Tomorrow, We Launch

Here I am, sitting in an apartment, waiting for my ride back home for Christmas break. There's still a lot I feel like I need to do for the Masquerade project, but it's either now or never. The actual project itself has been ready for some time. All it needs now is that push and some good marketing, maybe I'll have to go look into hiring one from the majors here at Champlain College.

That's another story though. For most part, the Masquerade Kickstarter is all set. There's only one detail missing and that's the credit card information, which should be here tomorrow. Unfortunately, I won't be arriving home until late, so that means I'll have a lot of work tomorrow.

You all can expect the Kickstarter to be launched sometime between 12-2 PM, by then all the problems should be worked out and I can finally begin. I'll probably do updates regularly explaining what Masquerade even is to some of the people who come from the Kickstarter. (For those of you who don't know, you can click the tab up top to find out).

I think another project I'll be doing in the future is a how-to-play video during my time off, so look forward to that.

I'm really excited and can't wait to begin.

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!

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...

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!

Book is Done!

So now that the book has finally been completed, I have to start focusing on editing and finding people to edit! Email me if you'd be interested in that at michaelbujtas@gmail.com

Also an important note: I've decided to plan the date for the Kickstarter for Masquerade for December 1st! More details on that later including a list of goals I need to accomplish before then.

Thanks guys for your support so far! Here's to taking the next step in the road to publishing.

What Makes a Good Story?

Now that I can sit down and iterate on my thoughts a little bit better, I can safely say that I can agree with myself mostly in this blog. What does make a good story? To me that's characters and how they shape the world around them.

I'm on record for being a huge lover of comic books like Batman, Watchmen, etc. What drives me to keep reading those works is how interesting the characters are in the plot (I'm a huge fan of Rorschach by the way). But as I say in the video, it's more than that. They work off of each other and are just generally engaging to watch, even if it's just two characters having breakfast with each other.

I have a little theory that I'd be willing to test for my next novel, when I get to write it that is. I bet that it's possible to write an incredible story with just five well-developed and thought out characters doing just about anything in the novel.

But my question to you guys is what you think makes a good story? Correct me if I'm wrong!

A New Contest? Upcoming Chapter 3!

Like I've mentioned in this weekend's blog video, things haven't been going as great as I wanted with that new contest.


I think I might do a revamp of the contest so that I'll let people design their own cards and fight over with one they'd like to see go into the card game. That way I can encourage the fans to really get invested with the game.

We'll have to see what people think though, I don't want to manipulate anyone after all!

On the news with the book, if you watch the video you'll notice I said it's almost done, and it is! I'm on the last few chapters and all the really climatic stuff is happening. It's both exciting and sad at the same time, it's been such a joy writing this now I have to focus on editing and publishing it once it's finished. I might go into self-publishing or maybe I'll take it to a larger company and see if they pick up the game and the book.

No one's ever marketed both a card game and a book to my knowledge.

With that note, I think it's time to post the next chapter of the book on the blog (I believe we're on chapter 3). I'd love to hear what everyone thinks of it! Until next time.

Video Three and Rulebook Coming Soon!

So once the weekend started, I resolved myself to working solely on the Masquerade card game all day. The result was completing the newest version of the game all the way to print, a feat that means all the recent changes to the game are ready to be tested.

Afterwards I decided to do another video blog which you can see right here:



I have plans for posting the rulebook or a how-to-play video of the Masquerade card game in the very near future (that is within the week). The how-to-play video is something I've been meaning to do anyway, so you may even be able to expect both.

As usual, please comment on any opinions or requests!

Video Blog Part 2

So I decided to continue the little video blog idea for awhile and see how it goes. I'll be updating both this site and the videos constantly, so no need to worry about that. I think the next post I do on the blog will be about the Masquerade Card Game and more details on that, possibly how to even play.




Stay posted and please comment on what you think so far!