This Week in IGA: June 5, 2017


Top Stories

Rerranging the Furniture…

As you may have noticed, we’ve reorganized the site a fair amount in the last few weeks. Most of the pages and menus look just as they did, but many of the page addresses (URLs) have changed. We’ve been doing this in stages to try and minimize any potential fallout from moving all the pages around at once. So far, we’ve seen extremely minimal ramifications, as we’re being very careful and deliberate in what we’re doing. Of course, if you see anything that isn’t working quite right, please don’t hesitate to let us know.


Breaking the site up into modules as we have will make for more readable links and make life for our web development team much easier going forward. We’ve also been using this time to clean up and update older, legacy code, so everything should be running just a little bit faster and better. We know this isn’t terribly exciting for our members compared to new features (trust me, those are coming) but our code team is positively giddy to have this work done, and everything we do from now on will get done faster, easier and better as a result of these changes. Of course, website work will likely be on the back burner a little bit through the summer due to convention season.


Wherever possible, we’ve added redirects from the old page addresses to the new. We’ll leave these up for a month or two, until we see people stop hitting them. We strongly encourage you to update any bookmarks / favorites you may have in your browser, and check any links you may have added to your Web site, Facebook profile, or other digital platform. If you’ve printed any changed URL in any game material, contact us about leaving a permanent redirect in place so the links don’t break.


Thank you for your patience as we make this change. There’s no great time for upheaval and reorganization, but it’s almost always better once you get through it. Thank you also to those Minions who have been helping us test the changes and identifying problems.


Members: Link your Kickstarter Profile to Your IGA Account

Hey there! We’ve added a quick new feature that will help us out a lot in promoting our members’ Kickstarter campaigns: you can now link your Kickstarter profile to your IGA account. You can find the field to do this on your Studio Profile page at https://www.indiegamealliance.com/account/studio/profile.php.


Your Kickstarter profile link should look like https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/your_profile_name. To find it, log into Kickstarter, click your avatar in the upper right hand corner to open your account menu, and select Profile to visit your public profile. 



Just cut and  paste the link from your browser’s address bar into the field on your IGA Studio Profile, click Save, and you’re all set!



IGA will use this information to proactively start sharing and supporting your current and future Kickstarter campaigns without the need for you to let us know before launch. It’s one more thing off your plate during the busy pre-launch period, and it makes sure that IGA can get to work promoting your project on day one, every time.


 


 


 


Announcing Minion Certifications!

We’re stoked to announce an often-requested new feature for member publishers: certification programs! IGA Pro members can now link a rulebook and/or a how-to-play video to any game in their Game Catalog and create a custom certification exam for it.



The exam editor interface is very similar to our easy-to-use survey module, so it should feel immediately familiar to IGA Pro members.



You can specify whether a certification is optional or required for demos – although we strongly recommend that members not set certification as mandatory except in situations where there are frequently tournaments with high-value prizes. This is, however, a simple and intuitive way for you to communicate the basics of gameplay to Minions, and for Minions to show off their expertise. Our Minions already do a fantastic job of quickly picking up and mastering game rules!



Minions can complete the courses online in their own time – there’s no need to schedule a session with a trainer. Simply watch a video – in most cases, the same how-to-play video from the Kickstarter campaign – and answer a few simple questions.



You’ll get a cool little certificate you can print out, and the publisher will get an email letting them know someone else has mastered their game. Your certifications will appear on your public Minion profile — and there might even be some new achievements associated with certifications.





New Partnerships

The Daniel Zayas Company

I offer consultation on a variety of crucial Kickstarter campaign elements: Manufacturing, Campaign Layout, Marketing, and Shipping and Fulfillment are just a few examples.

$100 off the full consultation fee. I usually charge $1000 plus 5% of the Kickstarter amount raised as displayed on the Kickstarter page, due only after we fund together! That is reduced to $900 plus 5% of the Kickstarter amount raised as displayed on the Kickstarter page.



Now on Kickstarter

Flip the Script

Mark Seymour $1098 of $9613 raised (11%) 24 days left

THE GREATER DEBATE

Castle Productions $2099 of $5000 raised (41%) 4 days left

It's Just A Theory - The Conspiracy Themed Card Game

Laughing Lizard Games $6149 of $8393 raised (73%) 11 days left

Loot and Recruit!

Vile Genius Games $5252 of $7100 raised (73%) 16 days left

Metal Dawn

Everything Epic $16599 of $15000 raised (110%) 17 days left

IUNU

LudiCreations $13902 of $10000 raised (139%) 24 days left

Flick Wars - Tabletop Dexterity Combat Game with 3D Terrain

Andrew Tullsen $13019 of $8500 raised (153%) 4 days left

Carcosa - A Lovecraftian board game of Cults and Madness

One Free Elephant $14424 of $7691 raised (187%) 25 days left

Gruff: Rage of the Trolls

Studio Woe $20620 of $10000 raised (206%) 23 days left

Daimyo's Fall - A Treasure Hunting Deckbuilding Game

Axis Mundi $20874 of $10093 raised (206%) 2 days left

Manhattan Project 2: Minutes to Midnight - board game

Minion Games $99631 of $40000 raised (249%) 8 days left

Dark Dealings: Dwarven Delve - Bundles, Expansions & More!

Nevermore Games $30964 of $10000 raised (309%) 17 days left

ROLL PLAYER - Monsters & Minions Expansion (+ Reprint)

Keith Matejka $237600 of $65000 raised (365%) 10 days left

Take the Gold

CardLords $15296 of $4000 raised (382%) 7 days left

Saloon Tycoon: The Ranch Expansion -Base Game also available

A.J. Porfirio $45305 of $10000 raised (453%) 6 days left

Minerva

Pandasaurus Games $54247 of $10000 raised (542%) 25 days left

Flow of History - Deluxified™ and Updated

Michael Mindes $112607 of $20000 raised (563%) 4 days left

Star S'mores - A Gingerdead House Expansion

Frank Alberts $6190 of $1000 raised (619%) 8 days left


Did You Know?

IGA is proud to participate in Extra Life, a charity effort that raises funds through gaming to support Children's Miracle Network. Please consider donating or joining our player team to help us heal kids.


Upcoming Conventions

Origins Game Fair
Columbus, OH USA
Jun. 14 - 18, 2017

Polycon
San Luis Obispo, CA USA
Jun. 23 - 25, 2017

Anime Expo
Los Angeles, CA USA
Jul. 1 - 4, 2017

Dice Tower Con
Kissimmee, FL USA
Jul. 5 - 9, 2017

Fan World
Niagra Falls, NY USA
Jul. 21 - 23, 2017

San Diego Comic Con
San Diego, CA USA
Jul. 19 - 23, 2017


Welcome New Members!


Welcome New Minions!

Matthew M.
Corey I.

New & Restocked in the Store

MajiMonsters Core Rulebook
Late Knight Games LLC

Alkemia: Destiny's Recipe
KinSoul Studio


IGA by the Numbers

Member Studios:

614

Volunteer Minions:

395

Supported Games:

2383

Funded Kickstarters:

474