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Successful Kickstarters: Do's and Dont's

Mustawd

Guest
So I've been browsing through the TSI thread, and have been extremely frustrated with their miserable attempt at crowdfunding. So in that frustration I thought I'd make my first thread and take a crack at listing some Do's and Dont's of a Kickstarter campaign off the top of my head.


TL;DR

Do's:
Have a good pitch person(s)
Consider just releasing a trailer with a voice over and no speaking from the team at all
Have decent gameplay to show me

Don'ts:
Let Joe Blow programmer/designer speak in your pitch video if you can help it
Just talk about the game...show!
Come with placeholder graphics




Wall of Text

Do....

1 ) Have a good pitch person(s)
- In marketing, presentation and packaging is key. Even the best message can fail to catch someone's attention without the right messenger. This person must have the ability to catch the audience's attention by a combination of charisma, good looks, humor, credibility, and or sheer smoothness (all need not apply).

One of the best examples so far is Brian Fargo of InXile and his original W2 pitch. It had everything: Humor, charisma of a well known figure in the industry, a big name game associated with the pitch, and it didn't hurt that he did not look like Quasimodo.

To a lesser extent you had Obsidian's pitch for PE. In this case you had a handful of heavy hitters in the industry that have some actual PR skills. They have experience speaking to an audience and you can tell they were well prepared and comfortable in giving their pitch.

Don't...

1) Let Joe Blow programmer/designer speak in your pitch video if you can help it - Look...we get it. You're a small team and you want to showcase all 5 of you or whatever. But a bad presentation/pitch can just be as bad or worse than no presentation.

The audience wants to see excitement, passion, and a general belief in the project. We don't want to see an Underworld Ascendant type video where half the speakers appear to be coming out of a coma at that very moment.

Does that mean the project sucks? No. Does it mean that their enthusiasm speaks to their ability as a team? No. Does it mean only salesman-type personalities can make a good game? Absolutely not.

However, what it does mean is that you should not put them in the pitch video unless they can contribute something to it in a positive way.


Do...

2. Consider just releasing a trailer with a voice over and no speaking from the team at all
- So say you don't have a Frian Bargo Brian Fargo to sell your pitch. And all of you suck ass at talking in front of a camera.

There's no steadfast rule that says you have to put out a team of accountant-type personalities out there (disclosure: I'm an accountant, so I know). Just look at Darkest Dungeon. Full on trailer for their pitch video. And it was badass.

If you MUST talk then keep it short. Look at Serpent in the Staglands. It's a trailer followed by a quick intro to the husband-wife team. Boom. Show interesting trailer with quick intros. Even SITS has some issues with their campaign, but f' it. They're just two people. It's to be expected.



Don't....


2. Just talk about the game...show!


I hate to keep harping on TSI's kickstarter, but it is the most recent example I've seen of this. However, other pitches suffer from the same problem: I don't want to hear shit coming out of your face. Why don't you just show me what you're talking about?

The first 5-10 seconds of any pitch is the most important. It should a.) capture my attention, b.) tell me what I'm looking at, and 3.) Make me cream my pants (or panties if you are a crossdresser, a lady, or have sensitive skin).

Do you have an interesting/unique setting? Show me art. Is your game based on older games? Pull those nostalgia strings and show me gameplay of those games. Do you have presentable* demos? Show them.

It's like foreplay. Show me a quick preview of stuff I already like in order to have my attention when you rock my world later on.

**presentable is covered in the next section...


Do...

3) Have decent gameplay to show me - How's that saying go? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

The days of "Look who I am! Look at what I'm trying to do !" are basically over for most of the future campaigns out there. The only ones that can still pull that off are studios with an established reputation. These include InXile, Larian, Harebrained studios, and possibly Obsidian. Even the they are running on established games with some reusing their engines (Larian and Harebrained for example).

If you're not in that camp you better have something to show me. There's too many examples of kickstarters burning their backers to blindly believe in anything anymore.

Best case scenario is to come to a campaign with a very limited but sort of complete setting. Yes, yes, it's hard to get there. But look at the trend: Many games are coming to backers with gameplay and graphics similar to what will be shown at release.

Note that "similar" does not mean "polished". But if you're going 3D, then show 3D assets. If you're going 2D, show initial 2D assets. Anything that will help us envision what this game will look like (even if it's a rough draft).


Don't...

