Create Your Project – Stonemaier Games

Create Your Project

Top 3 Must-Reads

The 10 Reasons I’ll Back a Kickstarter Project

Anatomy of a Great Kickstarter Project Page

The One-Week Checklist

All Posts

These lessons are roughly in the chronological order that you’ll need to reference them.

To Kickstart or Not to Kickstart: The Top 10 Reasons to Launch a Product via Crowdfunding

Kickstarter Lesson #39: Anatomy of a Great Kickstarter Project Page

Kickstarter Lesson #1: Starting and Submitting Your Project Page

Kickstarter Lesson #194: Charities, Nonprofits, and Kickstarter

Kickstarter Lesson #123: How to Give and Take Tough-Love Feedback

Kickstarter Lesson #172: Should Your First Project Be Epic or Humble?

Kickstarter Lesson #3: Art and Design

Kickstarter Lesson #162: When to Use a GIF Instead of a Static Image

Kickstarter Lesson #87: Custom Art

Kickstarter Lesson #129: Picking the Right Name for Your Project

Kickstarter Lesson #160: The Main Project Image

Kickstarter Lesson #6: The Project Video

Kickstarter Lesson #166: Creating a Polished Project Video

Kickstarter Lesson #157: The Gameplay or How-to-Use Video

Kickstarter Lesson #165: The Whiteboard Video

Kickstarter Lesson #7: The Funding Goal

Kickstarter Lesson #117: The 3 Funding Scenarios You Must Plan for

Kickstarter Lesson #8: Reward Levels

Kickstarter Lesson #113: Why Every Project Should Have a $1 Reward Level

Kickstarter Lesson #63: Stay Focused or Lose Backers

Kickstarter Lesson #103: There Is No Perfect Pickle

Kickstarter Lesson #137: Should Repeat Creators Include a Reward Tier Specifically for Previous Backers?

Kickstarter Lesson #62: Early Bird Pledge Levels

Kickstarter Lesson #54: Reward Levels: The Premium Option

Kickstarter Lesson #111: Should You Offer Multiple Copies of Your Product at a Reduced Bundled Price?

Kickstarter Lesson #142: Selling Existing Inventory

Kickstarter Lesson #177: The “Everything, Forever” Reward Level

Kickstarter Lesson #183: Epic-Level Rewards

Kickstarter Lesson #65: How to Get US Backers if You’re Running a Non-US-Based Kickstarter Campaign

Kickstarter Lesson #180: How to Register Your Business in the US from Anywhere in the World

Kickstarter Lesson #116: The Magic of Automatic Currency Conversion

Kickstarter Lesson #187: The Best Time to Announce Your Project

Kickstarter Lesson #9: Timing and Length

Kickstarter Lesson #133: The Psychological Benefits of Launching and Ending a Campaign Within the Same Month

Kickstarter Lesson #109: Seasonal Timing

Kickstarter Lesson #84: Coordinating Staggered Launch and End Dates

Kickstarter Lesson #73: The Art of Pitching

Kickstarter Lesson #77: The 10 Reasons I’ll Back a Kickstarter Project

Kickstarter Lesson #96: Give Credit Where Credit Is Due…Including to Yourself

Kickstarter Lesson #11: Stretch Goals

The Current State of Stretch Goals (2016)

Kickstarter Lesson #145: Achievements vs. Stretch Goals

Kickstarter Lesson #75: Include at Least One Must-Have Component

Kickstarter Lesson #60: Exclusive Content

Kickstarter Lesson #12: Shipping

How to Offer “Free” Shipping Worldwide on Kickstarter: A Comprehensive Guide

Lessons Learned: Insights, Mistakes, and Solutions for Offering Worldwide Shipping on Kickstarter

Kickstarter Lesson #47: This Project Is EU Friendly

Kickstarter Lesson #13: Explaining Why You Need the Funds

Kickstarter Lesson #44: How to Kick It Forward Without Kicking It Forward

Kickstarter Lesson #14: The Value of Add-Ons

Live-Blogging Lesson #5: External Add-Ons

Kickstarter Lesson #35: Kickstarter Limitations and How to Work Around Them

Kickstarter Lesson #154: Hip Surgery, Organization, and Customer-Facing Service

Live-Blogging Lesson #4: The Value of Agonizing Over Your Project Page

Kickstarter Lesson #64: The Psychological Benefits of Showing Your Face

Kickstarter Lesson #66: The Psychological Benefits of Framing Your Project’s Potential

Kickstarter Lesson #92: The Psychological Benefits of Ending Price Points with the Number 9

Kickstarter Lesson #163: The Power of Certainty

Kickstarter Lesson #125: Risks and Challenges

Kickstarter Lesson #104: The One-Week Checklist

Kickstarter Lesson #89: How to Get Google to Rank Your Website Higher Than Your Kickstarter Project Page

Kickstarter Lesson #15: Finishing Touches: FAQ and Preview

Kickstarter Lesson #68: You Don’t Need to Launch Today

The 7 Mistakes Crowdfunders Make the Day Before They Launch

14 Comments on “Create Your Project

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  1. I think I’ve read just about every post on here, but I haven’t watched any of the videos. Do you have a list of video posts?

  2. Hi, I am currently writing my kickstarter which is planned for release next year.
    With regards to the stretch goals and achievements , do you think it is best to have them based on:
    A. Funds raised e.g. £10,000
    B. Total backers e.g. 2,000 backers
    C. Both e.g. £10,000 or 2,000 backers (which ever comes first)

  3. Jamie, have you ever done a lesson that explicitly lays out the bounderies that Kickstarter uses for projects and their connections with non-profit activity? I saw and read the guest post on non-profit crowdfunding but haven’t seen one that addresses the finer points of how Kickstarer deals with project creators who aren’t trying to directly fundraise for a nonprofit but who may have some connection to one or who may have an interest in using the results (product or capital) of a funded project to help a nonprofit in some way shape or form.

    I found the project for This War of Mine seemed to walk a line with it where they never mentioned any nonprofit directly during the campaign but afterwards did mention Warchild (nonprofit helping children in war torn parts of the world) and explicitly stated in a video how they planned to continue supporting them.

    1. Joshua: That’s a great question. I’ve never quite understood the line Kickstarter draws in those regards. I’ll reach out to them to see if they’ll explain it more in depth.

  4. Few questions:

    1. I am not based in any country that can do a kickstarter, what are my options?

    2. For kickstarter you can basically have an idea of how much you can make after deducting all the fees and retailer discounts. If I approach a publisher, how does that work when it comes to sharing proceeds.

    I can probably find out the rest by going through the rest of your lessons.

    Thanks

    1. Moe: Sure, you’ll need to register your business in a country where Kickstarter is based (there are details on their website).

      Kickstarter and Stripe charge a total of 8-10% of your funding total. You can see a full breakdown of what that looks like in my lesson about the funding goal. If you sell a game to a publisher, it depends on the publisher, but you’ll get roughly 6-10% of revenue (depending on your design pedigree).

  5. Hi Jamey and thanks for all the hard work you do to help the industry grow. You have inspired me to go back and make games again (i used to make board games when I was 12!) I do have some questions because that are related to where I live. Would love to get your thoughts on how best to tackle these issues.

    Moe

    1. Moe: That’s great! I hope you enjoy getting back into the game design process. Feel free to post any questions you have in the comments of any blog entry here, and I’ll reply soon!

    1. So I have an idea for a board game, in its basic format quite humble, but plenty of room for additional parts either at the start or supplements. You can choose big or add 1 or more extras in set up or even part way through game. Advise please
      Mark Ziff

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