NextChess.com: the spiced up version of chess; with new characters, strategies and sexy miniatures...

Unfortunately, I have to agree with about 99% of what Soulfinger has to say on this project. I'd add that the English throughout the entire project needs to be cleaned up, including not using shortcuts like 'plz'.

I want to reiterate some of his points that I think are the most critical and emphasize why.

1) The price point is way too high. While you have clearly put a significant amount of time and effort into this endeavor, you are essentially offering plastic (likely) miniatures, and a well illustrated booklet. There needs to be value provided, along with an excellent product, especially because these people are helping you complete something you could not complete through your own means (otherwise, why would you crowdfund?)

2) Thematically, you are all over the place. There's nothing tying these characters together, they make no sense to be on the same board with each other, let alone the original pieces, which do have their own, mostly separate, unifying theme.

3) Variant chess is a horribly difficult niche to succeed in, and I think mostly because it is already a complete game and doesn't need variation to be successful. It'd be like creating a variant to backgammon or Candy Land ; it's trying to reinvent the wheel...and the wheel works perfectly already.

All of this said, I think that if you want to find success - and of course, I want to try and help - here's the things I would do to make that happen:

1) DON'T try and reinvent the wheel. You obviously understand the strategy and concepts of an abstract game like Chess - use those talents to create a NEW game. A BETTER game. Re-brand it, make sure it is thematically solid, thoroughly play-tested, and beautifully polished when you bring it to the public. And most importantly, and I want to stress this because it will be difficult to resist the urge, DO NOT MENTION CHESS. Don't compare it to chess, don't reference chess pieces, just don't do it. You want to avoid being lumped into the 'Just another chess variant' category - market your game not as 'different from chess' but as 'new abstract strategy game' and let other people make the comparisons.

Along these same lines, this post made me think of a game I found in my parent's basement that I used to love as a child that took me no small amount of searching to find just now called "All the King's Men." Not at all like chess and if you search chess, you won't find it, but Parker Brothers published it. If you can find a copy, check it out. (Sidenote - there are SO many chess variants out there. I had no idea!)

2) Find a price point equilibrium. You don't want your project to be a financial loss, but by the same token, there's no incentive for backing an unknown project at retail value. Find that middle ground where people think they're getting a deal, but you're not paying money out of your pocket to get the game in their hands.

3) Don't underestimate presentation. You obviously have some excellent skills (or paid someone for theirs) as far as graphic design, art, and 3D rendering. While you don't have to have every piece done before you launch, make sure you have something complete to show off and enough to display that people get a sense of the game and what you're offering.

4) Research. Research, research, research, research, research. I can't say it enough. Become the expert on: your game, other games in the genre, the history of the genre, crowdfunding your genre, the successes, the failures - everything. There's a reason Soulfinger can point to a specific project ("Beguile") and know its strengths and weaknesses. Be that knowledgeable with what you're trying to do. Know why/how what you're doing is different and be confident.

Along those same lines, if you haven't discovered Jamey Stegmaier (stonemaier games) or James Mathe...they have offered publicly more on crowdfunding and board game design and publication than I will ever learn in my lifetime. Check them out.

That's it for now. I hope some of this helps - hell I hope all of it helps. And if you have any questions, just ask.

I'm inclined to agree with what the others have said- though it seems unlikely that you'll listen, as most people who've already gone as far in the process as you have (without adequate research) usually just plow ahead anyway.

I'm going to quote some pre-existing text from my website, to help show that I'm not just nay-saying you specifically:

Are you re-inventing the wheel? People often design what they’re used to, or what they feel they have a good grasp on. The most common thing I see from new designers are “fixed” Risk/Monopoly/Chess, arena or tabletop combat games, trading card games, standard-deck card game variants, and roll-and-move games. These are fine- as part of your 10 games before you work on something publishable. Because broadly speaking, these aren’t publishable. This is for several reasons, but the most important is that they’ve already been done. To death. By every designer before you. It’s also further evidence of misunderstanding the markets. People buy Monopoly because of nostalgia, or because they need a gift, and everyone knows Monopoly. Your new game will have neither of these things going for it, so even if you understand that Monopoly is a bad design by modern standards, you also need to know why it sells, and why your “fixed” version won’t. A pure abstract that “chess players will love” fails to understand the amount of abstracts out there already, that chess players don’t love. Chess again has nostalgia, and universal familiarity, and importantly- a huge organized play structure around it. That’s not to say your game won’t be fun for them, but will it capture a significant portion of the chess-player-pie? No. Tabletop miniature combat games are a method to sell miniatures, and frequently have a strong organized play structure to go with them. Are you selling miniatures? Do you have the market penetration to set up an organized play structure that stores will participate in? Etc. Etc

(link: http://www.truekidgames.com/Advice.html )

There are tons of chess variants, in published form, already in existence. Every year I see a new couple of booths at GenCon promoting their "spice up chess" product. And then usually don't see them again next year.