In a “why didn’t I think of that?” moment, it was suggested to me that maybe I could do a write-up here about current Kickstarter project Sword of Fargoal 2. You know what? Absolutely. I should have been doing this kind of thing since three months ago. Making an awesome game or prototype is less than half of a success story; marketing is arguably more crucial even in the traditional publishing model, but definitely so in the crowdfunded model. What good would it do anyone if one of the world’s greatest games floats out there in the ether, known only to eight people because it didn’t get needed exposure?

I’ve already been giving advice to Kickstarter creators that they sometimes take (most notably, Two Brothers moved the soundtrack reward down to $25 from $50), but I can do more. Starting today, I begin highlighting any Kickstarter games that I back.

Sword of Fargoal 2

Great Things about the Game

Great Things about the Project

How much did I pledge? Why not less and why not more?

The first two reward tiers I look for when backing a Kickstarter game are the game and getting into the credits. If I like the music, I also look for the soundtrack. Sometimes these tiers mix, match, and merge. With Sword of Fargoal 2, $15 got a PC copy of the game and soundtrack, so that set a minimum. Getting credits on the game’s website happens even for $1, but getting credits in the game was all the way up at $100.

While I appreciate any chance to get into a game’s credits and get the Jelly Paladin studio name out there in even a tiny way, $100 is a bit much unless there’s something special about those credits. (It can be justified; I’ll comment more about how Kickstarter creators price credits another time.) I might have made the jump if I had separate reasons to go up to the $75 level, but almost all of the rewards above the $15 mark center around physical goodies and I’m not much of a collector.

However, the $19 tier gave access to all kinds of looks into the making of the game, which is invaluable insight to someone who’s slowly getting an indie studio off the ground to make an RPG and certainly worth another $4. (I backed Phantasmaburbia up to a similar behind-the-scenes reward level for the same reason.) There were other additions in the $19 tier, but these were the important ones for my money.

All in all, I pledged $19 to Sword of Fargoal 2 for a game, its soundtrack, making of notes, and a thank you on a website. Pretty good haul!

Where’s the Kickstarter at?

The project is currently just above half of its $50,000 goal, which is pretty modest, so do give them a look and a backing if you have a heart for classical, challenging, survival-driven, never-the-same-twice RPG experiences.