3.) Come with placeholders graphics
- Look, I'm not a graphics whore. I regularly play Xcom, love SITS pixelated graphics, and prefer 2D over 3D any day of the week.

However, you're selling a vision and a future game here. I need to know that a.) you've settled on an art style, b.) I can gauge the amount of attention graphics will get.

"C'mon Mustawd...are you seriously suggesting that people are making a judgment based on placeholder graphics? FFS, it says 'placeholder graphics' in bold font!"

Absolutely. What a lot of these pitches don't seem to understand is that backers are always asking themselves, "Can these fuckers pull it off witht he team in place and the funds requested?"

Graphics, gameplay, etc. are all a part of that. Come with something to convince me with or don't come at all.








Guys, if you made it this far I salute you. You have conquered the wall of text I have summoned after my firm's happy hour and a weekend full of 8 hour workdays.

However, I think we'd all like to hear your own Do's and DOnt's of crowdfunding campaings. I've left out some topics on purpose due to laziness for further discussion. These include:


-Reward tiers
-Funding goals
-Hype machines
-Focus on Nostalgia
-Defining your core audience
-Campaign updates

And last but not least:

-Campaign phases (so little studios fail to understand that these things do not work in a linear fashion)
 
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Jaesun

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1. Show your absolute passion about the project you very much want to do. And explain why you are passionate about it.
 

Angthoron

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Don't: make the greengrocer's apostrophe mistake in thread title. You're an accountant, not a greengrocer.
Do: have a fist anyway.

But... Yeah. TSI and the lack of anything to show especially has been an annoying thing for me. I like what they say, sure, but there's not a single bit of concrete evidence to show for here. What exactly am I going to get? Hell, at this point, it might end up built to look like an RPG Maker game, fuck if I know. Some WIP screens would be great.

Another Don't would be to make multiple tiers with exclusive tier in-game rewards. A couple of things are tolerable as long as they don't impact the gameplay, and things that will affect the game for everyone are welcome, but Underworld Ascendant model is plain offensive.
 

Runciter

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To me number one is:

Do: Explain why you need the money and how you are going to spend it.

Both Ultima: Underworld and Elite: Dangerous failed here. They used Kickstarter money to supplement their other funding, creating a situation where the crowdfunding is beneficial but perhaps not essential. Donating becomes more of a risky pre-order than enabling the creation of a new game. There may be conflicts of interest between crowdfunding donors and shareholders or other investors, as is the case with Elite, which also explains why it is shit and the developers don't have the time to finish it.

However, ultimately all kickstarters are shit. If you are enabling the creation of something new, you should own a stake in it. Wasteland 2 should be the shared property of all backers. Difficult in practice, but perhaps there could be a deal where after 5 years it gets released under the GPL with CC assets, I would be fine with that. Even though this didn't happen, Fargo certainly had the right attitude. However, other kickstarters are nothing but overpriced, risky pre-orders where developers are harvesting your wallets, playing manipulation games and have fuck-all respect for you.
 
In My Safe Space
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However, other kickstarters are nothing but overpriced, risky pre-orders where developers are harvesting your wallets, playing manipulation games and have fuck-all respect for you.
Err... aren't Kickstarters usually less-expensive than both pre-orders and new games?
 

Burning Bridges

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List of successful kickstarters (as far as i am concerned):
-The Long Dark
Several mediocre ideas were also realized by kickstarter: Wasteland 2 etc, and a million of really bad ones.
All in all 2.5 years of kickstarter was a huge letdown and abused as welfare system. I bet the incline of 2012-2015 would have happened even without kickstarter. But at the end of the day even if it only helps that 1-2 great games are made, within an ocean of mediocrisy and shit, it's still worth it.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Do-
Attend laclongquan school of marketing when you have damn near nothing to show for it.

At the very least, ONE Early bird tier. Get momentum that way.
 
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Do: show footage/gameplay of oldschool games you're trying to capitalize on, and what you're trying to bring today that was cool back then.
 

Karellen

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If you look at successful Kickstarters, I think that the "don'ts" are more or less correct, but I think it's much too optimistic to think that the "do's" are what matters here. Sure, it would be nice if there was quality, informative gameplay footage and concrete details about the game, but does it actually matter? The Project Eternity, Tides of Numenera and Shadowrun Returns pitch videos had barely anything remotely concrete in them; no gameplay footage of any kind, mostly talking heads bragging about the stuff they had done before, and even visually what you had was mostly old stuff from whatever it was that the game was meant to be a successor to, nothing new. The big difference is that the pitch videos featured much better production values - decent audio, most of all - and a company president whose presence doesn't make you contemplate wedgies.

