Kickstarter Funding Platform, Fund Creative Projects

I recently funded my first Kickstarter project, a board game called Warparty that I have high hopes for. If you have never heard about Kickstarter before, let me explain the basic concept.

Kickstarter is a funding community that brings designers and developers together with people who are interested in their projects. You can create a project on the site and ask for funding, and depending on how well you represent your idea and how well it is perceived, you may receive the necessary funding to create it.

Kickstarter projects come from a wide variety of topics, from music and games to publishing, new technologies or design. If you ever wanted to fund your own comic strip, the album of an artist you like or an iPhone app that finds your car no matter where you have parked it, then Kickstarter is the right place to look.

Creators and designers get the funding they need to create their projects. The people who fund the projects on the other hand often get something in return as well, next to the eternal gratitude of the designer of course.

This is usually grouped into tiers. The more you pay, the more you get usually. I for instance decided to fund enough to get a copy of the board game shipped to my address. If I would have paid more, I would have received a prototype of the game delivered before the actual printing of the game or game shirts and strategy guides.

You usually get the core product if you fund, and often a lot more than that. Ever wanted to see your fantasy self in a board game that you'd like to play or in a new computer game? Then Kickstarter is the right place for you.

If you are new to the site I suggest you open the popular listings first. Each project is listed on the page with an image, title, short description and funding information. The funding information display the amount in Dollars and percentage that has been funded already as well as the days left before the funding closes down. You will find many projects receive more funding than they creators actually need. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, and you can join the funding as long as there is time left before it closes.

A click on a project opens that project's home page on Kickstarter. Here you receive detailed information about the project as well as all funding information you need. The sidebar lists what you will receive for your money. In the case of the "best dock for iPhone" you will have to pay $59 to get one in glass bead blasted finished instead of $90 which you would have to pay in retail once the product ships. You could also pay more and get the dock in different colors and materials.

You need to create an account first before you can fund a project. Funding is not difficulty at all as it takes a few clicks to fund a new project.

What I really like about Kickstarter is the fact that you can fund interesting ideas and projects that may otherwise never come to existence. You'll definitely find crazy ideas on the site that you would never invest in. But for ten ideas that do not interest you, you find one that is exactly what you ever wanted to have. I love to browse through the new projects on the site and am always excited when I discover one that sparks my interest.

I might even use it in the future to get funding for some of the ideas that I have, e.g. for writing a book.

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