I’ve been working on a slightly weird project and I’m trying to understand if it actually makes sense outside my own head.
It’s called OVO. It’s not a mouse, not a trackpad, not really a controller either.
It’s basically a small device you move in your hand:

tilt → moves the cursor
touch → click / scroll
rotate → volume, zoom, etc
works on a desk or in the air

You can also map gestures to custom macros, so it adapts depending on what you’re doing.
The idea came from a simple frustration: using a mouse all day just feels… old.
You’re still dragging something on a flat surface like it’s the 80s.
So I started experimenting with something that works more through orientation than movement.
The shape is ovoid and it naturally recenters itself, so instead of “moving” it around, you’re constantly adjusting balance.
I’m not saying it replaces a mouse, I honestly don’t know yet.
That’s kind of why I’m here.
I’m planning to launch it on Kickstarter soon, so I’m trying to gather as much honest feedback as possible before that.

Would you ever try something like this?
Or does it just sound like an unnecessary gadget?
Happy to share more or show how it works if anyone’s curious.
Thanks.

For those curious, here’s the Kickstarter page:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800078983/ovo-not-a-mouse-a-new-way-to-point

Just received this email today. It's admittedly 100% my fault since I did not do any research prior to backing. A quick google search and there's news that the project assets were stolen and the kickstarter was fake all along.

Since the project was fully funded, I guess this means that I can no longer get a refund for the amount I pledged? Not unless the scammer suddenly gets a come to Jesus moment? Just curious, so please let me know. Thank you!

so this guy actually did back my kick for the 120 dollar tiers and hes from the uk... wants me to email him as a comment on the kick.. this is weird yea? has anyone else seen the scam like this. or is he really trying to ask me a question?

I just launched this week, and while I did quite a bit of posting/marketing pre-launch, I'm struggling to get traction. I currently have 15 backers. Most from LinkedIn and Kickstarter itself. I have a BoardGameGeek listing, and some folks were nice enough to announce the game in their newsletters. I've also been running Reddit and Instagram ads.

Any advice?

Long time KS creator (10+ years). Recently helping out a close friend who runs a campaign once a year or so to crowdfund some tech gadget. His creator account has good reputation and usually delivers on time.

With the stuff produced and shipped out from China, most big couriers have simply raised the white flag for anything going to the states. Instead of Fedex Ground or USPS, this year we have to use small couriers which are slow, unreliable and have terrible customer services in the US. Around 95% rewards still get delivered so not too bad. It is a $49-69 item, we can't charge more than $20 for shipping anyway.

But we have received the worst complaint emails from GIGA KARENS last week. Literally 1000 words complaining about how they have to wait for 20 precious minutes to get in touch with the CS, or they no longer even bother to contact, and in fact just DEMAND us to ship with UPS, Fedex or DHL or refund. The shipping cost for those alone costs more than their pledge and they will get hit with full tariff.

I really miss the days when backers were backers and communication wasn't like Best Buy customer service.

I have 3 questions:

#1 - I'm launching my kickstarter in 2 1/2 weeks and I currently have 42 followers from my own organic sharing. I'm sending out emails and asking amplifiers to share to their audience this week. I keep getting feedback that people don't know the important of following a campaign in pre-launch.

Does anyone have ways you've communicated to people unfamiliar with kickstarter that they should sign in and get an account now and follow? I made a loom explaining it and posted on my socials but am not sure what else to do.

#2 - I'm having 3 in person events during the window of my kickstarter. Has anyone successfully gotten people to sign up support a campaign while at a party or shopping event? If so, what worked for you?

#3 - Goal question - if my fundraising goal is between $10-$12k is it better to list it as $9999 or something like that? I do have the ability to make up the difference if it doesn't blow the goal out. But I keep seeing other campaigns not fund and I would like to avoid that if possible. I get a thrill when I see a campaign at an exponential amount over it's goal. Is that just me?

Thanks so much for your help!

So basically I funded this company back in 2022, and they haven't updated since May 2025. Word on the street is that they're being sued for not paying the company they hired to create their product (but that's just hearsay).

Am I just essentially screwed out of my money though? I know it's on me to research before I back. But this company was credible up until May last year. They went from regular updates to radio silence.

(Side info, I'm posting this mainly because I just checked for any updates and all the backers are trying to refund. 2000 comments in the last couple months are all "Backer #_____ issued refund". So now I'm worried.)

Hello everyone, I’m about to launch my first crowdfunding campaign and I have a question – I’m sure it’ll be a ‘silly’ one, so apologies in advance, but I’m really unsure about two things:

1) In a Kickstarter campaign where the total target is barely reached, what is the average number of PDFs sold (non-print copies)?

2) Does the total cost that the creator has to bear for posting the packages need to be included in the amount requested on Kickstarter (before it’s added to taxes etc. to determine the actual target)?

Thanks to anyone who’s willing to help me <3

Hi everyone — I’m looking for some honest, even blunt, feedback.

