After a couple years of on-again, off-again work, I finally feel like my board game Indio is ready for prime time. I just launched it on Kickstarter and hoping to gain some traction. I'm terrible at marketing, but have been following this subreddit for a while and hope the things I've learned will make this adventure a success.

In the spirit of "giving back", I'd love to answer questions about the process, although I admit it's all a bit overwhelming. :)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmosch/indio

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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/khe/heart-of-iron-playing-cards

Hi fellow creators :)

I own an indie board game publishing company and write a blog on games publishing, including through Kickstarter, Gamefound, etc.

I put together some simple tools that I use for my campaigns, they are all Google Sheets based, so you can save them to your drive and play around with them with your assumptions and product inputs.

https://www.pineislandgames.com/blog/tools-and-models-for-kickstarter-publishers [models are linked with an explanation]

The models include things like calculating:

• Unit Economics
• Break Evens
• Ad Campaign ROAS
• Sponsored Content ROAS
• Organic Marketing Reach

It's nothing earth-shattering, but I figured it could be useful for some other creators.

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https://preview.redd.it/d8fgrpehq2ra1.jpg?width=1388&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=85ae6dd3a0eec56754d6bcdc9021e19b1c8105b7

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/admiralwonderboat/the-haunted-lava-lamp-an-all-ages-comic-adventure

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https://preview.redd.it/4w9f67l534ra1.jpg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=4519bc6b05191ee0787765d927dba1b9e87147de

https://preview.redd.it/bwpsy8l534ra1.jpg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b0bb87239ea48e713c0f0a8f00668f477a5259d8

https://preview.redd.it/eafvb9l534ra1.jpg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=8323496830d1ac24fb03290e740c682701dad581

https://preview.redd.it/htjtn7l534ra1.jpg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=567183c1ba708eb2bb8f90e371da84da95dc6e8d

Fountain & Rollerball Pens, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/customclassics/midnight-and-dawn-pens-crafted-from-5000-year-old-wood?ref=android_project_share

I back a lot of campaigns (at about 60+ of them backed in the last 3 months with $25+ tiers) and I tend to give feed back to creators on ways to make their product stand out to others or things they could add that would be helpful for us backers. This is the second time I’ve had someone reach out to me to see if I cancelled due to monetary reasons and ask if I’m willing to re-back it. I think this is very smart on their part as it’s obvious I was interested in the beginning. So here’s the question, should I have just said I backed it due to other reasons and left it at that? Or is it more useful or beneficial if I explain my reasons in depth like so.

https://i.redd.it/u08ih5rpjzqa1.gif

Hey guys! I’m a single developer about a year into my debut solo venture, and I’m super excited to announce my Kickstarter for my upcoming game, Terramachi: Battle Card Game!

Terramachi: Battle Card Game is a roguelite card-playing auto-battler, consisting of tons of lovable monsters called Machi, each with a unique ability. By playing cards, players develop their team of Machi, upgrading, evolving, or replacing team members after every round of battle.

Kickstarter is going live this Saturday (April 1st) and I could seriously use all the help I can get! So if any of this catches your eye, hit that “Notify me on launch” button, and check it all out when it goes live!

Check it out on Kickstarter!

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I am looking to develop a Kickstarter campaign and I am wondering if there is any way on Kickstarter to track which users referred other users. Ideally, I would like a reward for users who refer a lot of users. Thank you!

I'm planning ahead, well in advance of my kickstarter campaign, with a goal of offering some nice merchandizing rewards for backers. So, I reached out to a company that had previously done this kind of thing and made the kind of items I wanted to include. My opening email basically said just that - that I was planning ahead and wanted to find out what the process was for making a partnership with a merchandizing company and that I was flexible about almost everything and looking forward to just making a contact to start the process.

They basically told me that they had no interest in ever working with me or my project because I had failed to pitch myself and my project effectively to them.

I found this shocking. I wouldn't have presumed that they needed to make a formal pitch to me begging for my business, even though I am the customer. But I assumed at most there would be some mutual vetting as is often the case in my experience with B2B relationships. Instead they acted like they were venture capital and I was asking them for funding.

This presents me with two problems:
First, there are very few companies that I could find that specialize in custom merchandize for games. I found two and probably burned bridges with both if it was expected that I make them a pitch like they're a publisher I'm trying to get to fund my game (which still blows my mind).
Second, even if I find another company, if I have to wait until my game is ready to show off to partner with a merchandizer then that's going to be way too late to effectively plan for a future kickstarter.

