A few weeks ago I shared how our last campaign went from getting sent back twice in review to funding in 48 hours. A lot of you replied with questions and your own stories, which honestly meant a lot. So I wanted to do something a little different this time: share what we're changing before launch, and then report back on whether it actually worked.

Our next project is NovaPort III, the first charger in our company's history built in Japan. It goes live on Kickstarter November 5. Here's what we're doing differently based on everything that went wrong (and right) last time.

1. Show the real thing, even if it means rewriting.
Last time we built the whole page around renders and had to rebuild it after review. This time the story was already written before we visited the factory in Fukushima, where we filmed the production line, the people building it, and the actual product. Now we're going back through the story and working that footage in, so the page shows how it's really made instead of just telling you. It's extra work on a page we thought was done. After last time, we know it's worth it.

2. Don't claim more than you can prove.
"Made in Japan" is a powerful phrase, and it's tempting to lean on it hard. But we learned last time that backers can tell when you're overselling. So we're being careful about exactly what we say about where and how it's made, and showing the factory instead of just writing the words. It's slower and less flashy. We think it's worth it.

3. Open the prelaunch page early.
Last time we didn't have a prelaunch page at all. We went straight from approval to launch, which meant nobody could follow the project ahead of time. This time we set it up a full month in advance. That gives people time to find it, follow it, and actually be there on launch day. We're also sharing progress and asking for feedback along the way, while there's still time to act on it. Posts like this are part of that.

4. Plan for the first 48 hours like it's the whole campaign.
Momentum in the first two days changed everything for us. A funded project feels safer to back. So this time we're lining up everything we can for launch day instead of spreading it out and hoping it builds.

What we don't know yet
Whether any of this works. A new product, a new story, and a different audience could all change the outcome. We funded in 48 hours last time with no prelaunch at all, so we're curious to see what a month of buildup does. We could fund even faster, or we could learn a whole new set of lessons. Either way, I'll come back and share honestly how it went.

If you're curious to follow along, the prelaunch page is here. And if you've launched something recently, I'd genuinely like to hear what you'd do differently. What's the one thing you wish you'd changed before launch?

Hi all,

It’s self Promo Friday!! :)

I help send love to family at Christmas, by making Christmas Cards on vintage Letterpress machines.

Every year I print a limited edition run of letterpress printed Christmas Cards on vintage machines in an off grid studio, and post them globally. (Mostly to backers in the USA and Canada.)

I know they are not cheap cards and won’t appeal to a lot of people. But, to the right people, I think they are good value!
Making them costs a lot in time, machinery and maintenance!

I recently launched Papyrophiliac 2026.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/delgreco/beautiful-letterpress-cards-papyrophiliac-make100-2025?ref=6jej0j

It got fully funded in 3.5h, and will be printing about 200 cards so far. I had a low goal, but capacity to go bigger if I get more backers.

Thankfully, all the backers are genuine, (my friends and family don’t artificially inflate my campaigns, partly because they aren’t users on Kickstarter, and partly because then I’d hit an illegitimate target if I didn’t have real backers, so then I’d struggle to actually complete the campaign.) Again, most of my backers are USA and Canada.

I have 3 asks:
1 - I‘d love feedback from fellow Kickstarter-ers. Anything you think will make it better, or general comments on the campaign?
2 - If you send / give physical Christmas cards, and my campaign appeals to you, I’d be proud if you chose to give mine!
3 - Do you have any suggestions where you think I could promote this further, other than paid ads? I’d love to grow to get to ~50-100 backers. that would be amazing, and would be a nice growth from previous campaigns.

Thanks for any comments. I’m excited and slightly scared to hear what you think!

Del

One week to go - don't miss out!

https://reddit.com/link/1x7arkl/video/nyif6vxuisvh1/player

Hi everyone!

I'm Andrew, the producer of Pewas Uter (Uter's Prize), an independent folk-horror short film launching on Kickstarter this Monday, 19 October at 4pm UK time.