We’re currently running a Kickstarter campaign for RAYNOLSE Pro, a smart jump rope. We’re incredibly grateful that we reached our funding goal, but the number of backers is lower than we expected. but honestly, it’s been a little discouraging.

The idea behind our product was simple:

What if a jump rope could do for jump-rope training what a running watch does for running?

Not just count reps, but help you understand your workout and figure out what to do next.

We’ve spent years developing the hardware and app, and we now have a product that actually works. We genuinely care about what we’ve built, and we’re proud of how far it has come.

But we may be too close to the product to judge it objectively.

Is our marketing simply not reaching enough people?
Does our campaign page fail to communicate the value clearly?
Or is the audience for a jump-rope product just smaller than we believed?

We also talk about Crossrope a lot internally. Our Kickstarter reward is priced well below Crossrope’s connected AMP system, and we genuinely believe our product can hold its own in a side-by-side comparison. If I’m being completely honest, I think we could win people over if they saw the two products compared directly.

So perhaps we’ve been too cautious.

Should we target Crossrope users more directly and make the price and product differences much clearer? Or would that kind of aggressive comparison hurt a new brand more than it helps?

I’m not asking for sympathy, and I’m not asking anyone to back the project blindly. I’d really like to know your honest first impression:

• Is the product’s value immediately clear?
• Does the product seem interesting, but the campaign or marketing feel weak?
• Is jump rope simply too limited as a category?
• Would a direct comparison with Crossrope help or hurt?
• What would personally stop you from backing it?

Please don’t feel the need to be polite. Even a quick first impression would be genuinely helpful.

Project link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/raynolse/raynolse-pro?ref=discover_saved_projects&category_id=28

Thanks for reading.

We’d genuinely like to hear what people think about this, because we’re trying to understand where the line is.

We’re a small family-run food business currently working on a Kickstarter campaign for a cookbook based on our family’s food heritage and recipes.

We have used AI to help create some of the visual/creative content for the campaign, including some images and videos. We have never tried to hide this. In fact, we decided to be completely transparent about it and included the explanation below in our campaign.

However, we’ve received quite a lot of criticism on Reddit and elsewhere simply because people saw an AI-generated image. In some cases, it felt like the conversation ended the moment someone noticed that AI had been used — without asking what we used it for, why we used it, or what parts of the actual project were created by us.

And this is where we’re genuinely unsure:

We are a small family business. We have limited resources, and at this stage we would rather spend that money on developing, cooking, testing, documenting, and photographing the actual recipes than spending a significant amount on professional graphic design, photography, and video production for a Kickstarter campaign.

We see AI as one of the tools available to us — just like Canva, Photoshop, video-editing software, and other creative tools.

At the same time, we completely understand why people are concerned about AI, especially when it is used deceptively or when it replaces something that should genuinely be created by a person.

So we’d like to ask honestly:

Is our approach wrong?

Should we avoid AI completely, even if using it allows a small business like ours to put more of its limited resources into the actual product?

Or is it reasonable to use AI for certain parts of a campaign, as long as we are transparent about it and don't use it to misrepresent the actual product?

We’re not looking for an “AI is always good” or “AI is always bad” argument. We’d genuinely like to hear where you think the line should be — and, if you think we’re approaching this the wrong way, what would you recommend we do instead?

For context, this is the transparency statement we included in our campaign:

[AI Usage: Transparency Matters]

Yes, we use AI in this campaign — and we want to be completely transparent about it.

AI has been used to help us create some of the creative content for this campaign, including certain photos and videos. We are a small family-run food business, not professional graphic designers, photographers, or video creators. At this stage, we would rather invest our limited funds in what truly matters: developing, testing, and professionally documenting our actual recipes and our food.

However, there is one very important distinction:

We do not use AI to create, write, or invent our recipes. Every recipe in the book will be written, cooked, tested, and perfected by us. And the food photography in the final book will show real dishes, actually prepared by us and photographed in real life.

So yes — you will see AI-assisted creative content here in our campaign. We use it as a tool, just like we use Canva, Adobe Photoshop, video-editing software, and other creative tools. We believe the important thing is being honest about how these tools are used and, more importantly, where they are not used.

We hope you won't judge the heart of this project by the tools we use to present it. We are putting our time, knowledge, family heritage, and our own food into this book — and when the time comes to create the actual Recipe Vault, we will invest in professional help where it truly matters.

Thank you for understanding, supporting small creators, and being part of our journey. ❤️

Much love,
Lolo & Aunty

Check it here if you would like to know more:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loloandaunty/lolo-and-aunty-saving-100s-of-years-of-recipes-on-wheels

Possible dumb question but is paying for marketing a board game essential on kickstarter? or is it possible for the game pop off on kickstarters internal traffic if it has any?

As my campaign got older or the campaign received more funding / closed the gap toward its goal, I assumed my campaign would rise up the list in my given category. When I started the campaign, I was listed 90 campaigns down. Now, as my project has proven to be more successful, I'm listed over 150 projects down. With the exception of projects that have received "Projects We Love", the vast majority of projects sitting above mine in ranking are significantly further from their goals.

