All's Fair in Love and Marketing
10 Tips for Zine Month Success & 10 Games We Know You'll Love
We did it! After just 48 hours Project ECCO is FULLY FUNDED! Thank you to everyone who backed the project. We just passed our first stretch goal–an original soundtrack by BE/HOLD–and are well on our way to our next one.
With this in mind, we thought we’d share what we think made this campaign successful and also recommend a few other great Zine Month games we think you will love.Â
- Brian & Elliot
10 TIPS FROM A RELUCTANT MARKETER
By Elliot Davis
When you’re setting out to create a crowdfunding campaign, you’ll inevitably be confronted with the bane of many a creator’s existence: marketing. Where do I post? How often? Will I annoy people?
What I learned with Project ECCO is that every little piece matters.
Start Early - As soon as you know you’re doing a crowdfunding campaign, start thinking about marketing. I started in mid-January and, in hindsight, I should have started even earlier.
Press Kit - Your project needs a press kit. This is the single best advice that I absorbed from Zine Month 2022 and it was one of the first things I did for Project ECCO. Tony Vasinda of Plus One EXP has an invaluable video on making press kits. Every designer should watch. Here’s my press kit for your reference.
Send That Kit - Once you have your press kit, send it out to journalists, podcasters, YouTubers, TikTok-ers, etc. There are some lists of folks who accept press kits that float around the ZiMo Discord and Twitter. Be respectful and kind in your outreach and know that not everyone you send to will feature your game. If one or two do, that is a win you should celebrate. (Psst, we’d love to see your kit!)
Promo Video - The common advice is that crowdfunding campaigns benefit from a video. For Project ECCO, we as a team kept it pretty simple and leveraged the skills we had. The visuals are 4 pieces of art I had made for the game ahead of launch, Brian is the main voice of the video (in addition to editing it!), and the music is the theme from our composer BE/HOLD. Your video doesn’t need to appear high budget. Lean on the skills and resources you have in front of you. That may mean recording yourself on your phone and cutting in some panning shots of stock images. You can see our video on Crowdfundr.
Twitter - Tweet about your game 2-3x more than you think you should. The reality of Twitter is that most people won’t see most of your tweets, so it is often a numbers game. Fight that voice in your head that tells you people are annoyed by your tweets. I promise you aren’t the most annoying thing on Twitter that day. Now, don’t just spam your logline for every tweet. Think about how you can spark interest in your game while mixing up the formula. Preview the design, shoutout collaborators, give sneak peaks of the artwork, and celebrate your wins. For example, see this thread on the Entity in Project ECCO.
Discord - Join the ZiMo discord. It’s a hugely valuable resource of veteran and first-time designers. Be respectful of the self-promo rules of communities you’re a part of.
Reddit - Reddit is notoriously a tricky place for self promotion. Often communities want you to be an active member before you drop a link for something like a crowdfunding campaign. As an irregular Reddit user, what I decided to do for Project ECCO was find some smaller, niche communities that I thought this game would speak to and spark interesting discussion. The three communities I posted in were r/Solo_roleplaying, r/cosmichorror, and r/timetravel.Â
Fliers - This is something I wish I had done a bit earlier. I recently put together a simple flier with a QR code (made free at https://www.qrcode-monkey.com) and printed about 100. I talked to my FLGS, who are putting some out by their register, and I also pinned one on the corkboard of my neighborhood coffee shop. I’m not sure if this will convert backers just yet, but if it gets 1 or 2 more, it’s a win! Flier Design for your reference.
Share Other People’s Work - Especially during ZiMo, indie solidarity is what keeps this community afloat. You may think you’re too small (I’m certainly no influencer), but I promise your retweets, replies, and shares mean the world.
Do What You Can - The above may sound like a lot! This plan worked for me but it’s not the only plan and no plan will ever be perfect. Marketing your game comes down to 1000 little things that all add up. Do what you can with the time and resources you have. And don’t forget to take breaks!Â
Ultimately, the best thing you can do is be wildly excited about your game. Your enthusiasm will be infectious.
I can’t wait to see what you make.
ZINE MONTH RECOMMENDATIONS
Zine Month is that magical time of year where great new games spring into existence seemingly overnight and make the world just that little bit better for existing.
Here’s a list of a few games we have our eyes on and think you’ll love.
