On October 31st, 2012, Kickstarter expanded to the UK marketplace, allowing individuals based outside of the US to raise funds for creative and technological projects. This is the first time non-US residents have been able to fundraise on the site since the company’s launch in 2009.
During the month of November, 400 UK projects were launched with a 7.5% success rate. Several of these projects experienced exponential success including a public art project called the Chime Pavilion, which trippeled its fundraising goal, and the hardware project called Picade, which doubled its goal.
The project backers during this month were a mix of UK, EU, and US residents. Kickstarter reported the breakdown as being:
UK backers: 39% EU backers: 23%
US backers: 23% Other areas: 15%
In addition to seeing a positive reception in UK, the site, which is recently famous for its growth in the “gaming” category, has had a similar appeal to UK game developers as an alternative financing route for video games, board games, card games, and other entertainment products.
For example, War for the Overworld has raised £170,955 and is still active at the time of writing, with 47 hours to go before closing. This project was created by Subterranean Games, an international game production company, in conjunction with Rise, a group of indie developers who had an idea for a competing product, but instead decided to collaborate.
The game is described as “a mix of real time strategy and god game. Influenced by Dungeon Keeper, Overlord, StarCraft and Evil Genius.” Its inspiration came from the desperate need for a Dungeon Keeper remake. Since its release in 1997, the Bullfrog classic has developed a base of loyal and enthusiastic fans who rallied around War for the Overworld with its similar feel and virtual environment. It also helped that Subterranean Games and Rise are Dungeon Keeper evangelists who want to create a game that both they and their backers will love.
This project has compelling backer rewards, including a copy of the game, designing your own “Underlord”, a copy of the soundtrack, gift keys, creating your own character or heroic Guardian, having access to the development team to ask questions, signed posters, and being listed in the credits. These rewards correspond to various pledging tiers.
So far, Subterranean Games and Rise have done a great job of keeping backers informed and up to date with their project milestones and costs. Take a look at their spending breakdown (8 month full time development):
This is a lesson for other project owners. By providing as much information as possible, project creators can ensure that they appear transparent, credible, and are looking to work with their backers in the creative process. Along with visually appealing graphics and illustrations, these creators provided an actual playable demo so that backers could experience a taste of the game before committing their hard earned cash.
Great execution of fundraising techniques has caused this project to raise £170,955 of a £150,000 funding goal from 6,763 backers. Many of these backers pledged more than the minimum required to receive a copy of the game, indicating the sentimental appeal of merchandise and the opportunity to have an effect on the game’s creative mission.
Despite having high quality developers and an awesome Kickstarter project, this team has never released a game before. Their crowdfunding success should serve as a case study for experienced game developers that want to hack it on their own: It is possible!
