Dawn of the Last Day

Now the nervousness is starting to kick in, knowing that I need to create the Kickstarter tomorrow. It's making me crazy!

It's the last day to get everything I wanted to do done and I have to say I feel like I've made significant progress since the start of the month. If you've been following my Facebook posts, you'll know that I now have the official Masquerade website up and running. You can find it here (http://themasqueradeproject.com/).

So the two major things I wanted to do before the Kickstarter began are officially done: the website and the trailer video. I'm going to start up the project tomorrow sometime in the afternoon and post the crap out of it. I'm not expecting a huge success, that's why I set the bar to just enough to pay for printing costs. But don't get me wrong, I'm going to advertise the crap out of Masquerade everywhere.

Wish me luck and see you guys tomorrow!

Video's Done!

As of right now, the Kickstarter trailer for the Masquerade project has been completed! I'm a little shaky about the results of it, but for a first time I would say it's not bad at all. I really like how the music fits with the theme of the game and everything.



I followed the basic guidelines that Kickstarter laid out for making the video: talking about who I am, what the project is, where the idea came from, and why your support matters.

Overall, I wish I had a better quality camera and had more help with the footage. Maybe next time I work on a project like this, I'll hire a professional to do it for me so it looks a thousand times better. For now, at least I have the ability to say that everything in Masquerade so far is 100% created by me.

In other news, the website is still underway though I did get to see the results! I don't want to post them here because it's not quite ready yet but it's looking good so far.

Look forward to Saturday when the Masquerade Kickstarter finally gets created!

Copyrighting

If you have been paying attention to the Facebook Group (http://www.facebook.com/masqueradegame), you'll know that as of Friday, November 23rd, Masquerade has applied for copyright. What does this mean basically though?

Well, aside from being one of the goals I wanted to complete before the Kickstarter on December 1st, copyrighting the game and novel is going to be what protects it should the project become a hit. Legally, no one will be able to "steal" the idea of Masquerade. Really anything can get copyrighted so long as it's an original idea and in fact I was debating if Masquerade needed copyrighting or not.

Combined with this blogs, which systematically dates each post, and my saved files I have proof that Masquerade is an original idea created by me at a specific date. No other person in the world should be able to prove me wrong in that respect. What copyrighting is, or at least the copyright I applied for, is essentially adding a date for the government or courts to refer to should there ever be a legal issue over intellectual property. I know that sounds absolutely complicated, but trust me when I say it makes more sense to the blood sucking lawyers than it does to me.

It other news, I printed out the first officially bound hard copy of the Masquerade novel. It's quite long and heavy, but what do you guys think?

With under a week left to start the Kickstarter, the only thing I have yet to do is edit the video together. That's my goal this week, wish me luck! I'll post it on the blog the moment it's completed.

The Website

So some good news before I launch the Kickstarter, I found someone who promised to put up the website before December 1st. And she's a professional no less!

In celebration of this, I've decided to post what the website is going to look like when it's complete. That's right, all the pages up for viewing. Check it out!

The Home Page

I was going with the theme of letters, wax stamps, and childish character drawings. I made the decision that it's actually Mary, from the book, doing these doodles. It's fitting with the style that someone her age would draw in and it adds depth because we get to see what she sees in the world around her.

The About the Book Page

The book page doesn't have the book cover just yet (I haven't created it after all!) but it certainly adds to the feel I was trying to create. There's even a little Mary sketch in the corner of the page.

About the Creator Page

To match the theme, I couldn't use an actual picture of myself so I came up with the Wanted Poster look with a stamp idea of a photo of myself.

About Game Page

This is probably my second favorite page on the website. It's a letter to Newgate, another major character in the game and story. I love the little note from another character, Carnell, to add to the theme.

And now my least favorite page.

Card Page

Yeah, I just don't like how this page came out. In the future, I'll probably rework it. But for now, it's important to have because I want people interested in the game to have a place where they can download the cards from for free.

Finding Editors

I know this was probably a post before much earlier back when I finished the Masquerade book, but I'm in need of editors. Not for the 49 chapter Masquerade book, though to be honest if you're interested I'll gladly take your help.

