As some of you already know, the company that hired me over 4 years ago and relocated my ass across the United States of Americram from Ann Arbor, MI to Austin, TX closed it's doors last Monday. I am unemployed!!! I could look for a next job, but I'd rather do something I have lots of passion for. Y'know, liek work on this here old Battle of the Bits/ \:D/

This post is a work in progress, but I wanted to share said progress.

I'm hoping to launch this kickstarter thing on Sunday, but if I don't feel it's ready then it shall be postponed at most a few days.

How can a BotBr such as yourself help right now? I'd like help making the kickstarter page really pretty! If anyone has some outstanding artwork they'd like to make or suggest that's already on the site, please do!

Also, I need to make a video! I'd like as many BotBrs as possible to record themselves saying something such as "Viva le BotB" or "Viva lol BotBee" or however you would say it. Even if you said something very short and succinct about how BotB has affected you would be very, very helpful.

I know this is short notice. I got no notice on my termination either. Please, let's pull together and make me working on BotB full-time a reality even if it's just for a few months. I can look for work when this all winds down (and if we're successful).

Here is a successful kickstarter model I am trying to follow

I'm not trying to create any financial pressures on anyone - but any promotion or help with promotional ideas are welcome and appreciated!!


the following is the work in progress notes (needs work)

Goal :: $12k - $15k
3 Months of Development

Multiple BotBrs per User Account
- easy management and session switching

Wandering NPCs
- wizards and clerics that adjust a BotBr's aura
- merchants that sell items
- someone to run the arena

Inventory and Items
- get a humility helmet to block auto-favorites on your own entry
- get a totem cloak to conceal changing BotBrs

Completely Rebuilt Battle Engine
- true modularity with battle phases and battle types
- options for BotBrs to host major battles (costs much boons)
- host One Hour Battles up to a week after creating them


Stretch Goal :: $24k - $30k
6 Months of Development

"I never went to college. I just wanna do stuff."

Responsive Design
- a new fluid layout ready for all devices
- integrate angular.js and make single page app

Mobile App
- simpler interface focused on browsing and enjoying content
- get that meta-data visible on car stereos via blu-toof


Donation Rewards

Pledge Any Amount - get Altruist points for your BotBr
Pledge $20 - you get Winter Chip I 7"
Pledge $25 - you get BotB t-shirt
Pledge $40 - both the 7" and the shirt
Pledge $100 - create a Major battle that last two weeks with one format (BotBr submitted cover art format optional)
Pledge $250 - create a Major battle that lasts 4 weeks and has up to 4 formats (BotBr submitted cover art format option reduces to formats to 3 besides cover art)
Pledge $500 - create a Major battle that lasts 4-8 weeks with as many formats as you want

holy hell!!!!
gl puke!! we will be here for you! i owe so much to you and this site, i'd love to help to make it your day job!
<3

i hope kickstarter accepts brazilian payment methods, i've got no international credit cart and i've transfered all my paypal money to my bank account (dollar price is high on brazil rn so it is a good time to do so)
either way i'm gonna advertise to all ppl botb related or not! even if they dont know botb they may end up liking it, using it and maybe even pledging for the kickstarter who knows
btw how's the altruist points thing gonna work? fixed amount or calculated per amount of money pledged?

I'm all about this idea but the stretch goals seem quite large to me, and I'm worried they may not get met.

i don't know if i'll actually be able to donate anything, but i totally support the idea and really hope things work out for you!

Yooo!! You need an artist? I'm your gal! ((lol hopefully))

I can do pixel art both large scale and small scale ((Including animation!!), and I've been getting into doing vector stuff ((I'm still learning though))

examples:
(Large scale pixel art [Lol these are old but the only examples I could find])
http://i.imgur.com/bmp9gGO.png
http://i.imgur.com/tWF1cyw.gif
(Small scale pixel art)
http://i.imgur.com/tYlI4zL.gif
http://i.imgur.com/Bf9ihR8.gif
(Vector)
http://i.imgur.com/JxzYNt4.png
http://i.imgur.com/2uEjrif.png

