What mistakes should be avoided when launching a Kickstarter campaign: the experience of an indie developer
The founder of the indie studio UnifiQ Games analyzed the Kickstarter campaign of his game Operation Outsmart. It turned out to be a complete failure — in two weeks it was possible to collect barely 10% of the desired amount. However, the developer did not despair and decided to tell about the main mistakes he made during crowdfunding.Operation Outsmart
The founder of Unifiq Games Seyed Nasrollahi shared his experience on Reddit.
Since June last year, his studio has been working on the game Operation Outsmart. This is a physics-based sandbox in an open world where koalas fight robots. One of the main features of the project is the ability to build vehicles from the collected resources.
On September 17, Nasrollai launched a Kickstarter campaign. However, Operation Outsmart was supported by only 70 people and out of $ 33.8 thousand it was possible to raise only a little more than $ 3 thousand.
Basic mistakes and tipsAccording to the developer, one of the main success factors of any Kickstarter campaign is the size of the audience.
- It is better not to rely on luck, but to take care in advance of how to interest people even before the start of crowdfunding.Before the launch of the campaign, Unifiq Games had 1,220 followers on Twitter, 45 participants in the Discord channel and 112 people who had pre-subscribed to Operation Outsmart on Kickstarter.
- Already from these figures it was possible to guess that the studio was unlikely to be successful.Nasrollai analyzed Kickstarter campaigns of other games that launched around the same time as Operation Outsmart.
- The developer came to the following conclusion: the number of backers in the best case will be twice the number of people who signed up for the campaign before it started. With a more pessimistic forecast, you should count on only half of the number of pre-subscribed people.For example, the developers of the Below the Stone bagel managed to collect twice the desired amount of $ 20 thousand (578 backers versus 660 subscribers).
- And the authors of the indie title Midautumn were paid $ 35 thousand (631 backers against 300 subscribers).Nasrollai advises paying special attention to maintaining Discord, Twitter and mailing lists.
- In his opinion, these are the main channels for attracting an audience. He also recommends talking about the game on Imgur, Reddit and TikTok.Another mistake of Unifiq Games was the requested amount being too large.
- Because of this, the campaign always had a small percentage of goal completion (less than 10%), which further scared off potential backers. People are reluctant to support games from start-up studios, doubting the achievement of the requested amount. According to Nasrollai, he should have set an initial goal of £10,000 — then the chances of success of the campaign could have increased significantly.When planning crowdfunding, it is worth carefully considering all offers and rewards.
- The Unifiq Games campaign had too big a step between levels. After £15, there is immediately £40. This cuts off a fairly large layer of potential audience. There are quite a few people who are willing to donate in the range of £20-30, but £40 for them may seem too much.Nasrollai also recommends taking care of working with the media in advance.
- It is worth telling the desired publications about your game at least two weeks before the start of the campaign and sending them a playable demo. Press coverage can attract an audience to the campaign that would not have found out about it through other channels.Despite the failure, Unifiq Games plans to re-enter Kickstarter next year and try to avoid the mistakes described above.