Basically, I think the core idea is that the pitch will be judged by its worst elements, which is why whatever you have there should have a reasonable amount of polish. That can be gameplay footage - Banner Saga and Hyper Light Drifter got a whole lot of money simply because they looked so darn beautiful - but it should be plain that you can do without, and you're probably better off not showing any if what you have doesn't make an immediate good impression. Old designers giving a sentimental speeches about how awesome games used to be while saying very little about the game they're making is actually what has worked before - it just helps to have the videos edited professionally and have some nice music in the background. Based on the successes we've seen so far, I think would be an erroneous conclusion that Kickstarters fail due to not showing enough stuff or having enough information - if anything, there's every reason to think that Seven Dragon Saga and Underworld Ascendant showed too much.
 

Curious_Tongue

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Codex 2012 Codex 2013 Serpent in the Staglands Codex USB, 2014
DO: Offer 'boxed copy with map' reward tiers

DON'T: Interpret "boxed copy" to mean this.

$_20.JPG
 

MRY

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I've been struggling with how -- or even whether -- the running of a successful Kickstarter can be reconciled with my fairly strong views about appropriate sales tactics. I've read quite a number of advice columns about running a KSer, and in general they tend to advocate high-pressure tactics like artificial scarcity, upselling, exploiting pride, guilt, herd mentality, treating passionate fans as "whales," and so forth. I find all of these practices more than a little bit distasteful (and I say this as someone who has backed 300+ projects, which maybe means, "I find them theoretically distasteful, but they're actually very effective on me."). In that sense, I am somewhat in agreemement with Runciter.

Of course, if you're passionate about your project and need capital for it to succeed, then the question is always going to be one of compromise: Do I compromise my creative vision to scale back due to lack of funds? Do I compromise my ethical idiosyncracies to raise enough money to make the game the way I want? So you have to strike a balance.

My own view is that:
  1. there should be no Early Bird tier -- this is artificial scarcity designed to encourage irrational behavior;
  2. you should not include physical rewards* -- per Larian and Blackthorne, these are extremely hard to fulfill, and almost certainly outside the expertise of the people launching the project (physical goods can always be sold separately);
  3. you should discourage customers from spending more than they are comfortable spending -- you owe a moral duty to your eager supporters: they are not "whales" to be rendered into monetized tallow but friends entitled to your reciprocal support;
  4. you should price the digital copy tier at the lowest price you anticipate selling the game outside of bundles/within the year -- your earliest supporters should not be penalized for taking a chance on you, and if they want to spend more, it should be clear it's essentially a donation, not a purchase;
  5. unless the game is something zany or the inclusion is minimal, you should not let deep-pocketed backers create content for your game -- there is no reason to think there is a correlation between disposable income to spend on Kickstarter and design ability: if supporters have good ideas they want to share with you, they shouldn't pay for the privilege, and if their ideas are bad, it is problematic to compromise the quality of your game to pander to a rich person (aren't you trying to escape money-man meddling anyway by not pursuing traditional publishing?);
  6. all backers should be credited in some respect, no matter how small their contribution -- even $1 in support makes a difference, and there's no reason not to credit them in some capacity in the game or on the game's website;
  7. you should not include "have lunch with the developers" or whatever as a reward -- unless you're a celebrity, the 365 lunches you have in a year should be more than enough to spend with devoted fans, and need not be reserved for rich people;
  8. generally speaking, "you are allowed to talk to us" is not a reasonable reward, whether it takes the form of a private forum or a private lunch -- you should always listen to fans (or foes!) who have good ideas but can't afford to back your project or aren't prepared to take the plunge (why would you wall yourself off from that?); and
  9. you should bear in mind that Kickstarter typically operates as a regressive scheme under which people who are less wealthy and are not pursuing their dreams fund wealthier peoples' pursuit of their own dreams -- so you owe your backers a duty to treat them right.
(* The exception would be physical artifacts, like, say, handwritten design notes or pencil concept art, which has a natural limit and is going to be produced anyway.)

Of course, this list of prescriptions basically is a checklist for having an unsuccessful Kickstarter, so there we go. If I ever have a project I want to Kickstart, I will probably end up failing or violating my own code, but at least now I've written it out so that I can be shamed for doing so.
 

