At GDC 2026, Room 2016, West Hall. Talk starts at 11:50.
Six Figures in 30 Days: How We Turned a Funding Crisis into a Kickstarter Success
Presented by Niina Fujioka

We hadn't intended to ever run a Kickstarter campaign, but we came to the conclusion that we needed some temporary funding and some additional proof points that we were on the right track. Niina will take you through the seven biggest lessons she learned executing a Kickstarter campaign in order to:

• Prove market demand for our product
• Create a sense of momentum for our product and company
• Earn some quick operating money without the full process of a formal round of investment funding
• Increase customer awareness for Stars Reach, i.e., the sales funnel.

Notes:

• Talk given by the VP at Playable Worlds, it is about the game Stars Reach
• What to do when your back is against the wall and you bet on your community
• Dec 2024: Running out of runway, already made hard decisions. Decided to run a kickstarter with a pre-alpha in six weeks.
• Six weeks was not enough time
• Five lessons
• 1: Bring in the right people
  • Know what you don't know, find people who do.
  • Brought in marketing and consultants just for the kickstarter
  • 200k goal met in one hour
  • Set goal to minimum you absolutely need, not the maximuk you want.
  • Funded campaigns build momentum
  • Perception is everything
  • Pick a number you feel confident about
• 2: Build your list before you campaign
  • Kickstarter amplifies momentum
  • Build a mailing list
  • Don't do beta keys, spreadsheets, and two discord servers
  • Used firstlook.gg, for playtesting CRM
  • Think about what needs to go jnto your backer survey, because going back for info later is painful
• 3: Trailer is not a gameplay reel, it's a story
  • Backers want to believe in you and your story, they are not there to buy a product.
  • Show motion, not screenshots
  • Explain why, why now, be honest about where you are.
  • Ask players to join you.
  • Make first few stretch goals easy to help build momentum
• 4: Tier architecture is more important than you think
  • Get community feedback before you launch
  • Digital rewards are better than physical ones
  • 25 tiers was too many
  • Your community will tell you what they want
  • $30, 60, 100, and 450 seem to be sweet spots.
  • $10,000 tier had more backers than expected (this is the maximum on kickstarter)
  • Average pledge is $137
  • Consider timezone when releasing earlybird tiers
  • Build reward items first, then set up the addons.
  • Tiers and addons get locked upon release, so get it right before launch.
• 5: The middle will kill you
  • Communication is done for
    
  • you at beginning and end, but not in middle
  • Plan your middle campaign before launching
  • Momentum is high at the beginning and end.
  • Post updates at least once a week.
  • They meeded to plan for the middle more, with events and pledge drives
  • Be genuine, tone matters more than having the perfect answer
  • Keep streaming and posting updates. stay present
• Frequent questions:
  • Do we need a community before launch?
    • Yes. Kickstarter only amplifies momentum
  • How long to build the list?
    • At least 6 months to a year at minimum
  • What if no build?
    • Show what you can, put your passion on display.
• Metrics
  • $137 avg pledge
  • 28% kickstarter follower conversion, kickstarter avg is 15-20
  • Grand total $870k raised

Q&A:

• How much did the Kickstarter manager do?
  • They advised and gave feedback. The team did all the heavy lifting.
  • Moderators did a lot to help manage the community.
  • Lean on your community if you can
  • A consultant with fresh eyes is useful
• For indies, how would you scale this advice for teams of 2-10?
  • With a smaller team, planning and starting as early as you can is important. You may not need as much money, which means you need less backers.
  • You are selling yourself. Show your authenticity and passion.
• How much engagement did you have with Kickstarter itself? How do you get them to talk to you?
  • It helps to work with people who have connections at Kickstarter
  • Most useful information was from other studios, who know what to do.
  • Build connections with people who have done Kickstarter
  • Hit your minimum goal fast, at least within 24 hours
• How did you get a large playtesting community?
  • We really want community feedback when building, so this community was built during development
  • Playtesters get into the game earlier than most other development teams
• What foundation did you have going into this? How many people were interested beforehand?
  • Mailing list was only 83,000 at first. Only got 6,000 backers.
  • Involved community in building the tiers
  • Focus on engaging with your community, even a community of 100 people can do a lot if they buy into the vision
• What was the campaign budget like?
  • Most of the budget was spent on paid ads
  • 300% return on ad expenditure< which they paid close attention to. A good ROAS (?) is 150%
  • Budget amount depends on your goal.
• How do you manage the risk of someone stealing your IP?
  • Didnt worry about it because game is too big to rebuild.
  • This might be a bigger concern if your game is smaller
  • Many people can build smaller games, but your community is what matters, even 1,000 players can make an impact.