How to Build a Kickstarter Audience From Scratch

Having a pre-existing audience is one of the biggest predictors of success for a Kickstarter campaign. While that’s great if you already have thousands of followers, it can be very intimidating when you’re just starting out. How are you supposed to get people to follow you when you haven’t released anything yet?

This was the exact situation we were in when we decided to crowdfund Captain’s Gambit. When we started out on our journey five years ago, we knew basically nothing about marketing or community management. But through a lot of research (and a lot of trial and error), we’ve managed to cultivate a fun, kind, and growing community.

So how did we do it? Well, today we’re going to share some of the steps we took to build an audience from scratch. Follow this guide and you’ll be well on your way to a sizeable following in no time!

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Captain's Gambit - Kickstarter Postmortem

It’s wild to think that it’s already been over 2 months since we successfully funded Captain’s Gambit: Kings of Infinite Space on Kickstarter. When we launched our campaign, we thought we would be lucky if we hit our $15,000 funding goal. But the fact that we managed to not only achieve our goal, but to raise $25,000 AND unlock all our stretch goals, is incredible. Thank you to everyone that helped us bring our first game to life!

We learned a lot from our campaign, and we think it would be interesting to share some of our insights with you. These insights aren’t meant to be an exhaustive list of lessons we learned, but rather highlights on some of our main takeaways.

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How to Use Kickstarter

Hello friends!

As you may already know, our Kickstarter for Captain’s Gambit: Kings of Infinite Space is going live on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020! Depending on when you see this, it might be live right now! 

If you want to support us, but you’re not familiar with how Kickstarter works, read on!

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform used for creative projects, such as films, music, technology, and games. Backers pledge money towards projects to help them come to life and support their creative process. To thank backers for their support, you get rewards based on the amount you pledge, such as special thank-you’s or copies of the game.

Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing platform, meaning that the creators only get funds if they hit their funding goal. If the funding goal is not reached at the end of the campaign, all pledges will be refunded to backers.

Why are we using Kickstarter?

As a small, independent company, crowdfunding is the only way we can raise the funds we need to make Captain’s Gambit a reality. Sudden unexpected changes aside, all art and design is already complete. All that is left is manufacturing and shipping - which we don’t have the funds to pay for out of pocket. But with your support, we can make it happen.

How can you support us on Kickstarter?

  1. Make an account (or log in with Facebook)

  2. Add payment methods

  3. Select a pledge amount for our page

If you’re interested in one day owning Captain’s Gambit, the best way you can support us is to pledge now on Kickstarter. Backing as close to Day 1 as possible can really help us get the momentum we need to succeed.

First you’ll have to make an account, either by connecting your Facebook or by adding your email. Click here to make an account.

Once the campaign is live, you can go to Kickstarter to back us. Here are instructions on how to actually pledge on Kickstarter.

Once you’re all set up, click here to visit our campaign page and pledge!

As an added note, the Captain’s Tier, the Star-Crossed Tier, and the Galaxy Tier all charge the same flat rate for shipping. This means that ordering 1x copy of the game in the Captain’s Tier costs the same amount of shipping as ordering x4 copies of the game at the Galaxy Tier. 

So if you have friends or family in the city, consider backing together at the Star-Crossed or Galaxy tier so that you can pick up from the same address and split shipping.

What are some other ways you can support us?

The best way you can support us is by spreading the word. Here are some ways you can do that:

  • Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

  • Share our campaign on your social media platforms of choice. Bonus points if you say something personal about it when you do. Feel free to also use the hashtag #captainsgambit!

  • Send our campaign page directly to three friends or family members that you think might like Captain’s Gambit, and ask them to check us out.

Thank you all so much for your support. We literally could not be doing this without you.