We're aiming to raise £16,000 towards our £26,000 production budget, and with just three days to go, we're in the final stages of preparing for launch!

A little about the project:

Pewas Uter is a contemporary coming-of-age drama with folk-horror undertones set in Cornwall, inspired by the traditional Cornish droll of Uter Bosence and the piskey, alongside the centuries-old hurling tradition in St Columb Major.

The story follows a young man who becomes piskey-led during a game of hurling, forcing his father to confront an ancestral debt.

One of the things that makes the project particularly important to us is that the entire film will be in Kernewek (Cornish), a revived Celtic minority language. We want to help bring Cornwall's language, folklore and storytelling traditions to new audiences through cinema.

Where we're at ahead of launch:

• 144 Kickstarter pre-launch followers
• Selected as a Kickstarter Projects We Love
• Included in Witchstarter and awarded support through the Kickstarter Culture Fund
• A community fundraising event, Piskey-Led: A Night of Droll Telling, planned for 30 October

We've spent the last few weeks building our audience through community outreach, local press, social media and a little paid advertising. It's been a huge learning experience already.

Here's our pre-launch page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ankow-pictures/pewas-uter-uters-prize-a-cornish-language-short-film

If the project interests you, we'd be incredibly grateful for a follow ahead of Monday's launch. Early support is going to be particularly important for us.

And to the other creators here: what's the single most useful thing you did in the final 72 hours before launching your Kickstarter?

I'd genuinely love to hear your experiences and advice.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone else preparing to launch!

Hi everyone,

I'm Jacob, a solo developer from Poland. For the past 6 months I've been building **Apollyon: XK Event**, an open-world survival horror set around Site ACHLYS, a containment facility that failed after an end-of-the-world event. I work on it in my free time next to my day job.

I'm preparing a Kickstarter to help fund assets, audio and the Steam release, and the prelaunch page is now open. I'm not here to hard-sell, though. I'd really like honest feedback from people who play this kind of game.

**What works in the current build:**

- Open-world sections (forest, outpost, facility tunnels)

- Grid-based inventory with stash, equipment slots and nearby items

- Body-part health system (damage per limb, treat injuries by dragging medical items onto the body part)

- Weapon customization

**Still in progress:**

- More locations, items, enemies and world events

- Audio, polish and balance

- Crafting mechanics

- Building mechanics

- many more!

Unedited gameplay from the real build (from editor so there are some performance bugs, no cuts, no AI footage): https://youtu.be/GzNUZUpqU9w

**Plan:** first playable demo in Q1 2027, Early Access later in 2027.

**What I'd love to hear:**

1. Does the inventory and health UI read well to you?
2. What would you want from an SCP-inspired survival game that most don't deliver?
3. Anything in the footage that looks off or unclear?

The game is an independent project inspired by the SCP Foundation (CC BY-SA 3.0). Some promo images are concept art, and I label them as such.

Kickstarter pre-launch page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/achlysdev/apollyon-xk-event

Thanks for reading!

Happy Friday!

Hi, I'm Mow Mow... Back in 2021 I released my game on Steam and in 2022 on itch.io. I am very proud of it still.

I just now am releasing it physically. Here is my pre-launch Kickstarter page, videos are in the description.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mowmow/campfire-tales-physical-edition-for-game-boy

• Real Game Boy compatible cartridge
• DS-style box with full color cover
• Printed instruction manual
• Super Game Boy enhancements (custom border + color palette)

I am open to any feedback or thoughts on this release as it is my first Kickstarter.

Thank you for checking it out!

In Baseball Shuffle, a die does two jobs: where it lands establishes the hit, then its result modifies what happens. The official turn diagram shown here shows how a tabletop flick becomes a baseball play.

The sequence moves from batting at home plate to the landing zone, the dice result, the fielders’ attempt and running the bases. Drinks can also act as bumpers. That combination of aim and dice results is the game’s central idea.

