The latter! Although by accident, since I hadn't played RR before inventing RT. RoboRally is vastly more complex and has oodles more depth. Robot Turtles is entirely pictorial and great for ages 3+.
FYI, I've written about a bunch of TTGs for Wired, if you're not talking to Game Salute yet, you might want to—they seem to be a common through line in my stories. They help a lot with logistics/pricing/etc.
While you did everything else right (from what's enumerated in the "midmortem" to the game's rules), what put it over the top for me was the very high quality of the graphics. Especially that shot of the turtle who's delighted to achieve that red gem prize.
It sets a very good tone for the game, what can be expected from it, etc.
Hey Dan, no question just a small gush: this is one of the best KickStarter campaigns I've seen in a while. The video is great, it's fun reading the story and seeing the extra content, and I think more toys like this should exist in the world. I don't have kids but I feel excited about it anyways - best of luck to you!
Hey, great idea! I immediately became a backer. My 2yo daughter is already a solid "Memory" card game player and is sure to love this!
My Question: It seems to me there's a big gap between your game and MIT Scratch... In particular, Scratch, though quite good, still has a steeper learning curve than necessary, I think... (i.e. "Robot Turtles" works for 3yo, but then "Scratch" may not be viable for someone under 7yo, I would think.)
Do you agree with this assessment? Do you know of a good next step for a kid that has mastered "Robot Turtles"? Unless I find other alternatives I'm thinking after my kid learns "Robot Turtles" (and is still having fun with this sort of thing) I might need to develop some custom software that can act as a bridge to Scratch.
I haven't played with Scratch in detail, but expect to graduate my kids to it (or something similar?) as soon as they can read. I won't claim expertise in age 8+ since I haven't dived in depth.
One anecdote: I learned BASIC on my C-64 at age 7 sitting on my dad's lap, writing simple 'games' out of if-then statements. I think that traditional programming languages like Logo and Basic may be viable with mom/dad help as soon as they can read.
How sure are you about the negative impact of "early-bird". The purpose of it is to create a sense of urgency in the first group of people who visit the page, to make sure that the campaign takes off right away. Doesn't this outweigh the "you're being ripped off" thing?
"Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions. During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments. Once an anchor is set, other judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor. For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable even if they are still higher than what the car is really worth."
If you wanted to do an early bird special, one solution might be to add something extra at the early bird tier (but keep the same price). Or even charge $1 more for something that seemed to be worth >$1 more but was unavailable otherwise. E.g. the early bird copies are signed.
Hmm. Ok. I'm thinking there might be some strategies to mitigate the anchoring effects, which definitely exist. It seems to me that it's a tradeoff, however, and it's not obvious to me which circumstances lead to one or the other being the best approach.
Dan can probably give better answers, but as an early backer I know that I was quite eager to get in before those "early bird" copies sold out. I also recognized, though, that if I'd missed them I would have been significantly more hesitant to pledge at that point (both because the price felt higher and because it was comparatively a much worse deal). That makes me think that his (accidental?) strategy of including an early bird tier and then regularly increasing its limit might be the best of both worlds.
Thanks! Yes and yes. Not necessarily a trend, but to think about how you're going to get the word out from the beginning. Speaking in the abstract, I would rather have a great marketing idea and develop the product from that then vice versa.
You take turns running their programs. There's typically a lot of debugging, although in theory you might just do it once. You can see a video example of 'write program' in the most recent update I posted.
The rules say that everyone who gets a jewel wins. In practice, my kids very much compete to see who finishes first. :)
Comments
OP here - happy to answer any questions in the comments.
Hi OP.
What programming concepts does this game cover that aren't already handled by the 1994 game RoboRally? Or is this "RoboRally for little kids"?
The latter! Although by accident, since I hadn't played RR before inventing RT. RoboRally is vastly more complex and has oodles more depth. Robot Turtles is entirely pictorial and great for ages 3+.
That's cool RoboRally is a great game anyway so bringing it to kids is a good idea.
Great project/post!
FYI, I've written about a bunch of TTGs for Wired, if you're not talking to Game Salute yet, you might want to—they seem to be a common through line in my stories. They help a lot with logistics/pricing/etc.
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/05/game-salute/
Thanks for the pointer!