No, I need editors for the different writings I need to do to make both the game and the Kickstarter work.

The press release I've written for the Masquerade project has been written up and I've shown it to one person, my mom. Not that I want to insult my mother, but I definitely need more eyes to take a look at this considering this is what's going to grab the attention of blogs and newspapers. I've never written a press release after all, every pair of eyes that look at it will help with making sure I do this right.

The other thing I've off editing is the rulebook. If you check this link (http://michaelbujtas.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/masqueraderulebook2-0.pdf) you can see the most recent version of the rulebook so far.

So, is anyone reading this interested in doing some editing? You'll get a sneak peak on everything I'm working on so far. Just give me an email at michaelbujtas@gmail.com or comment on the page and I'll get right back to you.

Have a good Thanksgiving! Fill up on turkey.

Beginning of the Holidays

As I said before, the reason I haven't really been posting lately is because there's simply nothing I can show that you're all not going to see already once the Kickstarter begins. Most of it is boring documentation like the press release, which I need to send out to people to have edited before I deliver it to various websites.

For those who don't know, a press release is similar to a news article except it's what you write and send to news reporters to get them aware of you and curious about you. I currently have mine talk about how different the Masquerade project is, how interesting the dynamic between the card game and book is, and how young I am to be working on such a thing.

I would post it here for you to see, but it probably isn't all that interesting. I will be sending it out to different people though once the Kickstarter launches.

That reminds me, I need to have a link to the Kickstarter page at the top of this website soon!

I suppose if you want something for me to show you guys, here's the new logo I worked out for Masquerade. I'll be using this as the official header for most things related to Masquerade unless I can find a graphic designer to create a better one.

In other news, my Thanksgiving holiday is going to be filled with creating the video for my Kickstarter project, finding someone to create the website (problems arose with that this week), polishing the documents I have, and building some connections for the time when I post the Kickstarter.

This is going to be a real thing! I can't wait to prove to the world that I'm not just all talk!

I don't expect Masquerade to explode in popularity, but if I can even get just $5000 in donations from people that would be a great success in my book. It's like my teacher said, at the very least the reward for working on this is going to be an excellent portfolio piece.

I'll post the video on here once I finish working on it over break. I realize I need to update my video blog soon too...

Where Have You Been!?

That's the question I've been asking myself the past week. Truth be told, I haven't been sitting around doing nothing in that time (I promise!) but instead I have been hard at work with a number of projects including preparing for the Kickstarter.

So what have I done? Let's take a look at the list.

1. Get a proper website: I've spoken before that I'm working on this. I want to post in the future what some of the pages will look like. The art for this is all done save for a few missing components and pictures. (In progress)
2. Design the final cards: This is why I've been working so hard on the card backs lately. Now that the backs are done, I want to get the final art in for the fronts. Then I'll be all set!
3. Copyright: I've also said this before. Copyrighting is going to be a huge thing so that no one steals my idea or name. It should be simple enough to do.
4. Book Editing: The book is now finished, so I need to edit it! I want to send it to publishing agents by the time the Kickstarter starts, so I need to make sure it's as polished as it can be.
5. Perfect the Rulebook: The rulebook has been something I've been working on and off on for the past month. I need to make sure the rules are clear and understandable for anyone who wants to pick up the game and play. A few sessions in the QA lab should fix this.
6. Speak to Blogs: I've been thinking this over and I want to spread the word of what I'm working on to other big named sites once I have something more to my name. It will be awesome to get even one of the major sites on the internet like The Escapist to do an article about what I'm working on.
7. Rewards: Kickstarter is about giving rewards to people who pledge money to you, therefore I need to  think long and hard about the kind of rewards I'd like to give. I have a few ideas and may even do a future article about it.
8. Design the Page: How Kickstarter is going to work is I'll have a page all to myself that I have to post information on about my project to get people interested. I'll be doing research all month to find out what sort of design successful pages go for. (In progress)
9. (Optional Step) Find an Agent: This may be optional considering I may go the self publishing route, but it would be awesome to have an agent to help me publish the book. Even an adviser would excellent in the coming days.

