There are tons of Kickstarter projects out there, some of them look great, some of them are great, and others, they don’t look great but they might be good. I think that one hard part of Kickstarter is that overwhelming amount of content out there to sift through, how do you find those great Kickstarters or the ones that might be hidden gems?

There is often a ton of information on the Kickstarter pages that you have to make it through. The good ones are going to give you a particular set of things and are going to focus more on a handful of important details. The bad ones, though, can look almost as good, but you never can really tell. I’ve had some good experiences on Kickstarter and some poor ones.

What Do I Look For?

1. Have they previously completed a Kickstarter?
2. Is the page well laid out?
3. Are the rules explained well or is there a copy of the rule book to look at?
4. Does the game look like a clean design?
5. How much focus is there on minis or any other gimmicks?
6. Are there previews/quotes? And where are they from?
7. Do they talk about shipping, is it reasonable?
8. Do they talk about timelines, are they reasonable?
9. Aesthetics?

There are certainly more things that you could look for as well, but I think these are generally the biggest things I look at. The other one is, is there an IP (Intellectual Property) tied to it, and does the person/company have the rights. I’ve seen multiple campaigns where people are looking to get money to make a game that they don’t have rights for with the plan that by raising money they’ll use it to get the rights. Most of the times those rights are held by another board game company and certainly aren’t available. Or they’ll just go ahead and make the game and then use the money raised in Kickstarter for when they are sued (yes, I actually saw that once).

1. Have they Previously Completed A Kickstarter?
Now, this isn’t a requirement for it to be a good campaign, otherwise how could new designers and companies get out there. But if they have done a few campaigns, it gives you more information about the company or person who is running these Kickstarters. You’ll be able to go into their previous campaigns and hopefully see their updates, though some people do them for backers only, and the comments. Them having their updates for backers only isn’t a red flag in and of itself, maybe they are sharing print and play versions or linking to a demo of their project that they don’t want out in the public, but that with negative comments is a bit of a red flag. If they haven’t fulfilled previous projects or the previous projects haven’t matched what was described, that can be a red flag to stay away. On the other hand, if it is a company or designer who has completed many projects and the comments are fairly happy and they’ve delivered their product, it’s a safer bet that you’ll get something from their kickstarter.

2. Is The Page Well Laid Out?
This is a bit subjective, but when I’m looking at a board game kickstarter, I’m looking for information about the theme of your game and the style of your game right off the bat. I want to know if it’s fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, zombies, Lovecraftian, Sherlock Holmes, or whatever it might be right away. I want to see a section on game play, on what components are there and different pledge levels, stretch goals (if you have any), add-ons (again, if you have any), shipping info, and risks that are thought out so that you at least understand what can delay you. This shouldn’t just be blocks of text, there should be pictures as well, but it shouldn’t just be pictures, give me the details that I need to know how your game is played. You can do this in writing or a video or some companies will use a series of images with a little text to teach the game. But more on that later. I want to know when the sections change as well, that’s huge, because otherwise it can get confusing.

3. Are The Rules Explained Well Or Is There A Copy Of The Rule Book To Look At?
I said I was coming back to it, but here we are with the rules. For me this is about the most important piece of the game. Are there rules to this game or is this still just an idea in your head that you want to try and make happen. If it’s the latter, you don’t know how much it’s going to cost, you don’t know how it’s actually going to work, and you don’t know how hard or easy the game is. It’s an idea at that point and you’re probably two years of working on it in your spare time from actually being ready to take it to Kickstarter. But beyond that, I don’t know how your game plays. If you just say that it’s an “innovative deckbuilder” or “uses roll and write mechanics in a completely unique way”, that tells me maybe what sort of game it might be, but I don’t know if it’s actually “innovative” or “unique”. Explain to me how the game works in detail or give me a rule book, even if it’s prototype to read through. Getting more eyes on your game is a good thing because you can crowdsource not only money to make your game, but extra eyes to find issues with the rules. Now, this doesn’t mean that as a creator you’d change it on a whim based off of Kickstarter comments, but I as a consumer have more confidence that you’re going to thinking about the game and how it works. And when I know how it works, it means that I can also tell if it’s going to be the type of game that I like.

4. Does The Game Look Like It Has A Clean Design?
I just talked about the rule book, and this is what I’m talking about when I say that I want to see it. Not only does it show me that it isn’t just an idea in your head that might be horrible but might be amazing and I don’t know, but it helps me know how clean your game design is. What do I mean when I say a clean game design? I’m talking that the game isn’t overly convoluted for what it is, if this is a card game with 100 cards and the rule book is twenty pages, it’s not a clean design. If it’s a dungeon crawl and you have dice for one check, cards for another check, and there’s deckbuilding, bad building, drafting, area control, role playing, and a roll and write piece to it, that’s not a clean design of the game. But beyond the rules, even if the rules make a lot of sense, can I tell what is what in the game. If the health token, sanity token, endurance token, and intelligence token all look alike, that’s part of the design of your game and it isn’t clean because I can’t look and tell what is what. If I have to think extra when playing a game because something isn’t clear, I’m less likely to enjoy the game. So are your rules and ideas laid out well on the components of the game.

