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Blazing Griffin has moved its project The Ship 2: Full Steam Ahead fully over to Steam Greenlight Concepts after its Kickstarter campaign failed to meet its funding goal, which the developer says was due to UK conversion rates and an "unclear" initial pitch.
Full Steam Ahead is a sequel to 2006 PC murder-mystery title The Ship, developed by Scotland-based studio Outerlight. Blazing Griffin states that the campaign failed partly due to the initial pitch being unclear as to what the game was for those who hadn't played The Ship. Of its initial funding goal of £128,000, Full Steam Ahead managed to earn only £18,247 during its two month campaign.
"We'd pitched our original video and text at a unique angle, thinking this would tempt people in, but quickly realized that many people who hadn't played the original game were unsure what we were selling and it was important to react to that,' reads the post on the developer's blog. "The second video and script had a far better reception, but by that point we had missed the initial catchment period so vital to a Kickstarter's success."
Blazing Griffin also cited issues with conversion rates between Kickstarter's UK branch, where Full Steam Ahead's campaign was set, and North American backers. The developer stated that they initially thought all viewers outside the UK would see backing amounts in U.S. dollars. This made some non-UK backers think only UK residents could contribute. Additionally, the current conversion rate between British pounds and American dollars is 1 to 1.63, making it seem like U.S. backers were "giving more for less."
Full Steam Ahead was moved to Steam Greenlight Concepts in mid-November in order to "harness the public excitement and imagination we know exists" in the Steam community. Blazing Griffin is currently also working on other projects in order to bolster its reputation as an "established" studio and will only push ahead with The Ship 2 if funding is acquired.
