lemiel14n3
Squire
Posts: 25
Favorite D&D Class: Sorcerer
Favorite D&D Race: Half-Elf
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Post by lemiel14n3 on Apr 29, 2017 3:38:47 GMT
Has anyone on this forum had any experience with managing a kickstarter? I wanted to develop one to see if I could push forward on my homebrew campaign setting. drive.google.com/open?id=0B01v0xLsQ4x_UU9NOVpILXBQOVkI'd want to get enough together to commission original artwork, bring in a proof reader and some playtesters, and get someone to look it over to make sure nobody would sue me. Then hopefully get started on publishing some books! But this is a passion project, and I wouldn't want to move forward on publishing without taking some time and some planning. So, successful or not, does anyone here have any experience working on a kickstarter campaign?
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Post by Jesse Ross on May 1, 2017 20:52:51 GMT
I haven't run a campaign yet, but am working on readying my first Kickstarter right now. I'm happy to share what I've learned so far -- what questions do you have?
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lemiel14n3
Squire
Posts: 25
Favorite D&D Class: Sorcerer
Favorite D&D Race: Half-Elf
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Post by lemiel14n3 on May 2, 2017 4:25:54 GMT
General advice, is it considered bad taste to message nerd publications with a press release as a promotion, I have the prep work managed, but how much ground work should I lay out. Should I contact potential supporters beforehand to try to build a groundswell, or contact them afterwards for a more organic build. One of the things I'd want to bring in for this project is legal council, especially to make sure that I'm not breaching any copyright (I like to borrow good ideas), should I do that before posting my sourcebook to kickstarter, redact the book, or just leave it as is and edit when I have that consultation? How much time should I give it, a month? Two? I want to bring in artists, should I contact them beforehand?
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Post by robosnake on May 2, 2017 14:44:56 GMT
General advice, is it considered bad taste to message nerd publications with a press release as a promotion, I have the prep work managed, but how much ground work should I lay out. Should I contact potential supporters beforehand to try to build a groundswell, or contact them afterwards for a more organic build. One of the things I'd want to bring in for this project is legal council, especially to make sure that I'm not breaching any copyright (I like to borrow good ideas), should I do that before posting my sourcebook to kickstarter, redact the book, or just leave it as is and edit when I have that consultation? How much time should I give it, a month? Two? I want to bring in artists, should I contact them beforehand? I'm not an expert, but I've been part of four successfully funded Kickstarter projects and one unsuccessful one. I'd say press releases are fine, though of course there's no guarantee they'll get published unless you've worked with the publication in question before, which ups your chances. More importantly, look at how many social media connections you have - Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc. Assume a few of those will back you, and get your friends and family to share and retweet your project. Warn them that you're going to be talking about it a lot during the campaign. Groundswell is good and organic build is also good - you will definitely need both. My experience is you get an initial burst, then it slows as people wait to see if you'll get close to funded. As you get closer, you get another burst, and then after it's funded a steady stream of people jumping on because, once funded, Kickstarter is basically a pre-order. They can also get excited about specific stretch goals. Definitely stay in communication with backers through updates, and keep asking them to share the project if they want to see it succeed. Tell them about your progress, your excitement, thank them, etc. Let your friends and family know that this year, your Christmas present is them backing this project. I wouldn't worry about legal counsel until you're fully funded and have the money in hand. Remember that everything you want to do will be significantly harder and more expensive than you think, so plan accordingly if you can. Ideally, find a friend of a friend or something who can just give you brief off-the-record legal advice about copyrights. If you want to pay a lawyer, that's really expensive and will be a big bite out of funds from your Kickstarter. Know that not all international shipping is created equal - places like Brazil are ridiculously hard and expensive to ship to, for example (one of my projects had a lot of Brazilian backers and it was kind of a nightmare for a while). Be ready to have your project pop up in unexpected places - for that same project, a link ended up on a French message board and I got a lot of backers from that random occurrence. The more you have before-hand, the better. Any art, any sample text you can have to show people that you can actually deliver on the project is great. Unless you already have a following, people will want proof that you can do the thing they're giving you money to do before they'll consider backing. Also, look at comparable projects - successful Kickstarters from the last few months with a similar financial goal that are also gaming setting books. Look at how they structured their reward tiers, stretch goals, how often they updated, what their video was like, etc. I wouldn't have your video be any longer than 3 minutes, and make it as good as you can. Remember that everything on your Kickstarter - every word, every image, every sample, your video, etc. is telling people more about you and your project. Make the whole thing the best you can possibly put together before it goes live. I recommend a month's time. Two months is probably too long - all the projects I've done have been a month, though, so I can't speak to any potential advantages of a longer campaign. But generally speaking, if people won't back you in 30 days, they won't back you in 60, and if you're doing your work then everyone you're connected to will have already heard about the project. Last, expect running this Kickstarter to be a part-time job the whole time, and to continue that way for months afterward. If it is slow, then you're putting in hours posting to message boards and sharing on social media and updating backers. If it is going great, then there is a steady flow of comments and questions and shares that you want to acknowledge and respond to. For my first Kickstarter, I'd say it was 20-30 hours a week for the whole month and for a few months after as we worked to fulfill all of the backer rewards. It's fun and exciting, but it's a lot of work. Good luck!
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Post by Jesse Ross on May 3, 2017 17:44:55 GMT
I would echo everything robosnake said here already.
A couple of other things:
Pre-promote. Successful campaigns get people excited so that momentum can be established right off the bat. And give them something to do to feel like they're involved: sign up to a mailing list, follow you on Twitter, etc. You also can't do all the word-of-mouth on your own during the campaign, so getting those excited backers to tell their friends about your project is essential.
Get as much of the art and layout finalized as you can. There is definitely a subset of people on Kickstarter who won't back things with only spec art. Art and editing are both potential huge delay factors, so assuring people that the work is nearly done will make them feel better and be more likely to back you.
Related to the above idea, don't use Kickstarter to test your ideas. If you're not sure if there's a market for what you're selling, don't use Kickstarter to vet it. You should already know that what you have is worthwhile before you put it out there.
I would make your campaign either 21 or 28 days. Even weeks makes things easier to track and ensures that you're launching on and ending on active days and times.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!
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Post by DM Nim ToastHater on May 21, 2017 19:20:35 GMT
I'll have to see if I can find it. I've been doing a bit of research on this as well. There is another podcast that I listen to in tandem with Dmsblock, Game Designer's Workshop put on by the guys at Role Playing Public Radio. There is one or two episodes in particular that I'm thinking of that are super relevant to your questions. Where they interviewed a couple of people about their experiences with running a game kickstarter.
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