Contact is a cosmic tabletop storytelling game where players communicate with aliens through song and tarot. From J Strautman, the co-GM of Planet Arcana, this Anamnesis hack is a game for people who like listening to music with friends and building playlists. Using prompts from the Major Arcana, players will build a playlist before shuffling the songs and using them to answer questions about their characters and the aliens who have made contact. In the end, players are left with a story and a playlist imbued with brand new meaning.Â
These Stars Will Guide You Home is a solo journaling rpg by Alberto Furlan about a voyage in search of home, and the myth written about it centuries later. In the first phase you explore the sea, leading a fleet of thirteen ships through a mysterious archipelago. The second phase takes place a century later, once your journey is complete. Including illustrations from the ENnie-nominated cartographer Fernando Salvaterra. Guest writers include:Â Sam Leigh (Anamnesis), Jimmy Shelter (A Visit to San Sibilia), Marx (ghostbox), and Ryan (All Must Bow).Â
Strictly Between Us is a live-action role-playing game by Eli Seitz and Kristen Dabney for 4-20 players where players explore the intricacies of a changing relationship through blues dancing. Strictly Between Us features two narrative tracks, Together and Apart. Together gives players the chance to tell the story of a couple just starting a new relationship, while Apart explores the dynamics of a relationship crumbling.
Tangled Blessings is a solo journaling or two-player RPG inspired by dark academia media, ghost stories, and graduate school. The core mechanics are based on the ENnie-nominated Anamnesis game by Sam Leigh. Featuring a wizarding college, wandering specters, assigned houses, curses, devils’ bargains and more supernatural flavor, Tangled Blessings blends horror and the fantastical to help players craft a story that spans their time at the Academy — culminating in one final showdown against their rival.Â
Hiria: The Eternal City is a solo journaling game in which you are tracking down someone through different versions of the same city. You might barely notice the changes when traveling to another version of Hiria, while in other cases the city has changed beyond recognition. Hiria exists on all worlds of the multiverse, but is never quite the same. You have tracked your quarry here, but they escaped to one of the other manifestations of the city. Will you follow them?
The River Spirit is a guidebook for a solo journaling experience that uses a deck of cards to help you create memories of your hometown and the community found there, only to remix them into new stories and eventually sacrifice those memories for the greater good. You make a last-ditch effort to save it all: making a sacrifice to the River Spirit rumored to live deep within the Forest. What are you willing to sacrifice for your hometown, and will it be enough?
Derelict Delvers is a thrilling, action-packed, sci-fi roleplaying game that immerses players in a struggle for survival and profit. The players take on the roles of elite space troopers, scientists, and engineers who must explore derelict spaceships and space stations in order to scavenge for supplies, salvage for weapons and valuable resources, and ultimately hunt down the monsters that threaten the very existence of mankind.Â
On the Way to Chyrsopoea is an epistolary roleplaying game. Together with a partner, you will be writing a four-handed adventure, first by inventing its two protagonists and then by leading them on a legendary journey. The journey is narrated through the exchange of letters between two characters: the Master and the Disciple.
Traysikel: Ride or Die - Your rebel cabbie must ferry a Babaylan fugitive across the jungle mountain on a tricycle taxi in a single evening! Battle nightmarish monsters while navigating the island’s violent colonial occupation and its brewing revolution. Compatible with any fantasy RPG system! This fast-paced, point crawl module provides tricycle customization and unique travel rules to give a "motorcycle diaries" style journey across a horror/fantasy setting within a fictional Philippines.
S.A.D. Zines Vol 2 - S.A.D. (small and delightful) Zines are tiny games that connect you to yourself and the place around you through the lens of everyday objects and natural features. They are an invitation to slow down, look around, look inside, and see and feel things in a gentle and held way. What mundane joy might you find, in the ordinary magic around you? Volume 2 includes FOUR new editions: Grass, Box, Rock, and Monstera Editions.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
February 17th
My First Dungeon: Playtest Edition (Actual Play Pt. 2 w/ Kevin Bauer, Abby Hepworth, and Julia Schroeder)
February 24th
Final Day of Project ECCO Crowdfundr Campaign
February 25th
My First Dungeon: Playtest Edition (Revisions & Feedback w/ Elliot Davis & Kevin Bauer, Abby Hepworth, and Julia Schroeder)
Great list for marketing. I would add that a very compelling piece of content art helps draw gamers in and sets the tone for the game.