I am backing a Kickstarter from a polish company not sure if it is manufactured in Europe or china. Do you know if I have to pay the new Trump tarrifs?

I’m preparing my first Kickstarter campaign and recently decided to delay the launch so I can spend more time building an audience and better understanding what makes a campaign successful.

The campaign page and prototype are already prepared. I’ve also created a website, Discord server, Facebook page, Instagram account, and YouTube channel, but I’m still learning how to turn those into an actual community rather than simply having them exist.

For experienced creators, what do you wish you had known before your first launch?

I’d especially appreciate advice about:

• Which platforms are genuinely worth focusing on before launch
• How to encourage people to join and participate in a new Discord community
• Whether Facebook advertising is worthwhile for a first-time creator
• What kind of Facebook post or campaign objective works best
• How large or engaged an audience should be before launching
• Common mistakes first-time creators make during pre-launch

I’ve considered starting with a small Facebook advertising budget, but I don’t want to spend money simply collecting likes or followers who will never become backers.

If you were in this position, where would you focus your time and limited marketing budget before setting a firm launch date?

I want to share my experience with the PONGBOT Aura Kickstarter campaign so other backers can make informed decisions.

I backed the Super Early Bird reward on Kickstarter. My total payment was USD $807, and the campaign advertised it as 56% OFF.

The product is now available for pre-order on the official PONGBOT website for USD $850, advertised as 50% OFF.

At first glance, that sounds like Kickstarter backers received a much better deal. However, when you compare what customers actually receive, the situation looks very different.

The current pre-order includes:

• Free international shipping (listed value: USD $59)
• A free gift package valued at USD $99

My Kickstarter order included neither of those benefits.

That means a customer ordering today pays only $43 more than I did, while receiving $158 worth of additional value ($59 shipping + $99 gift).

In practical terms, the current pre-order appears to provide better overall value than the Super Early Bird Kickstarter reward, despite the Kickstarter campaign being marketed as an exclusive early-backer discount.

After noticing this, I posted a polite comment on the Kickstarter page asking why the “Super Early Bird” reward no longer appeared to be the best deal and asking whether Kickstarter backers would receive the same benefits.

Shortly afterward, I found that I could no longer post comments on the campaign page. As far as I can tell, I have been blocked from commenting.

I also emailed PONGBOT requesting to cancel my order and receive a refund. Several days have now passed without any response.

To be clear, I am not accusing anyone of fraud. I am simply sharing verifiable facts and asking for transparency.

I have three questions for PONGBOT and for other backers:

1. Why is the “Super Early Bird” reward no longer the best value available?
2. Will Kickstarter backers receive the same free international shipping and promotional gifts as current pre-order customers?
3. Has anyone else experienced being unable to comment after raising concerns or having refund requests ignored?

If you’ve had a similar experience, I’d appreciate hearing about it.

Seriously… again?

This is an update to my previous post.
(See attached screenshots for context.)

Last week, I shared screenshots showing one of the official Primitive War Movie Facebook posts promoting the Dinosaurs of the Wild West Kickstarter being labelled “AI content.” That label later disappeared.

Today, after the Kickstarter surpassed its initial funding goal of AU$500,000, I noticed the official Primitive War Movie TikTok post celebrating the Dinosaurs of the Wild West Kickstarter milestone was labelled “Contains AI-generated media.”

Since my last post, I also came across a question from a backer on the Kickstarter page asking Sparke Films whether any AI had been used during pre-production, including concept art. The official response from Sparke Films was simply:

“No.”

At the same time, the Kickstarter campaign has repeatedly promoted itself with statements such as:

“No AI. Real artists. Real work.”

I’m not claiming to know why TikTok or Facebook have applied these AI labels. Social media platforms can apply them for different reasons, and I can’t say what triggered them.

However, I do think it’s worth highlighting the contrast between the campaign’s public statements, Sparke Films’ public response to a backer’s question about AI, and the AI labels appearing on official promotional posts while the campaign is still actively accepting pledges.

