Today I have some crowdfunding news, starting with Kickstarter finally integrating add-ons into their core system!
That’s right–after years of backers manually adding to their pledge or using pledge managers for add-ons, Kickstarter now offers that capability to creators as a way to better serve their backers.
I used this system as a backer for the first time while pledging for The Wanderer’s Guide, which is illustrated by Tapestry artist Andrew Bosley. After you select your desired reward, you’re taken to a screen that shows the reward plus various add-on options.
It’s easy and intuitive, and I would say it’s way better than digging through even the best project pages to find the add-on options. The one way I could see it improving is if creators could add images to match each add-on, perhaps with a short description. As it stands, you still need to go back to the core page to learn what some add-ons are.
I applaud Kickstarter for adding this capability, and I look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve and improve. What do you think? Have you used it yet?
In other news, BackerKit–one of the premiere pledge manager platforms–is joining forces with a former competitor, CrowdOx. Two highlights from the announcement.
Why would they do this? I think this explanation from the announcement sums it up well:
“As we got to know the folks at Crowd Ox, we were excited to see how much we thought alike, and we shared the same mission to help make space for creators. We realized that we both have been applying countless hours building similar tools and solving the same problems for creators. We realized if we joined forces, we could more than double our efforts in building more amazing tools.”
I’m generally hesitant about mergers and acquisitions being mutually beneficial, but that seems like a good reason to combine forces. What do you think?
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9 Comments on “Kickstarter Integrates Add-Ons and BackerKit Welcomes CrowdOx”
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Sorry – I might be on the wrong place:
I am thinking about offering a shipping discount as a pledge level – is this possible, and what experiences do you have with this?
Lonny: As far as I know, Kickstarter does not allow a reward to include a coupon or credit for the future. You can, however, offer tangible rewards with shipping subsidies/discounts included for that reward.
Kickstarter doing add-ons now seems to have two important aspects that I keep thinking of. For one, now your funding goal can be assisted up front possibly excelling that momentum. On the other, it also takes all that additional money and adds it into their % they take from processing fees on the back end. Either way it’s a brilliant move for KS. I guess it just depends on how the creators and backers value the ease of taking care of add-ons up front or in the Pledge Manger.
https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053598973
Looks like they are beta-testing this now! I just applied to be a tester, hopefully I can get it :)
I feel like the Kickstarter integrated Add-Ons will work fantastic for self-contained campaign add-ons, like extra dice, sleeves, or promo card type things. I think Pledge Managers will still be used more for unrelated campaign add-ons; things like additional games from the publisher’s catalog that are not tied to the main campaign.
I recently encountered my first experience of the new system after backing Kabuto Sumo. I do wonder if there’s some point of connection between these two moves and further the Gamefound announcement of a month or so ago. Clear management of add-ons is a large part of why many creators use pledge managers, Kickstarter offering that service is going to take a bite out of their business, and merging in the face of something like that could be a pre-emptive response. I think it would be strange if these three moves weren’t in some way connected.
It’s possible, though I would think it’s a pretty big effort to add something like that. Perhaps they had the coding ready, and the Gamefound announcement was an extra nudge to roll it out.
The add-on option is nice, but it requires payment up front. I like to split up the payment so I don’t have too much locked up in Kickstarters all at once. Additionally it is nice to be able to follow along after the Kickstarter ends and decide later if I want to go all in.
Yes, but Kickstarter have been talking about doing this or something like this for quite a while, they had a few beta tested Creator rating profiles about six months ago, so they’ve clearly been working on a more integrated site for some time now. Part of my point is that it does take a long time, and most of these things are difficult or impossible to keep totally under wraps. I’d imagine that all of the four companies involved had some idea of what at least some of the others were intending before the actual roll-outs and announcements. For example, Kickstarter shares backer information with Gamefound, if Gamefound were planning to significantly change their business model I would imagine they would then have a legal obligation to inform Kickstarter of that fact.