Not a question but a point:
While you did everything else right (from what's enumerated in the "midmortem" to the game's rules), what put it over the top for me was the very high quality of the graphics. Especially that shot of the turtle who's delighted to achieve that red gem prize.
It sets a very good tone for the game, what can be expected from it, etc.
Thanks hga! That's great feedback. I have very little artistic skill personally, so it's really rewarding to be able to bring this stuff to life.
Hey Dan, no question just a small gush: this is one of the best KickStarter campaigns I've seen in a while. The video is great, it's fun reading the story and seeing the extra content, and I think more toys like this should exist in the world. I don't have kids but I feel excited about it anyways - best of luck to you!
Thanks gbelote! Nice to be able to give something back to the HN community, which was helpful in figuring out how to do Kickstarter right.
Hey, great idea! I immediately became a backer. My 2yo daughter is already a solid "Memory" card game player and is sure to love this!
My Question: It seems to me there's a big gap between your game and MIT Scratch... In particular, Scratch, though quite good, still has a steeper learning curve than necessary, I think... (i.e. "Robot Turtles" works for 3yo, but then "Scratch" may not be viable for someone under 7yo, I would think.)
Do you agree with this assessment? Do you know of a good next step for a kid that has mastered "Robot Turtles"? Unless I find other alternatives I'm thinking after my kid learns "Robot Turtles" (and is still having fun with this sort of thing) I might need to develop some custom software that can act as a bridge to Scratch.
I haven't played with Scratch in detail, but expect to graduate my kids to it (or something similar?) as soon as they can read. I won't claim expertise in age 8+ since I haven't dived in depth.
One anecdote: I learned BASIC on my C-64 at age 7 sitting on my dad's lap, writing simple 'games' out of if-then statements. I think that traditional programming languages like Logo and Basic may be viable with mom/dad help as soon as they can read.
In hindsight, Logo is probably the obvious next step :-)
How sure are you about the negative impact of "early-bird". The purpose of it is to create a sense of urgency in the first group of people who visit the page, to make sure that the campaign takes off right away. Doesn't this outweigh the "you're being ripped off" thing?
I have no data, but this Wikipedia article explains the theory:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchoring
"Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions. During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments. Once an anchor is set, other judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor. For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable even if they are still higher than what the car is really worth."
If you wanted to do an early bird special, one solution might be to add something extra at the early bird tier (but keep the same price). Or even charge $1 more for something that seemed to be worth >$1 more but was unavailable otherwise. E.g. the early bird copies are signed.
Hmm. Ok. I'm thinking there might be some strategies to mitigate the anchoring effects, which definitely exist. It seems to me that it's a tradeoff, however, and it's not obvious to me which circumstances lead to one or the other being the best approach.
Dan can probably give better answers, but as an early backer I know that I was quite eager to get in before those "early bird" copies sold out. I also recognized, though, that if I'd missed them I would have been significantly more hesitant to pledge at that point (both because the price felt higher and because it was comparatively a much worse deal). That makes me think that his (accidental?) strategy of including an early bird tier and then regularly increasing its limit might be the best of both worlds.
That's a really informative and well-done mid-mortem. Thanks for writing that up.
Hi OP,
I'd be interested to know the numbers for international uptake.
What distribution of countries are you shipping to that going from US to international turns a $29 shipped game into a $60 shipped game?
I don't know, and won't until I get the backer surveys at the end of the project.
Hey Dan! Congrats!
Do you think you were able to get most of your press because "teaching code to kids" is so trendy right now?
Would you advice other Kickstarters to look for similar trends?
Thanks! Yes and yes. Not necessarily a trend, but to think about how you're going to get the word out from the beginning. Speaking in the abstract, I would rather have a great marketing idea and develop the product from that then vice versa.
How does the writing a whole program at a time play option work with multiple players? Is it just whoever figures it out wins?
You take turns running their programs. There's typically a lot of debugging, although in theory you might just do it once. You can see a video example of 'write program' in the most recent update I posted.
The rules say that everyone who gets a jewel wins. In practice, my kids very much compete to see who finishes first. :)
hey dan, looks amazing - just what i need to stealth teach my 4 year old
question: is it possible to get a PDF/print out version so that i can start playing robot turtles with my son till the international version ships?