Moon Kang said it was this community of supportive fans and developers that led him to Kickstarter as way to find additional funding for One Step from Eden.
“I’d say due to popular demand I went for a Kickstarter, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made,” he said. “I originally was not going to do crowdfunding, but people kept asking for ways to contribute to the game, and there were parts of the game I really wanted to get professionally done, like the soundtrack and illustrations.”
And the decision turned out to be the correct one. The original goal was completely funded in only two days. Of the $15,000 that he initially asked for, the game ended up raising $70,000 from more than 2,300 donors. The very successful crowdfunding effort not only raised enough money to cover Moon Kang’s stretch goals, it also broadened his community of support and deepened the involvement of those who were already interested.
“It’s a huge opportunity that can get you a lot of funding and publicity if done right,” he said. “Social media and an existing fan base can have a really big impact on whether or not your Kickstarter is successful. We were lucky enough to hit the 100% goal within the first two days, which let us get right into the stretch goals. I think that encouraged people to back even more, now that they’d get something extra when those were reached.”
Moon Kang said that he knows any kind of game development, especially solo development, can be extremely exhausting and it’s easy for people to burn out. “I think the most important thing is to just keep working on it bit by bit,” he said. “All that work adds up over time even though it might not feel like it on a day-to-day basis.”
In the end, Moon Kang’s positivity and inspirational grind shine through.
“Working on an indie game is so fulfilling,” he said. “There’s really nothing else I’d rather be doing.”