Kickstarter Thoughts and Feelings.

The Black Pyramid

I meant to write this post sooner but that didn't happen. better late than never, I guess.

Two weeks ago, the Kickstarter for my zine, The Back Pyramid, an RPG scenario for the game Mothership, came to a satisfying end. Wednesday, February 19th, I launched the Kickstarter and then took my daughter to her doctor's appointment and by the time I got home an hour and a half later the project was fully funded. its been a few years since the last time I tried to launch a project on Kickstarter and that previous campaign failed. So having The Black Pyramid fully funded and supported to such a degree was an amazing experience. Every hour and every day that passed I was continuously surprised and thrilled. As a person who has chosen to be a professional creative, having others respond positively to something you created is always reassuring. I can not say this enough. To be supported by strangers who are all excited for something you created is the most amazing feeling - words cannot fully encompass those feelings in a way that can satisfy. 

We broke through all of our stretch goals. We got the full-color double-sided map and the extra Space Pirate content, which I'm still working on. That last stretch goal was $1200. Originally, I thought there was a small chance of reaching that last stretch goal, but we hit that in the first 3-4 days. People were asking if I had other stretch goals planned, but I didn't. I never expected the campaign to be this successful. So I thought about it for a good while before deciding not to. I was giving some good advice before coming to that decision. I had a few people in the OSR discord advise me to not fall into the trap of adding more and more work to your load chasing stretch goals. A lot of people have fallen into that with other Kickstarter and rarely has it help them. They often end up in a hole or worse afterward. At the time I was thinking of putting up a stretch goal for a 2-minute animated Mothership Animated Short if the KS got to 4,000 or 5,000, but in the end, agreed with the advice and didn't post more. 

It was probably a good idea because when the Kickstarter ended last week, it ended at $4,098 with 463 backers. A 2-minute animated short, by the by, can take 4-6 months for one person to make. I already have client animations I am working on so I really don't have the time to squeeze int he extra animation work of that scope. Maybe down the road, I think it would be great to do that, but right now. No. Plus I have the second Kickstarter zine to finish writing and putting together. But more on that in a bit. Let's just say, I am glad I did not add more stretch goals. I already have a full plate at the moment.

So Black Pyramid is currently going through its last proofreading and revision phase while I wait for the money to process. In about a week or so from today, I'll be sending the files to print and getting all my shipping supplies together. And with the Coronavirus outbreak going on, I'll have my kid home all day for the next two weeks since they closed the schools. I'll put her to work sealing packages and such.

Dungeon Pets

A week after Launching The Black Pyramid, I launched the Kickstarter for my other zine, Dungeon Pets. Which is a zine fully of creature designs that have come out of my Weekly Monster drawing sessions. I have been making these monster drawings for 3 years now and planning this Dungeon zine for well over a year now. I was already planning to launch this zine, but Zinequest seemed like the best time to launch it. I'm not sure how well RPG Zines do on Kickstarter when Zinequest is not going on. Zinequest is a huge free advertising event that helps put your Kickstarter in front of people's eyes. 

On February 25th I launched Dungeon Pets and was hoping to get a similar response to it that I got from The Black Pyramid. I did not. I assume this is more due to the fact that Black Pyramid is a scenario for the hugely popular indie ROG Mothership, whereas Dungeon Pets is somewhat system neutral. In either event, my experience with dungeon Pets was a little different than it was with The Black Pyramid. Dungeon pets was a slow crawl towards the finish line. For the first week, I thought it wasn't going to make it. Honestly, I thought, if a week passes and it doesn't get to gaol, I'll cancel this Kickstarter and come back another time and try again or just put it up online as a PDF. I worried about reason though. After a week the campaign was funded. Then I thought Well I guess we won't get to the stretch goal - Dungeon Pets sticker pack. And that was a slow roll as well, it was not until 2 days before the end of the campaign that we unlocked that goal. Watching Dungeon pets succeed was very affirming, much like Black Pyramid was, but in a completely different way. I really quested if I was offering something or just deluding myself. Don't get me wrong, I like my own ideas, I'm just never sure other people will like those ideas too. I can say that people do like my ideas now that Zine is fully funded at $1,106 with 124 backers. It was just nerve-racking to watch. I am thrilled that it will be printed and be (hopefully) use din other people's games. Plus Stickers! I'm really excited about making Stickers.

Conclusion

I'm still processing all the emotions that come from the success of a Kickstarter. I'm sure I'll have more to say down the road about all of this. More observations when this is all done an all the backers have their zines. I am looking forwards to hearing back from the backers once they've sunk their teeth into these zines on whether thy love or hate what I made. As an artist, it's important to get feedback so you can improve on what you are making so that you can continue to push yourself.

One of the next posts on this subject will also be about fulfillment. I am setting up a storefront attached to my website and plan to use this to handle all of the shipping for these two zines. Once I have the shop setup and the zines back, I'll have the backers go to the link and add fill out their order and pay for shipping then. They will also be able to pick up extra copies too. But more on this later.

See you next time.