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After identifying in the previous post the main patterns that characterize successful Kickstarter campaigns, this second deep dive analyzes the preparatory work carried out by the creators of Algomancy, Botany, and Shasn during the pre-launch phase.
This will help us better understand the communication and marketing techniques used to generate the first of the three winning patterns: the strong initial support concentrated on the campaign’s launch day.
Algomancy: The Strength of a Pre-Existing Follower Base
In the case of Algomancy ($364,854 raised from 4,046 backers), everything revolves around the community that Caleb Gannon has built and nurtured since 2019 around the themes of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) a full four years before launching his own game.
Over time, Gannon became a key figure among MTG streamers thanks to his YouTube channel, Caleb Gannon MTG, which now counts over 29,000 subscribers.
Gannon recalls starting to play Magic about ten years earlier, participating in Pauper tournaments during college. It was then that he began creating deck-brewing videos, built around original combos and creative strategies.
This background shows how Gannon built his reputation long before the Kickstarter campaign, laying the foundation for a passionate and loyal community.
On his Discord server, Gannon engaged the MTG community over the years and gradually opened channels dedicated to Algomancy.
From the data I collected from his Discord, it appears that in the month preceding the Kickstarter launch, Gannon’s server already counted 4,356 registered users (though not all active):
Thus, Algomancy’s pre-launch leveraged a large, pre-existing follower base that the creator had built over time and could have successfully activated at the moment of launch.
Botany: The VIP Offer at the Core of a Successful Marketing Strategy
The case of Botany ($1,057,307 raised from 15,105 backers) shows a very different dynamic compared to Algomancy, and represents an excellent example of a well-structured and successful digital and paid marketing strategy.
The two independent creators, completely new to the sector, did not have a pre-existing community like Gannon’s. They therefore had to build one from scratch, relying on the support of two crowdfunding agencies during both the pre-launch and the campaign itself.
Six months before the official debut (December 2022), the agency LaunchBoom helped them set up a Reservation Funnel, a tool used to create dedicated landing pages to collect leads and build a mailing list of potential backers. The key feature of this approach was offering visitors the option to pay a small $1 deposit to access a VIP offer at launch.
According to LaunchBoom, this technique has a conversion rate up to 30 times higher than simply collecting emails from interested visitors (source).
For Botany, the VIP offer included a bonus mini-expansion called Brilliant Blue Botanicals.
To reach the ideal target and build a strong mailing list to activate at launch, the agency ran several Facebook marketing campaigns, testing different creative approaches and audience segmentations.
In the initial pre-launch phase, Botany’s digital marketing budget was $5,000, which immediately generated 4,407 sign-ups. Encouraged by this, the team increased the budget to $13,000, bringing the total number of pre-launch contacts to 8,700.
Of these, about 2,600 had not only shared their email but also placed the $1 reservation deposit (source).
Overall, the pre-launch campaign had a cost per lead (CPL) of $1.43 and a cost per reservation (CPR) of $4.74.
The creative shown below proved to be the best-performing in terms of both engagement and conversions.
In summary, Botany’s pre-launch phase was driven by a highly targeted paid advertising strategy aimed at building a qualified mailing list of potential backers and optimizing Meta campaigns for conversions.
Thanks to the success of the VIP reservation, about 30% of the collected leads showed a conversion rate up to 30 times higher than that of an ordinary mailing list contact.
The success of this preparatory phase undoubtedly contributed to the strong support observed on the first day of launch.
Shasn: Social Debate as an Amplifier
Shasn ($339,045 raised from 4,209 backers) represents a very different case from the previous two: a game born from the transformation of a creative project from another domain, namely film and documentary production.
The Shasn project originated from the effort to expand the distribution of the documentary An Insignificant Man by Vinay Shukla and Khushboo Ranka.
The producers, looking for extra content to include in the DVD release in India, considered several options and ultimately decided to add a mini-game connected to the film’s political themes.
The game’s design was entrusted to Zain Memon, the film’s creative producer and an avid gamer, who later turned it into a full-fledged political board game, evolving the film’s message into an interactive experience (source).
Behind Shasn was a team of professionals from the world of documentary filmmaking, deeply engaged in exploring India’s social and political realities. This background strongly influenced the game’s communication strategy.
Instead of relying primarily on paid advertising, the Shasn team chose to build credibility through cultural channels, engaging journalists, academics, and political influencers in both India and the U.S. during the game’s development (source).
It’s no coincidence, then, that Shasn received media coverage in outlets atypical for board games such as Forbes and The Times.
As Memon explains, the goal of the campaign wasn’t to create hype around a product, but to use the creation of the game as a spark for political conversations, which in turn fueled interest in the project:
“We didn’t want to build hype around a product; we wanted to build conversations.” (source)
Before the Launch: Where Success Takes Shape
The three projects analyzed highlight a key insight: a successful Kickstarter campaign begins long before its “launch day.”
Whether starting from a pre-existing fanbase (Algomancy), from scratch (Botany), or from a creative pivot (Shasn), the principle remains the same: success is rooted in a strategy conceived, tested, and refined in the months leading up to launch.
It is during the pre-launch phase that creators, each in their own way build trust around their product, grow a community, and develop communication approaches that resonate with the right audience and activate them to support the project once the campaign goes live.
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