Our First SAK’D Gear Giveaway!

We figured that after spending over two years lining up some really gorgeous merchandise for SAK’D that it was time to show the rest of the world, and give something back to our fans on social media who have been extraordinarily awesome since day one, and that means it’s time for our very first SAK’D MERCH GIVEAWAY!! Here’s a rundown of how it all went.

With Twitter and Facebook promotions running in tandem we opted to change the rules a little bit to suit either platform. A Tweet and a Share got you in on Twitter, and for Facebook the usual Like of the SAK’D Official Facebook Page and a share of the contest post is all it took to drop your name/nickname in the list of potential winners.

Turns out hosting a giveaway is a ton of fun! We only ran the draw entrance for a few days for a relatively minimal turnout (14 entrants on the Twitter side of the contest, and about 20 people on Facebook) but we’re still lil’ peeps, and a drop in an ocean of #IndieGameDev and social media, but we loved every minute of talking this thing up. Seriously, the only thing more exciting than seeing our lil’ hero on some kind of gear like a poster or mousepad, is giving one of those super-sweet items to a supportive fan who is just as excited about this game development project as we are!

Setting Up the Live Name Draw

We weren’t too sure (at first) how to host a live draw at first, but opted to use a couple of masked web pages and Twitch to stream. We fine-tuned the #Twitch / #OBS browser UI a bit to cover the relevant areas of the list ‘randomizer’ at random.org. Two pages, one for Twitter on the left, and another for Facebook on the right. At the time of this writing I personally had never live-streamed anything, and have only held a few contests before so this was all relatively new territory.

So we messed around with Twitch and OBS for a day prior to the live event, and we were pretty confident about the implementation after trying a few test rounds. So the team ‘nominated’ me for the camera position and I gave it whirl unscripted, because ‘all-natural’ just feels better.  Turned out really great! I mean, minus my uh..ah…uh… lmao, trials and tribulations of an introvert trying to fill dead air.  Anyhow, it worked brilliantly for the giveaway, my questionable stage presence notwithstanding (Hold your head up, man!😂). Seriously, I’m generally mortified to be present on camera at all so I’m nominating our lead developer Roland Baranowski to host the next one so I can see how a pro does it.

A Few Minutes from the Twitch Stream →

Here’s the recorded Twitch stream draw for your entertainment! There was a few minutes prior where I loaded up and a few people started to roll in. Not having a real solid grasp of Twitch yet, I wasn’t exactly sure of the protocol for hosting an event, or if we were supposed to have some ‘Between Two Ferns’-style banter. I was prepared for nothing and everything at the same time.

The Winners!

Here are the lucky winners of our first official SAK’D giveaway! Each winner receives a gorgeous 24″(60.96cm) x 36″(91.44cm) full-colour glossy SAK’D poster as well as a SAK’D premium-quality gel mousepad.

Congratulations!

Twitter

Olivia Landon Kitj

Facebook

Darling Miss Nyx

Huge shout out to our friends over at Take 20 DnD as well as Kabub & Darling Miss Nyx from The Freakin’ Bat Army for the shares, likes n’ witty banter, and of course a large crowd-sized shout going out to the entire incredibly welcoming gaming and indie game dev community for being so amazing, like, all the time. We’re loving the positive family vibe everyone’s putting out. Let’s keep it going!

~ Kelly