If you wanna email me to talk in private my email is kerocola@outlook.com

I'm sorry I have been so out of the loop lately...Just saw this thread.
I admire you for doing this, puke, and I hope it's a major success! I am willing to help in any way I can. Just shoot me an email or something.
Will certainly donate to the cause!

sorry about ur job, pukez! :(

i like the idea of a kickstarter, but im pretty worried about how big the supporter pool for this could actually be. john q public is happy to donate to a video game or a movie or something because he'll receive something in return. but website development? and for something as niche as botb? so then we're pretty much just left with the notoriously destitute botbrs for donations. i hope im wrong, but i doubt there's a living wage worth of support out there.

but fuck all that noise! get item hype! http://battleofthebits.com/academy/GroupThread/2033/items/

also, botb shirts? better throw up the ui signal.

pledge ideas:

$750: get a sandwich bag full of baron knoxburry's beard trimmings, known to cure cancer and increase libido.

look, like i was saying before it's best to use botb and all of our inhabitants as a service for the world that does have money. i may have a bunch to give you, but would my art really be the cutesy shit that people eat the fuck up these days?

everyone here is talented in their own ways. you could throw up OHBs or Majors for a talent hunt for personal recognition to serve others in kickstarter as the l33tn00b creative thinktank for venture capitalists that need jingles, logos, code, etc. botb, more or less, is a veritable talent agency for businesses. you could take your fees for talent search and the artists can get recognition and referrals to other business prospects. (but believe me it should stay non-profit and open to all n00bz forever... how else has it stayed so interesting and attractive?)

hell, you can even code another site from scratch that is a talent bidding service for an artist portfolio and if the artist is OK with a rate you can take your cut.

there is so much money to be made that people want to spend; and so much art to be made that artists want to create -- even for free.

there's no stress and there is all n00bz.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i don't want any kickstarter prizes and even if you want me to wait i'll still probably just secretly paypal you as usual.

good luck pukey.

ps... a 2 hour battle would be nice ;p

I spent the first half of my day reading a lot of stuff related to running a kickstarter campaign. I am rather overwhelmed by trying to synthesize all thoughts and desires into a presentation that is both exciting and balanced. This will not be launched on Sunday. Not only do I doubt it will be ready come Sunday, but there is also a wait of up to 3 days for it to be approved.

I also crunched some numbers today. Ouch the numbers. Kickstarter and the payment process company take from 8-10% off the top. The IRS will take up to 28% minus expenses. Expenses include manufacturing shirts and stickers and coozies, and packaging everything for shipping which could either be done by yours truly or another company can be hired to do take care of that. I need to get quotes. I need to crunch harder. A goal of 12k might not work out. Shipping is tacked on top of donation amounts, so at least there's that!

I don't expect BotBrs to find this money. I'm hoping for some decent press. I think the BotB story is interesting and mostly unheard. I need 3 paragraphs about that.

Wow it's 5:30am and I'm starting to see double. Not sure what else I had to say other than I've been talking to a lot of folks and I'm looking forward to this thing!

@raphaelgoulart - the company handling payments is called stripe and their website says "Available for businesses in 23 countries. Accept payments from anywhere in the world."

@Cessor Safari - the point of a stretch goal is that it isn't necessary for the campaign to succeed. BotB will be greatly improved if we meet the base goal.

Altruist points are 1:$1 ratio! LEVELUPZ!! \o/

holy dicks the irs takes 28%?!?!?!?!? so between the two you are almost losing 40%, the rich get richer. there has to be some kind of tax loophole for botb being non-profit, though im sure you'd have to go through a lengthy registration process first. the holidays also probably arent the best time for a kickstarter with people's money and attention being sent elsewhere, but you dont really have a choice there (what a shitty time for a company to go belly up btw)

anyways back onto teh hype train
backer rewards ideas:

$10 - get an ExClUsIvE backer only aura for a new or existing botbr account
$45 - get a digital copy of the ENTIRE bandcamp discography.

custom backer rewards would be good too ie add $25 to get a shirt on the higher tier pledges.

i'm a bit worried how a kickstarter for a niche site like botb could go, but i'd pledge if anything happens

that being said, i don't think Q4 is a good time for a kickstarter like this either like chip champion said but maybe there's no choice here

there is an alternative, though, you could always try patreon, which seems a bit safer somehow

no matter what happens i do want a botb t-shirt

i will donate my burger zone^tm money 2 this : )))))))))))

is burger zone a new sonic level
also seemingly stripe doesnt support brazilian credit card as a payment method but in any case i've made an arrangement with a friend, they'll use their mother's international credit card to donate for me and i'll pay them in BRL how much it cost (for instance if they donate 13 USD i'll pay them 50 BRL)

Stripe is what Humble Bundle uses, and it works in Argentina. If KS uses it, it should work. Haven't kickstarted anything yet, but my hopes are up.

