David and Goliath - Small Independent Publishers vs Slick Big Name Kickstarter Campaigns

 "This may be peak 'backing because of the name'. There...

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While I wouldn’t say they are small, prior to this I’d have pegged Academy in the mid sized category prior to this campaign.

A lot of it is expectation, but there is "success" to be had if your goals are modest. I'm thinking of small, mostly one-man-show type metal miniatures endeavors. They succeed by simply raising enough cash to get them to the next round of miniatures casting, typically only raising a few thousand $$$ at a time.

fightcitymayor wrote: A lot of it is expectation, but there is "success" to be had if your goals are modest.

Part of my aversion to Kickstarter is I feel like I'm talking to someone with their hand in my pocket to grab my wallet. So I go shields-up pretty quickly.

But there are campaigns that are reasonably priced and present themselves with dignity that let me relax and examine them in detail. In fact the three things I've backed, two games and one magazine, all had an appropriate level of humility and grace, and had set reasonable goals. I'm clearly in the minority, but I think there is a market out there for pre-sales that have a lower expectation for the number of purchasers and how much money to pull from each.

I almost wish there was a search feature for Kickstarter to not show the monster campaigns, maybe call it "Exclude Results with Jazz Hands".

Sagrilarus wrote: I almost wish there was a search feature for Kickstarter to not show the monster campaigns, maybe call it "Exclude Results with Jazz Hands".

Agreed.

If the phrase "every billionaire is a policy failure" applies then there should be an analog like "every million-dollar KS means you shouldn't have been on KS to begin with."

Damn, I had forgotten about the IGA! I should have mentioned that as well.

Some good and relevant points

I often help people prepare for their Kickstarter campaigns, and one thing I always remind them is... Kickstarter did not eliminate the barrier of entry to the board game market/industry, it just moved it.

It is so important to keep in mind that no matter what you want to achieve with your campaign, you have to excel at communicating with people and marketing yourself.

Good post
Best regards Emil