We could be long gone the times of video games firms elevating eye-watering figures on Kickstarter, however the platform is nonetheless a viable approach to increase cash to fund – ultimately a part of – your game.
Research from Ico Partners’ Thomas Bidaux shows that in 2025, video games firms raised $26 million on Kickstarter – stage with 2024’s figures, and one of many extra profitable years because the final huge Kickstarter increase in 2015.
Final 12 months, 443 video game tasks have been efficiently funded on Kickstarter, a minor discount (4%) from 2024’s figures. 55 game tasks raised over $100,000 in 2025, whereas 11 remodeled $500,000.
“Final time there have been so many $500k-plus tasks was in 2015,” Bidaux says. “There are early indicators that 2026 will likely be in line with the 2025 tempo. Kickstarter is not funding the entire video video games trade, however there are good alternatives for the tasks occurring the platform.”
David Harper, the MD of Skyhook Video games, which lately took to Kickstarter to safe funding for Lawn Mowing Simulator 2, says that though crowdfunding has by no means been a straightforward possibility, there are completely different “background challenges” that may have an effect on a undertaking’s success.
“Avid gamers might be paralysed by alternative,” Harper says. “Marketing channels are flooded, curation is mild, and the financial system – each throughout the video games trade and extra typically – has been fairly powerful.”
One huge problem going through Kickstarter tasks is the barrier to entry. Within the platform’s early days, firms may merely pitch an thought; Frontier’s Elite: Harmful, for instance, was very a lot a tough and prepared work in progress when it raised over £1.5 million on Kickstarter in 2012. Now, you need to have an almost-complete game to safe funding.
“You need to have the game in a state the place you’ll be able to seize release-quality footage, and it is even higher if you happen to can provide a demo,” Bidaux explains. “Alongside that, you need to be fairly superior in your marketing effort. You need an viewers already engaged and in the game. The marketing campaign will assist attain extra folks, however you need a beginning base to make it work.
“Each of those factors imply you can not flip to Kickstarter on a whim if funds are all of the sudden scarce, or if you happen to need these funds to make the undertaking presentable.
“Crowdfunding is fundamentally a marketing and a community train. In an trade the place funding is far more tough to safe, getting to the purpose the place Kickstarter turns into an possibility is not straightforward.”
Dangerous actors
One other problem confronted by Skyhook’s Harper is scammers on the Kickstarter platform. Twice, the undertaking acquired massive pledges that “appeared nice for the marketing campaign”, however these accounts have been eliminated. The second occasion of this introduced the Garden Mowing Simulator 2 crowdfunding push underneath its goal in the ultimate 24 hours.
“We would been ‘funded’ for over three weeks, however the measurement of the withdrawn pledge meant that we have been all of the sudden again beneath our marketing campaign goal,” Harper explains. “Kickstarter kindly provided to prolong our marketing campaign by a week, and with assist from extra backers who noticed our scenario, we accomplished the marketing campaign efficiently – however the scenario made it fairly powerful for us to ever actually really feel in management of our future.”
Harper admits that this exercise is exhausting for platforms to handle; in spite of everything, any further friction designed to dissuade scammers may additionally show problematic for real backers.
“The one possible way to stop an expertise like ours is to restrict the price of the very best tiers,” Harper says. “This prevents a single eliminated pledge from derailing the marketing campaign total, but it surely additionally limits the chance for a genuinely type soul to assist a marketing campaign to that diploma. So that you simply have to stability the danger with the potential reward.”
A probably tough path
Crowdfunding in the video games house is not with out its critics. Daniel Milo, indie director at Azoove maker Timeless Toucan, took to LinkedIn earlier this 12 months to advise studios not to try to fund their video games in this way.
For one, he says that a “largely completed” game is “nearly at all times” required for achievement, in addition to an “present viewers”. In case you are releasing your game on Steam, Milo says that you’re “punished” for promoting keys through the marketing campaign because the platform ignores “your core viewers’s opinions”. That is on prime of an unsuccessful marketing campaign probably having a destructive affiliation that can make it tougher to safe a writer.
“There are many systemic issues with crowdfunding, and due to competitiveness, many studios are pressured to have interaction in techniques I frown upon,” Milo continues. “Due to the character of all-or-nothing funding and the tradition of ‘funded in 35 seconds’, studios are inspired to place their goal drastically beneath what they really need to increase, risking a ‘funded’ game that may’t attain the discharge line.”
“Search conventional funding by means of publishers, angels, and VCs, in case you are determined”
Milo says that these contemplating crowdfunding ought to have a look at options. The primary is the “extra conventional path”.
“Search conventional funding by means of publishers, angels, and VCs, in case you are determined,” he says. “In case you have a game of adequate high quality and capability to create a marketing marketing campaign that will consequence in a profitable marketing campaign, you might have the assets to present traction and high quality to the buyers.”
The opposite possibility is a revenue-sharing or “sweat fairness” path, the place workers take little or zero wage at first, however are given a share in the eventual income or in the corporate itself.
“The primary upside is not counting on the crowdfunding cash, and planning your scope to folks’s consolation from the start,” Milo says.
