I Kickstarted my WIP, a sci-fi parser game. This was an enormous undertaking. I did it on a foundation of having a lot of creative output I could point to in different fields, not only IF.
My reputation in this forum as a developer and reviewer magnified the assistance of those who are on this forum, but they are still a minority of the people who backed the Kickstarter. I can probably also assume, though, that a second ring of people who backed but whom I didn’t recognise, are only one or two removes from those first people in overlapping IF/gaming circles.
I had a long run-up to the Kickstarter that I operated in many circles – social media (that I normally have nothing to do with), gaming forums, my Apple II circle, personal and work circles. I tried traditional press angles but probably received less coverage than I have in the past for other things. I ran competitions in a Discord server using methods derived from a gaming conference talk that I can thank/blame @dfabulich for showing me. Short version – that didn’t work for IF to create a critical mass! But sometimes (or inevitably?) living out some mammoth task you feel grouchy about immediately after has hidden benefits.
I did so many things, I’m hard-pressed to point to any one and say, ‘This was the critical thing’. I think it probably succeeded because I did an absolute ton of things. And in circles where I knew people, I had my work and reputation to stand on.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend a Kickstarter unless you’ve got something really hooky, and of obvious quality you can share, unless you’re already standing on a lot of stuff. In IF, I think that means getting some quality games under your belt that people know about. Fortunately there are numerous competitions and things here that give you a chance to do that.
Others have had recent success with IF Kickstarters deployed with less multi-disciplinary attack efforts than mine (e.g. I doesn’t exist) but already you can see, they had graphics, and game cuteness to sell as well. It think some smaller IF efforts can Kickstart at a nice, modest level if they have graphics. Pushing retro can work for that audience, and the more retro project crowd can be highly motivated. I just can’t speak for text-only efforts. I think you need more than just the game you’re pushing in the Kickstarter to excite people.
I have other posts and things about my Kickstarter about the place, probably most are linked from my PDF document post. It may be of use in general, not only for a Kickstarter.
-Wade