RPG Crowdfunding - What a year and 150 projects brings to light

[Croesus]

An online article at the Atlantic.com on the same subject. Not in depth, but interesting.

What the Future of Our Crowd-Funded Products Will Look Like - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

 

[harpy]

This may have been obvious, but I may have missed it. What was your definition of success? Is success:

1. The project's funding goal was reached.
2. The end product was created and released.

I likely never defined it, but I meant success to be when funding was reached.

The perspective I'm coming from with this is my own interest in creating a Kickstarter, so it's primarily a creator's viewpoint.

I'm not sure how one would collect data on the eventual release of the promised rewards, at least in a convenient way. All of that happens behind the scenes. I think the only way you could do it is wait six months after the final project had finished it's funding period in the survey and then attempt to interview backers for all of the successful projects.

 

[S'mon]

So, it looks like the most important thing is a modest funding goal, median $2000 but better to start around $1000 for those without industry credentials.

As a rather depressive pessimist I find Kickstarter a bit hard to relate to - it's all about rewarding realistic optimisim!

 

[harpy]

So, it looks like the most important thing is a modest funding goal, median $2000 but better to start around $1000 for those without industry credentials.

As a rather depressive pessimist I find Kickstarter a bit hard to relate to - it's all about rewarding realistic optimisim!

Heh... optimism is important. But yeah, aim for $1000, cross your fingers for $2000, be elated if you go beyond that.

A key thing of course is aim to make something that only costs $1000 to create for backers, but have a plan for what is possible if it goes beyond that.

 

[prosfilaes]

An almost certain turn-off on Kickstarters is where what's being made is out of my reach. I don't need a leather-bound signed copy--I'll take a PDF or other digital download (except sometimes on board games; I've even got a documentary on a standard unmarked jewel case with DVD-R inside--but if what you're making is an RPG, if I can't get a copy at a price I find reasonable, I'm not going to get anything. (Exceptions can be made when I feel I'm building something of social value, like the documentaries I donated 10 bucks to, but I doubt an RPG could count.)

 

[TreChriron]

Thanks for putting together these reports!! Super helpful information, and much appreciated.

 

[harpy]

You're welcome!

The final piece in the RPG Crowdfunding Report is now in place with the release of the raw data used to generate the report. It took awhile to collect it together from different files, clean it up and then wrestle with the Creative Commons license, but it's done. People have been asking for this information, and I found it a bit serendipitous when I watched just the other day Tim Berners-Lee on TED exclaim, "Demand raw data now." Well, here it is, fly and be free!

Enjoy!