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Kickstarter Videos: Worth it?

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Gabe
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By a show of hands, how many people actually watch/pay attention to the main video on a Kickstarter page?

Is it worth putting a large amount of time, money, and effort into? Or would all of that be better spent on something else?

Personally, I don't remember the last time I watched one. I just skim on down to the pictures and how-to-play video.

radioactivemouse
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I do.

Gabe wrote:
By a show of hands, how many people actually watch/pay attention to the main video on a Kickstarter page?

Is it worth putting a large amount of time, money, and effort into? Or would all of that be better spent on something else?

Personally, I don't remember the last time I watched one. I just skim on down to the pictures and how-to-play video.

Many Kickstarter games that I've backed hinge on how they present themselves in the main video. It says a lot about who they are, how much they've planed this, and how much passion they have.

Truth be told, I've backed campaigns just on the main video alone. But I've also passed on (many) campaigns where I only see half-assed effort in the main video.

My opinion is that everything should be on point. You skimp on the main video and you'll lose backers. Period.

Just because you don't pay attention to the main video doesn't mean everyone does. Many people aren't familiar with all the campaigns so if I'm going to give my money, I want to be given a professional presentation.

ElKobold
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+1 to what radioactivemouse

+1 to what radioactivemouse said.

From my personal experience of running the campaign, we had a very high view count on the video.
I`m pretty sure people who are not watching the presentation are the minority.

The Professor
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Again +1

To both radioactive mouse and ELKobold, they're spot-on. I've run two successful KS projects and have worked with a half-dozen others, most currently on TAU CETI, and the feedback from Backers is 100% positive based on primarily two factors: the extensive information you provide on the project taking it from its creative inception to delivery AND the video.

The video really is the first time potential Backers can see you, the item you're pitching in use, etc. I recommend that you don't go cheap on the production, but also limit it to 2-2:30 in length. If you want to have other videos, that's fine, but limit the main one to sub 3 min.

Cheers,
Joe

Gabe
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Thanks! That's exactly what I

Thanks! That's exactly what I needed to know.

chris_mancini
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If you don't mind sharing

If you don't mind sharing your experience, what was the conversion rate for your campaign? That is, video plays compared to backers? Yours was a very well polished and presented campaign, so I think it would be a great example of what others may expect if they put the same effort and skill into their campaigns.

Kickstarter average conversion rate is about 3%; though I suspect game project have a higher rate due to the category being so specialized.

The Professor
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Inquiry...

Chris,

Good morning! I'm curious as to whom you directed your query, as a few of us have run KS projects?

Cheers,
Joe

chris_mancini
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Hey Joe sorry I'd thought I

Hey Joe sorry I'd thought I replied to ElKobold's comment...but the question is one for any and all who have run a Kickstarter, successful or not.

As games have found such a special place in crowdfunding, coupled with the low barrier of entry (yet with such high expectations from backers), I think a compare and contrast of visitor data would be very interesting!

Some questions:
What was the conversion rate of page visitors to actual backers?

Did any sudden rises in backers occur, and when? First 48 hours, after reaching the funding goal, final 48 hours?

How much money was invested in the campaign (video, etc.)? I figure every designer/team puts a ton of their personal time in, so really more of a question of monetary investment to provide that professional polish to the campaign.

How much was put into awareness before the launch of the campaign, and what was found (or assumed) to be the most beneficial? BGG banners? YouTube reviewers? Grinding at cons to build a fan base and get email addresses?

ElKobold
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I thought you were addressing Joe :)

Anyway, so we had something around 6000 plays of the presentation video, 40% of which were completed and ended up with ~600 backers.

According to KS that is.

Gabe
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What were some of the things

What were some of the things you did to get 6000 plays? How did you send traffic to your project?

ruy343
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I don't watch the videos

I really don't watch kickstarter videos, or any videos for that matter... Maybe I'm messed up in some way, but I honestly prefer to read my news than watch it, and read game reviews rather than see the Shut Up & Sit Down guys talk it through. That's actually why I started writing for www.boardgameresource.com a while back, since the site focuses on written, quality material, rather than just videos.

That said, I imagine that I'm the minority, and that kickstarter videos do matter. In fact, the kickstarter website itself says that projects with videos tend to do better than those without.

