Kickstarter Casualty: Marketing Tutorials Missed This Core Step
Kickstarter Casualty: Marketing Tutorials Missed This Core Step
So, you’re about to launch your game on Kickstarter. Congrats. You’ve probably watched all the videos, read all the articles, and meticulously crafted your pitch. You’re ready. Or are you?
Most Kickstarter marketing guides focus on the mechanics: crafting a compelling page, running ads, and engaging with the community during the campaign. But they often miss a crucial, pre-launch step: understanding your audience.
The Missing Piece: Audience Validation
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Imagine building a house without knowing if anyone wants to live there. That’s what launching a Kickstarter without validating your target audience feels like.
I’ve seen it happen too many times: a passionate developer pours their heart and soul into a game, launches a seemingly perfect Kickstarter, and… silence. The campaign fizzles, leaving the developer demoralized and financially drained. This isn’t because the game is bad. It’s because they skipped a vital step.
What happened? They built something they wanted, without confirming if others wanted it too.
Beyond “Build It and They Will Come”
The common advice is to find your niche, but that’s only the beginning. You need to understand that niche inside and out. What are their pain points? What are their desires? What games are they already playing and supporting?
I once worked on a retro-inspired RPG campaign. We thought we knew our audience: fans of classic JRPGs. We were wrong.
We assumed they wanted a nostalgic experience. Turns out, they wanted a modern take on the genre, with updated mechanics and a fresh story. We only discovered this after the campaign failed to gain traction.
Pre-Campaign Audience Research: Your Secret Weapon
So, how do you avoid this fate? By conducting thorough audience research before you even start building your Kickstarter page.
Start with surveys. Tools like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey are invaluable. Ask targeted questions about their gaming preferences, their favorite genres, and what they’re looking for in a new game. Don’t ask leading questions.
For example, instead of asking "Would you back a game with a compelling story?", ask “What are the most important elements you look for in a game’s story?”
Next, engage with relevant communities. Reddit, Discord, and niche gaming forums are goldmines of information. Actively participate in discussions, ask for feedback on your game concept, and observe what people are talking about. Don’t just promote your game.
I remember lurking in a specific roguelike subreddit for weeks before mentioning my project. I learned so much about what those players valued: procedural generation, replayability, and a challenging difficulty curve.
Finally, analyze your competitors. What games are similar to yours? Who are their backers? What rewards are they offering? What are people saying about their games in the comments sections?
Don’t copy their approach, but learn from their successes and failures. Look for patterns. This also helps you to position your game to differentiate itself from what is already on the market.
Tailoring Your Message and Rewards
Once you’ve gathered your research, it’s time to tailor your messaging and rewards. Your Kickstarter page should speak directly to your target audience’s needs and desires.
If your research reveals that your audience values a strong narrative, highlight the story in your pitch. If they’re interested in multiplayer, showcase the game’s multiplayer features.
Your rewards should also be aligned with their interests. Offering physical rewards like art books or soundtracks can be effective, but only if your audience actually wants them. I know of one campaign that offered a custom in-game item based on a backer’s pet. This was hugely successful, because it catered to the emotional connection gamers have with their pets.
Avoiding Common Kickstarter Pitfalls
Misaligned expectations and non-existent demand are the two biggest reasons why Kickstarters fail. Audience validation can help you avoid both.
If your research reveals that there’s no demand for your game concept, it’s better to know that before you invest months of development time. Maybe you need to tweak your game’s design, or maybe it’s simply not the right time.
If you discover that your audience has different expectations than you anticipated, you can adjust your pitch and your game to better meet their needs. This will increase your chances of success.
Actionable Steps You Can Take Right Now
- Identify your ideal player. Who are they? What games do they play? Where do they hang out online?
- Create a simple survey and share it in relevant communities. Offer a small incentive for participation, such as a chance to win a free copy of the game.
- Spend time lurking in those communities, observing the discussions and learning about their needs and desires.
- Analyze similar games on Kickstarter. What worked for them? What didn’t?
- Refine your game concept and your Kickstarter pitch based on your research.
Don’t skip this step. It’s the difference between a successful Kickstarter and a heartbreaking failure.
You aren’t just selling a game, you’re building a community. Building that community starts before the launch. Knowing who you’re building for will make all the difference.