ALTERNATIVES ??:
Should I consider manufacturing items directly via a chinese company from Alibaba or something like that? For example, if I want to offer backers a plushy, should I just pay the $100 or so to have one of these Chinese companies make me a prototype and then order from them directly after the kickstarter campaign. And then repeat the process with a physical art book (but that would be made in the US I'm sure).

I'm a little bit shocked, frustrated, and discouraged at how difficult it is to even find someone that I can theoretically partner with in a kickstarter for merch. I'm not looking for someone to sign a contract with today, but it shouldn't be this hard to just find a company that can tell you things like what kind of products they can make, how long the production time is, etc. I'm not sure where to begin when it seems like there are very few companies and they all want to skip ahead to some kind of VC pitch meeting without me even knowing what they can do, what they charge, how long it takes them to do it, etc.

Hi, nearly 20 years ago, I made around 100 songs. I'd consider it alternative hip-hop. I had a Myspace with like 50,000 friends and had lots of compliments on the few songs I put up. I had some offers for small record deals, but they weren't anything significant. Like I would have needed to constantly tour to make money. I performed at a few concerts where nobody showed up and it broke my confidence. Around this same time, I was given a job offer in a career that for sure paid the bills. Since music wasn't a "for sure thing" I shelved it all. Due to the lyrics and themes, releasing it probably would have gotten me fired, or at the very least caused me problems/embarrassment.

Recently, I was fired and don't plan to return to this job sector. A few weeks back, I dusted off my hard drives and gave my music a listen. IMO, it still holds up. Maybe I was ahead of my time. Some of it needs remixed/mastered, but it's mostly ready to release. The cover art is even finished for several of the albums since I did a photoshoot back then. Like I was literally days away from releasing a finished 23 song album when I shelved it.

How would you go about marketing this campaign. It appears to me that hip-hop doesn't do well unless you're already famous/popular. Then again, my music isn't normal. It's very different. Should I record a video with my story and a song sampler? I presume the music will speak for itself? Or is my story more important?

Would you attempt to release one album at a time or all 100 songs at once? I presume if one album does well I could always go forward with the others?

What perks or items would you offer? It seems vinyl is popular, but mastering/producing on vinyl is super expensive. I'm unsure if it would justify the cost.

Digital and CD is easy... I see some bands offer shirts/hoodies, but with shipping costs I'm unsure that makes sense. If anything, I presume those items lose money? What are profitable items music artists include?

The purpose would not be making money, but to get the music in as many hands as possible.... I just don't want to go in the red. Ideally, I'd make 10k per album to recoup my production costs. It's the only reason I don't go straight to streaming. I imagine since I have zero fanbase nobody would even click on it.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks

I have a Kickstarter and this marketing company reached out to me several times claiming they can increase my sales about 4 times or money back guarantee. The package is $50 and I’m tempted to try it. I can’t find any info on these people though.

I emailed them to answer my questions and they responded promptly the next day. Can’t tell if this is real, seems not.

https://targetedproject.com/plans/

Hi folks - we are looking at a launching a product range that is UK focussed - initially at least (in a large part due to the variations in regulatory limitations for fluoride (project is a low impact bathroom range)).

Recognising KS is heavily skewed to the US - is there realistically any way to get into the Projects we love - status and the accelerator algorithms or should we look to a smaller profile of launch....and i guess at the bottom line....is it even worth doing without the Ks booster support?

We are looking to raise c.£60-100k through 2000/3000 pledges

Help much appreciated

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bequestminiatures/shambling-bones-bequest-miniatures?lang=eng

I've noticed on Kickstarter that one of the rewards tiers most common with films is "Early Access to The Movie".

Does anyone know how to do this? I'd like to do this for the movie which I'm funding through kickstarter.

When setting up my Add-Ons there is shipping amounts to set. I am assuming this will be added onto the shipping amount they are already being charged for with their selected tier... is that correct?
What if a digital only tier wants to add a Add-On of a physical item? Or is that not allowed/possible.

Hey all - I'm just wondering if anyone has thoughts on using the 'Funded' badges... Our project funded in 3 hours yesterday, but I checked some other projects who haven't used a badge. Is it always a good idea to use it? Is it best to use it in certain places?

Any feedback welcome! 🙏