Reflection on Fly-A-Way’s Kickstarter journey

Fly-A-Way would not exist without the support of backers on Kickstarter. Having fulfilled almost all orders, we would like to share just how the crowdfunding community shaped our game and the lessons we’ve learnt since the launch of Fly-A-Way in November last year.

This post was first published as an update on Kickstarter and includes reflections based on a post-campaign survey we sent to backers in September. Besides the 93 responses we got, we also compiled feedback from comments and emails we received during the campaign.

Design and information on our page

Getting the user journey of a Kickstarter page right can be quite challenging because of the layers of information that need to be presented on one page, from the story behind a project to the nitty-gritty of shipping. So we were glad to find that all respondents felt that the flow of information was clear and the majority (98%) said the amount of information was sufficient. 75% of you also shared that the inclusion of card sizes was useful. 

Nevertheless, based on comments, private messages and email queries, we know that there were some backers who were not clear on the fact that shipping would be charged post-campaign on BackerKit. 

We made sure to mention this on the main page and the pledge sidebar. But some people, who might not be familiar with Kickstarter, could have still been confused, expecting a shipping price to be reflected immediately at the pledge confirmation page on Kickstarter.

We wonder if there was any way we could have made the post-campaign shipping on Backerkit even clearer to people. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear from you in the comment section.

Pledge tiers

You can find online varied opinions on whether having single or multiple pledge tiers is better for Kickstarter. Our survey seems to bear out a similar mixed response.  

Nevertheless, we do know from some comments we’ve received that certain backers felt penalised for being late and missing out on the limited early bird pledges. We were mainly thinking about how to create a fun experience for backers when we included items like the customised portrait photo for early backers. 

It was meant to be a simple gesture, but we’ll be sure to think more about special incentives for future projects and how best they can be incorporated in Kickstarter campaigns while being inclusive. We will also explore how a single pledge tier could work for whatever goals we set for future games. 

Communication with backers

We tried to reply to backers’ comments and emails quickly, usually within the next business day, taking into account time zone differences. However, some replies took longer, especially when we needed to check the delivery status of the games with our partners. 

As for updates, we posted frequently during the Kickstarter campaign, before dropping to about one announcement each month. 

We wanted to update you whenever we had all or most of the necessary information, so that we did not end up replying to only one group of backers and cumulatively spamming everybody.

How did we fare on updates, according to our survey? 94% of you found that the number of updates was sufficient. However, opinions on the frequency of our updates were generally mixed.

There was a slight majority of people who preferred short and more frequent updates over comprehensive but less frequent updates, while the rest had no preference for either option. Perhaps the ideal frequency of updates is something that can be quite subjective. 

We have received some comments that the shipping updates could be more specific when it comes to the status of orders. For instance, instead of just saying the shipment is on its way to a fulfillment centre, we could have given extra details like it being out at sea, just reaching the port or in the midst of being transported from the port to the fulfilment centre. 

We think doing this might mean giving backers a lot more information to process, but it would be good as a way of keeping you as involved as possible. 

Backer surveys

Our BackerKit surveys were open from 6 January to 24 January 2021. We had 85% of backers who completed the survey by the last day. About 83% of you shared that the time given to fill the surveys was sufficient.

We are glad to note that we only have 20 backers who have yet to respond to us as of today, despite reminders. This number represents about 2% of total pledges when measured against the 891 backers we have in total. 

We will keep aside copies of our game for these backers for at least 6 months or until the retail copies of our Kickstarter edition of the game runs out (whichever comes later). 

Estimation of timeline

We initially wanted to set May 2021 as the estimated delivery time of the game, but pushed this back to June 2021 to give ourselves a buffer for any unexpected delays. It’s a good thing we did this because the final revisions we did ended up delaying our shipping. 

Some of the changes made were covered in our previous blog post here. Each revision, small on its own, ended up snowballing into more checks we had to do later. Making just one change to the Fowl Play font, for instance, meant ensuring it was reflected on all cards in this category.

Despite the delay in sending the final artwork, our manufacturer helped us expedite the production process. It was the shipping process that caught us off-guard in May. As shared in this update, it took us about one month to secure a slot for the UK ocean freight shipment, which meant that it was impossible to meet our delivery timeline. 

We wanted to hold off the fulfilment for the rest of the countries so that we could match it with the delivery timeline for the UK and EU shipments. But we chose not to because of how uncertain shipping estimates were then. And it was possible, during the time of the pandemic, that in waiting for one shipping region to settle itself, another secure one could end up being delayed too. 

Overall, we started fulfilment in June 2021 and completed it for everyone in September 2021.     

Selling Kickstarter edition

We’re happy to know that 98% of you from the survey and others from comment threads have given us the blessing to sell the extra Kickstarter edition stocks we have! The sale from these games would help us offset some of the costs we’ve incurred from shipping during the pandemic.

Most of you should have received your game(s) by now, but if you haven’t, please reach out to us! 

Thank you for all the additional comments and suggestions on bringing Fly-A-Way to life and to your doorsteps. We are humbled by your support.