u/Klightgrove

Two independent studios have taken different approaches to working with their communities for fundraising their next project after facing hurdles the last few months. We will start off analyzing Airship Syndicate and then leap into Double Fine, so feel free to scroll if you’re just here for the Schafernanigans. 

Front loading this and I will recap it later, I do critique both campaigns but I believe they did an excellent job that everyone can learn from.

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Airship Syndicate, after dealing with the shutdown of their publisher for the last 2 years, turned to Kickstarter along with a Gamescom promotion campaign to raise $250,000 to polish their next project. It started with over 3000 followers, which is twice the amount you need for a successful mid-size campaign. In 72 hours they were a quarter of the way to their goal after raising $66,000 across 848 backers. 

However the team faced a critical choice at this juncture, to continue supporting the Kickstarter the rest of the month or pivot to focusing on the game. They had garnered 50,000 wishlists on Steam and decided to cancel their campaign to focus their resources. 

What they did right:

• The sheer disparity of only 7 people pledging $5 and mostly everyone else (680) going for the base game pledge ($25) or bonus edition ($35) aligned with their projection that people who were following the project wanted the game. 
• They have custom graphics and gifs showcasing gameplay, an easily navigable sidebar, backer breakdown matrix (partially), and clickable buttons (after they were prompted to add them.)
  • Although the sidebar is a tad longer and not as clear what each section entails, it is better than most indie campaigns.
• They built out channels in their Discord to engage with fans, answer campaign questions, and hype the community. 
• It’s clear from the opening paragraph what this game is and who it caters too, making it clear from the start the pedigree of the team.

What they did wrong:

• Many campaigns struggle to cater to mid-tier to high-tier backers, drastically underestimating their demand. The limiting factor here which the team lamented on was Joe Madureira’s own ability to to sketch content for backers. 
  • Their $1K Captain’s Council only had 10 seats which sold out on the first day and their new tier with 5 likewise sold out. 
  • These 15 backers accounted for 25% of all funding in the campaign.
• None of their $3.5K, $7.5K, or $10K tiers sold which could have drastically shifted campaign momentum. 
  • You want these tiers to have rewards which pull people in. Deep behind the scenes involvement, Zoom meetings, and in-person studio tours are usually the expectation but what was offered were your name being on a cryopod in the game, a creature you design being in a terminal entry, and for the $10K tier a 90-second video.
  • Not to diminish the effort Joe would have had to put into these, but these are all things you would expect to see in a $1.5K to $2.5K tier.
• They didn’t wait. Obviously as an independent studio with minimal support you have to make tough business decisions but by reevaluating what they could offer to the mid-tier they could have surged throughout the remaining 27 days, especially when a large portion of backers come in the final 72 hours.
• There were no social goals. These are challenges you give your followers who do not back, such as the 50K wishlists or 3K other followers on Kickstarter who did not back yet. It is an incredible source of organic marketing to get people using specific hashtags and interacting with posts in exchange for previews or digital rewards. 
• As far as I can tell looking back there were no add-ons, which are essential for letting backers pay more to get the things they want without having to leap to a much higher tier.

 

I do not believe Airship Syndicate did anything necessarily bad, they acted on what they knew and prioritized the demand for the game. This is a lesson for many indies here too, do not set low goals if it’s better to cancel the campaign and try again later. While not strictly game development, Matt Braly infamously set a $25K Kickstarter goal for an animated pilot which was massively below budget. He was able to keep momentum going and secure $443K for 3 episodes, but he ran into the same issues as this campaign with running out of high-tiers and is going to have to stretch that budget thinly. 

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Double Fine brought forth an interesting campaign, funding 3 things simultaneously: a documentary, a 4-team game jam, and a short published game from the winning team of that jam. Like the Dust campaign above they had well over the recommended follow count, totaling over 4000 when they began. They are currently sitting at 4700 backers with $392K raised of their $400K goal. By the end of the day they should be funded and headed toward their stretch goal. 

This has not been their first attempt at crowdfunding and they have a much larger fanbase at their disposal, but the interesting dichotomy is how involved backers are in voting for the jam, keeping them updated on the prototypes, planning to interact with backers at PAX, and sending demos out all for affordable tiers. Double Fine has also assembled a merch pipeline of various add-ons for backers which turned each $30 tier into potentially far more. 

What they did right:

• Incredibly detailed breakdowns of each pledge tier, the pitches for their games, graphics highlighting each section, a cinematic video which tells a story of why they are crowdfunding to bring in new backers, and an easy-to-use navigation bar.
• They had a slew of social challenges for fans to achieve to get discount codes and for-fun votes, among teases of other potential rewards. 
• They were able to rally a large volume of low-tier backers to reach a massive amount of fundraising in just the first few days. It remains to be seen if they pivot with additional roles.
• They pull in your attention right away with the dictionary definition of Amnesia and Fortnight to explain it, then succinctly state what the campaign is about.

