Anya Combs给在Kickstarter游戏众筹开发者的建议

原作者：Brendan Sinclair 译者：Willow Wu

资深开发者依靠Kickstarter粉丝为他们的新作众筹，试图打造又一款大作的日子或许已经过去了，但这个平台对于很多资金有限的开发者来说仍是一个可选项。在上周的PAX East大会上，Anya Combs谈论了Kickstarter游戏项目的现状，并就如何提高众筹成功几率给出了建议。

Combs首先简单说明了Kickstarter上游戏类别的情况：今年已筹得资金很有可能会超过10亿美元。包括电子游戏、桌游、卡牌游戏、实境动作角色扮演（LARP）等在内，这一大类已经吸引了320万支持者，有38%的项目都达到了众筹目标。

而电子游戏自2012年以来一直都维持着21%的成功率。时至今日，已有约12800个电子游戏项目已经得到了160万人的支援，众筹资金达到2.34亿美元。

Combs还公布了与桌游相关的数据：累计有18900个项目筹得了6.75万美元的资金，参与人数160万人，成功率为58%，相对较高。

所以游戏开发者们要如何才能确保他们的项目能众筹成功呢？首先你要有一个引人入胜的推广视频。

“游戏玩法是Kickstarter支持者最关注的，”Combs 说。“你必须要展示出游戏玩法，尤其是电子游戏。没有必要做一个几小时的演示视频或者其它类似的东西。30秒的长度就足够了，但前提是你懂得如何展示。”

视频不需要专业制作水准，用手机拍摄也完全没有问题。但是开发者需要知道如何才能更好地推销自己以及游戏。Combs认为推广视频的理想长度是两分钟，30秒来展示游戏玩法，30秒来介绍开发人员，30秒来解释为什么想要在Kickstarter众筹，最后30秒可以用来播放更多玩法或者是有趣的bug或者其它与游戏有关的杂事。

有时候也不一定要按着这个模式来。Combs拿《林中之夜》作典范，虽说他们的视频只有1分14秒，但我们可以清楚地知道为什么开发者要在Kickstarter为这个游戏众筹。

组建社区对开发者们来说也是非常重要的。

“你可以估计大概有30%的资金是来自Kickstarter众筹，”Combs说。“这就意味着而另外70%需要从社区中产生。来参加PAX就是一个建立社区的机会。让人们注册邮箱、加入Discord、关注你的Twitter，把社区组织起来。”

bioshock-rapture-city(from gamasutra)

众筹活动也可能是一项艰巨的任务，Combs建议要控制下时间。

“项目众筹时间应该在30~35天左右，”她说。“60天的太长了，不要这样做，对你和你的支持者来说都没有好处。”

Combs给出这一个时间范围的原因是开发者们或许会想在众筹开始/结束时避开周五、周末或者是其它重要的美国节假日。Kickstarter社区的大多数成员都来自美国，因此阵亡将士纪念日、原住民纪念日等其它节日都不是启动或结束众筹活动的好时机，因为大多数人不会特地上网关注你的项目。

她还表示在发布项目时不要写上延伸目标（stretch goals）。开发者们应该每隔一天更新项目进度，就算是展示当天工作或者是早期的一个概念艺术也可以。

“更新内容可以非常简单，”Combs说。“你要跟社区成员说的基本上就是‘嘿，我要给你们展示一些东西。今天我们要做什么、我还在做这一部分的工作’之类的。”

这样也有助于让你的项目登上首页成为精选。虽然Combs并不是编辑团队的一员，但是她知道这些人的寻找目标是什么。Combs说，编辑团队希望看到的是一个顶级项目的图片，能够突出游戏特色，而不是与开发者相关的照片。她还赞同用动图来展示游戏玩法，可以在页面中穿插四五张。

Combs还建议开发者们要尽早、多次与她本人以及其余开发成员沟通。

“如果你在项目发布之前的三周就联系我，这就意味着我有时间找编辑团队跟他们讨论如何推广才能帮你获得更多筹资。”

“现在在Kickstarter开启众筹”这样的标注是多余，不会有任何加分作用。

“我们的编辑非常讨厌这些东西，”Combs说。“如果你的项目页面中出现了类似的东西，编辑团队会直接跳过，所以千万不要这样做。”

最后，Combs跟开发者们说如果项目发布后没有人捐款不要觉得沮丧，每个项目在众筹几天后都会遇到平台期，而最后两天通常是资金流入的高峰期。即使没有达到众筹目标，你也不能算是彻底失败。

“如果你无法从运营项目的过程中学到经验和教训，这才叫失败，”Combs说。“我见过很多首轮众筹失败的人，但是第二次有些人就成功了，或者是有发行商愿意和他们合作了或者是意识到他们需要建立社区。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

The days of every veteran developer launching a Kickstarter to make spiritual successors to their greatest hits may be behind us, but the crowdfunding platform is still a viable option for plenty of developers in need of funding. At the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit at PAX East last week, Kickstarter’s Anya Combs offered those developers some context on how video game projects are doing, and advice on how they can maximize their projects’ chances of success.