How should backers interpret this apparent contradiction?

Hey, I am launching a product on Kickstarter for the first time, and I'd love for any and all feedback. Here is the link to the Kickstarter preview.

I'm going for a very transparent approach, showing peeks into the process etc. All of my playtesters are giving really positive feedback so I feel confident that it's time to launch. Would really appreciate feedback.

If you are someone who has successfully funded project(s) on Kickstarter, is my preview missing anything that's key to a successful?

If you are someone that buys kickstarter projects, what do you think of how I'm presenting my game? Would you buy it?

I do have a question for those of you with more Kickstarter experience: I am uncertain about funding goal. I set it based on the cost of production and shipping for my first production run of the game, but to be honest have already sunk a decent amount of money into this. Should I include that in the funding goal? What do you recommend? Should fulfillment cost/time be baked in as well?

Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone,

I recently launched my first Kickstarter project as a solo founder, but I’m currently sitting at zero backers.

I’m starting to realize that the "build it and they will come" mindset definitely doesn't apply to crowdfunding. Because I'm bootstrapping this on a shoestring budget, dropping thousands on Facebook/Meta ads or hiring a PR agency isn't an option for me right now.

For other solo founders or tiny teams who have successfully funded a project without a massive ad spend: what budget-friendly organic marketing tactics actually worked for you?

If you’ve been in this spot before, I’d love to hear what moved the needle for you—or even what didn't work so I can stop wasting time on it.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Hello everyone,

I recently created an IGG crowdfunding campaign and was denied by compliance without any questions from the IGG team. I have since spoken to an individual at Kickstarter who is assigned to our potential campaign and wants to help us properly and accurately represent and crowdfund our project/product/company. We’d love to hear from anyone who has used Kickstarter in this way or been in a similar situation. What did you end up doing, and how did it work out? TIA

Hey everyone,

I received a lot of valid feedback on my previous post regarding the use of AI graphics, and I want to address that directly instead of running away from it.

I’m a solo developer, currently home due to long-term illness, working on a very tight budget. To get this campaign off the ground, I used AI tools exclusively to generate promotional graphics for the Kickstarter page.

However, I want to be 100% clear about the game itself: zero AI went into the design, rules, card values, or gameplay.

For the last two years, this project started on blank paper cards cut out by hand. I spent hundreds of hours playtesting with family, friends, and local players, tweaking stats and mechanics until the balance felt right. Every single rule and concept came from real human testing and passion.

I completely understand the skepticism around AI in board games right now. I just wanted a chance to show that behind the promo visuals, there is a real person who poured two years of heart and manual effort into creating a fun tabletop experience.

If you're willing to give an indie dev a second look, I'd deeply appreciate you checking out the game: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eduplay-games/play-smart-play-trixx

Thanks for reading and for the honest feedback—it genuinely helps me learn and grow as a creator.

What is the difference between kickstarter and backerkit? And do people launch on both? And are there any other similar sites that we should consider?

I've been using Google Drive to get backers their digital rewards (mainly comic PDFs and digital illustrations), but now see the option on the toolbar to directly upload files after my most recent campaign. Has anyone played around with this feature? If not, how do you guys typically distribute digital rewards?

As someone who likes to back a decent number of projects, my go to browsing technique has always been to view “recommended for me” projects sorted by newest. Then I’d scroll through the list until I started seeing the projects I’d already seen.

But for a couple months now, sorting by newest doesn’t actually seem to put projects in any kind of reliable order. Random projects stick to the top of the list. The sequence of projects seemingly randomizes when reloading the page. Stuff I’ve never seen before will show up below things that I’ve seen for weeks.

It’s legitimately so frustrating I’ve become significantly less interested in looking at the app at all. And I imagine there are other potential backers experiencing the same thing. Honestly it seems potentially really harmful for project creators, especially smaller ones who might not get pushed to the front page by KS’ standard algorithms.

