Preview of the new crowdfunding campaign

[reepblue]

55 minutes ago, Josh said:

I think there will be a project template and generator, like you enter in the project name, destination folder, and it creates the new project. But it's simple enough you could just include the lib and headers yourself into an existing project.

Or you can use Premake/CMake and have all projects point to where the SDK is installed.

[SlipperyBrick]

Just backed this beast on Kickstarter, did the Developer pledge as I would absolutely love to get myself a licence. Looking forward to the first build!

[Josh]

I created an identical IGG campaign to test whether the platform is effective or not:

https://igg.me/at/ultraappkit/x/24973641#/

I did this KS campaign in order to get a gauge of what I can expect for the engine. I don't believe Kickstarter brought in any organic traffic at all. I can't really see myself setting the goal at less than $10,000. Is the market for the new engine 10x bigger than for the app dev kit? Almost certainly. But I am nervous about the possibility of a failed campaign, which would be quite embarrassing.

Will the app dev kit sales on Steam be about the same as LE4, or is it way too niche? I don't know, but I will find out soon when it is released on Steam.

It is strange, because the market for the dev kit is definitely huge, but they is no community of application developers like there is for game developers. There are no news websites or forums about desktop application development, so I don't know how to promote it.

[reepblue]

3 hours ago, Josh said:

It is strange, because the market for the dev kit is definitely huge, but they is no community of application developers like there is for game developers. There are no news websites or forums about desktop application development, so I don't know how to promote it.

The issue is that instead of a few major forums and news sites, communities are now thousands of various discord servers. I posted it in the few I was in but that's only 0.0001%.

I think once you give us the ok to start sharing public videos of the new engine/app kit on Youtube and such, more people will stumble across it.

I'm sure people making UAK tutorials will help with sales.

[SlipperyBrick]

Just spit-balling here ... I follow a guy on Youtube who has a pretty big following of software developers and graphics programmers. Right now he has a whole series on game engine programming and the solution he is using for developing his editor is ImGui. It may be worth contacting him and potentially doing a collaboration.

This guy has a Discord with tons of professional and hobbyist application developers so you would be targeting the right audience and word of mouth would go a pretty long way (a lot of his users are also in the ImGui server).

His name is Yan Chernikov (known as the Cherno), he used to work for EA within the Dice group developing the Frostbite engine. A free key and review of UAK would probably make for an interesting video ?

[Josh]

That might be a good idea.

It also might be a good idea to build something into the EULA that says it can't be used to make a game engine editor. 

I think in general third-party YouTube videos will be the most successful approach to promotion. Those guys make a lot of good content and already have a big following, and I am sure they will be interested in the new engine.

[SlipperyBrick]

46 minutes ago, Josh said:

I think in general third-party YouTube videos will be the most successful approach to promotion. Those guys make a lot of good content and already have a big following, and I am sure they will be interested in the new engine.

Totally man, review videos would be pretty cool and would get the products name out there.

57 minutes ago, Josh said:

It also might be a good idea to build something into the EULA that says it can't be used to make a game engine editor. 

Ah yeah my example wasn't the clearest. I was correlating with the fact that most people that watch that guy are programmers who have probably come across the same problems you described, so you'll be hitting the right audience

I'm hoping to use it for my Master's project to make a small machine learning application ?

[reepblue]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

That might be a good idea.

It also might be a good idea to build something into the EULA that says it can't be used to make a game engine editor.

You should make it very specific what is and isn't ok. I'm sure people will want to create their own tools to fit their needs, but I understand you not having competition/confliction with the upcoming editor.

 

1 hour ago, Josh said:

I think in general third-party YouTube videos will be the most successful approach to promotion. Those guys make a lot of good content and already have a big following, and I am sure they will be interested in the new engine.

I think you can ask Games from scratch and others to get the word out and do quick run downs. I wouldn't really force this as people tend to hate the shilling on that platform. 

Overall the choice is there's and I think the tutorials and showcases will come naturally if the product is good.

[Josh]

4 minutes ago, reepblue said:

I think you can ask Games from scratch and others to get the word out and do quick run downs. I wouldn't really force this as people tend to hate the shilling on that platform. 

You have to shill extremely hard if you want anyone to pay attention. Products don't sell themselves no matter how good they are.

[SlipperyBrick]

Reviews would be your best bet I'd say. Its an honest way to get feedback and some free exposure. You'll be giving others the opportunity to freely give their opinions on what they think (no shilling required).

With the right people (and hopefully good reviews) that should carry enough weight to make this a reputable product and get the customers in

[Josh]

What we should do is gather a list of YouTubers and use Ultra App Kit as a test run.

[reepblue]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

You have to shill extremely hard if you want anyone to pay attention. Products don't sell themselves no matter how good they are.

There is a balance. Much like Slippery Brick said, reviews are the key. I think allowing for honest takes is better than paying people to talk about how wonderful something is. 

The Cherno is good cause he does C++ tutorials and GamesFromScratch is also good because he covers game development tools. (He did mention Leadwerks in the past.)

I also wish to push videos with UAK and the new engine although I'm not really booming with charisma. I have a lot of Source Engine users following me that I'm sure would be very interested.

[SlipperyBrick]

Off the top of my head I'd say:

• Cherno (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheChernoProject)
• TheBennyBox (https://www.youtube.com/user/thebennybox)
• One Lone Coder (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-yuWVUplUJZvieEligKBkA)

There is probably a few more but I've pulled focus to each of these guys as they do graphics programming. Its a good opportunity for their followers to stumble upon Leadwerks 5 ?

[Josh]

Mike has always been willing to cover me. I've been in contact with him over the last six months, and have just told him "something big is coming". Same with the folks at GameDev.net, who I have known for many years.