Kickstarter is by far one of the most important sites in crowdsourcing. But some people are taking crowdsourcing into their own hands. Some people are doing both, by promoting their game on-site and on a Kickstarter. We are going to look at a few good examples of this trend.
Some people have given $1,000 USD or more to this game, they get pets in exchange and can design an item.
Crowdsourcing and Path of Exile
Path of Exile is a special case when it comes to crowdsourcing. They realized something we have been telling people for ages: your beta has value. In this case, people have paid huge sums of money for beta keys. Those who pay more are allowed to invite more friends and give feedback on game design.
Succeeding Even Before Release
Path of Exile, even before release, has raised $200,000 and climbing. They already have massive funding for a game that has not even been released. It is even going to be free-to-play. There are some definite lessons to be learned from this.
Void Rim and Double Promotion
Void Rim is an example of a game with a Kickstarter and a site Void Rim is an interesting twist on standard RTS gameplay. So why does this stand out? Because they did a great many things correctly. They are also using the free-to-play model, but promoting it heavily.
This example shows us that Kickstarter and programs like it are but a piece of a great crowdsourcing campaign. What is perhaps most interesting to note is that you can sell your betas on Kickstarter and still hand out beta invites to others. So far, many games have done this and we have not seen much negative feedback.
The Final Lesson
The final thing to take from all of this is that crowdsourcing is easier if you approach it from multiple fronts. Have a Kickstarter, and take donations. Speak with fans, and with the media. If you do things right, the unbreakable walls that were there will simply melt before you.
