List of top 5 most funded Kickstarter games

A game idea is not letting you sleep as you just can’t stop thinking about making it a reality. You are now eagerly looking for funding to get started with your dream game project, but at the same time, you don’t want investments from some investor in exchange for equity (at least at such an early stage). But it’s a stark reality and you also know that investors invest their money only to make much more money from it. So, does that mean your game is dead before it was even born? No, not at all! As a matter of fact, for years thousands of indie app developers and publishers have been making their dreams come true by opting for crowdfunding and getting monetary support from fans and backers of their games. This brings me to discuss some real examples of Kickstarter games that made big. Since, obviously, I can’t list all the successful crowdfunded games in this one blog, I am bringing you 5 most-funded games on one of the reigning crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter.

A little background: Kickstarter is an American crowdfunding site with a game category where fans and backers can donate money and get rewards, a token gesture to symbolize their support and belief in the project.

5 most successful Kickstarter campaigns for games

Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 (2017)

Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 is actually the highest-funded Kickstarter game ever. The game got so much love from its fans that when the campaign ended on January 7, 2017, it already had a whopping $12,393,139 in its kitty. Yes, that’s right! Adam Poots, the creator of Kingdom Death, said after the Kickstarter success that it was not possible to create a game of that size without the community of supportive backers. With a bag full of crowdfunding amount, Poots created the blisteringly difficult game that had a continually emerging story, which according to him was “too expensive to produce and too vivid for distribution.” Kingdom Death is a strategy board game in which players take on the role of adventurers who fight against terrifying creatures to save their lives.

Exploding Kittens (2015)

Exploding Kittens is a strategy-based card game about kittens, explosions, laser beams and sometimes goats. The game got on Kickstarter for funding in 2015 and exceeded the pledged target of $10,000 in a matter of eight minutes. The total amount it raised from the Kickstarter campaign was $8,782,571. Exploding Kittens was designed by Elan Lee and Matthew Inman, and published by The Oatmeal. The support of 219,382 backers helped Exploding Kittens reach various stretch goals which in turn helped the creator introduce new cards and expansion packs for the family-friendly game, designed for up to five players. When the creators launched the Kickstarter campaign in 2015 they described it as “highly strategic kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette.”

The 7th Continent (2017)

The 7th Continent is an adventure board card game that has mechanics inspired by adventure books. The game was created by Serious Poulp for up to four players. The creators took it to Kickstarter so that they can offer players an expanded card set called ‘What Goes Up, Must Come Down”. The game was expensive to build and according to the creators, the only way to pull that off was Kickstarter fundraising. The 7 continent had a pledged goal of $40,000, but it way surpassed it by raising $7,072,757 when the Kickstarter campaign ended.

Shenmue III (2015)

Shenmue III, an action-adventure game, was the third game in the Shenmue series created by Ys Net and published by Deep Silver. The game was announced at Sony's E3 2015 presentation and it rocketed past Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on Kickstarter with a total funding of $6,333,296. The creator Yu Suzuki wanted to bring the game back to life for which the fans had waited for over a decade. Suzuki pledged $2,000,000 but the support from 69,320 backers helped it collect over three times the set goal and reach various stretch goals to add extra quests, events, and an all-new gameplay feature to the game. The game was released in 2019 for Windows and Playstation 4.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon (2019)

Tainted Grail, an adventure and survival cooperative Board Game for up to four players, raised £4,940,030 on Kickstarter. The creator of the game, Awaken Realms, launched the crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter with a pledged goal of £40,000 to build this expensive board game. Tainted Grail comes with over a thousand cards and numerous pages to offer an amazing campaign-based experience. The game is a mix of adventure, survival and exploration mechanics. Awaken Realms had also previously raised funds using Kickstarter for 8 board games and of them, Nemesis and This War of Mine were very successful.

Kickstarter, without a doubt, has become a go-to crowdfunding site for many game app developers to breathe life in their products. Star Citizen is one great example as it raised over $2mn from Kickstarter initially and then went on to raising over $250 million from different sources (it’s own site, investors, events, etc) to launch one of the most highly anticipated games of this era. Yes, it’s true that some games fail to reach their set crowdfunding goal, but that’s mostly because of not getting their preparations right before rolling out a crowdfunding campaign. One is not building a community to support you or your creations beforehand. Having a fanbase before you kick off a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter helps get the much-needed momentum your game needs in the first days of your campaign. There are various other things that factor in running a successful Kickstarter campaign, and Logic Simplified can help you with all that makes a game or even a game idea a Kickstarter success.

Logic Simplified knows How to Create Kickstarter Game Success

For over eight years now, Logic Simplified has been helping game visionaries make their dreams come true. We understand that you may have an amazing game idea but not the appropriate financial backing to make your game what you originally imagined it would be or it deserves to be. Don’t worry! With our hands-on experience of running many crowdfunding campaigns, we can help your game too to get the funding it needs to shine on the game charts. For example, we help build MVPs for cash-strapped game ideas so that target users can interact with the game to get the real feel and want to back it on crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and more. Building an MVP does not cost a hefty amount of money, so you can easily afford it. MVP also helps you build a community of fans to support your game by the time you take it to a crowdfunding platform for more polishing and loading it with more exciting features.

Having learnt from both successes and failures, we know what exactly works and what doesn’t in the game crowdfunding arena, such as how to create videos for game crowdfunding campaigns that are exciting enough for viewers to back your game financially. You can bank on our talent, experience and commitment to provide a gamut of innovative gaming solutions. To know more about what a successful crowdfunding strategy could be for your game, contact us by writing at enquiry@logicsimplified.com, and we promise to get back to you shortly to tell you everything about how you can live your game idea even if you don’t have a bag full of money the moment you start your game.