This seemed to be the best forum for this question, and I was curious what others thought. In getting ready for my KS campaign I spent time looking over different rewards and was curious what types of rewards you guys thought best.
I know that in my future games I can create stretch goals that revolve more around creatures and enemies, and even playable characters but for my first game I didn't really have that option.
So for my first game I decided to do T-shirts, Collector Coins, and the inclusion of names on cards. After I had done this I am happy with the rewards, even though I know not everyone on this site would agree, but here are my reasons for what I included, and maybe you can get an idea for your own campaign, or even pitfalls to avoid.
T-shirts - I hate crappy t-shirts, and if it's not comfortable I won't wear it. So from a marketing perspective it made sense to have t-shirts made, but my hatred of cheap cotton t-shirts made me go all out on some ridiculously soft comfortable shirts. All in all I make a grand total profit off one shirt at $1. The payoff is that it's a shirt people will want to wear all the time because of the comfort (I can't stress enough how ridiculously comfortable the shirt is), so even though I make almost nothing I still gain the money towards my goal, plus free marketing, plus a shirt that I actually want to wear, and I'm a snob for comfy clothes.
Collector Coin - I designed a coin that is really cool, and is from the same company that made a Collector Coin from one of my favorite bands, so I already had a prototype of the coin, albeit a different design. I make a little profit off the coin, but I've limited them to 100. I know Collector Coins aren't everyone's cup of tea, so only a few really needed to be made.
Names on Cards - I actually read about another KS game that did this same reward, and they had a lot of success. The cost of this reward is quite high, but the benefit in this is that I have friends and relatives who want to support my efforts and this was a way to make a sizable portion of the money I need to get funded. This reward alone, at only 40 available, gives me 40% of my goal, and when something is limited the price can go up.
These are short explanations of what I was thinking, and after doing all this I found a game that I 'backed' called Campy Creatures which looks great, and they only had the game available. It made me question whether less is more, or did they not take advantage of making their goal easier to reach by including more rewards.
What do you guys think? Best rewards? No rewards? Purpose of rewards? Remember, even if it's not something you yourself would want as a reward it still can help you reach your funding goal which in the end is the purpose in the campaign to begin with. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for the reply, and more than likely moving forward I'll not include shirts as a reward, but for my first game out this was an opportunity to raise extra cash from friends and family to get the game funded. My first game just didn't have the ability to have stretch goals like two other games I have in development, so for those campaigns I'll definitely focus on game content stretch goals.
I still think t-shirts aren't the worst idea, and for the average KS backer who just wants the game then that is there for them at the lowest pledge amount. Raising a few extra dollars to reach the goal though is helped by having a hundred friends buy the shirt.
Thanks for the advice, and game content goals will be my focus.