How to Support Goal State
Launching Friday November 15th, we talk funding tiers, bonus content and more...
Goal State launches on Kickstarter this week on Friday November 15th. This is it! I’ve been slowly building towards releasing this project for the past several months - in between running the AI and Games Conference too - and it’s exciting to think we’re just days away from it all going live!
In recent weeks I’ve broken down how Goal State will help fund a batch of courses I want to develop that will help people better learn about the world of artificial intelligence for video games. Last weeks AI and Games Newsletter (linked above) gave a breakdown of the funding goals that I have for the project and the overall targets.
So for this update, it’s time to get into the final piece of the puzzle. How much does it cost to support Goal State? What benefits do supporters earn in return? Let’s break it all down.
Fund One Course, Fund All Courses
One critical aspect of the crowdfunding, is that it’s designed to fund as many courses as we can put together. The initial idea was solely for it to fund the Game AI 101 course, the contents of which I explained in an article back in September.
However, as explored in last weeks newsletter, I have since opted to move towards building extra courses into the stretch goals. Meaning that it is quite literally all or nothing! We get as many courses as we can over the line based on the projected costs of building them.
And so if you do opt to support Goal State, then you will receive every course that is funded. But critically, after the Kickstarter closes and the courses have been built, they will all be sold individually via online platforms at an increased rate. So by financing the course, you will support what is ultimately the equivalent of several hundred pounds worth of educational material. A significant discount, because you helped make it happen!
I Missed Out, Can I Still Support?
One cool feature that was literally added to Kickstarter but a couple of months ago is the idea of a late pledge. Now several tiers will have late pledges assigned to them. Meaning that provided the Kickstarter has ended successfully, those tiers will still be available to pledge against.
The Reward Tiers: Explained
It’s time to break down how you can support Goal State on the Kickstarter page. As you can see below, there are a variety of options for people with limited free cash who simply want to help make it all a reality, to more premium versions of the course complete with bonus content. Let’s walk through them all.
£1+ Back it Because You Believe In It
Like many Kickstarter courses, we’re offering the chance for people to throw money at this project from as little as £1. Every penny - or pound in this case - helps!
£10 Patron
Support Goal State and keep up-to-date on how the project is progressing!
Late Pledges Enabled
Rewards:
[NEW] Backer Updates: Supporters will receive regular updates via Kickstarter on project progress.
£120 Goal State
[Early Bird Discount Available]
The complete package for anyone interested in AI for game development. Lectures, tutorials and homework exercises. You will receive access to all courses funded by this Kickstarter campaign.
Early Bird Discounts (Limited Availability):
Early Early Bird: £80 (x50)
Early Bird: £100 (x50)
Late Pledges Enabled
Only on regular priced tier, not on early bird tiers.
Rewards:
Backer Updates
[NEW] Course Access: All courses produced by this crowdfunding endeavour are made available to you on completion via our chosen online platform.
[NEW] End-Slate Video Credit: Your name will appear in the credits across course content.
[NEW] Early-Access and Feedback: Draft versions of courses will be made available in advance for supporters to check out and provide feedback prior to public release.
£200 Goal State Plus
[Early Bird Discount Available]
A premium package for Goal State supporters. You receive complete access to all funded courses, including their lectures, tutorials and homework exercises. But you will also receive premium content. Including extra support via our Discord server, complete code projects, and written PDF versions of all course material.
Early Bird Discounts (Limited Availability):
Early Early Bird: £150 (x50)
Early Bird: £175 (x50)
Late Pledges Enabled
Only on regular priced tier, not on early bird tiers.
Rewards:
Backer Updates
Course Access
End-Slate Video Credit
Early-Access and Feedback
[NEW] 4K Wallpapers: Adorn the home screen of your computer and other devices with dedicated Goal State and AI and Games wallpapers.
[NEW] Discord Support: Receive help from the Goal State team via our dedicated Discord channels.
[NEW] Code Projects: All code projects built for the courses, including my worked examples, are available for download and personal use.
This includes tutorial and homework exercise solutions.
[NEW] Course PDFs: Complete set of written PDF documents inspired by the original lecture presentations. In essence a free textbook!
£300 Goal State Super Patron
This is the complete Goal State Plus package, plus a paid subscription to this here AI and Games Substack, and the option to download the course videos for personal use.
Late Pledges Enabled
Rewards:
Backer Updates
Course Access
End-Slate Video Credit
Early-Access and Feedback
4K Wallpapers
Discord Support
Code Projects
Course PDFs
[NEW] Substack Subscription: A free one-year subscription to this here Substack, and all the bonus content that entails.
[NEW] Video Downloads: Ability to download 1080p copies of the video material prepared for this online course for personal use.
£500 Associate Producer
Everything from our Super Patron and Goal State Plus tiers, but also the bragging rights of a front slate producer credit in all videos.
Rewards:
Backer Updates
Course Access
Early-Access and Feedback
4K Wallpapers
Discord Support
Code Projects
Course PDFs
Substack Subscription
Video Downloads
[NEW] Front-Slate Video Credit: Why wait until the end of the video to bask in your glory. Do it at the start instead!
£5000 Education Package
The complete suite of Goal State Plus resources. But we provide additional bonus materials, and license to utilise the course as part of schools, universities and professional work environments.
The education package includes a complete suite of lecture slides (in PPTX and PDF formats) for each topic, all additional media assets (images/diagrams etc.) in their original file formats, free updates to materials as courses change and are updated over time, and the ability to use all materials under a Creation Commons license for internal and professional use.
Late Pledges Enabled
£6000/8000 Corporate Sponsorship
Finally for relevant and related games and tech businesses to have their logo as part of relevant promotional materials and front-slate on videos and other relevant assets, there are two sponsorship tiers available. Each sponsorship tier also provides a number of slots for sponsorship on this here Substack and the weekly newsletter.
Let’s Get Ready to… Crowdfund?
We’re getting ready to kick things off this Friday. But here’s the important thing: to get us over the initial funding target and into the stretch goals, we only need around 200 people to get us over that line. By my calculations, if we sell out the entirety of the early (early) bird tiers of Goal State and Goal State Plus, then we cross that initial funding target.
200 people. That’s all it takes! So I hope you’re one of those 200 who wants to show your support for what I’m trying to do with this project. It would genuinely mean the world to me.
Alright, I’m going to go finish prepping the page. Don’t forget:
30 days to fund
£25,000 to get over the initial target
Kickstarter page can be found easily at: http://bit.ly/GoalState
Spread the word on socials using #GoalState
Just need 200 amazing people to help make this a reality.
Let’s do this!
I would love to see the course on teachable, than coursera, my opinion teachable is better than coursera
Amazing, best of luck with the fundraising