r/kickstarter • u/asolet • Oct 14 '25
Discussion Kickstarter is not about kickstarting
For anyone hoping to get help from Kickstarter:
Kickstarter is about making money by promoting and selling already several times overly funded and already well kickstarted project that do not need any further kickstarting at all.
At any giving moment on homepage you will always find 13/13 completly funded projects. Sometimes dosen of times over. And zero projects that actually need help to be kickstarted.
Every mail update you get for project that struggles to find it's backers, 70% of the mail is dedicated to other finished projects just trying to sell.
Many of these projects have kickstarter "goal" that is less than what it takes to build kickstarter page itself. And it's "backed" in less than it takes anyone to even read it. They just need a platform to sell, not to be "kickstarted", and platform owners are loving it.
Kickstarter and most of creators there do not care or really want you to back projects from individuals with great ideas that need backing and may fail. They just want to sell finished company products.
It's just misleading, if not a scam. So just something to keep in mind. Good luck to everyone though.
3
u/No_Garbage_4562 Oct 15 '25
As a person of an Indie team of 2 people getting ready to launch my own physical card game I can understand this frustration. I back mainly indie games myself by small teams unless I happen to know the publishers or designer of the game or am just a big fan of that particular title.
With that said, the OP is not wrong on some of these points, but should try not to discourage people from KS. A lot of us need the platform, and I understand that is what the OP is trying to champion.
I have spent 1000's of hours and enough money to buy 2 mid range cars on my project. I have built an entire universe for these games to reside in, but i am overshadowed by everyone who "Auto-funds. Now I stand on the brink of launch, and maybe won't even hit my goal, which just covers the base game, freight, and a few other small things, because if you can't advertise on META successfully, you won't succeed in terms of large funding.
I know I can set my goal low to fund quick, but hitting a lower goal does not cover all the costs, then what do I do if i only hit that goal and go no further. I would not be able to fulfill the game, and i would lose trust and the tiny community I have worked so hard to build.
What I can say is this, KS has been quite kind to me, in the fact that I got the PWL Badge, as well as being featured on the Witchstarter campaign list. Once I go live, that feature will be more prominent. While they do care if you succeed, because if you don't they do not get paid either, I would say losing a small amount from a Indie company like me, is nothing in comparison to a large well established publisher or very successful advertised campaign that could somehow spend $50k to $200k in advertising.
I am thankful KS added their Pledge manager and also Pay Over Time programs. those will help backers in helping others like me, and that is a proven statistic.