5. How Much Focus Is There On Minis Or Any Other Gimmick?
I get it, your game has cool renders of minis, or it has awesome custom meeples, or you say that it’s a first of it’s kind deckbuilder, but how is the actual game. Looking at minis is a lot of fun, but those are likely going to be renders, and will they actually have that much detail, who knows. And is it a “first of it’s kind” game, probably not. Even if it is a good “first of it’s kind” thing, a single idea isn’t a full game. The game with minis, they aren’t a full game either. Do they really matter, they can look cool, but you need to tell me more than that you’re just going to have something awesome in the game. This again comes back to it being fully thought out, not just one possibly interesting idea.

6. Are There Previews/Quotes? Where Are They From?
This isn’t a must for me. If it’s a well thought through game where I can see the rules and there are no previews or quotes, that’s fine. Just show me in detail how the game works. But if you have them, make sure that they are good. Having a quote from your mom, a random dude at a local game store, and your buddy Brian, that doesn’t tell me anything about your game. Maybe the quote from the random game store person is a bit valid, but family members and friends are going to probably tell you that it’s good no matter what. But beyond that, it makes me wonder who all you playtested this with. I’ve done some planning and design on a game, it’s very early on, and I have played it with friends a couple of times, but that wouldn’t be my whole playtesting. I would want blind playtesting where I’m not sitting there or hovering over a table. I don’t teach my rules when playing with friends, but if you just have family and friends talking about the game, it probably means that you haven’t thought through it or really playtested it. So have previews and quotes, but don’t have it from your friends, and don’t call them reviews, because I know you’ll only use positive ones so that’s not selling me on the game.

7. Do You Talk About Shipping And Is It Reasonable?
I’m not going to say, ship me Gloomhaven with $5 shipping, that’s unreasonable for me to ask that, but if it’s going to be $80 for a $100 game, you really mean that you made a $150 game with $30 shipping. I’m also looking to see if you have shipping split up for around the world. I know prices for shipping change and it’s hard to lock down until you use a pledge manager, but if you’re just giving me a single flat number, I’m assuming that you didn’t plan for it, and it’s probably going to be way higher. Again, I don’t want $80 shipping on a $100 game because you thought it would be $20 and were way off. But on the other hand, don’t way overestimate shipping as well. If I see that you have a $100 game and you put down that you’re shipping from a US hub and shipping is going to be $80, I’m not going to pledge, even if you say it’s going to be up to $80 but likely less, I’m still not going to pledge. This is something that I’ve seen most Kickstarters that have shipping sections with details get right, but there are a lot that don’t have much detail in them, and it tells me you probably haven’t planned for everything. So for me that’s a red flag that a Kickstarter might cost a lot more than initially thought.

8. Do You Talk About Timeline And Is It Reasonable?
Yes, you want to get the game out as fast as possible, but any game that needs to be produced is going to probably take a year. I’m assuming that there’s going to be more some delays at some point in time for the game, so have you built in padding for that. I’m going to assume that shipping will take longer, did you give yourself a window for that. If they think that it’s going to be off to a factory in China and then to the US in six months, that’s probably wrong, and it tells me you might not have thought through everything. If you say your game is 100% ready and it’ll go to a manufacturer immediately, that’s probably wrong. So give me a reasonable timeline and show me that you’ve thought about the various pieces of it, from finalizing text and rule books and images, getting test production copy to make sure everything is good, manufacturing, shipping, more shipping, and I think that you’ve thought through things and might have an idea of how long it’ll take.

9. Aesthetics
This one is subjective, but I wanted to take it on as something important, because I think that there is a piece that isn’t subjective about the aesthetic that is important. I might not like a gross/gory aesthetic for a game and you might, or maybe it’s too dark or the artwork is too chibi, but with this section, I’m talking more about if the artwork is consistent or not. Does it look like you’ve asked five different artists and they haven’t had consistent direction for the art? Does it look like you’re using clip art in your example or free artwork? Is everything laid out consistently, are the monster cards understandable if I know the player cards are do they work completely differently in how they’re laid out. It’s all about consistency in how you have your art direction and flow. So while it might vary on what people find aesthetically pleasing, I’m talking more about aesthetic consistency. For me, that’s important because it shows that you’ve thought through how it looks and thought through how it’s going to function as a game.

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