3 Intriguing Kickstarter Strategies in 3 Minutes – Stonemaier Games

3 Intriguing Kickstarter Strategies in 3 Minutes

Here’s the latest collection of business-related strategies and observations I’ve noticed. While this isn’t always the case, these all happen to be related to Kickstarter and tabletop games. I’m posting these completely unsolicited by these creators.

Godspeed Playtester Data

Even though it’s way far down on the project page for Godspeed, I absolutely love that they shared this:

This really helps me trust the process and the company. It’s not just the trust that stems from knowing the game went through extensive blind playtesting; it’s also seeing the types of clever questions Pandasaurus asked during the playtesting process.

The Board Game Book Freelancer Pay Boost

Thanks to Morten for bringing this to my attention! Here’s an excerpt from one of the project updates for this book:

This falls solidly in the “intriguing” category for me. I love the idea in spirit–rather than use a stretch goal for more/better stuff, use it to reward the people who make the stuff in the first place. However, it makes me pause just slightly because it almost sounds like the freelancers weren’t compensated as well as they should have been in the first place (whether or not that’s actually true). I’m really on the fence about it as a result. What do you think?

Copenhagen Reward Chart

Thanks to Josh K for sharing this with me! He highlighted the rewards chart on the Copenhagen New Facades project page, and I agree that it’s very clear:

I think this is particularly helpful for expansion campaigns that feature various combinations of items, even when there aren’t too many reward levels.

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I’d love to hear your thoughts on these innovations and how they might apply to other companies, products, and projects!

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8 Comments on “3 Intriguing Kickstarter Strategies in 3 Minutes

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  1. Personally I don’t think there’s a wording of the freelancer bonus that would make me comfortable. For me its the idea that the freelancer was told that if the project reached a certain goal they would get more money, and then had the choice of whether or not they wanted to do more potentially free work on updating the page and the project, I would wonder if there were other ‘bonus pay’ levels that never got unlocked and represent work that the freelancer ended up doing for free. I’d just want to know so much more information about that level to be happy with it, like what was their hourly rate before, when were they informed about this stretch goal etc.

    On another note, should we take anything from the fact that a Stonemaier freelancer Morten pointed out to Stonemaier games something about paying freelancers more?

      1. Sure, million miles different, no way that a part-time employee bringing up a company raising the wages of its freelancers to their boss is trying to imply anything whatsoever ;)

  2. I think the Freelancer goal would have been better worded as “Our freelancers are getting a bonus”. Then they could explain that their current rate was industry standard or whatever, and now they’ll be getting a small bonus in the form of cash/credit/stock options, whatever, to help spread the love around. Would this address your concern?

    1. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Something about the word “bonus” makes it feel much more like a pleasant surprise than “raise”.

  3. I think the freelancer pay could have been framed better. Ie – if it was stated – “Our freelancers believed in our product, and agreed to participate in this project at a base rate, with increases contingent on X support during our campaign. We are ALL excited that we met those goals and can give agreed to increase”

    Think it’s a great thing to involve freelancers in some of the risk for a greater reward.

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