Patreon is a good alternative for people that generate content constantly, not so much for "already created" stuff.

See: Ludum Dare, and ThaSauce.
https://www.patreon.com/mikekasprzak
https://www.patreon.com/thasauce

Actually patreon seems to me like the best alternative by far. Check this out: https://www.patreon.com/Kurzgesagt?ty=h

I would say that *curating/coding/updating a website* counts as "generate content constantly".

We could pay monthly to get some item monthly/get a couple boons monthly/make week-long-compos every few months and so on.

1) you get *consistent* money: with kickstarter you have a lot more work to do each time you make one and a lot of uncertainty.
2) It's easier paying say 10$ monthly for a year for a total of 120$ than paying 50$ Right(tm) Now(tm). I know I would pay 10$ monthly via patreon but I can't pay 50$ via kickstarter at once. At least it seems more difficult for me.

i'll be happy to donate regardless of method, can't wait :)

Same, though toss my chip into the "Patreon over Kickstarter" pile, if there is one. :P

a botb tshirt would instantly become my favorite shirt ever. i would wear it every time i leave the house

UPDATES & NEWS

We are doing a ROM flier and a limited 100-count NES cartridge release. My friend, Batsly Adams

, is a long time fan and lurker of BotB. He has volunteered his tools to author ROMs with whatever content we give him and he has a hookup for manufacturing. This is not the time to focus on the actual content of the cartridge, but I will start a thread to discuss what is going into the flier ROM!

The kickstarter will actually launch very early December. This way I don't have to deal with the taxes from this income and the IRS until 2017; and my federal income tax return can help float me. Apparently, the 1099-K is only issued if we pull in over $20k and have over 200 transactions. I'm pretty sure you still need to claim income and pay on it though.

About the Patreon v Kickstarter debacle. Yes, the Patreon offers a more stable long-term solution. The kickstarter is not sustainable, I don't intend on running more than one. But I don't think a patreon could reach critical mass in time to carry me either. Because of the situation as it is, I need the "50$ Right(tm) Now(tm)" instead of $10/month for this to work.

All that being said, a patreon campaign following a successful kickstarter makes a whole lot of sense!

If I'm going to contribute some music (and yes, I will make sure to be memory-conscious given how DPCM-happy I can be), then it'll have to wait until probably after Christmas.

Sorry, I got a bit of the deer lost in the headlights on this. Thanks to this chart

and figuring out my unemployment benefits, the kickstarter will launch in January!! I still have so much work to do! ^____^;

A Kickstarter followed by a Pateron seems about right, and I'll gladly donate and try to raise awareness! (even as a lurker :B)
R3M: "a botb tshirt would instantly become my favorite shirt ever. i would wear it every time i leave the house"
Also agreed ^

I'd gladly donate to your cause, I found a home here and I'd love to see it improved for everyone to enjoy.

Alright, I just sent out 300+ emails to BotBrs. As gmail limits the number of emails you can send a day, I set the criteria for BotBrs of level 7 or higher who have logged in within the last year. Some of these emails were returned with faulty addresses. Oh well.

Without further ado, what I sent out :

BotB Kickstarter is coming soon!

Hey n00bs!

This is your old pal, puke7. You know, the guy who runs Battle of the Bits? You may or may not have heard that I went unemployed a while ago and am hoping to renovate BotB with the financial support of a Kickstarter. It sure beats looking for another job working for someone else!

I need your help.

I want this fundraiser to kick-off this Friday. In order for that to happen, everything needs to be ready for review by the Kickstarter people this Wednesday. Oh, and we have all sorts of great rewards lined up : stickers, t-shirts, that old 7" Winter Chip I record, an NES cart with BotB music on it, custom tracks by BotBrs, and hosting battles (major and minor) w/o being a BotBr.

