Kickstarter, how and what to do?

    Hello there Mapcorians!

    Me and four other developers are starting up a company named Frogsong Studios here in Malmö Sweden. We have currently two ongoing project where one of them, Spellsworn, is aimed to end up on Kickstarter within a forseeable future.

    The thing with Kickstarter is that noone in our crew have any experience nor knows someone in person who has it.

    As there are pitfalls to tread into we are trying to figure out the dos' and donts' beforehand. Is there anyone of you here who have personal experience or know somene who is willing to share knowledge about Kickstarter?

    Here are some of the questions that needs to be answered:
    - Since we are going to have a bank account in any of the following countries: U.S, U.K, Canada, Australia, Netherlands and New Zealand, which country should we pick and what bank?

    - What's the biggest mistake Kickstarter creators do?

    - Do you have any good reads on Kickstarter and crowdfunding?

    There are probably a lot more questions that will pop up on our way to launching it but I will start with these and see if a discussion leads us somewhere.

    Very happy for any responses!

    / Stefan

    I think kickstarter games live and die with their pitch video if your pacing is off the sound is low quality or the people talking don't have that "voice" people will close the video immediately ... and obviously your game idea needs to be good too but i assume you have that covered!


    maybe team up with some guys who know shit about video production have any student/university friends that know their way around a cam and a mic ?


    edit: oh and make sure you include some ingame footage!!! pitches that only have concept art or motion comics with somebody talking over i never pledge to

    Hey Sjonsson,


    That's good news man. I wish you guys the best of luck. I'm not someone who has or knows anyone that has run a Kickstarter for their project. However, I am an avid follower and I've seen a lot of projects come by. Here are some observations:

    • Don't sell the idea but sell the project. Show people your progress. Also, the project has to look good enough to convince people it's likely to succeed. Posting concepts won't get you there.
    • Expect nothing but prepare for everything. In other words, have funding goals ready beforehand.
    • Include Kickstarter rewards (pledges) and keep them realistic.
    • UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE. I can't stress this enough.
    • Add a convincing pitch video narrated by someone who speaks proper English and has a pleasant voice.
    • Be realistic in what you want to achieve. This goes for the pitch but also for the goals and rewards (as stated above).
    • Don't make promises you can't keep.

    Regarding banks, if you choose The Netherlands I would go for ABN Amro. I've been a customer at most banks here but for me ABN Amro is really the best. Excellent service, low cost and never any issues.


    Good luck!

    Quote from Puddy

    Why do you have two projects with 5 devs btw?

    One of them is on its way out, a pretty simple mobile game we have been developing for some time. We need something that could hopefully amass any kind of money to at least cover some license costs and what not. The second project on the other hand is still in its infancy.


    Warby and Sprony, thanks a lot! Will take everything you said into account.

    Now I just need to go and find that million-dollar voice, heh!

    Do you guys have any idea what kind of stretch goals people want? Is it merchandise, that kinda stuff? Extra in-game content? Premium in-game content?

    Any clues?

    That really depends on the game but having your name in the credits, a character named after you, get your own quest, using your face, special forum access, development input, alpha and beta access, etc are always popular.


    Also, those are pledge rewards. Stretch goals could be: ports to other platforms, multiplayer, extra quests, larger world, more dialogue, recorded dialogue, VR support, etc.

    Create the Kickstarter at the end of your marketing campaign, not in the beginning. Build up hype for as long as you can, have as much of the product ready before you kickstart. Those are lessons I got from a dear friend who successfully kickstarted his project.

    Does this studio involve mr.remar?


    edit : dont put the bank account in the US. they have some crazy tax laws other countries dont that relate to charging tax on money made by people even if they aren't currently living there. It might not apply to you but to be safe choose any other country.

    I see many kickstarters turn into having so many stupid rewards, too much focus on t-shirts, posters, plush toys etc. You should be a game developer making games, not a chinese sweatshop. People don't concider how much time physical rewards eat up, time that should be spent on the game. Same thing with dozens of stretch goals that overscopes the project, doubling the amount of work needed to be done just to get a few more bucks.


    Now these thing might help get some more pledges, but it makes my bullshit meter explode.

    Actually one thing I've always wondered about those physical rewards. Say you pay 50$ and get a tshirt. I bet the amortized cost of getting the tshirt to every backer is around 30$ so you're already blowing 60% of your budget on these tiers just getting the items out to the backers.


    Seems quite counter-productive.

    That's a really good point Pampers. I have no clue how it can actually be an incentive to get a shirt for a game that hasn't been released yet, which can turn out to be shit or in worst case, will never see the light of day.

    Sorry about the dump, but all of these would be good material. If you have access to the whole of GDC Vault, I believe there are a few premium-only lectures on the subject too.


    http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1018050/K…-for-Indie-Game


    http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020613/SCALE-and-the-Ethics-of


    http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015671/A-Strategic-Approach-to


    http://robotloveskitty.tumblr.com/post/403181174…r-on-a-0-budget


    http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/StephenD…_Developers.php


    http://www.indiegamegirl.com/no-budget-marketing/


    http://gamasutra.com/blogs/KeeWonHo…lty_Matters.php


    http://gamasutra.com/blogs/SamFarme…_Postmortem.php


    http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ZacharyS…Kickstarter.php


    http://gamasutra.com/blogs/WilliamD…Kickstarter.php


    http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidDAn…g_and_Sales.php


    http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Benjamin…_Your_Video.php


    http://gamasutra.com/blogs/BenTrist…t_the_money.php


    http://crowdfundinghelp.com/

    Quote from Corwin

    Sorry about the dump, but all of these would be good material. If you have access to the whole of GDC Vault, I believe there are a few premium-only lectures on the subject too.

    Still doing research work on all those links as well as other material. I'm on the 15th page now of my Kickstarter bible.

    Had no clue how many details there are to a campaign. Gonna publish it once it's finished.

    Once again, thanks!

    I'm curious by the way: as far as I understood you need to register the campaign on kickstarter by someone who is paying taxes either in the UK or the US. Have they updated the rules, was I mistaken, or is that correct and how do you intend to circumvent that issue, being based in Sweden?

    When I started this thread I was researching that matter, calling banks and looking for options. Then after talking to a friend of mine who does game dev startups for a living (incubation and acceleration programmes), I got to know that he had a direct contact with Kickstarter to which we've been forwarded.


    He also told me some that it has been under discussion since 2011 that Kickstarter should open up to Sweden but it has never really gone anywhere, until now that is. It appeared that the discussions have finally lead somewhere and they plan to open up for Sweden around October/November, which happens to be our initially planned time frame for our campaign.

    That said, we are just really lucky so far. After the researching I've done I realised that it would've been a helluva hustle with getting the taxes right and the process may have been very long and tedious - because bureaucracy and the cross-continental factor.

    Least to say, it was a relief. Banana-surfing ftw!

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