How does Kickstarter Work?

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that helps creators fund their projects, by people donating money and the creators providing rewards to backers based on their donations.

It’s a platform where a creator will create a page that will say:

  • Here is what I’m looking to achieve
  • Here is my funding goal
  • This is my time frame for funding
  • Here are my reward tiers and specific reward if the funding goal is reached.

It is a great way to gather excitement for your game and help you boost funds towards your project, this could be to help polish your game or support you short term financially whilst you complete your game.


How Does Kickstarter work?

https://www.kickstarter.com/how-it-works

Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing; no-one will be charged for a pledge towards a project unless it reaches its funding goal. This way creators always have the budget they scoped out before moving forward. 


What is it used for?

It’s used to help creators to complete their project through crowdfunding. 

Kickstarter is specifically for creative projects in the following 15 categories: Art, Comics, Crafts, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film & Video, Food, Games, Journalism, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theatre.

Kickstarter creator handbook for more information and support: https://www.kickstarter.com/help/handbook?ref=how_it_works


Kickstarter Project examples

Check out these games that have had their Kickstarter campaigns successfully funded:

FTL


How much does it cost to run a Kickstarter campaign?

Check your fees for your country

https://www.kickstarter.com/help/fees?ref=faq-basics_fees

An example from Kickstarter’s Website (UK):

If your project is successfully funded, the following fees will be collected from your funding total: Kickstarter’s 5% fee and payment processing fees (between 3% and 5%). Please note they do not withhold VAT. If funding isn’t successful, there are no fees.

Kickstarter fee:

5% of total funds raised

Payment processing fees

3% + £0.20 per pledge

Pledges under £10 have a discounted micro pledge fee of 5% + £0.05 per pledge


Who can run a Kickstarter project?

Check out the FAQ section on this link:

 https://www.kickstarter.com/how-it-works