Kickstarter – testing the waters

I had posted to this topic not realizing the original poster wasn't asking for advice about whether to start crowdfunding. Apologies.

As for the advice that was asked for: personally, in case freelancers, such as composers like me, will ask for more than you expect to be paid upfront, I would have the goal higher than what you think would be the minimum funds, but not by too much that it deters possible donors.

Python, 'higher than what you think, but not by too much that it deters possible donors' is not something that'd be acceptable on Kickstarter, or any other similar sites. I need to come up with a number ($ amount) most probably based on the reality of the video game industry.

So you're asking for a specific value of money, then? In that case, I regret to say I cannot help you, there, speaking as an outsider for this project; you may get answers from others, but ultimately, the best judge of that would be yourself and how much you think it's worth.

Thing is that if I could get a relevant answer (numbers, please!) I'd provide the link to this thread on Kickstarter. Gamedev is a reputable site, BilliChess already proved to be a winning concept and if one puts two pluses together it'll result a .. well .. bigger plus.

I'd guess that somebody with some experience as a coordinator (i.e. s/he put together team/s before that actually concluded their project) would be best to provide some relevant numbers. Taking into account the best deals available will surely result in an acceptable $ amount for Kickstarter. Then it's up to us to make (A) things happen; (B) history ..

If you're just looking for someone to spoon-feed you a number, you can skip the rest of this.

So you're asking, essentially, how much money you'll need to re-make your game. That it's going on Kickstarter is irrelevant, because games get funded there asking for anything from several hundred dollars to several million. You just need to be honest about what it will take to make the game (which it sounds like will be largely dependent on what rate you can hire people for, and how long those people will take to make the product), and ask for that (plus ~20% for taxes and fees).

Another thing to consider and add in to your total is cost for production of any reward-tier items. A lot of Kickstarter projects give incentive gifts for larger donations, with the idea that part of the large donation will be eaten in manufacturing things like collector's edition packaging, figures, and other game-related kitsch.

The issue is still the same, though: the number will be very specific to your project. Obviously lower goal amounts have a higher chance of getting funded, and looking at the fact that your game is

a) already created (just needing a new UI and graphics component), and
b) not overly-ambitious in its scope (you're not making a WoW-killer or epic 80-hour FPS)

if I saw a goal at or over 80k (USD) I would think you were asking for way too much (just my opinion though, I'm no marketing specialist). You're really just in need of some new graphics assets, if I understand the post correctly, so you'd only be picking up one or two other people? The re-make just doesn't appear like it is particularly taxing on anyone's resources.

I'm just going to point out that physical rewards are a pita.

Just try to see how Rich from The Order of the Stick is doing. Raised 1.2 million in kickstarter. Still shipping stuff a year later.

Chubu, what we have right now is a working prototype -- that's what was required by the Level Up 2010 -- of BilliChess made using Unity3D. That's why I'm talking about rebuilding BC from scratch. So more than "some new graphics" and UI is needed.