Content creator Jake “SirActionSlacks” Kanner put out a call to the Dota 2 community to help him and a team of developers create a new player experience tutorial, and the community answered.
Following the initial announcement on Feb. 20 and the launch of the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, the minimum goal of $10,000 was reached just six days later, with the tutorial now having raised $27,418 from 702 backers.
The initial goal was set by Slacks and the dev team so that they could pay the modders working on the tutorial, with the Indiegogo only existing to fund the project. And with 21 days left on the campaign, the mod team has set a new goal of $50,000, which would allow the entire team to paid as if they were working on a normal project and see them try to get the mod localized for South American and Chinese communities.
This entire project was started because DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, an anime based in the Dota universe is set to release on Netflix on March 25. When it releases, new people will be introduced to the world, and potentially the game, which gives the community a specific need for a tutorial to exist that wasn’t there before.
So instead of relying on Valve, Slacks and the developers of the mod have been working non-stop to try and get something ready to help those new players learn Dota, with all the flames, spam, and community resources included.
“We can be biased, and we can be fun, and we can do whatever we want because we are the community,” Slacks said. “And it is the only actual way to make it work.”
Netflix has even helped fuel the fire too by bringing in Slacks, Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden, and Owen “ODPixel” Davies to film promo videos for Dragon’s Blood that talk about the lore of Dota.
As of now, a playable demo is out for backers who supported the campaign at the $20 or higher level, with feedback being taken and implemented to improve the experience. Emails are also going out with links for perks, which include scripts, storyboards, and more that the team is also taking feedback on.
Because the original goal was reached so quickly, all of the prices for backer tiers have been discounted, so go check out the campaign if you want to give feedback, playtest the demo, or add something to the mod before it launches.
