I've been toying with the idea of using Kickstarter.com to fund part of my first print run - not so much to ask for donations for a commercial enterprise, but merely to give friends and family a way to pre-purchase the game. I think I may do it, although it feels a little hitting up your friends for something they don't really want, like when your kids go around selling candy bars or coupon books.
A couple of the earlier versions I commented on (Gentlemen of the South Sandwiche Islands and Inevitable) approached their pitch less as mere pre-ordering and more as artistic patronage, where you were getting a chance to support the hopes and dreams part beyond just buying a game. I was wondering if a simple pre-order thing would work. Via Trask at LivingDice.com, It looks like we've got a test case - GamingPaper (site here) is looking for funds to print up an 8.5x11 version of their product in what is essentially a plain pre-order scheme. They do have other rewards for various donation levels, but those rewards are already available as products they sell - the 8.5x11 version is the only new product.
In this case, there's no artistic vision to support (although the Kickstarter video playfully suggests there could be), since you're basically buying 250 sheets of graph paper. I'll be interested to see how they do.
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Hi...I'm David from Clever Mojo Games. We're doing a Kickstarter project for our Alien Frontiers game. It is primarily a pre-order system with higher backer levels getting some neat swag like an art book or a giclee print or even original painted art from the game.
ReplyDeleteWe set a goal of $5,000 in 60 days to help offset our estimated $15,000 printing costs for 1000 copies of our game. We hit $5,000 in less than 2 weeks, and now, with 10 days remaining, we're at $11,364. Kickstarter has definitely lessened our out-of-pocket costs and we count it as a big success.
Hi, there, and thanks for sharing the info. Sounds like it's working quite well for you, too.
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