For anyone comparing pledges, the current campaign offers Sandlot and Home Field tabletop editions, plus Classic Field options with or without a table base. Check the individual reward’s contents, dimensions and shipping eligibility; these are different physical formats. Estimated delivery is currently July 2027. The campaign is open until November 2.

The graphic is an official Unplugged Arcade / Dan Winger campaign asset. It is a gameplay overview, not the complete rulebook. Final production details may differ from the campaign materials.

Disclosure: I’m Renato Franchi at Senshi Consulting, supporting this campaign with marketing. I’m sharing it as a campaign partner.

Campaign and current rewards: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wingerdesign/baseball-shuffle-by-unplugged-arcade

Gameplay demonstration linked by the creator: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/42thXR3EUbs

Lets say a project is projected to not reach the funding needed by the deadline date and someone was to go in on another and pledge the remaining amount on a credit card, would the project then achieve the fully funded status?

We’re currently in the pre-launch phase, but we’re not getting much traffic or exposure....

ngl my campaign ended a few weeks ago and raised way more than expected. now the reality of shipping to 3400 backers is setting in and i am lowkey terrified. never run fulfillment before in my life because this just started as a weekend project that got completely out of hand. now i need to figure out packging and international shipping to like 20 different countries. on top of that i somehow need to stand up an ongoing shopify store for people who missed the window all at the exact same time. where do i even start looking for a fulfillment center when i am this deep into it with zero experience. i seriously do not want to become the cautionary tale people warn each other about in these threads. half my nights rn are spent googling things like customs forms instead of actually celebrating that the campaign worked. it feels like a wild place to be. any advice helps

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/revion/gaming-glove

Hey everyone. A friend of mine has been working on a sports tech project and just launched it on Kickstarter, so I wanted to help him spread the word. He noticed how much palm friction and sweat can mess with mouse glide during long gaming sessions. His team actually used 3D hand scans from pro esports players, including Faker, to design this wearable called the REVION Grip. The fingers are left completely open so you do not lose any tactile feedback on your switches, but it uses a vegan leather palm pad to give you a consistent glide across your mousepad.

I was using designer gloves for a while and really liked this idea as a non-gamer. The palm padding sold me on this.

My campaign ends today, and many of the backers who baked a significant amount chose the new "installments plan", meaning that many would finish paying in December or January.

My product would be ready to ship in November, is there a risk of them not paying the full amount if they receive the package before they pay the last installment? Should I wait to ship until everyone has payed everything?

My friend told me about the up coming Haven Social (the one that poisons AI) and I was super interested. I went to look it up and was met with this Haven Social which has a similar idea. Are they both by the same creator?

Hey there,

Hope you're doing well!

After months of hard work, sweat, tears, and guilt tripping for doomscrolling, we are thrilled to announce the launch of "DOOMBOX" (screams of joy)!!! It’s a collection of comics, zines, and survival guides for the end of the world, all lovingly and carefully printed and packed into a premium box designed by us—the box of the ultimate end, the box of absolute disaster, the DOOMBOX!

But we need your support to make it a reality. The first 48 hours are the most critical for Kickstarter, so help us wake up the algorithm's demons. Support us in any way you can! Whether by backing our project or sharing it on social media, you’ll earn the eternal gratitude of four comic creators!

You can find "DOOMBOX" here:

DOOMBOX SURVIVAL KIT

Thank you so, so much for your time and support!

Avram, Blessed, Scum, Tragg

I'm currently fulfilling my Kickstarter, and I keep receiving messages from people who say that the pledge manager link I send them doesn't work, that they only see a 404. After a bit of investigation, it looks like these backers created an email mask when logging into Kickstarter, they created a new email using Apple's private relay. So, they try to log in with their normal email, they may already have a kickstarter account with their real email, but their reward is linked to an (at) privaterelay (dot) apple (dot) com email.

This is super confusing to them, because the emails Kickstarter and I send to them go straight into their regular inbox. My product appeels to all ages, so a lot of my backers are grandparents buying for their grandkids and such.

