On September 30 2015, Larian Studios LLC successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for their new video game, Divinity: Original Sin 2. The team has raised over $2 million for an epic RPG that is the sequel to the first Divinity: Original Sin, which raised $944,282 on Kickstarter in 2013.
Larian Studios convinced more than 42,000 people to help make this game happen. Clearly they did something right. Now they have raised enough to make this game even more amazing than backers originally expected! Here is a look at some of the campaign’s biggest strengths that you can learn from:
1. Larian Studios already had a good reputation online
Unfortunately not all of us have previous successful Kickstarter projects under our belts, but the fact that backers loved the first game meant that Larian Studios didn’t need to do a lot of convincing to get backers to support this one.
Even if you haven’t run a crowdfunding campaign before you can always make previous work available for possible backers to check out. Showing your audience that you are an honest person or company with a track record of success will help you get funded faster.
Make sure that if you search your company or product name in Google that your website and content shows up in the results, for example. Also, building up your social media profiles so they have a decent amount of followers and a cohesive look will help improve you influence online.
Larian Studios has more than 18,000 likes on Facebook and nearly 8,000 followers on Twitter. Of course, if you are just starting out you aren’t expected to be that popular – these numbers just give people an extra boost when wondering if you are really worth following.
2. The project was successfully funded on the first day
To be more specific, Divinity: Original Sin 2 reached its $500,000 funding goal in just 12 hours. They reached $1 million in pledges in 5 days. If you look at the campaign’s Kicktraq page you can see that their pledges raised steadily to $2 million from there.
Being prepared for a strong start and experiencing such an early success can give your campaign the momentum it needs to exceed your funding goal and all of your stretch goals. As you can see on their Kickstarter page, Divinity: Original Sin 2 was featured on several blogs and new sites, including MMORPG.com, PCWorld, PC Gamer and more.
3. They did a great job engaging backers
During this campaign the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 gave backers several opportunities to ask questions, give feedback and participate in the making of this highly anticipated RPG. The team has asked for backer’s opinions on what should be included in the game’s new skill trees, held Reddit AMAs (Ask Me Anything), and hosted live streams on Twitch to give backers behind-the-scenes access.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 has 19,882 comments on its Kickstarter page and over 8,000 Facebook shares, suggesting that they definitely know how to capture people’s interest.
Making sure that backers know that their opinions matter can be a good way to encourage your audience to share their opinions, concerns, and hopes for your project. Satisfied backers who want to see their favorite projects do better share them with more people they know!
4. They updated backers consistently
Over the duration of this 35 day Kickstarter campaign, the creators posted a total of 17 updates – one every 1 – 4 days. Topics covered in these updates include milestones and stretch goals reached ($500K, $1M, $2M), links to YouTube videos, announcements about chances to meet the team and ask questions and more.
For more information about how to post Kickstarter campaign updates like a pro, check out this post.
5. Their Kickstarter campaign comes across as very professional
Larian Studios worked hard to put together a visually appealing Kickstarter page, equipped with an eye-catching thumbnail, an informative and well-produced video with a logo (that is also used as the Kickstarter account picture), along with tons of rewards and stretch goals to keep fans excited.
Looking at this page you get the sense that they are a legitimate team that is passionate about what they do. I think that fans see this authenticity and love that they are open to input from the crowd in the making of this sequel.
Conclusion
Divinity: Original Sin 2 has more than doubled the funds that were raised for the original game, placing it among other video game projects that have raised over $1 million on Kickstarter, including Shenmue 3, which raised over $6 million in July 2015.
This project is a great example of how to run a successful Kickstarter campaign that gets a lot of attention and traffic. All of the steady pledges, interaction and updates posted on the Divinity: Original Sin 2 page contributed to the campaign’s success on the platform and its spreading popularity among the gaming community.
If you want more helpful advice from previous successful Kickstarter campaigns, listen to the CrowdCrux Crowdfunding Podcast to find out how SolarPuff went from prototype to $360,000+ on Kickstarter.
Feel free to leave any questions or comments below!
