Whats in a name

Paparazii Poltergeist sounds better. Or how about Celebrity Ghosts, Not even the dead can get a break. I know its a little long but its a manor. You might have fake celebrities that used to live in the manor for social visits or celebrity parties?

These are good backstories. I laughed. I think you have an interesting concept game.

I agree with JustActCasual - the word order matters and his evaluation of the different connotations associated with the word placement are correct.

You could throw around some other names - Poltergeist Paparazzi is a bit wordy and elaborate in my opinion (its almost a tongue twister).

Celluloid Spirits
Haunting Pictures
FLASH!
Positive Proofs
SNAP TRAP!
Residual Echoes
Fatal Flickers
Rest in Pictures
Encore (Encore in Ectoplasm)

Celebrity Screams (Silver Screams would have been nice, but only one one the spooks is a movie star).

or a variation on Say Cheese (not sure if its only in England where photographers use the phrase to elicit a smile).

Scream Cheese!

Loving the theme by the way, very original. Although the idea of Paparazzi is that they tend to act as ghosts a little themselves, lying in wait to pounce on unsuspecting celebrities. Having them turn up at a singular location where everyone is present, and to a large extent restrained, seems a little off.

With the great back stories couldnt the players move around a town snapping the ghosts, being that each character lends itself to a town location?

Or make your own

Use platic or perspex tubing, cut down to size (covered with the film roll sticker) and pop some end caps in either end.

The sticker wouldnt wrap all the way round - leaving a window of 5mm so the sides of the coloured chips could be seen.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-Black-Plastic-Blanking-End-Caps-Inserts-Plu...

http://www.psdgraphics.com/psd/old-film-roll-icon-psd/

They would also store the discs in the box as a tidy up.

Ah gotcha, I thought it might be a case of when a player takes a photo of a ghost they get the counter and stack it - moving their stack round as their player token.

Hence my idea of a film roll - sort of like putting the picture in the can.

I was going to suggest another alternate setting for the game - a haunted film studio (Deadwood Studios - or something). Just to avoid the cliche of the haunted house.

It would have allowed the characters to be old silent movie stars starting from different sound stages. That way their back stories could be linked to films of the silent era and the card designs could mirror silent movie stills - grainy black and white depictions with subtitles (either from old free sourced photographs or new black and white artwork).

That idea would have fit in with the film rolls and a movie making studio. Looking at the proto board I cant see it fitting though (due to the need for the back lot graves). Unless it was replaced by a past stars box or something. Then I would have gone with the idea of boxing the game in a film can and calling it -

Silent Screams - Tag Line, An Encore in Ectoplasm (and tried to resist suggesting an Oscar the Ghost Element, chuckles - I always liked Caspar).

The little ghosts look very good though, nice thematic eye candy.

I can't think of a cheap and simple alternative that would suffice as a holding element for multiple ghost space provisions. Even if you could source some wooden ghost meeples, it would still require custom shape stickers and they wouldnt look as good as the ones you have in mind.

I like the board outline, although the clock looks a little to big in the overall picture. I'm not sure about the movement arrows, if they are to be illustrated as is (or similar). With six ghosts you could split the location circles into six coloured segments with a corresponding number in each - to show the next move. It would be a bit tidier. Or maybe footsteps, then again the overlap would be present.

Why not go for punchboard tokens for ghosts? You get the good individual looks and can use differing silhouettes so they are still easily differentiable in a stack. Still costs a bit though. You could just do cards for them, and then "V" when they're stacked: having them on cards would also make them look more like photographs for the theme and vastly lower costs.

Seriously: from what you describe the ghosts being a stackable custom mold is a nice bonus, not a requirement nor an essential element of the design. If this is what is stopping you from getting published just incorporate their feedback and move on. They'll also know you're a designer they can work with, possibly leading to more published games.

Also, there is no reason that you need to put all the ghost tracks on the board. Why not just put the room sequences in the grave slots? Just put an icon sequence down the side of each grave (you could use your starting icons for each ghost large on the headstone to increase the connection). It would remove a lot of the mess, and free your visual resources in the house to amp up flavour. [PS. Why are there no bedrooms, bathrooms, or staircases in this house? Was this house designed for ghosts? ;) ]

Why are the player aides at the top of the board backwards and use different art? Are the abilities different for players on each side of the board? Because x => y + z reads differently than y + z => x.

There are still elements of risk with Kickstarter, just different kinds.

The goal is to reach a funding target. A failure to reach the target means all bets are off, so to speak. Which throws up a couple of decisions -

Do you invest in artwork before running the campaign, banking on the fact that potential funders are more likely to give their support if they can see how the game will look?

Or do you include some rough drafts, hoping they will be able to envision the finished games appearance and show their support in anticipation of the artwork meeting their expectations?

Secondly, nicer pieces will up the amount you will need to ask for and raise the target goal.

So, do you go all out on the pieces and risk it that the added aesthetics will generate more support (meeting and exceeding the funding target goal) or do you pitch the aesthetics a little lower (but still retain a quality appearance) resulting in the need for a lower funding goal (which might be easier to reach).

Every decision has an element of risk to it when you are considering returns on investment, but the risk isnt always obvious.

Its a bit like fishing - you have in mind what you want to catch and then you have to decide what bait you would like to put on the hook and how much you are willing to pay to acquire that bait - or something approximating it.

At this stage its all a bit academic (until you receive word back on the production cost associated with the custom pieces). And I think you are perfectly correct in keeping with the idea of including them at this stage.

However, I wouldnt rule out alternatives completely until the costings are in and you can assess the risk to reward scenario - with figures and expectations in hand.

Two wooden meeple ghosts would fit in one of the circles on the game board quite easily. Although I'm note sure if they can be found for general aquisition. Alternatively, two wooden discs with snappy ghost stickers on top would be easily identifiable in a stack if they where different colours.

I think Justs suggestion for the pathway routes on the gravestones is quite a good one as well - much better than my circle inclusion idea. A clean, visual appearance for the board (without trailing arrows or footprints) might look a lot nicer. And as just said, it would allow the artist more space to make the house visuals more appealing.

Well it's not so much number as type being the issue. If you can use basic items like cards/cubes/chits/chips/pawns you're probably OK. But as soon as you start on custom pieces you're probably looking at expense for custom molds. As said above, you can sometimes cheat with stickering.