We may be gone the times of video games corporations elevating eye-watering figures on Kickstarter, however the platform continues to be a viable solution to increase cash to fund – finally a part of – your recreation.
Research from Ico Partners’ Thomas Bidaux shows that in 2025, video games corporations raised $26 million on Kickstarter – degree with 2024’s figures, and one of many extra profitable years for the reason that final massive Kickstarter increase in 2015.
Final 12 months, 443 online game tasks have been efficiently funded on Kickstarter, a minor discount (4%) from 2024’s figures. 55 recreation tasks raised over $100,000 in 2025, whereas 11 revamped $500,000.
“Final time there have been so many $500k-plus tasks was in 2015,” Bidaux says. “There are early indicators that 2026 can be in step with the 2025 tempo. Kickstarter is just not funding the entire video video games business, however there are good alternatives for the tasks happening the platform.”
David Harper, the MD of Skyhook Video games, which not too long ago took to Kickstarter to safe funding for Lawn Mowing Simulator 2, says that though crowdfunding has by no means been a straightforward choice, there are totally different “background challenges” that may have an effect on a undertaking’s success.
“Players may be paralysed by selection,” Harper says. “Advertising and marketing channels are flooded, curation is gentle, and the financial system – each inside the video games business and extra typically – has been fairly robust.”
One massive problem dealing with Kickstarter tasks is the barrier to entry. Within the platform’s early days, corporations might 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 have to have an almost-complete recreation to safe funding.
“It’s essential have the sport in a state the place you possibly can seize release-quality footage, and it’s even higher if you happen to can provide a demo,” Bidaux explains. “Alongside that, you have to be fairly superior in your advertising and marketing effort. You want an viewers already engaged and within the recreation. The marketing campaign will assist attain extra individuals, however you want a beginning base to make it work.
“Each of those factors imply you can not flip to Kickstarter on a whim if funds are out of the blue scarce, or if you happen to want these funds to make the undertaking presentable.
“Crowdfunding is basically a advertising and marketing and a neighborhood train. In an business the place funding is far more troublesome to safe, attending to the purpose the place Kickstarter turns into an choice is just not straightforward.”
Dangerous actors
One other problem confronted by Skyhook’s Harper is scammers on the Kickstarter platform. Twice, the undertaking obtained 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 within the last 24 hours.
“We might been ‘funded’ for over three weeks, however the measurement of the withdrawn pledge meant that we have been out of the blue again under our marketing campaign goal,” Harper explains. “Kickstarter kindly provided to increase our marketing campaign by per week, and with help from extra backers who noticed our scenario, we accomplished the marketing campaign efficiently – however the scenario made it fairly robust for us to ever actually really feel in charge of our future.”
Harper admits that this exercise is tough for platforms to handle; in spite of everything, any extra friction designed to dissuade scammers might additionally show problematic for real backers.
“The one actual solution 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 sort soul to help a marketing campaign to that diploma. So that you simply need to steadiness the danger with the potential reward.”
A doubtlessly troublesome path
Crowdfunding within the video games area is just not with out its critics. Daniel Milo, indie director at Azoove maker Timeless Toucan, took to LinkedIn earlier this 12 months to advise studios to not try to fund their video games on this method.
For one, he says {that a} “largely completed” recreation is “nearly all the time” required for fulfillment, along with an “present viewers”. If you’re releasing your recreation on Steam, Milo says that you’re “punished” for promoting keys by way of the marketing campaign because the platform ignores “your core viewers’s evaluations”. That is on high of an unsuccessful marketing campaign doubtlessly having a destructive affiliation that may make it more durable to safe a writer.
“There are many systemic issues with crowdfunding, and as a result of competitiveness, many studios are compelled to have interaction in techniques I frown upon,” Milo continues. “As a result of nature of all-or-nothing funding and the tradition of ‘funded in 35 seconds’, studios are inspired to put their goal drastically under what they really want to lift, risking a ‘funded’ recreation that may’t attain the discharge line.”
“Search conventional funding by publishers, angels, and VCs, in case you are determined”
Milo says that these contemplating crowdfunding ought to have a look at alternate options. The primary is the “extra conventional path”.
“Search conventional funding by publishers, angels, and VCs, in case you are determined,” he says. “When you have a recreation of adequate high quality and skill to create a advertising and marketing marketing campaign that might end in a profitable marketing campaign, you will have the assets to point out traction and high quality to the traders.”
