Hi all! I've got a say, I'm new to this forum and also to the world of Indie development. As my thread suggest: How to pull of a successful Kickstarter? As you might have guessed already, I'm working on my own game and want to try my luck over at Kickstarter. As I'm putting together my game-footage, trailers, screenshots, perks etc - I look at all the other campaigns out there - and I'm starting to doubt myself and my campaign. What if it's a complete fail? What if there is no interest in the game what so ever? All my hardworking hours - for nothing? I obviously want this to be a success - I mean, this game has been my little baby for at least a year now... We only get one shoot to get it right! So on behalf of myself, and other yet-to-be-recognized indie devs out there - What can we do to pull off a successful Kickstarter and fulfill our dreams?
I want to add my own comment inside this Thread in case others want to use this topic. So its less about me and more about us. Anyway, the reason why I'm so worried is simply because I'm a "real indie" - I have no established company and my "team members" are my brother and two friends. Some of the Kickstarters seem to be posted by "professional studios" with tons of capital from the get go... What can I/we do to stick out and hopefully raise some eyebrows? Where to "promote" our projects? (this site is probably a good start) and how to make people talk about our creations? All ideas and comments are welcomed! ^^
Hi, the best way to get the most out of kickstarter is having a good pre-campaign plan. That basically means putting together a social media network of people that will share and follow your campaign before you launch. You should also try to have plenty of visuals and appealing perks to offer backers, which should go without saying. As far as promoting, there are several websites that are free to make a profile on. Indie Game Launchpad is one of those as well as another I've seen listed on here somewhere. My company is a distribution and publishing website for developers big or small. Feel free to go to our website at www.thegamevault.com and contact us to see if we can be of any help to you and your team.
Thanks! I will check out your website asap. We are planning to launch in December so we are working on the trailer and a light-hearted "walkthrough-video" where we will show some of the In-game Perks, gameplay, and information about things you can do and what to expect from the final version of the game. Anyway, thanks for your reply.!
As someone that had a failed Kickstarter, I can offer you two important lessons that I learned. BYOB - Bring Your Own Backers. Kickstarter will not magically fund your project. The majority of people that will back your project will be your friends, family, existing customers (if any), and anyone that has actively been following your game from your website, newsletter, or social media. Add up all the people that are already passionate about your game and multiply that by what you can expect the average reward tier would be ($10-$20) and if that isn't close to your goal, you're not ready yet. Don't publish your project page until it is exactly what you want. Your project will be listed on the top of Kickstarters list of new projects for a very short time. I made the mistake of publishing my page when it was only ok, then made it look good afterwards but by that time it was too late. This tip would have helped a bit but not nearly as important as #1. Good luck!
Thanks for the info! Very helpful! Yes, I will try my best to bring my own backers. But few of my friends cares about games witch sucks But I'm sure they will help donating anyway! ^^
Again, thansk for the info, I realized that Im not ready for my campaign yet. I need to build a fan-base first. BYOB is defiantly something I have to work on. I have 10 years worth of backpacker facebook-friends around the world but few of them are gamers. So, i think i should take some time to make an internet-presence and hopefully inspire and gain some followers online. As you probably already know. These games are our "little babies" and I rather take my time to get it right than jump into something unprepared. so thanks for you advice!