Promoting our Kickstarter Project

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

Today I am going to talk about what we (According To Whim) did to advertise our Kickstarter Project for Rise of the Rock Star.

Planning a Kickstarter (doing it right, anyways) relies on 2 methods:

Method 1: Assumption: You are already well known or are dealing with a well known brand.
Method 2: Assumption: You are unknown.

Some examples of Method #1 is the Robotech Kickstarter from April/May. Robotech has a big following and they had a big turnout for their miniatures game. Another example is Steve Jackson's OGRE game. Steve Jackson has clout and it shows in KS support.

According To Whim: Method 2

We have a concept and a game that we enjoy. We think others will enjoy it too. Our idea is to create a game that when people play it, they want to play it again and again. A simple roll and move game isn't going to do that (unless your name is Monopoly). Chris did a great job in taking the card aspect of the game to a whole new level. The amount of combos and game altering card moves pushed the game from being 'ok' to being 'fun'. That was our goal and we made it... now to convince everyone else about it. We still get people claiming our game is the 'detested' roll and move type but we disagree.

Promotion is really a topic Chris could talk your ear off about but I beat him to the punch with this post (so he will have to give you his take on it later). We approaching the promotion aspect of our Kickstarter we have taken about 50% of Chris' ideas and 50% of my ideas on board.

Chris: Promote the game by promoting ourselves (via blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and videos)
Nathan: Promote the game by promoting the game (via social media, game forums, print, conventions).

I this it is a well rounded and powerful promotion engine.

Many people (via forum posts) say that one thing they find interesting is that many Kickstarters are not advertised at all. Someone comes up with an idea, makes a Kickstarter and sits back, waiting for it to succeed. This might work for the Robotechs and Steve Jacksons of the world, but not for unknowns like us. Unknowns need to get out there, make a presence well in advance of their project going live.

How do you get out there? That is the question we asked ourselves in between test games of Rise of the Rock Star. We brainstormed, wrote lists, discussed, dissented many times and finally came up with a plan of attack.

Please join me next time for a post where I lay out that plan of attack. It might give you some ideas and pointers in setting up promotion for your KS project! Later!

** Please help us see our game come to reality by backing our Kickstarter board game: Rise Of The Rock Star. Thanks so much!