About 6% of my backers used the private relay. But only 20% have filled out the backer survey, vs 90% of backers with regular emails. So there are dozens of backers who think that Kickstarter has a technical issue, when really the issues is that Apple added a privacy option during login, and they have to log in with an email they might not have written down.

Is this an issue with other backers? My campaign was during April of this year, not sure when apple added the private emails, but I think Firefox added it in their browser this year.

I'm going to raise this issue with Kickstarter soon, maybe they could add some sort of warning or double confirmation to privaterelay accounts, or add more analytics to the backer report so that it's easier to see the issue? Are you having these issues when you use backer kit? I'm using Kickstarter's built in pledge manager, which I think is still somewhat new.

We funded in about a week and still have the rest of October to go. I view Kickstarter as the way to prove the demand for the thing you're making.

For background, we made a $20 card game and have a ton of excess quantity (assuming we don't suddenly get 200% more pledges) due to MOQ from our manufacturer.

After the campaign ends what is next to continue to sell the units? Shopify? Pitch to a retailer? Get an Amazn page going? Any advice is welcome.

We're a week into our Kickstarter campaign and we're only a quarter of the way towards our goal. Zero dollars spent on advertising. Zero mailing list. Just dove headfirst into the pool without even checking how deep the water was. Roast our campaign. Tell us where we went wrong. Be merciless. We can take it. Probably.

New to kickstarter

Hello all- I’ve never used kickstarter but am heading towards that path. I’ve read the faqs, but can you give me some context? Just an overview/tips. It’s for kind of a “group” project.

I had found a years worth of wwii newspapers that were printed aboard vessels in the South Pacific. I have permission from the Air Force to publish them, and I am/have been researching the names of every soldier and adding it to the book with newspapers. Where I am at, I have about 5+ books in queue. When I complete what I have, I am hoping others are willing to share newspapers, love letters, obituaries, etc. I would like to publish and share with anyone who wants. The goal is to ultimately give money directly to my local vfws. I’m going to publish ebooks for free/cheap. I live near DC, so I plan to dig through archives that haven’t been scanned. Kinda like “oh my grandfathers service records are in the national archives” kind of a deal. Anyway, a couple are on Amazon, free with kindle unlimited, and I’ll keep publishing.

POOP DECK PRESS The soldiers chose the name, not me. An Amazon search is guaranteed to mess with your algorithm.

Go easy, my work is kinda basic at the moment.

And guidance to start would be awesome. Thanks guys.

The Forerunner: UK, the first in a series of community and culture based documentaries, this one is personal and looks to showcase the UK's great history, if you like the idea then please feel to click the link below and support us.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/theforerunners/the-forerunner-uk

#TheForerunnerUK #5618Studios #IndependentFilm #DocumentaryFilm #Kickstarter #Crowdfunding #SupportIndieFilm #ExploreBritain #UKRoadTrip

This is a really small playing card project. 8 days ago, it was at 91% with 21 days to go and I was feeling really good about things. Last week has been unbelievable. I've had several changes in pledges and a couple of major cancelations that have dropped it to 81% today with just over 13%. I have more than enough followers to fund easily but my conversion rate is absolutely miserable (12%). I'm completely bewildered by this. I've shown it on as many Facebook groups and subreddits as I can think of, and sent announcements to every former backer, and it's the same story: compliments but very few pledges. They obviously think it's nice, but not $15 nice. I don't really think there's anything I can do except stop watching the train wreck unfold.

I'm just looking for feedback on the Kickstarter campaign we launched yesterday. Feel free to weigh in on the product, the messaging, the reward structure, the video, anything. Thank you!

I've never backed anything on kickstarter before and I'm looking to back a piece of furniture by a first time creator. It is currently above its funding goal. Does furniture have a higher risk of failing or is it relatively safe? I'm worried about the risk of sending my money without getting the furniture or a refund.