Kickstarter Lesson #34: The Final Hour – Stonemaier Games

Kickstarter Lesson #34: The Final Hour

It all comes down to this.

By the time you’re down to the final hour of your Kickstarter campaign, you probably already know if you’re going to reach your funding goal or not. Hopefully you reached it weeks ago and you’re knocking out stretch goals one by one. That’s part of the fun of the final hour.

The other part–the biggest part–is that the final hour is an amazing time to interact with your backers. I’ll never forget the final hour of the Viticulture Kickstarter. There were tons of backers commenting on the Kickstarter page, increasing their pledges and getting excited about the game and the stretch goals. There was an incredible sense of community, of we’re in this together.

So the best thing you can do for the final hour of the project is be available in front of your computer.

There is one other hugely important detail you should know about the final hour, something I didn’t know until after my campaign ended: You can’t change your project page after the project is over.

Let that sink in for a minute. Your Kickstarter campaign runs for 20-40 days, during which time you can change the project page as much as you want. Then your Kickstarter project page will remain the same until the end of time.

Just like your original Kickstarter page is your first impression, your final Kickstarter page is your last impression. So put the really important stuff at the top of the page for people who discover the page in the months and years to come. The most important detail is where they can find you (and possibly your product if you’re giving it a life post-Kickstarter).

Beyond that, it’s up to you. Just imagine a future backer/customer/fan finding your project in the future–what do you want them to see? What don’t you want them to see? Now is the time to make those final edits.

Next: Kickstarter Limitations and How to Work Around Them

15 Comments on “Kickstarter Lesson #34: The Final Hour

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  1. Your blogs have been a tremendous help, Jamey. I’m sitting with the last 3 hours for Tycoon: India 1981 Kickstarter – one of the first heavier games to come from India. We did well – at the time of writing close to 320% funding and 540+ backers. Thank you for everything :)

  2. Stonemaier Games » Kickstarter Lesson #70: How to Sell the Retail Version of Your Product Online Post-Kickstarter says:

    […] (even if it’s a blank page) before the Kickstarter campaign ends. As we discussed in Kickstarter Lesson #34: The Final Hour, you’ll want to post a link to that page at the top of the project page so people who […]

  3. […] Jamey Stegmaier – Kickstarter Lesson #34: The Final Hour […]

  4. Thank you Jamey!
    We last spoke 30 days ago when I launched my campaign and here we are at the end. Your posts and insight helped me reach 173% of my original goal and have made all the difference in how I interacted with my backers. Thank you so much.
    Eyal

  5. With Squishy Forts ending in 12 hours, I am SO glad I saw this post. Thank you ever so much. Time to get those awesome media quotes and “Where to buy” links up on there :D

  6. Jamey: I just want to thank you for posting the Kickstarter Lessons. I extensively utilized your suggestions for the The Final 48 Hours and The Final Hour during my own campaign for Hero Brigade. Really amazing stuff, thank you again for sharing your experience with everyone.

  7. Exactly. It ends up looking like the project creator doesn’t care about the project enough to update it, but really you don’t have the ability to update it.

    1. Would you have removed or added anything from your final project page? Or would you have just rearranged the order of the content?

      1. Good question. The biggest thing I would have added would be a link at the top of the page to show people where they can pre-order the game after the campaign. I would also probably move the “how to play” video up to the top–basically, I’d want the elements that are most relevant to someone who might pre-order the game at the top of the page.

  8. Very good advice – I never would have known about the non-edits after the end but it explains why some concluded projects have header-pictures with ‘ending soon’ flashes still on them

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