This is one of those posts that no one really plans to make. I'm going to discuss two points of failure: first the crowdfund and then the game itself. If you're only here for design noodling, skip to the last section. Also, and listen to me as hard as you can: I am sharing lessons learned, not looking for more advice on how to "fix" anything.
MUTANANNY is a post-apocalyptic game loosely based off a more freeform campaign I ran for my friends back in high school and undergrad. The setting premise is that humanity destroyed the planet, mostly via global warming and pollution, then all the rich folks rocketed off to sleep it out on the moon. Your characters are mutants, twisted remnants of humanity who survived by constant physical adaptation.
Mutants contend with the day to day pressures of life in a homely garbage dump commune, the deadly swamps and marshes of post-apocalyptic Delmarva, monstrous Mutants (Snallygasters) who lost their minds, pumped up demolition derbies, and eventually the threat of high-tech human settlers returning from the moon. It used a variant of the METTLE system, not too far from the unnamed demi-dice pool system I used with the old group.
Eventually I answered a call from Gamefound for participants in a sort of group crowdfunding campaign. I bought some great cover art from a local artist who had a style I liked. My submission was quickly accepted and it was off to the races. Keep in mind I have never done crowdfunding before, so the idea of joining a bunch of other designers all in the harrowing journey together was appealing.
A unique and vibrant setting, a long history of playtesting, and a supportive group crowdfunding campaign! What could go wrong?
Crowdfunding Point 1: First Past the Post
Gamefound was nice enough, a little more convoluted to set up than my earlier drafts with kickstarter. They gave some good seminars but I couldn't attend most because they were scheduled during my working hours. I don't have a lot of criticisms of Gamefound specifically. The guy managing the RPG party was helpful, and things did eventually get off the ground.
What rankled me was a feature of the group project listing where the best performing campaign was always at the top. Now you may think "well of course they are going to want to feature their best performing campaign prominently." You're right, but you also have to realize this is a positive feedback loop. I realized this when I submitted early for one phase and for a brief moment my game was at the top! And it did well! People were pledging, commenting, subscribing... then the other games flooded in and bumped my game down. Everything sucked again.
So this got me thinking. When you submit as part of a group, your efforts publicizing it end up mostly supporting the top entries. If you are at the bottom you are just feeding them views. I think this is a really important point to consider when joining a group crowdfund project.
On the positive side, don't be afraid to put in high pledge levels. I had a few "whales" who were willing to plop down good money for tiers offering things like adding their own OC mutants or dumps. Just... not enough of them as it turns out.
Crowdfunding Point 2: Friends in High Places
My prelaunch campaign was where I first realized I was in trouble. I wasn't the actual lowest on the ranking but I was close. I did everything I was advised to do: Gamefound ads, independent Facebook ads, Bluesky promotions, even Reddit ads. I had a video with music. I took feedback from an editor, drew some of my own spot art, implemented survey feedback, reached out to gamers I knew. I took all sorts of advice. Please do not take this as an opportunity to give me more.
Here's a bit of gained experience: Facebook ads get plenty of people who like and share, but never visit the link! Bots maybe? Reddit ads are absolutely worthless, like dumping water in the desert.
But my underlying problem is I don't really know a lot of people.
Most of the folks I like and talk with are from OSR circles. Unfortunately, this means MUTANANNY was one of those filthy "trad" games they only look at down their noses. I had a scant 150 or so followers on Bluesky and only a few even requoted. None said anything about it. By contrast, a few of the other RPG party members were apparently in tight with indy darlings, effusive with oddly vague praise about their projects.
Long story short the crowdfund failed.
Funniest thing was after it failed I had people contact me saying the game looked really cool and asking when the campaign started. Baffling.
Game Design: Everyone is Special, so No One Is
Of course I could have ignored the crowdfund failure and self published the usual ways. This is where the second problem comes in; a conflict in how Mutations work.
At one point I thought it would be fun to try out the idea of Mutations not as stable traits but as on-the-fly transformations. I was bored with the permanent mutations featured in other games, and had bad experiences with players becoming obsessed with mutation builds instead of the actual game.
I arrived at a compromise. Mutants would have a stable cosmetic oddity that made them unique, but could change their mechanical Mutations to suit the situation. For example, a Mutant with a rat-like appearance could grow gnawing teeth to bite through their bonds or enlarge their ears to better hear foes approach. One with a loose floppy skin could wriggle their way out of a wrestling hold or bunch up their folds as armor, etc.
There were no real limits to what Mutations could be justified, their appearance just gave a hint to how it manifests. It was exactly what the setting required, and I figured why not try it out.
The end result of this is that every time they needed to throw the dice, players would start suggesting Mutations to overcome it. You'd think this would be perfect, exactly what they are supposed to do. The problem was it was too perfect and it started to feel... samey after a while. The Mutations became a swiss-army knife for every situation. To be fair the same thing happens in fantasy games with very flexible magic systems like Genesys, or high level D&D or Mage where magic becomes a first resort.
I might go back to it if I can think of a good way to handle mutations that are not exactly stable like other games, but also not as fluid as this iteration.
On the GM side, this also made describing the inhabitants of a Dump or a Booglarizer raiding party burdensome. Every single one would have some combination of physical weirdness and whatever mutations they were currently manifesting. Great for PCs, overwhelming for NPCs.
Bedtime for Bonzo
I did enjoy writing this game and I think there are a lot of things about it that are superb. The setting is fun and a departure from most post-apocalyptics, and the vehicle races were a hoot to play. METTLE Core worked very smoothly as a ruleset, and a lot of things are going to get carried into future games.
But the truth is, it was a failure and this post is what I learned from it.
If you feel morbid, you can also take a look at Mutananny on Itch or Drivethru, or gaze at the remains of my gamefound campaign page.