Upfront work
The primary bit of recommendation from practically everybody we spoke to for this piece is easy: you need to put as a lot work as doable into constructing a community earlier than a marketing campaign begins. Hrvoje Horvatek, CEO and game designer at The Red Solstice and Atre: Dominance Wars developer Ironward, says that studios ought to arrange a web page on Kickstarter earlier than launching a marketing campaign.
“Don’t launch until you attain no less than 500 followers,” he explains. “That is the one approach to guarantee you’re going to get a respectable begin even when all of your marketing efforts find yourself not working as anticipated.”
Bidaux provides: “I normally advocate no less than three months of marketing effort earlier than the opening of your ‘Coming Quickly’ web page and the launch of the particular marketing campaign. I’ve heard different specialists advocate planning for six months.”
On the follower level, Skyhook’s Harper says that it is necessary to know that the accounts following you’re actual.
“Don’t launch until you attain no less than 500 followers”
“Whilst you can improve your marketing campaign’s follower depend earlier than launch by paying cash to specialist marketing companies, you additionally threat spending cash to purchase pretend accounts or bots,” he says. “We selected not to use an company for this goal, however one other marketing campaign launched across the similar time suffered considerably. Though they’d extra followers than we did, nearly none of these transformed into backing at launch, and it was fairly powerful to see.”
Harper additionally says that you shouldn’t “underestimate” how a lot work constructing a compelling marketing campaign web page is.
“As with constructing your community forward of launch, you additionally need to commit a lot of time to making certain that you’ve got a actually good number of idea artwork, screenshots, and gameplay movies that exhibit your game in one of the best mild doable,” he explains. “Equally, you’ll need logos, GIFs, banners, interesting graphic design, and actually well-written copy to make the marketing campaign web page pop.”
Make it pop
Crescent County from Electrical Saint – which was lately picked up by Kinetic Publishing – raised practically £95,000 on Kickstarter in 2025, greater than doubling its funding aim. Electrical Saint co-founder Anna Hollinrake has one huge tip for would-be crowdfunders: “GIFs. Oh my god, cowl your web page with gameplay GIFs. Put your artwork entrance and centre. Be sure to have actually punchy imagery. You need to just remember to’ve each received some playable gameplay.”
With regards to imagery, Hollinrake says that proper now, it is necessary to showcase how you make the game and take your community behind the scenes.
“Do not be afraid to put in working sketches and early concepts, as a result of folks love to see that, particularly now in the age of AI,” she says. “Individuals are far more excited to see your thought course of. I completely advocate being susceptible about it and being sincere. I feel being fairly upfront about why you are doing one thing is necessary. Individuals on Kickstarter actually worth genuineness.”
The Electrical Saint co-founder additionally says it is necessary to know what elements of your Kickstarter marketing campaign web page you’ll be able to edit after it goes dwell.
“We positively tousled on not placing photographs in the person rewards, and you’ll be able to’t return and replace them,” she says. “Any rewards that you simply provide are going to be locked the minute that somebody will get it. You’ve to be fairly cautious about that, however you’ll be able to at all times add extras on after.”
Particulars matter
Whereas there isn’t any hurt in taking a look at previous successes on Kickstarter, Bidaux emphasises that it is necessary to perceive why they labored.
“It is very straightforward to make huge errors by taking a look at previous profitable campaigns, and not perceive what made them click on with their viewers,” he explains. “Some errors might be very expensive, even when your marketing campaign meets its aim. Not designing your rewards correctly, as an illustration, has tripped multiple very well-funded undertaking.”
Bidaux additionally factors out one other little bit of “missed” recommendation – really having a dialog with Kickstarter.
“Kickstarter has a devoted Video games group whose sole raison d’être is to make the creators on the platform profitable,” he says. “Speak to them.”
There’s additionally the darkish magic of deciding how to select a funding aim. If tasks do not meet the mark, then they do not get something, so touchdown on a goal is a superb line.
“It was like, what is the minimal period of time that we need from growth roles and how a lot can we pay?” Hollinrake says.
“What could be a truthful wage – not a nice wage – and what can get us to a level the place we will take every thing that we have made and string it collectively to make it a full expertise?”
There could also be fewer headline-grabbing success tales on Kickstarter now, however that is not to say that video games on the crowdfunding platform haven’t got a shiny future forward of them. Bidaux says that there is a lot of “untapped potential” for video games and crowdfunding.
“With the marketing for video games getting extra and more difficult, this is a superb additional beat to add to a undertaking that may fund itself and have a tremendous halo impact in your viewers,” he says. “I feel there are extra alternatives with crowdfunding in the longer term for video video games than ever earlier than.”
Harper provides: “General, the idea of video game crowdfunding is in a good place. The challenges are nonetheless very actual, however if you happen to take your time, do your analysis and have a compelling undertaking, there’s each likelihood of discovering success. We realized a nice deal throughout our marketing campaign, together with a lot about marketing in basic. If we discovered ourselves in a comparable scenario in the longer term, we actually would not rule out crowdfunding once more.”