ERYFKRAD

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  • Early Bird and stuff do help incentivize people to take a risk on the project though.
  • And as for restricting high-tier backers from adding content to the game, I suppose Larian's idea of implementing backer codes(if feasible) would effectively be the best of both worlds, no?
  • It strikes me that what you say would work only if you are rock-sure on the success of your pitch. But eh, market to widest possible audience etc.
 

MRY

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Early Bird and stuff do help incentivize people to take a risk on the project though
All high-pressure sales tactics are designed to "incentivize people to take a risk." I am uncomfortable with that approach. People should back because their excitement for the project is sufficient for them to contribute something, not because, "ACT NOW WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!"

And as for restricting high-tier backers from adding content to the game, I suppose Larian's idea of implementing backer codes(if feasible) would effectively be the best of both worlds, no?
Not sure what this was. Is this like each backer gets his/her own version of the game with his/her own silly content in it? I guess that's fine, but then I'd be inclined to let everyone do that, rich or poor, if I thought it was a good feature. The price should be cost plus necessary profit, not $10k.

It strikes me that what you say would work only if you are rock-sure on the success of your pitch. But eh, market to widest possible audience etc.
It is a recipe for failure. On the upside, it's also a great way to feel smug even after having failed, so there's that. :)
 

ERYFKRAD

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Early Bird and stuff do help incentivize people to take a risk on the project though
All high-pressure sales tactics are designed to "incentivize people to take a risk." I am uncomfortable with that approach.
If you were ever inclined to make a kickstarter, I'd be fool enough to back on the basis of that idealistic honesty alone. :salute:

Except early bird tiers are the only way us third worldians can afford to get in on the action. :negative:

And as for restricting high-tier backers from adding content to the game, I suppose Larian's idea of implementing backer codes(if feasible) would effectively be the best of both worlds, no?
Not sure what this was. Is this like each backer gets his/her own version of the game with his/her own silly content in it?
Roughly so, but it leaves the choice of distributing the content to the backer responsible for it, so, they can have their ownership over it, I guess.
It strikes me that what you say would work only if you are rock-sure on the success of your pitch. But eh, market to widest possible audience etc.
It is a recipe for failure. On the upside, it's also a great way to feel smug even after having failed, so there's that. :)
Guess there's that as well.
 

MRY

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I think if I did a Kickstarter, I probably would have two tiers: $1 for name in credits, $5 for digital copy of the game, the latter only because I am too weak to follow my heart and say $2 for digital copy. (More time with a cilice needed, I guess.)
 

pippin

Guest
Kickstarter tiers are ok when they add significative stuff to the game, even in a purely aesthethic level (voice acting, more/better music with more musicians, etc). I don't like "meet the dev"-like rewards, because actually travelling can be somewhat expensive in both time and money, especially if you live in another country. I do like physical goodies like artbooks and cd/dvd soundtracks, though.
So yeah, mostly what MRY said.
 

laclongquan

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Do-
Attend laclongquan school of marketing when you have damn near nothing to show for it.

At the very least, ONE Early bird tier. Get momentum that way.

My method show that, at the very least, you the kickstarter care enough to do some things. Even if it's just some female's tits and asses.

Of course, the condemnation is that if you dont even care enough to do that much, and you expect people to fork money for your KS.... well, there're two hard questions: Are you that stupid? Are you think your potential backer that stupid?

My method doesnt ensure that your KS project will be successful. That's entirely on you. But mine show that the KS people care enough to do the very minimum, EVEN when you have done nothing, have nothing in your mind.

"even I have nothing to show for my customers, I at least would think of something for them: something fundamental, the breast and butt."

The excuse is that figure of barely dressed female is:
- One of your heroine?
- Your boss?
- Your evil boss?
- Your clue-giver?
- One of your subordinate/unit?
- One of hostile unit/char?
Something...
It personalize some aspect in your design, to show that if nothing else you have sex on your mind.
 
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Pyke

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Early bird specials are just there to get your initial numbers up. If someone sees a Kickstarter with a few hundred backers in the first day or two - they will more likely back it. If the numbers run quickly enough, you will get spotlighted as a Staff Pick, which is more likely to get you noticed.

I would say that the MOST important part of any Kickstarter is the demo. 1 - It shows that you actually have created a vertical slice of the game and (should) have a decent idea of how much work is still left to go into the final product, and 2 - it gets you access to the Lets Play YouTube community which is fucking HUGE.
 

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