Kickstarter Physical rewards

[Lishy]

Hey, I'm trying to figure out the physical rewards for my Kickstarter after I release a demo of Bells. Problem is, I've never done this sorta thing before, and I'm clueless. To be honest, I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm looking for Kickstarter reward ideas and advice.

If I understand, this is what the typical Kickstarter rewards look like:

Pledge $100 or more
You get a physical copy of the game (in addition to your digital copy) AND a promotional poster!
Estimated delivery: Dec 20XX

I'm a Canadian, so I have to worry about shipping and all that. I have no idea how costly this will be, and furthermore, I don't know how to make a physical copy of my game, or print a poster. Aren't there companies who do such a thing? But how costly is it?

Anyone have advice in those regards?
,Thanks!

[Sorakun]

Well in regards to shipping, you can have the customers pay as long as you state that they have to pay shipping.

For making hard copies of games you have several choices of how you want to do it, you could go out to the store and buy a bunch of cds/dvds depending on how much space you need. If you can fit the game onto a CD with an installer then id recommend that as CDs are a bit cheaper than dvds, but otherwise you can get companies to print and ship everything for you or to just print and send back to you, the costs of this i am unsure of though as i have never actually had to do that part myself.

Though the creating hard copies is fairly simple, you create and .iso file with imgburn or something of its like and then burn it to a disc.

There are a lot of tutorials of how to do it on the web, if you need any more info on how to do that feel free to ask.

Though unfortunately that is all my knowledge of the subject of posters and the such, sorry i couldn't be of more help

[MelodyKnighton]

-First I recommend avoiding physical rewards if at all possible, and if you do do them, keep them for higher levels because:
a: printing in small numbers isn't cheap
b: international shipping is extremely expensive and can drain all your profits if you're not careful and add it into the tier price

so basically your profit margin on physical rewards is a lot smaller than digital.

-As for how to make a physical game:
a: I haven't personally done this but obviously there is a way to export the game to a cd.
b: buy some blank cases (dvd/video game sized are probably best, but cd ones will work in a pinch) in bulk through e-bay or amazon
c: create the wrap around cover to the dimensions you need, get them printed (medium weight semi-gloss, or poster quality is probably best) and insert them into the cases. Add a pamphlet inside if you wish.
d: creating a packaging box will be time consuming and expensive (in printing and shipping) but if you want to do that, look into packaging design and dimensions.
e: use media shipping if you can to lower the rates (this may be different since you're from Canada, talk to your post office)

-And for printing:
a: if you have enough, doing a small print on demand run will be most cost effective, especially if you have enough to do it through china. This will require at least 500 or 1000 depending on the company
b: for smaller amounts use companies and vistaprint, artscow, overnightprints all have poster options. Vista print is the cheapest and the quality is still professional if you select the right options. Try to wait for a coupon for all of them to bring your price down.

If you have any questions about:
-Print resolution
-Print bleed/trim/size
-RGB vs CMYK
-Monitor calibrating
-Paper finishes and weights
-Packaging

Let me know and I can create a thread for all of that. I used to work at a large print lab so I lead you in the right direction. Best of luck with your kickstarter! : )

[Asceai]

Physical rewards can make things really hard to plan. If you do something like $10 for a digital copy and $100 for a physical copy + poster and you set a budget of $10,000, if 1000 people go for the digital copy you'll have (minus fees etc.) approximately $10,000 to make the game with. If 100 people buy physical copies instead, you'll have substantially less money to make the game with. Realistically you'll get a mix somewhere between those two, but it still interferes with planning. Look at other projects you see as similar to yours and probably attracting a similar audience and look at how many backers went for which options to get an idea, but make sure there's room for surprises.

[SundownKid]

I used Printful to make my physical rewards, but I made sure to only make what they could handle so that I wouldn't have to make them myself and screw it up. Basically, posters and t-shirts. There may be some place that makes boxed versions of software, but I don't know of any. It would be interesting if there was, but I would avoid anything that you can't get a company to ship for you in case something was wrong.

In Printful they can make any quantity of T-shirts and Posters for the same price just by uploading the design. However, they are a bit pricey as each T-shirt is $16 (I think) and the posters are 20-something. They also do mugs, totes and canvas prints.

[MelodyKnighton]

For packaging, if you really want to do a box, there are a couple options that are cheaper than getting it done by a graphic designer:

-Design the box yourself with software (I use packmage, but there are a lot of CAD programs out there), that'll put your images on a customized box template that you can send off to the printers.

-Or for a simple route that will be more hands on, buy several craft boxes in bulk like this:

https://img0.etsystatic.com/000/0/55578 ... 030086.jpg

You can get them for a decent price if you look around. Try to get them un-assembled, then with a spray adhesive and poster quality prints, cut your art to the exact dimensions and adhere them to the box directly like a wrap. Take the time to make sure it's smooth and edges are folded, not cut or else it will end up looking cheap. Then fold the box and bam, a cost effective package.

[Anne]

Actually, I think a physical copy of the game is the most useless thing you could offer, why would anyone want it? I've seen people offering custom flash drives with a copy of the game, you could do that.
Personally, I like postcards and stickers and they're pretty easy to do. And I'm always tempted by creative options (something out of the box of mugs and t-shirts, like, say, Destiny Fails Us offered strawberry bags) because this makes me think that people really cared.

[papillon]

Actually, I think a physical copy of the game is the most useless thing you could offer, why would anyone want it?

Some people like collecting pretty boxes and/or having a convenient backup of the game.

Some people get over this tendency once their home starts being overfilled with boxes.

[MelodyKnighton]

I think most people that create cases or boxes sell them at conventions, since the presentation is nice and professional looking. Not to mention being tangible allows customers to pick it up and look it over.

I wouldn't bother with it if you're just doing a kickstarter and will only sell it online afterwards, but if you want to do cons, it wouldn't hurt to have it as an option on your kickstarter for a higher tier (since you'll want to create a small inventory of them anyways). You can get blank dvd cases for pretty cheap, then just print out inserts/a sleeve/cd label and you're good to go. For all that if you buy in bulk (100) you can do it for around $1-2 a game (depending on if you print at home or professionally).

I would personally skip the box, as cool as they are, it doesn't add enough to be worth it financially. It's bulky so more expensive to ship, time consuming to get the layout created, expensive to print properly, and then even more time to assemble them all.

[LVUER]

Some people like collecting pretty boxes and/or having a convenient backup of the game.

Some people get over this tendency once their home starts being overfilled with boxes.

That's exactly what happened to me.