What they did wrong:

• There were multiple mistakes with what merch was in each tier and unavailable add-ons were in graphics, which were corrected. 
• They have a $15K and $26K tier still stuck in legal review and honestly the rewards for it do not align with the value.
  • For example, one studio brought fans of the franchise to the office for $5K, not $15K.

   

• High-roller tiers did not stack rewards and were the same cost-range for having limited slots.
  • I’ve talked with the team about this and obviously, there is only so much merch they can pull from the vault for things like the Tiki swag, Psychonauts, and holiday merch. 
  • However, being able to pull someone from $2K to $3K or $5 with the promise of getting everything is alluring to superfans. 
  • There was a ton of money left on the table here but like with Airship Syndicate what the studio can do for fans is mostly out of their control based on the current resources at their disposal. I would ballpark Double Fine left around $60K - $100K because of these limited slots just from prior experience with these campaigns. Again, not their fault.

   

• They do not have social buttons, just hyperlinks at the very bottom. You need clickable graphical buttons that get people to act before they back the campaign.

 

One potential path here for Double Fine to pivot is to create a digital tier around the $1K range with involvement behind the scenes or other non-merch exclusives that fans would pay for. Pivoting mid-campaign is a great way to bring backers who were hesitant or convince existing ones to upgrade. 

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If you are an indie studio considering launching your own Kickstarter, please come to this community and share the full details, graphics, etc before you go live. Too many times people ask us what went wrong and we find glaring issues right off the bat. We are looking at putting together a Kickstarter megathread at some point, but for now the key things are:

• You have 500 - 1500 people following the campaign before launch.
• You have graphics, a sidebar with navigation tabs, clickable buttons for socials, a matrix showing rewards.
• You have a strong array of tiers with notable backer rewards.
  • Even for indies without merch pipelines or distribution partners, look at Coral Island or Tideborne Haven for what you can work with.

 

You have a community, even if it’s just 50 people in a Discord, to interact with potential backers.

• Spending several months organically growing your socials by contributing, not just posting links to your Steam page or game is essential here. You cannot launch with 3 people following your Twitter account.
• Your video tells a story which pulls the viewer in and your opening paragraph is to the point.
• You have a cost breakdown chart showing where the funding goes.
  • Neither campaign here did this but they had too much else to analyze and talk about.
  • For indies it is essential you have this though so it’s clear to high rollers and mid-tiers you are aware what your costs are going to be.
• You have a marketing consultant familiar with Kickstarter, a mailing list of some kind, or a moderate budget to run ads for the campaign. 
  • Surprise, many campaigns actually solicit funding from private investors to run a Kickstarter! There are also dedicated Kickstarter consultants.
  • Yes, “Wait but indies don’t have this money” is why you need to have a pitch deck and practice storytelling to people who can give you moderate funding to make this happen.

 

If I missed anything with these campaigns please feel free to let me know. Again, major props to the Airship Syndicate team for a successful Gamescom and pulling 50k wishlists. Congrats to the Double Fine team for their Schafernanigans and pulling $400K as I finished writing this sentence. 

Yes, it was a promotional campaign for a charity event about dogs, but the twist on the Starfield IP and art was so well crafted it felt like there was more there. You have to wonder if someone experimented behind the scenes to make more concepts about what a Barkfield game could have been like.

And yes, that is me wishing for one. I've often considered just cracking open the modding tools and bringing on some of my old team to make a proof-of-concept.

With the current market, a cute animal mascot that targets all ages seems like a solid strategy instead of an ambitious game which targets a niche portion of potential players. There are obviously dozens of major factors playing into what IPs a company chooses to pursue. Then again it took 20 years for Commander Keen to come back which no one talks about anymore.

Hey, I'm primarily following the game development community but am interested in tabletop games as well. I recently found a public investment opportunity for a tabletop game and wanted to shoot some questions here to get feedback. No one here is able to give financial advice. I am asking designers about their thoughts on compatibility with the current market.

The rundown is:

• This is a finished diplomacy / political tabletop card game with a rulebook, prototype, and over 200 play sessions.
• They are seeking $50K to invest in user acquisition over a 2-month period for a Kickstarter they project to raise $150K
  • They have already raised $93K from various investors to develop this game.
  • $25K for promotional content and $10K for a campaign trailer, other misc costs.
• The creators are 2 college students with a network of advisors from business schools or management funds.
  • They have a strategic partner whose own campaign raised $500K but has been plagued with scope creep and delays in delivering physical goods, according to one backer I talked with.
• Their exit strategy is to get acquired in 5-7 years for 10m-100m valuation. This is the biggest red flag to me.
• They have no social media following at the moment and have not built up any communities.

The tabletop market is hot right now on Kickstarter, especially if you have actual investments funding marketing campaigns like ones I have been involved with, but I am rather hung up on how receptive general audiences would be to the diplomacy niche.

One of their stretch goals at $360K is a D&D 5e adventure set in their game's world which does make it more palatable but that also feels like the hook you should be leading with. Would greatly appreciate your thoughts and I can always toss out more info, even if there is a mismatch between what is on the proposal and their pitch deck.