Over the last 2 years, I have worked on 2 successful Kickstarter campaigns (Cornish Smuggler & Waggle Dance, raising over £50,000 in total) with Grublin Games (an indie boardgame publisher based in Cornwall) which has involved a fair amount of research into different approaches to using Kickstarter. In that time, it has also become more usual for artists and arts organisations to use crowdfunding as a way to raise money for their projects.
However, boardgamers and artists seem to use crowdfunding platforms (and here I’m including platforms like IndieGoGo, Crowdfunder and Sponsume too) in quite different ways, leading to a very different type of user-experience and very different levels of financial success. In this series of posts I would like to highlight some of lessons artists could learn from the world of crowd-funded boardgames…
1) Use Kickstarter as a distribution model & a tool to gauge interest
2) Stop thinking of Kickstarter as a platform for donations
3) Use Kickstarter to create a new community around your project
5) Focus on your timescale and actually delivering
6) Use Kickstarter as a way to generate excitement about your arts practice
(to launch something new, give a worldwide exposure to your work and find new audiences for your work)
7) Some people are never going to back things on Kickstarter
New to crowdfunding?
Check out my quick start guide to crowdfunding!!
Are you an artist or arts organisation looking for some help in shaping a successful crowdfunding campaign? Get in touch to arrange an online Helpout! I also run workshops for students, arts practitioners and arts organisations in creative approaches to crowdfunding – contact me for more details.
Rachel Dobbs is one half of LOW PROFILE, an artist, educator, tinkerer & freelance boardgame art director with Grublin Games… currently based in Plymouth, UK.