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[BravadoWaffle]

Hey guys, long time lurker, first time poster. We are close to the release of our iOS board game called Robo Arena which is inspired by Robo Rally. We're super stoked!

Like most here, we've bootstrapped the development for the past seven months. Now we're trying to raise some funds on Kickstarter to finish the art, polishing, testing, and start marketing. Here's the link: http://kck.st/fBso2k. I'd love your feedback and thoughts on the game play and the campaign in general!

I'm sure most here are familiar with Kickstarter as a crowd funding platform. It's an amazing way to get the word out about your ideas, get much needed funding, and gauge general market interest as well. I wanted to post a few tips and suggestions that I've gathered from hours of research to help any who are thinking of starting a campaign:

• A video is a must. It is probably the single most important factor in determining success.

• Tell a story, be personable. People donate to the designer as much as they donate to the project, so be as likeable as possible and tell people your story.

• Set realistic funding goals and durations. Kickstarter is all or nothing, so be reasonable with how much you want to get. Remember the money is coming from your biggest fans. Also don't drag the campaign out too long, the most excitement comes at the beginning and the ends of the campaigns.

• Personally thank your supporters in the updates. A major benefit of these platforms is the community building aspect of the game. Directly interact with your supporters and thank them.

• Give cool and unique rewards to your supporters. The more creative the better.

• Study up. There's a ton of great successful campaigns on kickstarter, study what worked and what didn't work and use those lessons in running your own campaign.

Those are just a few suggestions to running a good campaign. Has anybody here found success on Kickstarter? What tips would you share?

Us indie developers have to stick together, so if you are going to run a campaign, let us know so we can support it!   

[lansing]

Just some small comments:

Kickstarter is US/Canada only for people who want to get funded.  They accept payments world wide though.

Rockethub seems fine for the rest of the world, I know ExEn was funded there and the developer is based in Australia.

There's also 8-Bit Funding http://www.8bitfunding.com/ and IndieGoGo.

[moi]

I think anybody who is not from US should not donate to kickstarter project, it is pure logic. If they don't want to support other countries, other countries should not support them.
There are other options available.

[Leroy Binks]

No offense sir, but you are foolish.  Anyone who wants to support anyone anywhere else is the globe is more capable than ever before.  Programs like Kickstarter just make it easier for a larger number of people with less money to make a difference.  If someone from the US wanted to support the development of a project abroad, they don't need Kickstarter they can find other ways to give.  And if someone from another country wishes to support an American business, Kickstarter might be a better donation option than any other way.

I don't understand your ire against Kickstarter because of their limitations globally.

[speeder]

I think anybody who is not from US should not donate to kickstarter project, it is pure logic. If they don't want to support other countries, other countries should not support them.
There are other options available.

I totally agree.

[Nix]

I think anybody who is not from US should not donate to kickstarter project, it is pure logic. If they don't want to support other countries, other countries should not support them.
There are other options available.

I totally agree.

It's not like they are intentionally spiting people not from the US. Their payment system, Amazon Payments, is the one with the restriction. So you should stop shopping at Amazon.

[speeder]

I think anybody who is not from US should not donate to kickstarter project, it is pure logic. If they don't want to support other countries, other countries should not support them.
There are other options available.

I totally agree.

It's not like they are intentionally spiting people not from the US. Their payment system, Amazon Payments, is the one with the restriction. So you should stop shopping at Amazon.

Exactly!

If we stop using Kickstarter for using Amazon, they will feel themselves the need to stop using Amazon.

Got it?

[Nix]

I think anybody who is not from US should not donate to kickstarter project, it is pure logic. If they don't want to support other countries, other countries should not support them.
There are other options available.

I totally agree.

It's not like they are intentionally spiting people not from the US. Their payment system, Amazon Payments, is the one with the restriction. So you should stop shopping at Amazon.

Exactly!

If we stop using Kickstarter for using Amazon, they will feel themselves the need to stop using Amazon.

Got it?

Quote from Kickstarter FAQ:

Kickstarter uses Amazon's Flexible Payments Service, which enables our all-or-nothing funding method. No other credit card processor currently supports our requirements. We're always talking with other companies and exploring other services, so expect more options in the future.

[moi]

It's been for years now, meanwhile, other services can handle foreign payments without any problem.
Which proves they aren't really trying.

[BravadoWaffle]

Yea, it's a bit frustrating. Although, even with limiting themselves to the US they seem to be doing just fine. I love their system and its polish too. The principles apply to any crowd funding site you choose to go with.

As a bit of an update-

We've been having trouble getting the pledges we need for our game, I've been sending tons of traffic to the campaign, we were even featured in PocketGamer: http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Bravado+Waffle+news/news.asp?c=29486 (yes... I'm proud of that) so I think it might have been my pitch and my video.

I'm trying a different approach this time, walking people through the game and talking a lot about it instead of the fluff that I was talking about before. What do you guys think? Is it better? http://kck.st/fBso2k

[speeder]

I must sya I don't know either...

I made a frigging arcade cabinet... Yet all that I got in donations was like 4 USD.

[BravadoWaffle]

Yea, I'm testing various videos to see what works. It's hard to tell!

Well, no matter what, I think this project is going to be a success in that we have gotten some awesome marketing out of the deal. We've found a fanbase and gotten our game and company on the radar. We've got some fans who are super excited, and this is the best (and only worthwhile...) advertising you can get as an indie developer!

