Simultaneous crowdfunding?

#1

Since late last year, I’ve worked on a small and quirky game called moonflower. I’ve got it in printed form with luscious illustration, but for the explicit and sole purpose of selling the copies at a doujin event. (What you will find at that link is a version without illustrations.)

I’m very keen on giving it a serious improvement and printing it in two languages: Korean and English. Being a translator, I figured it would make sense to work on both versions. I’m also keen on working with Kang Keun-yeong again, as I think the art she produced for moonflower was pitch perfect. But then I run into a problem: how do I fund the full book run?

Though she liked moonflower enough to collaborate on the previous edition at a drastically reduced rate, I would seriously prefer to pay Kang full and more this time. So I think crowdfunding the book would be necessary to live up to that oath. This is the problem for me right now: where do I crowdfund? Korea has Tumblbug, a rather dependable crowdfunding platform that has brought many games to the market. Were this a solely Korean-language project, I would have chosen that without much concern. But, from what I’ve seen on my itch page, there is far more interest in moonflower in the English-speaking world (perhaps out of sheer population?). It might make more sense to crowdfund on Kickstarter.

Which is where I get the dangerous idea of crowdfunding simultaneously in Korean and in English. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any project do this, perhaps for a reason I haven’t realized. Simultaneous crowdfunding would be “safer” for the project, I imagine, as either’s success could finance the book. Still, I feel it might leave a poor impression or lead to me overwhelming myself (I do know that running one crowdfunding campaign is hellaciously demanding).

I have some odd ideas like combined stretch goals or such, but they seem minor compared to what I’m concerned about. Does anyone have an insight into this issue?

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#2

Just to be clear, this would be managing two independent Kickstarter campaigns in two languages in parallel, right? On one hand, there’s some efficiencies, and on the other, that sounds like more than double the work, and runs the risk of both being neglected as you get overwhelmed, as you express in your post.

If you have a feeling that one would be for-sure successful, its success can be a selling point for the other.

I wonder if it would be possible to run one campaign and offer language-specific tiers (Not sure how easy it is for a Korean audience to parse an English-language Kickstarter, for example, or whether you need separate logins, etc).

I don’t have specific experience or advice, but this seems really ambitious and fraught with peril.

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#3

So, for me, I prefer simple crowdfunding projects. It is easier for me to believe that the project will stick to the planned schedule and reach the desired goal. To me, because the languages and cultures are different, you will need to do more than a simple literal translation. There will be (possibly) different rules, different context, different layout, different art, different printings, different shipping, etc. To me, this feels like two different projects, related, but different.

I have never run a crowdfunding project, let alone two simultaneously. If it were me, I would be anxious, and would want to do one before the other, in serial instead of parallel. I could see arguments for doing either one first. For example:

  1. Do the, likely, smaller, simpler one first. That way you get the logistics and connections figured out before having even more stakeholders.
  2. Do the bigger project first. This will get you more money to make a better project. Pay for more art, pay higher rates, etc.

Either way I would keep the stretch goals simple. Adding more art is great… but will also increase the time frame, especially if you are only using one artist. I would rather see stretch goals that don’t significantly increase the amount of work that needs to be done. So things like, “Pay higher rates”, “Better quality paper”, “Better quality cards”, etc. This means that the stretch goals for each project can be relatively independent and if one project does really well while the other doesn’t, both products remain similar, even if the print quality of one might be better.

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#4

There’s also the matter of Kickstarter not supporting Korean-based project yet I think. Unless I missed that. It would mean you’d have to link a bank account in a country they support and whoever ran the Kickstarter would have to provide ID as well as their bank account.

My first two kickstarters I had to do this and it’s as bad an idea as it sounds to let control of the financials go to someone else. It could have been worse, but I still ended up having to pay massive amounts of taxes on both projects. So that’s another thing to think about.

If it were me, I’d probably do just Kickstarter (if that’s possible) first and then tumblbug afterward, or the other way around. I don’t really see an upside to doing them simultaneously. Seems like a recipe for ridiculous amounts of stress that won’t go away until TWO projects are fulfilled instead of one.

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#5

Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. I’ve thought this overnight after reading the replies and decided that focusing on one crowdfunding project will be overwhelming enough. :yum:

That’s what I’m thinking right now. The problem would be taxes! Thankfully I have someone I can trust living in the States, but the funding might cut apart by various agencies. I think I have some studying to do.

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