Kickstarter Campaign Plan Summer 2014

PREPRODUCTION Where we’re at right now, what our long term goal is, and

short term goals to be completed before campaign launch

General KS Info (aka things that are good to know)

• Most funding comes in the first and last

48 hours

• Budget for 10%-12% of KS/Amazon fees

• Depending on our exact situation, KS

money may be taxable

• If someone gives the wrong billing info,

Amazon will still charge us

Our Goal

• Become successfully funded on

Kickstarter

• This presentation roughly outlines how

we will achieve that and things we

need to consider

Our Current Situation

• Grow is a 2013 Tabletop Deathmatch

finalist and 2014 IndieCade@E3

selection

– We have received some media attention

because of this

• This attention means nothing if we

cannot translate it into backers

Preproduction Goals - Business

• Set up the business side of the

company

– Create a company bank account

– Link bank account with KS account

– Create contracts for all parties involved

Preproduction Goals- Manufacturing

• Finalize Manufacturing

Estimates

– Plastic molds

– Plastic pieces

– Wooden pieces

– Cardboard box

– Wooden Box

– Wooden die

– Rulebook

– Labor and assembly

Preproduction Goals - Shipping

• Finalize Shipping

Estimates

– U.S. Domestic

– International

– How much will the

plastic version

weigh?

– How much will the

wooden collector’s

edition weigh?

Preproduction Goals - Pricing

• Pricing and Reward Tiers

– Early bird specials help to bring in backers at

the beginning. Increases our probability of

being on the Popular page

– Do we want extra goodies at certain tiers?

• How much will those cost to manufacture

– Do we want a small reward tier? (i.e. not a

copy of the game)

• Give someone a game piece but not the whole

game?

Preproduction Goals – KS Graphics

• Gather ref for graphic designer. Look at other KS

• What we need – Title image

– Headers for different sections

– Rendering of the cardboard box

– Cost breakdown graphic

– Stretch goals graphic (lowest priority as stretch goals not revealed at the beginning of campaign)

– 3D mockup of Grow

– Will need PNGs and original AI files in case minor edits are needed

Preproduction Goals - Video

• 4 -5 min max

• What is the game about? Why should I buy it? What is our elevator pitch?

• Team is cross country, do we want to elect 1 spokesperson?

• Finalize script – Figure out a tone of voice for

us/the video

• Find equipment – Ask friends/school for help

• Footage of people playing the game

PRODUCTION PHASE Promoting the campaign while it runs

Promoting at Cons

• Hopefully will help us fight the mid-campaign slump

• Will allow us to interact w/ potential and current fans

• Gen Con – Need to confirm table,

passes, and hotel

• PAX – May be at w/ Indie

Megabooth

– Need to confirm table, passes

– Look into hotels in case we get in

Contacting Press

• Do early in the week and at the beginning of the day

• Contact all sites at same time so our story is not old news when we reach out to someone

• A good template to start with – http://www.indiegamegirl.

com/press-release-template/

• Work with our strengths. Grow gifs/photographs beautifully.

Who to Contact?

• In general – Look for a specific editor that

enjoys indie games/board games

– Set up a doc with their info (site, email, twitter handle, notes on what they like)

• Large news sites (mainly digital oriented tho) – Kotaku, Polygon, Destructoid,

etc

• Indie specific sites – Can potentially gain their

attention by saying we are an IndieCade selection

– Indiegames.com, armlessoctopus, etc

Times We Should Send Out a

Press Release

• Campaign Launch

• If we are a staff pick (maybe)

• Announcing we are at cons

• Fully funded

• Hitting a major milestone, e.g. 1,000

backers (maybe)

Kickstarter Updates

• An update every 2-4

days

• Can discuss con

presence and invite

backers/potential

backers out to play

• Can also release

stretch goals once

approx. 50% funded

Reaching Out to Others

• Contact family/friends to help get the word out

• Maintain social media accounts to keep followers up to date/potentially allow a dialogue w/ fans

POSTPRODUCTION What to do if we succeed and what to do if we don’t

If We Do Succeed

• Keep in contact w/ backers, don’t just drop off the map – Updates on how production is

• Write up a postmortem on Gamasutra blog that explains success. Will potentially get a bit more coverage

• Far in the future, we could potentially take Grow to a publisher, using the successful KS as proof that there is a demand for it

If We Don’t Succeed

• It’s not the end of the world, we can easily relaunch

• You can still contact backers on a failed KS via updates (i.e. let them know when you are relaunching through an update)