Combs began with an overview of the games category on Kickstarter, which is likely to pass a cumulative $1 billion pledged this year. Between video games, tabletop games, card games, live-action role-playing projects and others, the games category has attracted 3.2 million backers, with 38% of projects reaching their funding goal.

As for video game projects specifically, Combs said they reach their funding goals about 21% of the time, a rate that has been mostly consistent since 2012. To date, video game projects have seen 1.6 million backers pledge a total of $234 million to roughly 12,800 projects.

Combs also revealed some numbers for tabletop games on Kickstarter, which also have seen 1.6 million backers, but boast a pledge total of $675 million across 18,900 projects, and have seen a significantly higher 58% success rate.

So how can game developers ensure they’re among those successfully funded projects? It starts with a good pitch video, and a good pitch video needs to showcase the game being pitched.

“Gameplay is key on Kickstarter,” Combs said. “You need to show your gameplay, especially for a video game. You don’t need to show hours of footage or anything like that. 30 seconds is all you need. But you need to be able to show it.”

Developers don’t need professional video production behind the video — filming it on an iPhone is “totally fine,” Combs said — but they do need to sell the game and themselves efficiently. Combs suggested two minutes as an ideal length for a pitch video, split between 30 seconds of gameplay, 30 seconds explaining who the people behind the game are, 30 seconds explaining why the team is on Kickstarter, and a final 30 seconds of more gameplay, bloopers, or other miscellaneous content about the game.

Sometimes a developer doesn’t even need to hit all those bases. Combs pointed to the pitch video for Night in the Woods as a particularly effective example of the form, even though it runs a lean 1:14 and doesn’t bother explaining why the developers turned to Kickstarter for funding at all.

Community building is also essential for any project on Kickstarter.

“You can anticipate about 30% of your pledges are going to come in through Kickstarter,” Combs said. “That means 70% of your pledges need to come from a community you build. If you are here at PAX, you’re building a community. Get people to sign up for your mailing list. Get people to come to your Discord. Get people to follow you on Twitter. Build that community.”

Crowdfunding campaigns can also be arduous affairs, and Combs suggested limiting their length.

“Your project should only be 30-35 days,” she said. “The 60-day project nonsense? Don’t do it. It’s so long. 60 days is too long for your backers and it’s too long for you.”

The reason Combs gave that range of length is because developer may want to shorten or lengthen their campaigns to avoid beginning or ending them on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or major US holiday. Even for people who aren’t based in the US, Combs said most of the Kickstarter community comes from the US, so Memorial Day, Indigenous People’s Day, and other holidays are bad times to start or end a campaign because most people aren’t going to be online for it.

She also advised against launching a project with stretch goals already posted, and suggested that developers update their projects for backers every other day, even if it’s just to share what they worked on that day or a piece of concept art from earlier in development.

“It can be very, very simple updates,” Combs said. “Basically what you’re saying to your community is, ‘Hey, I’m giving you information. I’m a part of this. I’m still working on it.’”

Naturally it also helps to become a featured project on Kickstarter, and while Combs is not part of the editorial team that makes those decisions, she knows what that group is looking for. For example, Combs said the editorial team likes to see a strong top project image, something that highlights an awesome game rather than a photo of the developers involved. She also endorsed the use of gameplay .gifs, perhaps four or five of them scattered throughout the page.

Combs also recommended developers speak with her and the rest of the games team early and often.

She explained, “If you get me your project page three weeks before you launch, that means I can go to our editorial team and say, ‘Hey, what can we do for a promotional page for this creator?’”

As for things to avoid, badges that say “now live on Kickstarter,” “funded on Kickstarter,” or similar are frowned upon as redundant.

“Our editorial team hates them,” Combs stressed. “If you put these types of badges on your project page, our editorial team will completely ignore you. Please do not put them on your project page.”

Finally, Combs cautioned developers not to get discouraged if their projects aren’t instantly funded. Every project hits a plateau after the first couple of days, and often they bring in the bulk of their money in the final two days of the campaign. And even if a funding goal isn’t reached, the campaign doesn’t have to be a total wash.

“The only time you fail on Kickstarter is if you haven’t learned something from running your project,” Combs said. “I’ve had multiple people who weren’t funded the first time around, but maybe they were funded the second time, found a publisher, or realized they needed to build community.”

（source: gamesindustry.biz ）