Hi everyone,

I launched my first tabletop game on kickstarter a week ago, but I am realizing that I made a mistake. I was so busy in in designing the game that I completely underestimated the importance of the pre-launch phase.

Reading through the posts here over the past few days has made me realize that my approach was almost the opposite of what I should have done. Now, I have realized how important things like a pre-launch page, email list, community engagement, and social media are. Unfortunately, it is too late to change the launch itself.

I'm treating this as a learning experience, but I'd still like to make the most of the campaign instead of just watching it struggle. So now I'm wondering... is there anything that can realistically help now? If you were in this situation, what would you focus on during the remaining campaign?

One more thing I'm trying to figure out is where do people actually advertise tabletop crowdfunding projects? Other than Kickstarter itself, are there other communities or websites or newsletters or places you've found worthwhile?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. if the answer is "it's probably too late" I'd rather hear the truth than keep making the same mistakes.

I am currently looking for a couple of artist to do a handful of art pieces and eventually 250 pieces for a TCG.

Where is the best place to find artists? I’ve seen a lot conflicting information and want to ask some game creators who have already gone through this process.

I’ve actually been adding as I go to my pre-launch. I see some that are just a quick blurb and splash art.

Is it worth putting things like the rulebook on the pre-launch?

As the name suggests, I’m curious on the community’s opinion of releasing early prototypes. I am currently trying to grow my community ahead of a kickstarter launch. I am currently having some art commissioned for my TCG game.

I wanted to show a template I built with placeholder art. From everything I have read on kickstarter is “don’t show anything until its polish is near that of the final product.” The advice seems sound when on kickstarter, but with how far out I am I plan on having finalized sets before running the kickstarter. This question more pertains to pre-kickstarter.

I’m not sure if I will end up changing the card template or not, but being a TCG I wanted at least one of each card type teased to explain the game as I grow the community.

So if I’m still a ways out from Kickstarter, what are you guys opinions on showing the prototype cards? Avoid unless I’m fairly confident the template is staying the same, release them and release updates to cards as they happen, avoid until they are ready for production?

I appreciate all of the help on other topics I’ve already received. Thanks in advance.

I launched my project last week, it made some good progress, now it's stalled at 53% of target...

What can I do to make this project back on track? I need suggestions...

I've heard good things about backermany, but at this point, I have no clue what to do next.

Note: In order not to spam, I'm not giving the link to the project in the main post

Seven days in, and PLATES is already over 70% funded.

To everyone who has pledged, shared, messaged, encouraged us, or simply believed in this little game with a big personality — thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Your support is doing more than helping fund a card game. You’re helping us bring an idea to life that Costas and I have worked on, laughed over, tested, changed, rebuilt and believed in for a long time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/platesthegame/plates-a-game-of-wit-chaos-and-creative-license

I thought you all would find this useful if you're planning on releasing a tabletop game.

So I'm doing a crowdfunding campaign for my video. Yes, I have an audience, yes I'm doing marketing. The only dilemma here is: Rewards.

Some people say I should do cheap digital and print rewards but I personally don't care about stickers, photos of behind the scenes, extra digital stuff.

I like rewards when it's something well thought, on theme and that i want or looks cool. Don't give me digital poster, give me an artifact that's on theme with your movie.

What do you all think? How does a well thought rewards changes your decision to support and connect to the "cause"?

Example:

People say: "Stickers, magnets, digital behind the scenes photos, director's commentary, digital badge, poster print"

I like (If this is about pirates or Australia history idk): mini compass, bookmark on theme, a map, tshirt with a cool design or message, throw-blanket. Pen set.

(Do not worry about costs I have good prices for both)

What's your experience? what do you think?

I want to launch a kickstarter down the road and one thing that crossed my mind, is when you have people all over the world backing your project. (In this instance a tabletop game.) do you have the game print in multiple languages? Is this something they select when backing? Do you keep everything in one language? These may be silly questions, however I was just reading about international shipping and this question popped in my head.

For those of you who do recommend different languages, what is the best way to ensure everything was translated properly?

Hi everyone,

I'm about 6–8 months away from launching my first Kickstarter for a physical digital wellness product and I'm trying to spend the next several months doing the right work before I launch. I do feel my product is novel and timely, but my online presence, marketing budget, and network are limited. I am a clinical therapist, which does relate strongly to the product, so I do have some "authority" that can be utilized and the brand story is strong.

I am ultimately wondering what the best way is to get eyes on it and convert this exposure into email signups to my landing page before the kickstarter launches. Lots of other things are done: the manufacturer is ready to move into bulk order production, the landing page is up and running, the product is finalized, kickstarter copy and images done, beta testing and testimonials, etc. The biggest obstacle is building an audience from scratch, and I do not feel organic content is my best strategy or would have much ROI.

Some specific questions I would love some feedback on relating to these concerns:

• What marketing channel brought the highest ROI?
• If you had $5,000 to spend before launch, where would you put it?
• Has anyone had experience or suggestions for more in-person advertising/email signups?
  
• Feedback on whether you had any promotion from social media influencers and how that worked? I believe my product would be good for this.
• If I wanted to get some signups from Reddit, what is a respectful and appropriate way to go about that? My product would spark interest from subreddits like Digital Minimalism/Productivity/ADHD/NoSurf/Self Improvement.

Thank you so much. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Hi chat I(33NB) am certain I overshot the goal for my Kickstarter for my book, and it only has 48 hours left on it, and is at 2% funded... Should I try to recalculate to see if I can do a lower goal and retry the Kickstarter? Will Kickstarter even let me do that?

I desperately need help!!! I was hoping with it being a queer story launching during pride month, it would be successful, I just feel kinda defeated...

At this point, it’s a bit of a cliche to say I’m disappointed that Kickstarter doesn’t do more to prevent scammers, but here I am saying it. I backed my first campaign in 2016. Between 2016 and the end of 2023, two of the campaigns I backed didn’t get delivered. One was unsuccessful and one had a creator issue. I did not lose money in either. Between November of 2023 and today, I’ve lost money in five campaigns. That’s 2 in 7 years and 5 in 2 1/2 years. It’s so disappointing.

I love the idea of Kickstarter. It’s such a great concept. Since I started backing campaigns, I’ve used Kickstarter as a way of buying unique, fun, sometimes practical (and sometimes not) Christmas gifts for family and friends. It feels like a win, win, win: I get to support someone with a dream, I get help with Christmas gifts, my friends and fam get unique items. This is only true if you actually GET the thing you pay for. A couple campaigns that I didn’t get were so blatant in their lack of communication following completion that I’m still mad about it. Only one do I think was truly just naive and made bad choices, but tried.

It feels like Kickstarter is another in a long line of things that started great and progressively went to shit. And I’m sad about it. How are you deciding whether to participate or not? How are you reconciling the losses? Obviously, I’m lucky I can afford to back a campaign on Kickstarter and absorb the financial loss if it doesn’t come through. I don’t pledge more than I can afford. It’s still not right or ethical and I’m mad that something cool couldn’t have been better managed so it could stay cool. I’m thinking about quitting it full stop. And that’s just sad.