Preparing for the Ravens Kickstarter Project

The Four Horsemen (website, Twitter) are preparing their Raven action figure for Kickstarter, and with the project set to launch in June now’s a great time for you to get a better understanding of the Kickstarter website and what you’ll need to do in order to support the project once it launches.

This post is specifically targeted at those of you who have not yet used Kickstarter. If you’ve already got an account and have backed a project or two then you’re all set! Simply watch the Four Horsemen’s website for an announcement when the project goes live. It should be a hell of a fun ride once things get going.

What is Kickstarter?

The Kickstarter website is a crowdfunding site. I like to refer to crowdfunding as modern day patronage. An artist — or, in this case, team of artists — imagines a project and then goes to the public for funding assistance. The project creator posts a page on Kickstarter where they outline the project, offer rewards to potential backers, and set a monetary goal that must be met for the project to succeed. People then pledge money to the project, selecting a reward — which can range from thanks, to prints, to the actual item being created in the project — and committing to pay the pledge amount if the project meets its goal.

If a project does not meet the goal then none of the backers are charged and the project closes. If the goal is met, though, then the project closes successfully and everyone is charged. The project creator then receives the funds (minus fees) and launches into bringing the project to life.

Step One: Create an Account

The very first thing you need to do is signup for a Kickstarter account. You can login with Facebook, but I suggest making a unique account at Kickstarter in order to keep everything nice and simple. Here’s where you’ll enter your name, a password, and all of the other basics. Nice and easy and you should have no problems at all.

Step Two: You Need an Amazon Account

Kickstarter runs all payments through Amazon, so to back a project you’re going to need your own Amazon.com account* and a method of payment attached to that account. At this point I assume everyone on the planet has an Amazon account, but I know that’s not true. (Side Note: My own Amazon account is over a decade old; wow, that’s a lot of years of buying stuff online.)

Step Three: Back a Project or Two

Hit the Kickstarter discover page and start exploring the site. I suggest backing one or two small projects for a dollar just to get a feel for how everything works. I’m personally a pretty big fan of the product design category on the site — that’s where the Ravens project will be when it launches — but look around and find anything that looks interesting to you.

By backing a small project now and watching it you can get a feel for how Kickstarter works and you’ll be a pro once the Ravens project is live.

And with that you’re all set! Watch the Four Horsemen’s website and be ready when the project launches; there are sure to be some limited rewards — meaning only a small number are available — and there may be something you want to grab on Day One before someone else gets it.

What Are Stretch Goals?

One last bit of Kickstarter experience I’d like you all to gain before the Ravens project launches is an understanding of stretch goals. On Kickstarter, some projects offer something called “stretch goals,” goals that are set higher than the initial funding goal. These can be as simple as “if we reach double the monetary goal every backer gets a cookie” to as complicated as “if we reach $1,000,000 every backer at the $100 level and above gets pie.” Stretch goals are completely an organic process and not directly supported by the Kickstarter system, but they’re common on the site and are used to help bring in support.

An example of a currently active stretch goal can be found on my own current Kickstarter project: If the project reaches $2,000 then every backer will get a bonus short story in e-book form. That’s a very simple stretch goal; you can explore the site and find far more elaborate and fancy stretch goals.

Stretch goals are kinda neat and good stretch goals can really fire up a crowd. Just wait until you see what’s planned for the Raven stretch goals!

See You at Kickstarter!

The Four Horsemen (website, Twitter) will be launching their project next month, so you have some time to signup for a Kickstarter account. I’ll be visiting their offices next week to go over the project, and with any luck I’ll get some photos and maybe some secret info I can leak on what’s planned for the project.

No matter what, the Ravens project will be a blast. I hope you’ll help support the Four Horsemen and this new action figure: it is one amazing design.

Related articles

• Visiting the Four Horsemen and Joining the Ravens Kickstarter Project (battlegrip.com)
• The Four Horsemen Want Your Ideas for their Ravens Kickstarter Project (battlegrip.com)