The opposite choice is a revenue-sharing or “sweat fairness” path, the place staff take little or zero wage at first, however are given a share within the eventual earnings or within the firm itself.
“The principle upside is just not counting on the crowdfunding cash, and planning your scope to individuals’s consolation from the start,” Milo says.
Upfront work
The principle bit of recommendation from almost everybody we spoke to for this piece is easy: you have to put as a lot work as doable into constructing a neighborhood earlier than a marketing campaign begins. Hrvoje Horvatek, CEO and recreation 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 except you attain no less than 500 followers,” he explains. “That is the one manner to make sure you’re going to get a good begin even when all of your advertising and marketing efforts find yourself not working as anticipated.”
Bidaux provides: “I normally suggest no less than three months of promoting effort earlier than the opening of your ‘Coming Quickly’ web page and the launch of the particular marketing campaign. I’ve heard different consultants suggest planning for six months.”
On the follower level, Skyhook’s Harper says that you will need to know that the accounts following you’re actual.
“Don’t launch except you attain no less than 500 followers”
“When you can improve your marketing campaign’s follower rely earlier than launch by paying cash to specialist advertising and marketing businesses, you additionally danger spending cash to accumulate faux accounts or bots,” he says. “We selected to not use an company for this function, however one other marketing campaign launched across the similar time suffered considerably. Though they’d extra followers than we did, just about none of these transformed into backing at launch, and it was fairly robust 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 neighborhood forward of launch, you additionally must commit a number of time to making sure that you’ve a very good number of idea artwork, screenshots, and gameplay movies that showcase your recreation in one of the best gentle doable,” he explains. “Equally, you will have 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 not too long ago picked up by Kinetic Publishing – raised almost £95,000 on Kickstarter in 2025, greater than doubling its funding aim. Electric Saint co-founder Anna Hollinrake has one massive tip for would-be crowdfunders: “GIFs. Oh my god, cowl your web page with gameplay GIFs. Put your artwork entrance and centre. Be sure you have actually punchy imagery. You wish to just remember to’ve each bought some playable gameplay.”
As regards to imagery, Hollinrake says that proper now, it is essential to showcase how you make the sport and take your neighborhood behind the scenes.
“Do not be afraid to place in working sketches and early concepts, as a result of individuals like to see that, particularly now within the age of AI,” she says. “Individuals are far more excited to see your thought course of. I completely suggest being weak about it and being sincere. I feel being fairly upfront about why you are doing one thing is essential. Individuals on Kickstarter actually worth genuineness.”
The Electrical Saint co-founder additionally says it is essential to know what components of your Kickstarter marketing campaign web page you possibly can edit after it goes reside.
“We undoubtedly tousled on not placing photos within the particular person rewards, and you may’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. It’s a must to be fairly cautious about that, however you possibly can all the time add extras on after.”
Particulars matter
Whereas there is no hurt in taking a look at previous successes on Kickstarter, Bidaux emphasises that it is essential to know why they labored.
“It is rather straightforward to make massive errors by taking a look at previous profitable campaigns, and never perceive what made them click on with their viewers,” he explains. “Some errors may be very pricey, even when your marketing campaign meets its aim. Not designing your rewards correctly, for example, has tripped a couple of 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 crew 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 decide on a funding aim. If tasks do not meet the mark, then they do not get something, so touchdown on a goal is a advantageous line.
“It was like, what’s the minimal period of time that we want from improvement roles and the way a lot can we pay?” Hollinrake says.
“What can be a good wage – not an ideal wage – and what can get us to a degree the place we are able to take all the things 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 to not say that video games on the crowdfunding platform haven’t got a brilliant future forward of them. Bidaux says that there is a number of “untapped potential” for video games and crowdfunding.
“With the advertising and marketing for video games getting increasingly difficult, this is a superb further beat so as to add to a undertaking that may fund itself and have an incredible halo impact in your viewers,” he says. “I feel there are extra alternatives with crowdfunding sooner or later for video video games than ever earlier than.”
Harper provides: “Total, the idea of online game crowdfunding is in a great 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 probability of discovering success. We discovered an ideal deal throughout our marketing campaign, together with rather a lot about advertising and marketing normally. If we discovered ourselves in the same scenario sooner or later, we actually would not rule out crowdfunding once more.”