Kickstarting Your Visual Novel (How to Kickstarter Video!?)

[Rosstin2]

EDIT: New Question. What's the best video you've seen for a Visual Novel Kickstarter? How do you make a good Kickstarter Video for your VN?

Hey guys, Rosstin here. Me and my team are gearing up to Kickstart "Queen At Arms" and I thought I'd make a general thread about Visual Novel Kickstarting.

I've previously helped run a Kickstarter for the game Rex Rocket which raised $11k. However, visual novels are a way different beast. Different kinds of research and marketing strategies apply to them as opposed to an action game.

One thing I've put a lot of work into is estimating the payout threshhold for VNs so I can get a handle on realistic goals. My research so far shows me that VNs typically make between 1,000-9,000usd. I've never seen a VN make more than around 15,000usd, unless it was run by a person who was already famous. This tells me that a realistic goal should fall in the 1,000-9,000usd range, depending on how good you think your VN will do compared to others, your marketing ability, the game's appeal, etcetera.

I have a long list of resources of general Kickstarter advice and contacts from when we worked on Rex Rocket's Kickstarter. I'm also compiling a list of resources that is more specifically oriented towards Visual Novels, which I'd be happy to share with the forum. And of course, I'm interested in hearing about other people's experiences and seeing the kinds of resources and advice you all have.

One interesting factoid I've heard from a number of Kickstarters is that over half of their traffic came from Kickstarter itself, which greatly surprised me.

[Allegra Hughes]

I'd love to see these resources!

[Rosstin2]

I'd love to see these resources!

Let me get some things in order and I'll post some links. Remember that some of these are not directly targeted towards VN so applicability isn't 100%. Also note some of these are targetted towards Queen, like r/askhistorians

Streamers, Let's Players, and Press: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-KLED ... sp=sharing
(download it, you can't view it in GDocs, the formatting sucks but the info is there)

Marketing Article From Gama: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JohanTor ... d_base.php

VNs on Kickstarter to look at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/se ... sual+novel

Subreddits
r/IndieGaming
r/gamedev
r/askhistorians
r/worldbuilding
r/historicalwhatif
r/visualnovels

Forum Communities
Lemmasoft
GiantITP
community.stencyl.com
newgrounds.com
gamesalad.com
html5gamedevs.com
garagegames.com
wayofthepixel.net
indiedb/moddb
idevgames.com
gmc.yoyogames.com
opengameart.org
scirra.com
meebo.com
game-artist.net
kongregate
desura
gamedev.net
steamcommunity.com

[2dt]

Fantastic. Just the kind of resources I was looking for. Thanks dude.

[DeletedUser160413]

This is great! Thank you!

[Auro-Cyanide]

Obscura and her game 'Coming out on top' made $38,601 (according to Kickstarter), so it all depends on how well you run your campaign. You have to work /really/ hard in the PR department to get your Kickstarter to run as best as it can.

[Rosstin2]

Obscura and her game 'Coming out on top' made $38,601 (according to Kickstarter), so it all depends on how well you run your campaign. You have to work /really/ hard in the PR department to get your Kickstarter to run as best as it can.

That's pretty amazing! I'm trying to be realistic, though ^_^
I'm juggling so many balls at once. I'm just going to be happy if I make back my development costs. I raise $3000 and I'll be ecstatic.

[Allegra Hughes]

Any suggestions if you Kickstarter fails?

[Rosstin2]

Any suggestions if you Kickstarter fails?

Weep uncontrollably?

Usually when that happens people will try to mount a second campaign a few months later. It might also indicate a fundamental flaw in the original design, or an unrealistic goal, or really bad marketing.

[kaleidofish]

Here's an example of a visual novel Kickstarter that was unsuccessful the first time, and successful the second time. Part of the success the second time around was thanks to the demo and a much more modest goal.

[Cith]

Here's an example of a visual novel Kickstarter that was unsuccessful the first time, and successful the second time. Part of the success the second time around was thanks to the demo and a much more modest goal.

I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say 'considering they raised less money during their second attempt, the demo had little to do with their successful kickstart. Maybe it was all to do with their target being 30% of the original.

[Rosstin2]

Welp, we are Kickstarting Queen At Arms starting August 15th now. So this will be relevant again. I have butterflies.

Hilariously, someone on Reddit referred me to my own thread.

[InvertMouse]

I've got a Kickstarter campaign going on right now so thank you for those links! I'll try and make use of them. Good luck with yours in August !

[Rosstin2]

I backed you! :-3

[Rosstin2]

New question: how to make the best possible Kickstarter Video for your Visual Novel? What's the best video you've ever seen?