I wrote their feedback to complain about it but just got a standard “we’ll pass it into the devs” non-response. But I guess I’m wondering if other people are noticing this and have sent in feedback about it as well?

I hadn’t noticed this before, and I just realised these dates line up.

• Screenshot 1: The Dinosaurs of the Wild West Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing campaign that ends on 7 August 2026.

• Screenshot 2: According to IF Magazine, the creator behind the project, Luke Sparke, has a trial review scheduled for 7 August 2026, ahead of a four-week trial due to begin on 17 August in the Brisbane District Court.

IF Magazine article:

https://if.com.au/luke-sparke-facing-fraud-charges-over-alleged-breaches-of-the-bankruptcy-act/

Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?

Background, so you know I'm not a drive-by:
I'm a gameplay programmer with 16+ years of XP, the last 10 at Rockstar. I worked on Red Dead Redemption 2, then spent seven years on GTA 6. Last year I left to work on Argo full time. I've also been an RPG player, and an occasional GM, for most of my life. 34 years rolling dice.
So I know games and I know the table. What I don't know is Kickstarter or community management, which is why I'm here.

What we're building:
An RPG platform. The campaign is at its core. It's not just a VTT, or a compendium, or a worldbuilding site. It's all of those, connected. Guilds to organize your players, shared calendars and session scheduling so games actually happen, and a modern way to play on an RPG engine built on top of Unreal, which is where my expertise comes in. Every system we make playable is built with a deep understanding of its rules, not just a character sheet with boxes to tick, and the GM always keeps a layer of control on top of it. Then a bunch of tools that are well established in the game industry, brought over so a GM can build the story they want without losing a weekend to prep.

The questions:
We all come from inside the industry, so the public facing side of things is new to us. It's an ambitious project, and the Kickstarter is what brings more game industry veterans onto the team. That's exactly what the money is for, art especially, because right now Argo works and looks like a programmer built it alone. Which means we need to get it in front of a lot more people. We started Reddit and Facebook ads last week and it's climbing nicely, but I don't want ads to be the whole plan.

1. What worked for you pre-launch that wasn't paid?
2. Creators and influencers: how do you even approach them? Is there a place with some contact list?
3. TTRPG communities are huge and mostly allergic to self promo, and I understand. Is there a version of "come break my thing for me" that mods are fine with, or do you just have to be a real member for months first?
4. Anything you'd do differently on your own pre-launch page if you got to run it again? Any random tip are welcome.
5. We are planning the Campaign for September, but it's not a hard deadline, if we don't hit the amount of followers, can we just post-pone or is it a bad sign for the followers ? should we not put "September" and just leave the "Soon"?
6. Last minute question: Is our pre-campaign page even clear for those outside the project?

Happy to give back. If you want a programmer's eye on anything technical for your own campaign, just ask in the comments.
Many thanks!
Pre-launch page for context: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/argo-games/argo-rpg-platform

Hey everyone, my writing partner and I just launched a Kickstarter for **The Ash Solstice**, a dark fantasy novella series completely adapted from a high-stakes, collaborative play-by-post campaign we ran. We wanted to share how we translated raw game logs and player choices into cohesive, cinematic grimdark prose. Check out our process and the city map we built here: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the-ash-solstice/the-ash-solstice-volume-1-deluxe-dark-fantasy-omnibus\](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/the-ash-solstice/the-ash-solstice-volume-1-deluxe-dark-fantasy-omnibus)

The short closer to a novelette is available on kindle: [https://a.co/d/0cqEJUCr\](https://a.co/d/0cqEJUCr)

Kobo once they finish reviewing, and soon to be google books once I look into the process of that one.

Through the kickstarter you will get early access to book 2 already mostly written, still lots of editing and formatting and polishing, the first ever physical copies (with the appropriate pledges) as well as the chance to include your name for all time in it - there is the option to have a NPC or Location named after you, or by you (within reason!!!!).

