Perennial board game crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter recently updated their homescreen user experience with a cleaner, more organised look and feel.
A key feature that we’ve spotted is that campaign videos now auto-playwithout sound when you mouse over them!
This means any tabletop game publisher looking to use the platform will need to adapt their approach to their campaign videos to make it as easy as possible to convert potential backers.
Here are 3 ways you can adapt to this new feature to make sure your board game gets into the hands of players:
1 – Move logos and branding to the end of the video
When it comes to video content, a reliable rule of thumb has been to place your branding/logo within the first 3 seconds of your video.
With videos now auto-playing on the Kickstarter home screen when you mouse over them, we recommend moving your branding and logos to the end of the video.
In its place you’ll want to use dramatic animated art that tells the story of your game, show off a never-seen-before component or demonstrate how your game builds on existing tabletop gaming niches.
This will make it more likely that your video will grab the attention of Kickstarter users who may then click into your campaign.
2 – The feature only works on desktop
This feature is currently only functional on desktop, but given more and more people access the internet from mobile devices, we’re sure this feature will roll out in some way for this hardware too.
3 – No audio – include captions!
Linked very closely to the above point, audio doesn’t play for these videos. This may be a deliberate move on Kickstarter’s part as they prep the feature for mobile compatibility, armed with the knowledge that lots of people watch videos with the sound off on their mobile devices when in public. According to Semrush, over 70% of traffic on Kickstarter is from mobile devices!
This also means that if there’s a message you want to communicate about your game right off the bat, we strongly encourage you to include captions at the beginning of your video to accompany images and provide any voice acting in a visual way too.
This will ensure your message will still be communicated with potential backers watching with their sound turned off!
Have you got any ideas for how board game publishers could adapt to this development? Let us know in the comments!