ElKobold
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Gabe wrote:What were some of

Gabe wrote:
What were some of the things you did to get 6000 plays? How did you send traffic to your project?

Advertisement and Reviews, I guess. Also Kickstarter itself is a huge source. Many people are surfing the "new" page. Provided your presentation is flashy enough.

Here's our campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/697125425/guards-of-atlantis-tablet...

Note that it was our first KS experience and I would do many things differently, if I were to do it again.

Check out Joe's campaign as well. I think they're doing great job with it - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outerlimitgames/tau-ceti-planetary-...

benjaminsantiago
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I would say that you really

I would say that you really need to do a video. I think at this point you can't go wrong, and in the grand scheme of things it is not that hard, in fact I would say, easier than designing a good board/card game.

It's relatively easy to take decent video on our iphone, or find someone who has an iphone 6 or 6S or even a decent webcam. Someone you know has a cousin at Fullsail or taking a skillshare class in After Effects and animation for a kickstarter game is typically not super complex. If someone who says they are a motion graphics artist/animator can't tastefully move around some type and do some fade ins of your product images, something is wrong.

I think with these kinds of games you might hit a few more people who are into reading, or are more patient/don't need flashy video to sell them on something, but I can't think of a successful kickstarter I've funded or took note of that didn't have a video.

questccg
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Something about KS

ruy343 wrote:
I really don't watch kickstarter videos, or any videos for that matter... Maybe I'm messed up in some way, but I honestly prefer to read my news than watch it...

I think the argument here is QUALITY. Like 3 years ago, the KS videos were all Designers talking about their game. Inexpensive home videos is what was being pitched to would-be backers.

Then that changed when people with more MONEY decided that KS was a way they could SELL THEIR ideas. And then you've seen KS videos taken up a notch and more expensive productions take over.

Same goes with the majority of successfully funded games TODAY versus a not too distant past. Examples of this are things like Mantic Miniatures which business is to manufacture and sell "miniatures". It's already a multi-million dollar business - so what they spend $20,000 on a KS campaign. They make like $300k in return.

So VIDEOS are the same - a RICH company can afford to make a more professional video and spend several thousands of dollars on Voice Overs, 3D Modeling, Animation, 2D backgrounds, etc.

And IF that is what is ATTRACTING backers - well so much for Indie ventures that pale in comparison. The ones that can't afford Art budgets let alone Video Productions or fancy Graphic Artistry, etc. More and more IF backers are convinced these are the people who NEED MONEY - ergo the ones that already have millions of it - then the whole KS platform is going to go to sh!ts.

It's no more about "FUNDING THE DREAM", it's "Here's another game by some well known company who have decided to SELL you their game." Do you want to BUY it? Nothing about people who don't have the funds to make a game happen, paying for expensive artwork or hiring a young talented NEW writer.

If this is the EVOLUTION of KS - well then what can I say?!

ElKobold
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questccg wrote:It's no more

questccg wrote:

It's no more about "FUNDING THE DREAM", it's "Here's another game by some well known company who have decided to SELL you their game." Do you want to BUY it? Nothing about people who don't have the funds to make a game happen, paying for expensive artwork or hiring a young talented NEW writer.

If this is the EVOLUTION of KS - well then what can I say?!

There are a few companies with large budgets on KS. At the same time there are plenty of good presentation videos from small companies.

You can have a decent video made without spending a fortune. You'd be surprised if I'd told you how much our video cost, for example.

KS evolved, true. And the bar is raised pretty high. Which is great, since it's harder for people to get in with subpar products. So, as the result, less backers get burned and discouraged from backing solid products in the future.

questccg
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Maybe you can ADVISE us???

ElKobold wrote:
...You can have a decent video made without spending a fortune. You'd be surprised if I'd told you how much our video cost, for example...

I doubt it. From all the 3D Modeling you had of game pieces, game board and a whole slew of Graphic Design - you needed to create all those artifacts BEFORE even ATTEMPTING to create a video. So maybe once you had "all the pieces" putting something "together" was relatively inexpensive. But IF I had to find someone to create 3D Models of Weapons for our (Hamish and I) "Mech" game - how much would it cost per Model? Then IF I needed three (3) FULLY RENDERED and Texture mapped mechs - how much each of those would cost? Sure once they are done - making an animation is probably relatively inexpensive. Or interchanging weapons to appear as different Mechs also might be affordable. The problem is SOMEONE needs to 3D Model the Mech and then texture map it... That's where MOST of the money goes.