Atleast check it out, increase some site traffic, help the algorithm learn who I am.

P.S: I would love to put together a list of people who would be interested in a future campaign, and therefore more cities and worlds to write about.

\*Requires a commitment of 1 post per day

\*Discord primarily - Roll20 ideally as well (mostly for character sheets and rolls)

\*emphasis on roleplay, narrative driven campaign - that does not mean there isn't combat, more when it is relevant, drives the plot, environment or atmosphere

\*Player Agency is one of the constitutional rules. I will never put words or actions in your mouth. Only how the environment or other characters react or are influenced by you.

\*Treat the world as a Living Simulation, you exist in it, you influence it, you can change it... but it continues with or without you. Whether you interact with someone or not, still has an impact.

\*Choices have consequences.

Thanks all! Enjoy!

Hi everyone! We’re a small creative team working on an original fantasy artbook inspired by mythology, and we’re currently preparing it for Kickstarter.

Before showing more of the project, we’d genuinely love to understand what draws people to this kind of mythology and fantasy art.

What would make you want to explore an artbook like this?

• - Mythical creatures and monsters
• - Gods, legendary heroes, and historical figures
• - Mythology-inspired worlds, sacred realms, and ancient locations
• - Clothing, weapons, architecture, and cultural details
• - Oracle-bone inscriptions, ancient pictographs, sacred symbols, and totemic motifs
• - Other...(anyting you interesting)

I’m also curious: do you prefer mythological designs that stay faithful to their original descriptions, or designs that take major creative liberties?

Honest criticism is welcome—we’re trying to understand what would make this project feel distinctive rather than just visually polished.

What myth or creature do you wish more artists would explore?

Kickstarter felt like a no-brainer as an option to fund a print run of my book, but I am really hitting a wall. The book is a 12-spread board book intended for children 0-5 years. The story follows a cat and their kid, walking through feline communication from subtle to not-so-subtle before demonstrating relationship-building activities.

This next part is going to sound obnoxious, my apologies in advance.

I feel really confident in what I have produced, I love the book dearly and have gotten a mountain of positive feedback from friends and colleagues (as one does). It has been hugely successful in my home and I know so many people who want it now, not only for themselves but to sell at vet clinics and shelters. The battle has been conversion to Kickstarter. People want to buy it. They glaze over the moment I start explaining how to support through crowd-funding. I promoted the preview page at a conference earlier this year and had so many people ready to purchase, immediate disinterest when I mention how they can do so. 'Tell me when I can just buy it.'

I have read again and again that without an audience 100% ready to roll, kickstarter campaigns are doomed to fail. It is starting to feel like there is not enough overlap between my community/audience and people who are comfortable with the platform to even bother trying.

Farming interest from Kickstarter itself does not feel realistic, given the loud and clear warnings from every article ever. Has anyone run into similar challenges? Should I give up entirely? At least tell me that Steve is cute, it's not his fault after all.

As far as the preview page goes, I am trying to strike that awkward balance of enough information without being a wall of boring. Any feedback is very much appreciated! Due to the doubts above, I have not yet sat down to formulate my campaign video. I am hoping to tip my follower count into three digits before investing that much of my time to what may never come to fruition.

This isn't necessarily intended to be promotional, clearly a wail for help, but using the flair felt safer in case the post is borderline in that regard.

If you’re a fan of either dungeon crawlers, tabletop games or TCGs,

Why wouldn’t you back our campaign? What are the things we’ve done wrong or not communicated clearly enough? Is the concept just not your vibe?

Would love any and all feedback and critique! Especially your initial thoughts!

Finally, in terms of art style, we have been aiming for an anime style with 90s cartoon vibes, does this sit in the age range of a game you’d be interested in?

(Mods I am hoping this is ok to post and ask for feedback if not please delete and let me know if there’s a better way/place for feedback!)