Lately I discussed some Kickstarter tips with other devs in other devlogs and I felt like summing up my point of view on it on here.
So let's go.
A LIST OF THOUGHTS ON THROWING A KICKSTARTER1. KS is not an ideal place for indie devs anymore. This is not KS' fault imo, but still it is like this. This will be my 3rd Kickstarter (and I have helped with some more) and still I feel pretty insecure each time we start a new one.
2. Audience is key. I find CRAZY how people start projects out of the blue believing a magical community will be summoned the very same minute they post their Kickstarter page. To be fair, I made this very same mistake on my 1st Kickstarter and even if we succeed (not by a lot, tbh) it was a hell of a month.
3. Where to grow an audience? Basics to me are Twitter and TIGsource (yes, you guys <3). Also audiences appear the more interesting projects you manage. I want to believe that the positive impact of INDIE G ZINE will have some kind of impact on Monster Prom.
4. There are still platforms I should learn how to use. There's Reddit. Lately I started to use it basically to comment Steven Universe episodes. This way I felt braver and I did my first gamedev post, which was kinda popular (for the subreddit standards) but also controversial. Anyway, I did a 2nd post, longer, more interesting and less controversial... but it flunk. I think this maybe happened because of the 10% rule. I identified 5-6 interesting subreddits for Monster Prom, but I kinda feel that it might be too late for me to get some street cred there so I can post about the Kickstarter without the post being deleted by the admins. Maybe next time!
5. My biggest worry is about how to get as many backers as possible on day 1. First two days are critical. You need to get around 30-60% if you want to succeed. Kickstarter suffers a lot from the "empty bar" problem. If the project doesn't get to a nice % soon, people just avoid backing it. I've backed +70 projects to the date and I still just don't feel like backing a project that's under 50%.
So... do you have any tricks to secure as many backers as possible on day 1? 6. Also, I will back a project if I like it, but I always prefer to see that the creator has backed other projects first. Let's say 5-10 at least. First give, then ask.
7. I want to believe that I have some audience on Twitter and even here. I also want to believe that I can convert at least 10% of my INDIE G ZINE backers into Monster Prom backers. These ones are key, since they're people that I know they have a KS account, they love indie games and they have already trusted me. So I'm preparing a KS update for INDIE G ZINE, I'm trying to get both the INDIE G ZINE shipping and the Monster Prom KS release together so backers receive their products and they're happy with me as a creator. Also, I will add a Monster Prom postcard on every physical INDIE G ZINE + a promo page on the PDF version.
8. I regularly work as a PR guy yet I'm afraid regarding media. I have emails from writers on some of the important indie media (Destructoid, Kotaku, Polygon, Killscreen and RPS), but I know that response ratio is mega-high. I will try hard on getting at least one of them interested in the project, but I'm highly skeptical. I just understand that there's just a lot going on on the indie scene and that people is more and more skeptical about KS projects.
Any advice on getting the media's attention on Monster Prom? 9. Monster Prom is kind of a rara avis. It's similar to a visual novel/dating sim, but its tone is wildly different from you regular visual novel/dating sim. Because of this I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea to put it on visual novel channels. I might try that, even if I don't know very well which these channels would be.
Visual novels are relatively popular both on Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight, but I fail to understand where this audience is located. Maybe forums? Which ones?
10. Additionally, I don't know if it's wise to market the game as a dating sim. It's something different due to its tone and I don't know if there is some prejudice related to dating sims in the sense that some people might avoid entering the KS page when they see the game is a dating sim.
11. Building a reward tier list tricky. Your goal must always be to make it as good as possible. The perfect reward tier list is the one that teases you to upgrade your reward tier all the time. You decide that you're spending x$ on the project but once you're about to pay, you see that you're pretty close to the next cool reward and you start doubting if increasing your pledge might be a clever move. If you can create this effect, you will have a killer reward tier list.
12. As I always say: best day to start a KS project is TUESDAY. As early in the week as possible + Tuesday seems better than Monday since people tend to hate Mondays. Also I like to end on Thursday, so this way people receive the magic 48h alert on a Tuesday. Tuesday is my friend when it comes to Kickstarter.
13. I'm struggling to get to my ideal date for releasing Monster Prom, which will be October 25th. Biggest worry of mine is the Kickstarter video. We just started it, but it might take a while and it's out of my control (since it depends on the person who's editing the video).
14. Other stuff we're working on these weeks include: adding some VFX/small animations to the events, music (soon I will contact people to see if I can create something for the KS or just using a royalty-free song and worrying about music later), 2 more outfits for PARTY ANIMAL, maybe a promotional image, a cafeteria map. All this is important but not essential to get the Kickstarter launched. There are alternatives to all that.
15. Think of some cool stretch goals, check they're doable and assigned to logical money goals BUT don't focus on them too much. First focus on getting your main goal. Then we will see. Anyway, same as with the rewards: make stretch goals something exciting that can make your backers fight to get the project there.
16. Then brainstorm on what to do. I thought of a crazy flowchart to discover your spirit emoji, but it went wrong because of size. We might study how to make it into a kind of a microsite where you can find out your spirit emoji and then share it on Twitter. We have 15 absurd emojis for that purpose.
17. In my case I thought that it might be important to get some illustrators interested into doing some fanart to spread the word about the project. I think this project might benefit a lot from that. Some of the INDIE G ZINE artists might do something. Not sure (i mean, it's a favor they're doing for me), but I'm excited about it.
18. I tried to create a product that feels different, but that scares me, because it means there are many reasons that can scare a potential backer. The game being kind of a dating sim, the game not being a regular dating sim, the tone being a bit too blunt and wrong, the game not being that overtly sexual in its visuals, the game not being very anime-looking...
Let me be clear, I'm very proud of what we have so far. I'm collaborating with mega-talented people. But I get worried easily when it comes to Kickstarter.
So... these are some general thoughts on the Kickstarter thing.
Lately this devlog has been with no participation. There were some regular commenters before. Am I doing something wrong? This kind of changes also worries me
What do you think?
Do you want me to reveal the REWARD TIER LIST soon? I can do that.