CrowD Games

Videos are the Key

TO SUCCESSFUL KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGNS

by Maxim Istomin, CEO, CrowD Games

Hi, my name is Max, I am a board game publisher and video producer, one of the founders of CrowD Games. In this article I would like to share with you how we used creative videos to market our latest Kickstarter project – City of the

Great Machine.

Anyone who ever ran a Kickstarter project realizes how important the introductory video is. We live in the age of visualization. Fewer and fewer people read text, instead opting out in favor of viewing video/audio content. This is why a good video presentation of your board game is critical for a Kickstarter project. At a time when the average human attention span (8 seconds) is less than that of a goldfish (9 seconds), you must grab and keep your visitor’s attention the moment they land on your project’s page.

How can you accomplish it?

Please have a look at the video trailer for the City of the Great Machine. To make this video we did not need a prototype of the game because we had all the artwork. On its basis we created 3D models of all game components. We animated card illustrations to bring forward the atmosphere of the game and then showed the simplified game mechanics using these 3D component models. As a result, the video was seen by more than 2000 viewers on Youtube. This is not the end of our story. Another important video that you should have in your project is game unboxing. The more creative and fun your unboxing is, the more people are likely to see it. To film an eye-catching unboxing, you need a good prototype, which should be as close to the final version of the game as possible. The second ingredient for a successful unboxing video is a creative filming crew.

Check out this atmospheric unboxing made by our team. The goal was to make the viewer feel a part of the steampunk game world. This unboxing video received more than 3,500 views and even hit the BGG Video Hotness.

After the unboxing, we decided to take it a step further and made short video clips for each update in the project for the opening of all major stretch goals. We tried to thematically unite those clips with parts of the introductory video and the unboxing.

Finally at the end of the project we had the final clip, which you can also watch: In his blog, Jamie Stegmaier noted our idea and shared his thoughts on it. “I really love this entire approach to stretch goals. Honestly, as a backer, I rarely pay attention to stretch goals anymore, but if more projects made the reveals as exciting as City of the Great Machine, I would tune in for those updates.”

So what about the result of our campaign? More than 2,300 backers, which is not bad for a new publisher. In my opinion, video content played an important role in this success.

It is a general understanding that highquality videos cost too much. That is a path for big corporations with huge budgets who go through marketing agencies. But a good video does not have to be expensive. We offer top-quality video production at an affordable price for small publishers such as ourselves.

Please check out

our website to learn more about what we offer.