Once we release it, there will be people waiting for it to come out, and hopefully the word will spread from there. We are getting featured on Gamesutra tomorrow hopefully (with an expanded and more indepth version of the list I posted here), and I'm also talking with a reporter from a major Chicago newspaper who is interested in covering our story, so hopefully those two items will bring in a lot of new traffic and pledges!

I think the real key is to follow the Galaxy Quest adage: Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

edit:

We were featured on Gamasutra here with 10 tips to running a successful campaign: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/StephenDick/20110504/7554/10_Tips_For_Raising_Funds_With_Kickstarter_For_Indie_Game_Developers.php

And here's a great article explaining the other options out there (for all you international peeps): http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6369/the_crowdfunding_revolution_.php

Hope it helps!

[Leroy Binks]

I have watched your videos and visited your website.  I have some very solid, simple edits for your video that would I think would help in seeking out funding.  And they are available, for a price 

Interested? Contact me privately and I would love to (positively) critique your fundraising campaign.

[I_smell]

I'm not a huge expert on Kickstarter- but what we did was make our video just literally be a trailer.
I think being a personal part of your campaign is great if you're working for a charitable cause, or making some awesome invention through Kickstarter, but we are lliterally making products of entertainment. I can honestly say that with your video I skimmed through to find the meat of some gameplay footage. Because the DECIDING FACTOR of what it comes down to is that people wanna see the game.

So I think you should speed up your interface a little bit, get RIGHT INTO the game straight away, make a video that's gonna get people excited and show only the best parts of the game. Also maybe stress in each pledge option that they are buying the game, day 1, for a minimum of $4.

We did a lot more stuff, but I think getting people excited about the game right away is what you should work on, and then send THAT out to everyone.

[BravadoWaffle]

I would agree, I just changed the video to show more of the gameplay mechanic as an experiment since I had lots of people complaining that the trailer didn't explain the game in depth enough. It's a bit of an experiment, but I think I'll be changing it back to the trailer video I had before. Thanks I Smell!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

It's been for years now, meanwhile, other services can handle foreign payments without any problem.
Which proves they aren't really trying.

yeah i'm kind of disappointed in kickstarter, but there are alternatives, or even just normal paypal donations. it'd be nice to see a generalized script that would do what kickstarter does (e.g. showing a meter of how much money has been donated, and allowing people to donate particular amounts for rewards) that someone could implement themselves on their own site

[BravadoWaffle]

yeah i'm kind of disappointed in kickstarter, but there are alternatives, or even just normal paypal donations. it'd be nice to see a generalized script that would do what kickstarter does (e.g. showing a meter of how much money has been donated, and allowing people to donate particular amounts for rewards) that someone could implement themselves on their own site

There is! Check this out if you run wordpress: http://wpmu.org/7-ways-to-collect-and-track-donations-with-wordpress/

Only down side is that if you don't have a built in audience or fan base already, you are screwed. Using a service like indiegogo, rockethub, or kickstarter gives you the added bonus of possibly getting more community exposure.

[BravadoWaffle]

Well, I figured I would update this thread for those who are interested with the news from our campaign... in that there isn't much news. We have 10 days to go, and are only 10% of the way to our funding goal.

We have been featured on various gaming sites like pocketgamer.biz and gamasutra, but that didn't result in much as far as pledges go.

Perhaps we set our sites too high on the ultimate funding goal, or more likely, we just don't have a big enough audience with a game that is a casual tactical strategy game like X-Com but with no violence, blood, zombies, and/or angry feathered creatures.

On the plus side, we have been featured in a number of large board game blogs and websites, and have grown a small but very loyal fan base of people who are super excited to get to play the game and even host tournaments on VGG. So as far as getting the word out there and getting our name known, that part has been successful.

Typically funding on projects comes in two waves- the initial push, and then at the end of the campaign from all those who were watching. So here's to that final wave! 10 days to go...

At the moment, my biggest suggestion for all you who are thinking of running a campaign is to build up a community of fans BEFORE you launch your campaign. Then prep them to help you promote the campaign once you launch. If you do that, you are more likely to pick up enough momentum to get it off the ground.

We really should get a group together to promote each other's indie game campaigns or something. That would be super cool, and increase the chances of running successful campaigns by a lot.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

so i think it's safe to say your tips don't work? :D

or that you didn't follow your own tips -- especially "Set realistic funding goals and durations."

my kickstarter target goal was $190 for instance. that was realistic. it reached $1500, but i didn't expect it to, that was just bonus

[BravadoWaffle]

Haha, yea... well the tips were gleaned from other successful campaigns and post mortems, so they should still work. More likely I didn't follow my own tips with the realistic funding goals.

I probably could have pitched the game a bit better too... I'm just not 100% sure how. You get a million and one suggestions, and half of them contradict the other half.

I will probably relaunch the campaign with a much lower funding goal so that I can at least afford to pay the artist to make a few cut scenes for the intro and exit of the game.

It will mean we can't take the time off from work needed to get Multiplayer working right out the door, but that's the way it goes.

Additionally I learned a lot about what rewards to offer, and will be restructuring the tiers next time to include that they get a free copy of the game, and that they will get to be a part of the private beta and get to design some multiplayer levels as well.

So we'll see. It's a learning experience!