Kickstarter Tips & Tricks
A couple of months ago I wrote up a pretty comprehensive guide on How to Structure a Kickstarter page. We’re still deep in the weeds putting together our Kickstarter for Sigil (launching 05/16!!), and I wanted to share some more tips and tricks that for taking your page to the next level.
Dead Space & Boarders
Kickstarter automatically inserts line spacing between images (the cannot abut against eachother). This means that when create assets for the page you need to take into account that there will be dead white space between them. There are a few ways to deal with this.
1. Combine Assets into Large Images
This is a trick we are doing for our Sigil Kickstarter. Instead of having a headline image, quote, and then what’s in the box image each separately, we are combining them into one master image. We have more control over the flow of the page, and can seamlessly have assets flow into each other without dead space.
You do need to break images (and have dead space) when you want to insert a link, a button or a video. So, eventually you’ll need to plan for the image to end, and how it will transition to dead space or your next graphic.
2. Fade Images into the Negative Space
A good example of this approach is the Elden Ring board game campaign. The IP includes a lot of mist effects which the creators incorporated to allow their images to blead into the negative space that Kickstarter forces between images.
There are a lot of ways to be creative with this transition. For instance, while our Nut Hunt campaign didn’t transition to negative space – if I were to redo the campaign, I’d likely have our assets disappear into a flurry of leaves.
3. Make a Boarder for Images
The opposite approach is also viable by having campaign assets be clearly delineated. The Doomlings expansion campaign (that is now live) is a great example of this approach.
The outlined their campaign assets in an bamboo boarder (on theme with the jungle planet game theming), which allows the assets to each stand on their own and look professional.
Image Sizing
Kickstarter story pages are 680-pixels wide (and essentially as long as you want). Most prevailing advice is to upload 680 pixel wide image.
This is bad advice.
Kickstarter automatically compresses images – even if they fit perfectly. So, 680-pixel wide images don’t look quite as crisp as they should.
What we’re found (and are doing for Sigil) is to make all our images 1360 pixels wide. They are looking much crisper after Kickstarter’s compression.
Locked & Hidden Stretch Goals
Stretch goals are meant to excite your backers and prospective backers. They are a way to engage with the community and give campaign followers a goal to strive for.
My personal view is that only showing a few stretch goals at a time can be more effective than showing all your stretch goals at once. As you hit higher dollar levels you get to reveal more stretch goals) which is exciting, and it gives you flexibility in terms of tweaking dollar levels, adding, or re-arranging stretch goals.
When we make our Kickstarter graphics, we make our .psd (photoshop) files in layers with each stretch goal having an unlocked, locked, and hidden layer. That way it is easy for us during the campaign to reveal new stretch goals and show when goals are hit.
What’s a cool feature that you’ve seen recently on a Kickstarter campaign?