ElKobold wrote:
KS evolved, true. And the bar is raised pretty high. Which is great, since it's harder for people to get in with subpar products. So, as the result, less backers get burned and discouraged from backing solid products in the future.

I don't think it's great. To me it's like SELLING me a game I don't want to buy. Those games will be in STORES soon. Why not wait until they get there. Most LARGE players ALREADY have DISTRIBUTION! If I HAD THAT with "Quest Adventure Cards(tm)", I would have made $100,000 instead of losing $20,000...

But you live and learn and re-think your market strategy, try to do more with less. If you're poor be creative and TRY to do things in a different way. Something more AFFORDABLE...

Edit: What I am saying is that I have a GREAT little game. Lance (Undead Viking) says and I quote: "There is a TON of FUN in this little box!" But I only have 200+ likes on Facebook and about 50+ fans of the game. The game is relatively simple to play (once you get through the rules) and has strong potential for replayability since it was DESIGNED for Expansion.

The FORMAT the game has is Game Sets. A fantastic marketing idea because it lower the barrier to entry: you can buy the game for LESS. BUT if you want to play with friends they need their own sets. So the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of the game is much HIGHER than most miniatures game when adding up the cost of the individual sets.

And still I'm trying to see if we will get 100 backers. I'm betting the farm on this game - and it will be my LAST design IF the game does NOT succeed "as a venture". I'm NOT looking for millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. All I'd like would be to HIT the $50k mark... which I know is impossible since that would require several thousands of backers (2,000+). Like I said I have a following of 50+ fans.

So having a GREAT game - doesn't mean it will generate enough fanfare (buzz) about it...

I invested $100.00 on Facebook to ADVERTISE Lance's video... Even if you watch only the FIRST MINUTE, Lance sells the game in that time - before most people lose interest. Still I only got like 200+ likes of which 70 were organic (based on the 50+ fans of the game!)

Do tell me how this is a fair situation: putting people with millions of dollars with people that maybe have $5,000 left in their coffers. Like I said "I'm betting the farm..." but still doubt it will happen. My video was SENT to over 12,000+ Facebook users and I got 200+ likes. That's 1.5% marketing penetration!

ElKobold
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questccg wrote:I doubt it.

questccg wrote:

I doubt it. From all the 3D Modeling you had of game pieces, game board and a whole slew of Graphic Design - you needed to create all those artifacts BEFORE even ATTEMPTING to create a video. So maybe once you had "all the pieces" putting something "together" was relatively inexpensive. But IF I had to find someone to create 3D Models of Weapons for our (Hamish and I) "Mech" game - how much would it cost per Model? Then IF I needed three (3) FULLY RENDERED and Texture mapped mechs - how much each of those would cost? Sure once they are done - making an animation is probably relatively inexpensive. Or interchanging weapons to appear as different Mechs also might be affordable. The problem is SOMEONE needs to 3D Model the Mech and then texture map it... That's where MOST of the money goes.

If your game doesn't have miniatures, you obviously don't need to show models in the video. Why would you? While if your game does have miniatures, you will need to have those models anyway.

questccg wrote:

I don't think it's great. To me it's like SELLING me a game I don't want to buy. Those games will be in STORES soon. Why not wait until they get there.

For someone who is going to go on KS soon, you should know that this is fallacy. Making a presentation/models/artwork etc. is not the same as paying for the whole print-run. Most games, even the polished ones, will not be on the shelves, unless they get enough backers to support the print run, which makes the major part of the cost to produce the game.

questccg wrote:

Most LARGE players ALREADY have DISTRIBUTION! If I HAD THAT with "Quest

Why are you keep reffering to 'large players'? There are only a handful of those. KS is full of first time designers and small 'companies'.

questccg wrote:

But you live and learn and re-think your market strategy, try to do more with less. If you're poor be creative and TRY to do things in a different way. Something more AFFORDABLE...

If you're "poor" (to the extent where you can't finance a decent looking presentation) and creative - go through the publisher.

questccg wrote:

Edit: What I am saying is that I have a GREAT little game. Lance (Undead Viking) says and I quote: "There is a TON of FUN in this little box!" But I only have 200+ likes on Facebook and about 50+ fans of the game. The game is relatively simple to play (once you get through the rules) and has strong potential for replayability since it was DESIGNED for Expansion.

