Interview - Rablo Games launches its second Kickstarter!
It's off to a 20-day Kickstarter campaign for Liege-based studio Rablo Games! After first raising funds for Hearler's Quest in 2016, the studio is launching a new Kickstarter to finance Joltt - Battle Pillarsa 2D Battle Game we can't wait to play with friends.
Find out more about the project, the studio's motivations and the development of a Kickstarter campaign with Pablo Coma, founder of Rablo Games, in our interview.
Hi Pablo! Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your studio?
"Hello everyone, I'm Pablo Coma, founder of Rablo Games. We're a small independent game development company based in the Liège region. The company was created shortly before the release of Healer's Quest in 2018. At the time, I was working on my own, but I was joined in early 2020 by Baptiste, who has been in charge of programming ever since. We worked together on our second game, Necro Storywhich was released last October. At the beginning of 2024, the team expanded once again. Clémence joined us to work on the illustrations for our future projects. I like to keep the team on a human scale, and I think 3 people is a good number in these difficult times for our industry." - Pablo
Can you tell us about the game you are currently developing? Joltt - Battle Pillars ? It's quite a change from the RPGs we're used to playing at Rablo Games!
"Yes, we're completely out of our comfort zone! Joltt - Battle Pillars is a minimalist 2D fighting game in which wizards perched on pillars must take down their opponents by hurling magical projectiles at each other. The aim is to make the game as accessible as possible, even for those new to fighting games. There's no hand-to-hand combat, no complicated combos to remember, and all projectiles are sent with a simple press of a button, sometimes accompanied by a direction. A single hit immediately results in the loss of the round.
In reality, Joltt - Battle Pillars is a game I started developing in 2015, on the side of Healer's Quest. By then, I'd already produced a playable prototype, with pixel art rendering. I worked on it from time to time, to take my mind off things. I love fighting games, and I was having a lot of fun working on this project, creating new characters and testing out the gameplay possibilities that arose from each wacky design that popped into my head. And so it was that, ten years after starting development and after a complete overhaul of the game's graphics, I was able to take it one step at a time, Joltt has reached a point where we can communicate it and show it to players. In fact, we've proposed a Steam demo at the same time as the launch of the crowdfunding campaign." - Pablo
9 years after the Healer's Questyou've decided to go back to the drawing board on Kickstarter with this new game. Why are you embarking on a crowdfunding campaign? What are your primary objectives ?to work during the residency? And how far along are you?
"A Kickstarter campaign is not only a way of financing part of a game's development, but also, and above all, of getting the word out about the game and starting to gather a community around it. It forces us to push marketing and communicate as much as possible about the project. Joltt has remained hidden for a very long time, and it's a very "niche" game concept, for which we don't yet have a community following. This is an opportunity for us to gauge public interest and see if we can find that niche. Of course, we also hope to benefit from a small financial boost that would allow us to implement single-player modes in the game." - Pablo
Can you share some tips on how to prepare a Kickstarter campaign?
"I'm not a pro at this, but here's the advice I'd give:
Don't be 100% dependent on Kickstarter funds to develop the game. If you're trying to fund the entire development of your game from Kickstarter donations, you'll probably be asking for a huge sum of money that's unlikely to be reached. In my opinion, it's essential to find other sources of financing in order to reduce the amount requested.
Be honest. I believe that potential backers are sensitive to a project carried out by a person or a team they can trust. It's best to be transparent at all levels.
Don't hesitate to call on your family and friends, especially at the start of the campaign. There are a huge number of games seeking funding on Kickstarter, so there's a lot of competition. Hoping to reach even a small goal with donations from strangers is at best very optimistic, at worst completely illusory. Your first donors will most likely be your friends and family.
A crowdfunding campaign shouldn't just be seen as an opportunity to receive money, but also as a marketing opportunity. However, this will require an enormous amount of communication work on your part." - Pablo
The first level is €3,000, the highest is €20,000! Each level reached will help unlock a new mode, challenger and more. But what about community goals?
"They're separate goals really. So each stretch goal will be implemented as well as each community goal. Let's say all the stretch goals are met (we agree, that's VERY optimistic ^^'), we'll implement 2 new characters as well as 3 new sets." - Pablo
What are the rewards that would sway readers to make a donation? ?
"We tried to offer something for everyone, without offering dozens of rewards. Kickstarter recommends between 3 and 10, and we settled on 8.
As the game is based on a fairly simple concept, we're offering it at the relatively low price of €7. As it's a multiplayer game, we're offering two game keys at the €25 level, so you can play with your friends. At the time of writing, this reward is the most successful. In the higher tiers, we offer physical rewards, as Kickstarter users are very attached to them. These range from a thank-you card to a collector's boxed version of the game, limited to 100 copies and signed by the development team. Finally, the last two levels allow you to participate in the development of the game. Either through the design of a set element, or outright by embodying the voice of one of the game's characters. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the people who choose this reward will have a cool voice! ^^' " - Pablo
But there are also other "free" ways to support us. In fact, this is the basis of the Community Goals, which also unlock specific rewards. There are three of them.
The last one suggests joining us on the Rablo Games Discord (https://discord.gg/jzR7YXv6Z3), for example to give us your feedback on the demo of Joltt - Battle Pillars if you've had a chance to try it out. But you can also join in just to say hello, of course ^^' " - Pablo
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