together. I'm glad to see that you managed to salvage something from all your work, and I hope you find success in your new endeavor. After hardship comes ease friend

[DarkZedge]

It's a shame to hear that the vn won't come to be, as you already know I was following the progress of your project so just like back then I wish you the best for your new project

Edited April 11, 2017 by DarkZedge

[Black Sands Entertainment]

4 hours ago, babiker said:

Yo. You might recognize me as one of your old followers. I was really looking forward to this VN, and I recall you being quite active over here, sharing the development of your characters and everything. When you suddenly disappeared for a while I feared the worst, that this project had failed that you abandoned it all together. I'm glad to see that you managed to salvage something from all your work, and I hope you find success in your new endeavor. After hardship comes ease friend

yeah you on my skype. salvaged indeed

4 hours ago, DarkZedge said:

It's a shame to hear that the vn won't come to be, as you already know I was following your progress of your project so just like back then I wish you the best for your new project

Thanks and i haven't forgot ya.

[Rose]

Glad to know you found success somewhere else, though I was really looking forward to your VN. I don't really have anything to ask but felt like congratulating you regardless. Best of luck with Kids 2 Kings, it's definitely a dream worth the effort you've put.

[Black Sands Entertainment]

On 4/16/2017 at 1:24 PM, Palas said:

In a way I can't explain, I feel the concept of targeting kids and, well, talking about kids was a major hit. It synergizes well with what I believe was your goal, to make something you as a person could identify with. Maybe it has more potential in comics than it does in games, too - the results show it. The market you tried to create with Black Sands was always the union of two very different groups, didn't we talk about that some other time?

So here are the questions I have:

• Who was Black Sands for, and how did you try to appeal to this audience?

Two audiences really. The 25-34 year old anime fans and the teen superhero fan.

• What did Black Sands mean to you as a story and how does Kids 2 Kings compare in terms of personal fulfillment?

Well Black Sands is my personal ancient alien theory. I incorporated all the relevent mythologies around 3500 BCE and made sure each culture was responsibly represented while adding a large amount of sci-fi into the world. Kids 2 Kings is nothing more then the third generation in the Black Sands universe with a tad bit more PG content. 

• What were you able to transpose between the media and what did you have to reinvent?

All the main characters in Black Sands is now grown up in Kids 2 Kings. Fans of the old content will get all those moments of cheesy joy when they see their old heroes back in action, but this time as Kings and Queens.

• Do you intend to venture in game design again?

Absolutely.