Some of the Most Candid Advice You Will Ever Hear About Crowdfunding

Gamasutra has an interesting article about crowdfunding advice with quotes from various developers, including Obsidian’s co-founder and chief creative officer Chris Avellone. Here’s a snippet:

Asked what to do about drops in press attention or interest from backers, Avellone recommended that project creators “have a narrative” beyond the fact of the crowdfunding page itself, and to hold back certain big news until the second or third week, when donations start to slip.

Additionally, Avellone reminded attendees that “having to course correct happens even with successful campaigns.” The benefit of crowdfunding, he said, was being able to take into consideration and implement community feedback from an early stage.

“You aren’t going to waste development time, art time hooking in a feature that customers don’t want,” he said.

As an alternative to costly physical rewards, Avellone stressed that digital goodies can often be more valuable to certain donors — especially big spenders.

“Any reward that involves immortalizing a person [in the game] is great,” he said, listing off examples such as naming boss characters, weapons or artifacts after donors. “Obviously, it works better for some games than others [but] there are probably a lot of super-fans out there that would jump at the chance.”

Avellone cautioned against setting a low donation target with the “gamble” of receiving more.