Two weeks for the Kickstarter opening!
I must confess: now I'm starting to feel that dizziness in the pit of my stomach.
Psychological speaking, the approach to a new KS campaign follows 3 phases: "the Positive" phase (aka "let's imagine how I would spend all the money that I'll obviously raise"), "the Doubt" ( aka "let's overthink about all the things that could go wrong!") and the On the "Top of a skyscraper in a very windy day" (aka "We're all gonna die and there is no meaning in what I'm doing").
In general, the first phase coincides with the first months on a new project: your hype is unmeasurable, you can see only the bright things of basically everything and there is no way that the plan won't go exactly where you want it to go (it generally involves big money, success and eternal pride). The second one, on the other hand, appears when the deadline is on the horizon: slowly you start to doubt and overthink about everything, a clear way to keep under control the situation. Which is not under control at all, nor it could ever be.
The last phase hits in the opening day and lasts 'till the day after the end of the campaign. We still have some time, before worrying about that.
So, at the moment I'm in the eye of the storm of the second phase, and that means that from now 'till October 12th, my life will be scheduled according to a rigid plan based on desperate work to polish all the details of the KS campaign and constant research for approval by all the people I manage to bother. Sorry, people out there.
Said so, it's now time to talk about the favourite part of many backers: Stretch Goals!
Everybody loves freebies, apparently, and nowadays people are so spoiled by KS creators that it's not easy at all to match their expectations: they want a solid reward for their investment, and that means to keep their hype real with a great collection of Stretch Goals to unlock during the campaign.
This is a nightmare.
In my first "serious" campaign (the Kazhuk Izril one) we offered a good amount of scenic accessories, animals and unscheduled new characters and people were genuinely enthusiastic about that. We started with a few amount of SG and we added (let's say invented...) many other as the campaign grew day by day. That's because, initially, we didn't expect such a success, so we planned SG only for the first 20.000€ of funding goals.
In the second campaign (Second Government one), expecting a campaign similar to the first one, concerning funds raised, I tried a more rational approach: we created a solid amount of SG and unveiled them all at the beginning of the campaign. In my opinion, it should have been better: instead of imagining how would look the SG, I could show all of them to the backers since the beginning of the campaign. Despite the number of SG was almost the same, people were definitely colder than before and their hype never took off.
So here I am with the third attempt to learn the best way to face this crucial side of a KS campaign.
We already designed a lot of SG for this Elf campaign, but we won't unveil all of them. Instead, I will try to tease you as soon as the campaign (hopefully) grows and unveil them little by little.
Let's see some of them.
As tradition demands, the first SG to unlock is the Scenic Bases Set. Scenic bases are useful for every hobby purpose, I can't get enough of them.
Soon after the first Scenic Bases Set, there is the first character to unlock: the Elf Augur. With the Second Government campaign, I didn't plan to create many unscheduled miniatures: I wanted to keep the Mighty Mega Box price lower than the first one, and I didn't want to delay too much the production times. For this reason, I decided not to design new characters.
This time I want to put some spice on the campaign: we already have designed 2 characters to unlock (the Elf Augur and the Elf Bard) and as the funds will raise (hopefully!) new ones will be created. The Mighty Mega Box will start with 15 characters, that will go up to 17 characters if we reach at least 15.000€ and, if we raise more, prepare to get more miniatures in your box!
I planned a vertical growth from 10k€ funding goal to 20k€, almost 1 new SG to unlock every 1000€ of funds raised. At 13.000€ you will get a free set of Kod-ehm, Children of The Wood. Valerio is already sculpting 2 more of them: I want you to be able to put them EVERYWHERE.
At 14k€ raised, the new entry of our Animalia range: the Little Owls! I'm very proud of how people like our animals and this set gives you two little owls to add your bases, diorama or if you are talented as my friend Josua Lai, to use as the main characters of the scene!
The new character to unlock will join your Mighty Mega Box at 15k€ raised. I made sure to unlock this SG as soon as possible because I particularly love this little guy that peacefully enjoy the music.
Oh, and I like the Elf, too. (sorry, Dwarf joke)
At 16k€ raised every backer of our campaign (no matter if you pledge 1€ or 10k*) will get a complete video tutorial about one of the most impressive kits of this range: the Forest Troll. We managed to achieve an interesting quality, with our videos and I think that a full tutorial about this guy would be a nice addition to your reward.
*if you pledge 10k€ I'll personally deliver your reward, cooking for you the best Carbonara of your life.
The last SG that I can show you is set at 17k€: the Runic Stones Set. As you can see, I use Stretch Goals to complete the aesthetic of our ranges. The Elves, Trolls, Dinos and all the creepy creatures we designed are, of course, the main course of this campaign and the overall range, but I take advantage of freebies to add flavour to our range, introducing you many little details that would bring you in our lore. We spend years, creating miniatures with their own personality and style, and I want to be sure that you understand the difference between our Elves and others' Elves. And, of course, I love these grumpy, creepy stone faces.
And here we are, with the first wave of SG unveiled. Many are ready to follow, but this time I'll keep the secret. Well, the plan is being able to keep the secret and unveil them at the right time, but you never know how a campaign would grow: maybe we will raise 100k in the first two days (and it might be difficult for me to update the campaign page because I will be surely drunk), or maybe we will struggle to reach the minimum goal (and it might be even more difficult to update the campaign, because I will be surely extremely drunk).
Let's say that I've saved the best and I really need you to help this campaign because there is a titanic Dinosaur that is currently being sculpted by Valerio, and it would be a shame to bench it.
So, share this project with your friends and persuade them to join this journey and toss a coin to your favourite Ligurian miniatures designer whose name is Matteo (I'm pretty sure I'm the only one, I can't lose!), this October 12th!