Before launching our campaign, I compiled a brief presentation on my knowledge of Kickstarter and how we could make our campaign successful. This was presented to the rest of the team and helped to shape our campaign.

1. Kickstarter Campaign Plan Summer 2014

2. PREPRODUCTION
Where we’re at right now, what our long term goal is, and short term goals to be completed before campaign launch

3. General KS Info (aka things that are good to know)
•Most funding comes in the first and last 48 hours
•Budget for 10%-12% of KS/Amazon fees
•Depending on our exact situation, KS money may be taxable
•If someone gives the wrong billing info, Amazon will still charge us

4. Our Goal
•Become successfully funded on Kickstarter
•This presentation roughly outlines how we will achieve that and things we need to consider

5. Our Current Situation
•Grow is a 2013 Tabletop Deathmatch finalist and 2014 IndieCade@E3 selection
–We have received some media attention because of this
•This attention means nothing if we cannot translate it into backers

6. Preproduction Goals - Business
•Set up the business side of the company
–Create a company bank account
– Link bank account with KS account
– Create contracts for all parties involved

7. Preproduction Goals- Manufacturing
•Finalize Manufacturing Estimates
–Plastic molds
–Plastic pieces
–Wooden pieces
–Cardboard box
–Wooden Box
–Wooden die
–Rulebook
–Labor and assembly

8. Preproduction Goals - Shipping
•Finalize Shipping Estimates
–U.S. Domestic
–International
–How much will the plastic version weigh?
–How much will the wooden collector’s edition weigh?

9. Preproduction Goals - Pricing
•Pricing and Reward Tiers
–Early bird specials help to bring in backers at the beginning. Increases our probability of being on the Popular page
–Do we want extra goodies at certain tiers?
•How much will those cost to manufacture
–Do we want a small reward tier? (i.e. not a copy of the game)
•Give someone a game piece but not the whole game?

10. Preproduction Goals – KS Graphics
•Gather ref for graphic designer. Look at other KS
•What we need
–Title image
–Headers for different sections
–Rendering of the cardboard box
–Cost breakdown graphic
–Stretch goals graphic (lowest priority as stretch goals not revealed at the beginning of campaign)
–3D mockup of Grow
–Will need PNGs and original AI files in case minor edits are needed

11. Preproduction Goals - Video
•4 -5 min max
•What is the game about? Why should I buy it? What is our elevator pitch?
•Team is cross country, do we want to elect 1 spokesperson?
•Finalize script
–Figure out a tone of voice for us/the video
•Find equipment
–Ask friends/school for help
•Footage of people playing the game

12. PRODUCTION PHASE
Promoting the campaign while it runs

13. Promoting at Cons
•Hopefully will help us fight the mid-campaign slump
•Will allow us to interact w/ potential and current fans
•Gen Con
–Need to confirm table, passes, and hotel
•PAX
–May be at w/ Indie Megabooth
–Need to confirm table, passes
–Look into hotels in case we get in

14. Contacting Press
•Do early in the week and at the beginning of the day
•Contact all sites at same time so our story is not old news when we reach out to someone
•A good template to start with
–http://www.indiegamegirl. com/press-release- template/
•Work with our strengths. Grow gifs/photographs beautifully.

15. Who to Contact?
•In general
–Look for a specific editor that enjoys indie games/board games
–Set up a doc with their info (site, email, twitter handle, notes on what they like)
•Large news sites (mainly digital oriented tho)
–Kotaku, Polygon, Destructoid, etc
•Indie specific sites
–Can potentially gain their attention by saying we are an IndieCade selection
–Indiegames.com, armlessoctopus, etc

16. Times We Should Send Out a Press Release
•Campaign Launch
•If we are a staff pick (maybe)
•Announcing we are at cons
•Fully funded
•Hitting a major milestone, e.g. 1,000 backers (maybe)

17. Kickstarter Updates
•An update every 2-4 days
•Can discuss con presence and invite backers/potential backers out to play
•Can also release stretch goals once approx. 50% funded

18. Reaching Out to Others
•Contact family/friends to help get the word out
•Maintain social media accounts to keep followers up to date/potentially allow a dialogue w/ fans

19. POSTPRODUCTION
What to do if we succeed and what to do if we don’t

20. If We Do Succeed
•Keep in contact w/ backers, don’t just drop off the map
–Updates on how production is
•Write up a postmortem on Gamasutra blog that explains success. Will potentially get a bit more coverage
•Far in the future, we could potentially take Grow to a publisher, using the successful KS as proof that there is a demand for it

21. If We Don’t Succeed
•It’s not the end of the world, we can easily relaunch
•You can still contact backers on a failed KS via updates (i.e. let them know when you are relaunching through an update)