Obviously there still a lot more to do but with what I have right now I'd say I'm making excellent headway. I think the count is 19 days left, so that should be plenty of time to work on the steps, particularly the Kickstarter page step (step 8).

Unfortunately, there isn't much for me to show you guys just yet save for the new cards which are all complete. So here you are, enjoy!

What Video?

So my main focus this week has been the Kickstarter page or more accurately how I'm going to get Masquerade noticed on Kickstarter. If you're ever been to a Kickstarter page, this is what the first thing you see looks like.

Boss Monster's Kickstarter page. Their card game is awesome!

As you may notice, there's the name of the product, the funding for it so far, and a brief description. But there's also the video taking up the majority of the page. This is what many of the viewers for the project are going to refer to.

Most Kickstarter videos last only 2-5 minutes at most because that's what many viewers only have the patience for. That is a very short time limit to:

-Introduce myself

-Tell the story of the project

-Talk about the rewards

-Explain what the project is

-Ask for help

Of course there's the quality of the video to consider to. I want people to realize that this isn't some company asking for help, this is a young college student with a goal to publish a unique card game/story. But that shouldn't excuse the quality of the video. Thankfully my school allows for me to rent good video equipment because of the filming majors.

This week I plan on writing out the script as best as I can and possibly filming myself when I return home next week for Thanksgiving break. Don't think the holiday is going to stop me from working!

In other news, I finished the box art and plan on making art for the Kickstarter page with it! Check it out and give me your opinions!

Kickstarter Prizes

So besides today's blog video, I've also put together the prizes I'm going to have for the Kickstarter. The thing is I'll need some feedback for them to see what you guys think of them. Anyway, here's the video real quick if you're all interested.



Do I seem nervous? I certainly am starting to feel it!

Here's the list of prizes I decided on for the Kickstarter project. If you don't know how it works, basically if you donate the listed amount of money or more, you can choose the prize you want plus all of the prizes beneath it. You can check out the Kickstarter pages for more details (http://www.kickstarter.com/).

$5 or more: You get your name added to the rulebook as thanks

$20 or more: The card game is yours plus all the below

$35 or more: The book is yours plus all the below

$50 or more: Both the book and the cards will be personally signed by me plus all the below

$100 or more: Special Edition pictures from the original card game and book plus personal special mention in my blogs. You will also be mentioned in a special thank at the back of the book plus all the below

$200 or more (Limited to 5): Your name will appear as a character’s name in the game plus all the below

$300 or more (Limited to 1): You will get to design your own card that will appear as the special 61^st card in the game. This includes a picture of yourself as designed plus all the below

The limited prizes are obviously limited to only a few people, the first few who donate that much. I decided to make the prize for the Bloody Christmas Contest, which failed big time, the main prize for Kickstarter. I'm not expecting a whole lot but I am going to try to market the crap out of Masquerade once I get started.

Also, here's the card box I'm working on as promised.

I used a design I found online for poker boxes, so it should be about the same size and hold up to 61 cards for the deck. The design is pretty straight forward and I'll go into more detail with it in the future when I complete it.

Until then, take care guys!

28 Days Left!

The countdown is underway and we're making progress! I've learned that I need to start looking into making an explanation video for the Masquerade and tell the Kickstarter donators what exactly Masquerade is. If you're curious about that yourself, you can check out the new "What is Masquerade?" tab at the top of the page.

Sounds like the video will basically be that page only a little more detailed. More details will be coming up soon on the video. I'll be sure to post it here for you guys to see!

Thirty Days!

It's not like going around the world in eighty days, that's for certain. Hopefully it will be easier, but I'm not counting on it!

So what's in thirty days you ask?

Well, as I've said in some of my previous entries, I plan to start the Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/) for the Masquerade project on December 1st. That means as of today, November 1st, I have thirty days to complete everything required for Kickstarter. Only a month...Wow...Kind of scary now that I think about it.

So far, I've started work on the eight steps I've assigned for myself by finishing up the card art and working on the rulebook. I plan on completing that by this weekend. I'll also be doing research into a Kickstarter page for Masquerade this weekend to boot. Busy me!

There will be more updates like this as time goes on. Look forward to them!