Only time will show if your game is good or not. Heck, I can't be absolutely sure if our game is good or not, until it ships and actual feedback from backers will start coming in :))

questccg wrote:

The FORMAT the game has is Game Sets. A fantastic marketing idea because it lower the barrier to entry: you can buy the game for LESS. BUT if you want to play with friends they need their own sets. So the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of the game is much HIGHER than most miniatures game when adding up the cost of the individual sets.

For me this would be a turn-off, btw. I like to buy a box with 'all included' and then be able to pull it from the shelf when I have friends over.
Having to pay per player would be annoying. Like my flames of war army. I have one, but I`m like one of the 5 people in the whole country who does :) So I've played it once in 3 years or so.

questccg wrote:

And still I'm trying to see if we will get 100 backers. I'm betting the farm on this game - and it will be my LAST design IF the game does NOT succeed "as a venture". I'm NOT looking for millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. All I'd like would be to HIT the $50k mark... which I know is impossible since that would require several thousands of backers (2,000+). Like I said I have a following of 50+ fans.

50K is quite a high goal. 2000+ backers is an EXTREMELY high goal.
"betting" on your game reaching that amount would be unwise.
First, because apart from the factors which are in your control (like the game, presentation etc.) there are factors which aren't. For example you launch and then another game in the same genre/price point/quality level launches in parallel. Your pledges will drop. Inevitably. And nothing you will be able to do about it if this happens.

From what I've seen on KS so far, to be able to reach 1000+ backers, let alone 2000+ you need your game to be
1) Polished (gameplay and visualy)
2) Have some sort of a hook. Cool mechanic, theme or component or whatnot which is in your game, but not in the others. Something which sets it apart.

And sorry if I sound harsh, but I can't say that I've seen something like that in your game.
(Same goes for my game as well, btw. Which is the main reason I attribute our results to. We had a successful campaign, but it wasn't a smashing hit by any measure)

questccg wrote:

So having a GREAT game - doesn't mean it will generate enough fanfare (buzz) about it...

Ofcourse it doesn't.

questccg wrote:

I invested $100.00 on Facebook to ADVERTISE Lance's video... Even if you watch only the FIRST MINUTE, Lance sells the game in that time - before most people lose interest. Still I only got like 200+ likes of which 70 were organic (based on the 50+ fans of the game!)

Lance is not a magic wizard who makes a video and suddenly everybody runs to buy the game.
He does A LOT of videos. And quite a few of the ones he makes reviews for fail.
Review is a must have in a presentation. But it's in no way a guarantee that your campaign succeeds.

questccg wrote:

Do tell me how this is a fair situation: putting people with millions of dollars with people that maybe have $5,000 left in their coffers. Like I said "I'm betting the farm..." but still doubt it will happen. My video was SENT to over 12,000+ Facebook users and I got 200+ likes. That's 1.5% marketing penetration!

The existence of CMoN, mantic and others, apart from creating competition and raising a bar, ensures that there are tonns of potential backers on KS.
Sure, these people will buy Arcadia quest more likely than Guards of Atlantis :) But _some_ will buy both. And a lot of them will take a look at it. Since marketing budget of CMoN pushes all that traffic to the KS.

Plus, by regularly releasing trustworthy products (when you buy a game from a big player, it's not guaranteed to be a good game, but it does guarantee delivery) these companies ensure that people don't lose faith in KS as a platform, after financing someones 'dream' and not getting anything in the end.

Again, noone is forcing you to bet your farm. If your game is as GREAT, as you think it is, go through the publisher. It will cost you time, but won't cost you money.

P.S: from what I've heard it's rather useless to invest in FB adds. Rather consider adds on Kicktraq and BGG.

The Professor
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Feedback and videos

Chris,

I'll try to have Mike Strickland pen a piece for us here on BGDF, following the campaign, but we've been excited by the fact that TAU CETI continues to garner additional Backers (approximately 25-30/day) since Day 1.

Mike not only has the main video, which admittedly I recommended that he keep short, he's added other "play-thru" videos which has kept everyone interested and engaged.

Cheers,
Joe

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