So what can you do to help?

I want to make a montage of BotBrs talking about why BotB is important to them inside the promotional video. If you own a smartphone you can point it at yourself, hit record and email it to me at this address. If you have a webcam and OBS, do the same. Please, please do this. The more the merrier, but try to keep it short and succinct.

When it launches, the kickstarter info will be visible on every page of BotB.
If there are any issues or delays I will post them on BotB too.

Thank you for your time,
--Langel Bookbinder aka puke7 aka b-knox aka big beardie man

and seriously you can send that video to puke7@battleofthebits.com

hell yeah

I'll try to record a video within the next few days.

hey you, yes you reading this comment, you do the same
edit: and do it before tuesday!!

If it weren't for my college work, then I would consider contributing... but not with a video.

I'm sure if you have the time to browse botb, you have the time to say a few words to a camera !!!!

even a quick minute of video is better than nothing I'd assume

When you say "short and succinct," is there any estimate of how long we should shoot for? I guess it depends on how many people submit videos but even a minute could make for a really long video if enough people participate. (Or are you going to trim them based on the amount?)

Ktcmoop: I'd probably assume either less than Vine or Instaygram-length (basically 6-15 seconds) since puke7's probably gonna put these in a fast-cut montage

Either way, FACE REVEAL :c

when im home alone i'll record it! hope my english doesnt sound shitty lmao

puke I'm going to record the best video I possibly can for you today, i'll put my life on the line for this one. botb forever

I accidently left my laptop at work yesterday!
Expect to see an email from me later tonite!

Whoooly dsdgasdfgyarassdga I've dreamed of this possibility for SO long! If any additional music is needed, I'd love to contribute. BotB really deserves to be much more than it already is.

Updates! Looks most likely that the kickstarter will launch by or around Friday, March 11th, a week from today. Batsly Adams is in town promoting his Super Russian Roulette nes cart ks

and will be at my place tomorrow and/or Sunday working on a demo rom for the BotB ks. I also met Paul who will be doing manufacturing for the actual cart when we get to that point in the future.

I've got a handful of videos, but I could use more! Got any spare time this weekend? Don't worry about length, I will be chopping it down anyways. I'm gonna say end of Tuesday is the deadline for this so I can submit the project to ks on Wednesday.

also, stickers

in the house!

The Kickstarter is finally live!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/523870291/battle-of-the-bits

"48 hours later they would bring their of the samples to a populated party with a very loud audio system."

"their [remixes] of the samples" perhaps? I imagine outsiders would find the paragraph difficult to understand otherwise.

Woot!__¡¡¡¡???? how did i missed this! :(((((((((((((((((
I'm so disconnected from botb! :(((((

I want to give you my money but Kickstarter seens to not like paypal :(((( how is that possible? I want the Swag Bundle!, but cant send you the money cuz i dont have credit card! :(

Let me know if there is any other way to send you the money.
I also have stuff (art, music and could record a video, but i need some time). I will keep checking teh threat. Sorry about my late appear.

jajajajajaja all n00bz!!!

bam, pledged!

heyo, i notice that you're using the poster ohb entry i did as (placeholder?) art for the rom and such. i've got zero spare dosh to contribute to this fund, but if you'd like something like that redone to be nicer and more nes-friendly, i'd be happy to contribute that!

no longer in the burger zone but i am now doing professional mspaint work so i donated some of my mspaint money to it!!!!!! will donate more later maybe

eat my money with salad dressing.

guaranteed to have a new address if/when the swag ships. :P

did i pick the right category?

there's games > (somthing)
and music > chiptune

*shrugs*

Puke7, use the press, friends and youtubers to increase that number, btw if you guys know anyway to donate/give money away on kickstarter without credit card, please let me know.

And another e-mail to the botb database could also help :D also post in the chipmusic scenes websites.
http://chipmusic.org
http://nintendoage.com/
http://forums.nesdev.com/

Also tweet about it and try to get friends to retweet it
And every website you know about NES.

