A panel, a picture with a compilation of items you can select from per voucher on the Kickstarter page would be enough to show your options. Higher tiers could include several vouchers.
Is there maybe a Kickstarter that did that allready so we can see how that turned out?
Why complicate things with vouchers, some KS projects simply state add $45 for T-Shirt, add $25 for colored dice or whatever. Point being that the actual tiers donât need to include any specifics on the items that some customers might not even want and any tier is allowed to purchase the extras.
So how do those Kickstarters track that âadditionalâ money? How can they tell this person has pledged 40 more dollars to their pledge tier?
Iâm just saying that the incentive shouldnât move out of sight.
KS tracks the tier and the total amount of money, the game developer is responsible for the allocation of the âextraâ money. Most companies have their own system that is responsible for those extras, it can be anything from a community manager emailing the customers to a web-store.
Because simple human psychology. We want this Kickstarter to bring in a lot of money, right?
If you state âadd $45 for T-shirt,â that will be perceived as âoh, so now I have to buy a T-shirt on top of the pledge;â if you state âfree gift voucher included which can be exchanged for a T-shirt amongst other things,â it is instead perceived as âooh! Free T-shirt!â
Itâs a marketing trick. Pure and simple.
As opposed to somebody like me saying âOh look, Iâm paying for a T-shirt, but I donât want one.â
Which is where the non-specific vouchers come in. Youâd now be saying âOh look, I get a free copy to give away or two extra spots in the beta.â Even if you donât want a free copy of the game, it doesnât matter if you were willing to pay for the tier regardless - it doesnât lose you anything, and the cost to INovae is a bit of bandwidth.
Before anyone goes âoh noes, lost sale!â please just⌠donât. EA or Blizzard might be able to make that argument provided a quarter-billion-dollar PR budget, but I:B is going to rely on word of mouth, which is greatly accelerated by throwing around a few free copies. At least I assume thatâs why Valve seems to do it.
I know that the voucher is worth a T-shirt at the least, and I would much rather take that âimaginaryâ voucher tier and pledge the full price of the T-shirt towards the next tier. Also if Iâm a shirt short on pajamas or my wife is I could easily pledge for the tier I want and buy two T-shirts at the price that I know is set, as an extra.
Point being is that I want to know what Iâm paying for and I want to be paying the full price towards the game and not some vouchers that I have absolutely no need or want for.
I think giving stuff for free is what we want to avoid.
If itâs free then people will probably take it - All the voucher thing does is add an extra click or two. - Thatâs not a marketing trick. Thatâs giving stuff away.
The whole idea of this voucher system is to make more profit ⌠you always will get less then you pay for.
As an example lets say we only sell T-Shirts as physical items and this example looks at one reward option only:
Option 1: T-Shirt included. Everyone gets a shirt even if they would prefer no T-Shirt or somethgin else. Price of tier includes T-Shirt.
Option 2: Creates tree groups. People who get the T-Shirt anyway. People who get a digital things like more copies and people who opt out. Two groups of people where the profit will be maximised. Price of tier includes T-Shirt.
Option 3: Drop all physical items out of the reward system, lower the price of tiers witch had vouchers or shirts in option 1 and 2 and let people have the option to âaddâ or buy them later on which is less incentive then âFREE SHIRTâ.
@Cybercritic: What exactly do you want? Just one copy ⌠what do you describe as:
?
Whoâs going to opt out off free stuff though? Wouldnât they just get the tier that doesnât include the voucher? If I donât want a t-shirt I donât want to feel like Iâm subsiding other peopleâs t-shirts.
@Lomsor, besides me not wanting a T-shirt, I know that the process of designing, acquiring, printing and mailing them takes time and money. If my budget for IBS is $100, I would rather be paying that money towards the highest tier possible that has absolutely no physical extras added. That way I know that my full amount will be going towards the development of the game, if INS decides to throw in some digital extras that cost them next to nothing, that is fine, maybe a skin or a insignia, maybe a registered name or a nice PDF containing some concept art and renders.
You know you can pledge more and still select a lower tier right?
For instance that tier you describe could cost $40 and you could still pledge $100.
If you would only pay $100 if a tier is priced $100 but would contain the same as $40 you are too under the psychology game that is going on here.
Who decides what value a tier has? Overpriced stuff worked in the past ⌠for some reason.
It isnât only the opting out percentage that counts but also the percentage that decides to choose digital rewards. Creating appealing digital rewards that could be worth one or two T-Shirts in the minds of the buyer might make people decide different at the point where they have the choice between a T-Shirt and chance to preregister their Char name or a âexclusiveâ skin.
This also reduces the amount of tiers that would be needed.
Having or not having physical items in the kickstarter is another discussion.
The voucher tries to decrease the number of T-Shirts that need to be deliverd while making people still pay for it ⌠thatâs the truth. The money will go to I-Novae âŚ
To put this in your terms, let me buy a voucher as an extra 
Are you just arguing for the sake of arguing or are you really that naive?
I mean, donât get me wrong, I agree with you. Iâd prefer any money I pledge going to making the game, but hereâs the thing: I canât afford to pay for making the game. Would if I could, but since I canât, Iâd like someone else to do it for me.
This is where basic GCSE-level marketing comes in. I can try to explain it to you, but itâs really not my area of expertise so Iâm not going to deal with over a decadeâs worth of memory imperfection and translation difficulties if you are just arguing for argumentâs sake.
Iâm not arguing anything, simply trying to suggest that having âextrasâ instead of âvouchersâ is a good idea, or at least an alternative to consider.
Good ideas and feedback in here guys, thanks!
look into the game crowdfunding site https://gambitious.com/ as they will aslo work with you to help you get your game launched with like beat testing and stuff
Would I-Novae consider the Star Citizen approach of selling ships as Kickstarter rewards? It seems to be an incredibly successful strategy, so far at least.
It depends on how the devs want to treat ships. Unless they intend for us to purchase and own them persistently, such as in World of Tanks, I certainly donât see how it would work.
Not to mention that the inevitable flak theyâd get might hurt them more than can afford.