Battle for the Universe - Competitive Card Game

A "Battle for the Universe" that takes place in a city?

I would like to know how you thought up your game mechanic. It would be good to have the creator explain what their game is about to this community before we just blindly support a Kickstarter we have no clue about. :).

I`m not sure if you're looking for feedback, but here you go:

You're not really giving any meaningful description of your game.
Phrases like "we feel the game has become a fun and competitive game that new and experienced players can both enjoy" give zero useful information about how your game actually plays and how it's different from hundreds of other card games on KS.

Not the best choice for the name. When searching for the game on bgg, i`m getting links to some old games with the same name instead of yours.

The cover image is odd - character proportions are off. You have much better samples on your FB page.
Card design looks amateurish. How many different fonts are you using there?
Avoid having text in different colors on the same card. If you can - have all your text in black.

As for KS campaigns, here are some general practices:

1. Contact at least 3 reviewers well before you launch, so that you have those reviews ready in time.
2. Post a rulebook pdf everywhere (KS, BGG, FB)
3. Post a print&play (this is especially easy for card games).
4. Book advertisements on BGG/Kicktraq etc. to run them as you launch

After reading your post here I wasn't. That's exactly my point.

Let me rephrase - you might want to work on your pitch if you want people to bother doing research about your game.

Up to you. Right now, judging by the cover art, I had the impression that the quality of artwork in your game is lower than it seems to be.

That will affect your chances of funding. You want your game to look professional.

From my observations, without existing portfolio it's pretty much impossible to achieve. There's no "ensuring funding". Especially if you don't plan to invest into it.
Btw, what funding goal do you plan to set?

While reviews alone do not guarantee that you fund, a first-time design without a review will be a red flag for many people.
I would strongly suggest against running before you get some reviews.

So, you haven't done any blind testing yet then?

Tabletopia is great. But vast majority of people won't use it. Hopefully this will change with time.

Well, for that you will have to contact specific websites. Use your google-fu.

No offense, but reading through your answers I`m left with the impression that you could use some more researching on the subject before you launch.

You shouldn't really be that fazed by one person that has some words to say about your game. The fact is that there will be people that may not like your game, whether they've played it or not.

The fact that you're "just one man" just begs that you need to look to a forum for help. You're almost ready to launch your Kickstarter, looking to build a larger fanbase within 2 months, which means you're pretty much set in your ways.

Which isn't particularly wrong, it does give an impression that you're looking to take rather than give.

Everyone here has desires to make their own game and we see them all the time here. Many come in, ask for support for their game, and just never come back again. Most of the people here either read the posts anonymously or they post about their games, ask for and give advice.

As you are already seeing, organizing a Kickstarter is hard work. I'm pretty sure that you're realizing a lot of things need to get done and your time is running out. The fact you don't know what blind testing is needs to be concerning.

By the way, "blind playtesting" refers to sending out your rules and game to people that have NO experience with your game. It's meant to test your written rules...if your blind audience can't figure out your game based on reading your rules, then you, as a game designer, failed in your communication. You cannot just rely on (or assume) people will watch your gameplay videos and you can't be there every single time someone picks up your game box to play your game.

Point is, it's either hard work, a lot of money, or a lot of time. If you have little or no money, you're going to have to put in some hard work...fly out to conventions like BGG Con, GenCon, and other smaller conventions...but you'll need money to get a booth or pay for a flight, or whatever. If you have money, you can have Facebook "boost" your exposure, but I'm sure that you're asking for advice on getting more exposure BECAUSE you have little or no money.

That, my friend, is the question everyone here would love to have answered.

But I'll give you some advice on how to build a much larger fanbase before January:

-If you're at BGG Con (which just ended as of this writing), you'd be at the perfect place to get your game played by the game review community. Since you said you tried to contact reviewers to no avail, this would have been the perfect opportunity to show them your game.

-You need to show up at every local game convention from now until your Kickstarter begins. I'm sure you're already trying to do that, but the best way to get exposure is word of mouth.

-You need to have your game looked at by SOMEONE in the board game community. If they mention your game, it may not guarantee big numbers, but it will get your game out there. Look to other content creators.

-Get your local game stores behind your game. This will mean a lot of time spend getting your local community behind your game. I suppose now is a great time since people are looking for something to get their loved ones for Xmas.

-If you don't have a mailing list, make one. You'll need to remind your supporters about the status of your Kickstarter.

Best of luck on your game. I have far more things I want to say, however, you're looking for specific advice and I don't have the time to write out everything except what you're asking.

My intention is to help you succeed. Patting on the back won't help.

Then don't rush. Take your time to research and do everything properly.
Start with preparing the rules and blind testing.

You also have to learn to accept criticism. I haven't even said anything negative about your game (just the presentation), yet you already go on defensive. Once you go on KS etc you will get all sorts of feedback. And you will have to respond to it, while not alienating your backers.

I am open :) I`m openly pointing out where you can improve to get a better result.

Yes, but you can spend time to collect feedback and fix the design yourself. It won't cost you money, it will take time though.

Then contact more. There are dozens of people who are making (p)reviews. Not all of them are paid (though many are).
All of them will ask for a rulebook first though.

I'm not even sure how to comment this. You have to blindtest your game. Period.

I would be extremely curious to hear if your perception will change after your campaign ;)

The cover picture looks a tad odd, but it almost looks like the characters are narrow, as though they just need to be free transformed to be a little wider. I went and checked out the artist's Deviantart and he has plenty of good work on there. I don't see the problem with the work honestly. Technically, it looks fine to me, I think the theme is what might be a little off. When you put them all together it doesn't feel coherent. That may not be important, but that's what sticks out to me. You have the American, the Canadian, and the Irish guy, and then you have this Greaser with a gun that looks like he's in the wrong game. Maybe it's theme that needs a little tweaking? The logo screams superhero comic style, but then the character art makes it seem as though there is some conflict. I would toy with the logo since it is easier than reworking your characters. I wouldn't feel discouraged, you have something great here in the making, but I agree with the others when they say to slow down and take your time. I've seen too many people rush to Kickstarter and have it fail when there was plenty of sound advice going around on these forums to hold off and do some more work. I know how overwhelming it feels to be a solo person doing what typically takes a team to do. I've just hit the year mark myself for my own game, and though it feels like I've done a lot, you see how much you have to do and then to get some tough love is not encouraging. When I showed one of my cards on this forum I got some of that tough love myself, but I took the advice to heart, reworked some things with the advice given, and my game is 100 times better because people on this forum were nice enough to lend me their time to critique. Good luck and look forward to seeing more from you. :)

Well then that's great, makes it easier to tweak without extra costs. Like I said, I didn't see anything technically wrong with anything. You do have more solid pieces on your Deviantart though. That Canadian man picture on your profile I like much more than the one in the cover picture, but keep it up, things will keep getting better :)

I understand what you are saying, it takes a lot of work to put all the characters together like that, but you could just as easily do the characters on separate Photoshop files and merge them in a final piece. Like I said, as an outsider looking in, it felt disjointed, which was enough for me to become disinterested in the project. If it was a Kickstarter I would scroll on by, so was just giving my two cents. Yes, I saw him on your Facebook, and that one was very well done. I'll reiterate that I didn't see anything technically wrong with your work, and I made a point to check out your Deviantart and Facebook since it seemed you were feeling people weren't giving you a fair shake. That being said, you'll drive yourself crazy if you feel like you need to address every critique. Ultimately, you'll need to take it in, determine what criticism is valid, and what to accept and what to reject, but that's a personal conversation you have to have with yourself :).