Otherwise people will never notice that the kickstarter exist.

ui: use a prepaid cash card. :)

pledged! botb is the b-e-s-t

Puke7 i dont know if the top rewards are worth for people who are not the chipmusic community, i think you should add/fix those and add stuff like those shirts, stickers and a cd/dvd with your drunk movie or other stuff that people can enjoy and looks more juicy for people who arent so much into the community.

B00daw, how i do that, never done that before. Is there is anyway online to do that?

ribbit I think this is the correct link ui
https://www.paypal-prepaid.com/

Backed!

http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13979

With the help of marphff both the Kickstarter and the press release have been reviewed and edited for grammatical imperfections.

Links to the press release --
PDF HTML TXT

Please let me know if you are sending this out to media outlets. I don't want to be redundant with submissions. I will be sending this out to many, many sites and blogs. Guess we'll need a google spritshit to track it all....

This is a great press release. It concisely explains both what BotB is all about and also what you plan to do with the KS funds.

Hrm... Gonna have to kick this into high gear with spammisms... 14 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! g00gg0g00g0g0g0g0g0g0g0g0g0g0g0g0g...

OK you n00bz, get spamming in all the forums that you know that frequent affluent members who enjoy art! We need some bigguns! Some tig'ol biddies!

i think it was DevEd who found this here
http://cliqist.com/2016/04/06/can-battle-bits-kickstarter-pick-pieces/

interesting feedback!

If I must be totally honest, I had the same issue when I first came to this website - the Lyceum can be mildly confusing to get around and fully understanding what the site actually is takes a while if you aren't invited, especially with all the humor flying about on some of the pages. That said, I always kind of assumed that that confusing border was somewhat celebrated - after all, Usability... and looking at it again, clicking the BotB page makes things make a bit more sense than clicking the BotBr page, which I seem to recall clicking early on. Whoops.

i found that review not much after the kickstarter ended, and i find she is right for the most part; this kickstarter would push further now that people know better what is battle of the bits of, aside from the ones who as in the last kickstarter would pledge once more; this definitely calls for a second try; now more aware of how stuff could work better

Nope, wasn't me :V

My chat log doesn't go back far enough for me to tell you who it was, however.

i found it, i think

personally i always found the idiosyncratic web design charming. it contributes to the botb gestalt as i perceive it

I look past this site's weird layout and usability issues most of the time. Some of the design issues are kinda a special charm that's characteristic of this place, and I certainly appreciate all the effort puke has put on the site.

It's hard to understand botb in the beginning, but that's mostly because this site is not like any site out there (it has its own charm, but the layout is confusing the first time you see it yes).

Also I just wanna say I love that we can have custom palettes (even if the editor is buggy as hell). Who cares about uniformity when you can express your inner colorful self through a 5-color palette (says the one with the grayscale palette). :P

All n00bs \o/

I kinda like that the seemingly arcane layout of Botb is a bit of a barrier to entry. It keeps out certain types of people. The way I see it, if you're not interested in persevering and learning the community's quirky lexicon and modus operandi, chances are you wouldn't have a fun time here anyway.
I had so many laughs the first month or so I was on here. I rememberhow confusing and downright bewildering it was. I'm thankful I had gyms to show me the ropes (I've said it before but it bears repeating; I wouldn't be here if not for him).
Having some of those weird idiosyncrasies is what makes it feel like you're really joining something special when you join Botb. And it most certainly is. :)

As a relative newcomer, I echo a lot of the sentiment here. When I first saw the page, it scared the crap out of me. LOOK AT THESE BATTLES. THESE GUYS ARE PROS. HOLY CRAP THEY SPEAK A LANGUAGE THAT I CAN'T UNDERSTAND. EXPERIENCE POINTS? WTF IS TEH DOUBLE HEADED PONY? But that's the charm! You gotta buy into it, you figure it out, and once you spend that little bit of time learning, the rewards are amazing. I love it for that reason.

And it's not like people won't help you! If you log in, go to chat, ask questions, people are pretty damn welcoming here (more so than a LOT of other chip communities, honestly). If you don't ask for help, you'll submit the wrong format to the wrong genre and get pretty much flamed into outer space... but that's part of the charm, honestly hahaha

(I love teh Double Headed Pony!)