Can someone explain this? Is there any logic to the Kickstarter ranking and hierarchy?

Hi all,
Been running meta adds for over a week for my campaign and honestly I’m underwhelmed.
Out of 843 link clicks I can probably point to one backer.
Is this normal or have I missed the mark somewhere?

Hey Everyone,

Im working on this project called liveframe. Its a picture frame that displays live feeds. Great for surfers who want to keep an eye on wave conditions, skiers who want to do the same with mountain conditions or just people who love nature and want to view it live. I've built a prototype, started testing ads (getting a cpc of 30 cents). Still trying improve my landing page because my conversion rate is low. Im trying to get it to at least a 5% conversion rate. Ive gotten 10 people to signup, 3 to give me a dollar. Im building my community in discord right now.

This is my first kickstarter so any advice would be awesome. Here are a couple questions i have:

My goal is 300k raise, how many community members and 1$ signups should i am for?

When should i have the kickstarter (whats the best date)?

What should i do legally before posting the kickstarter

Any feedback on the landing page?

How do you guys get people in on the project without spending on ads?

What are ways you guys have built a community especially around a product like this?

Sorry for all the questions haha, could use a lot of help.

Liveframe Website

Logo is a different shade of green and has email instead of .com

Hi everyone,
I’m preparing to launch my second Kickstarter in late August and could use some advice from people with more experience.
I’ve been sharing the pre-launch page consistently across my social media, have run some Meta ads, and I’m just starting to build an email list (definitely my weakest area). Despite that, my pre-launch follower count is much lower than I expected.
I’m trying to figure out where my effort is best spent during these last few weeks before launch.

For those of you who’ve had successful campaigns:
What made the biggest difference in getting pre-launch followers?

Is there anything you wish you’d done in the month before launch?

Are there marketing channels that worked surprisingly well (or weren’t worth the time)?
How important is email compared to social media for Kickstarter?

Link in bio and comment if there seems to be issue with prelaunch page info in general.

For context, this is an art/calendar project with an existing adult gay 18+ audience, I am the artist behind all the artwork for this . but I’m worried I’m relying too heavily on social media.

I’d really appreciate any strategies, lessons learned, or mistakes to avoid. Thanks!

Hi everyone,
I’m preparing to launch my first Kickstarter for an American football tabletop game called What the Drive.

Current status:
✅ Prototype finalized and playtested
✅ Kickstarter page in progress
✅ Website is live
✅ Instagram: ~200 followers (posting Reels every 2–3 days)
✅ Email list: 8 subscribers
✅ Reaching out to football podcasts, YouTubers and creators
🚀 Kickstarter launch planned for the end of August (about 6 weeks from now)
🎯 Funding goal: €34,000 (~ $40,000)

I’m trying to be realistic.
If you were in my position today, where would you spend your time during the next six weeks?
- Growing the email list?
- Running Meta ads?
- More creator outreach?
- More social media?
- Something completely different?

Or would you delay the campaign if you were in my position, or would you launch as planned?

I’m not looking for encouragement—I genuinely want honest feedback from people who’ve launched Kickstarter campaigns before.

Thanks!

I am so grateful and happy that I am a Superbacker but even more that I helped numerous creatives in different mediums reach their goal and I have loved every way of it but what does being a Superbacker actually give. Like the invites to events where are they based why should i attend what fi it costs me money to attend and does being a Superbacker help my own project in the future? I just need a little help udnerstanding this.

I've been looking into new Kickstarter projects, and I've noticed a lot of promising projects that are created from creators who have never made a project before. I was wondering if there are tell-tale signs that such projects are trustworthy and are worth backing. What are the signs?

Hi everyone, we've just got our page approved by kickstarter (and thankfully got selected as projects we love): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magicwonders/wand-one-by-magic-wonders-where-magic-comes-to-life
we are running meta ads targeting kickstarter & indiegogo fans AND (harry potter or smart home interests), driving visitors to the KS page. But since we cannot know when someone clicked on Notify me on launch (we cannot optimize the campaign towards that event), and we are having too little followers for the amoutn spent 1 follower per USD 30 USD aprox.

How can we make this right? How can we get more followers?
What strategies do you recommend (also might be besides Meta ads).

Thank you! 🙏

I found a card came project that has been already funded big time with currently 19 days left. They have heavy use of AI, their supposed artist has no social media at all, only a fiverr account that scams people with sloppily overpainted AI images (After further digging I even found an old, hidden fiverr gig of theirs that has non-overpainted AI "art").
The project page seems very proud about human made art and shows this with a process video. This video is heavily sped up, has most of the Photoshop UI conveniently cut off and you constantly see the brushstrokes painting in multiple details and colors in one stroke, I am sure the artist recorded themselves overpainting an AI image and reversed the video.

I contacted the Founder with my findings and they said they are looking into it and thanked me for my message, but its been two weeks without any change and they didnt answer to further messages of mine, in fact they deleted my comment about the AI usage on the video.

Is there a way to report this? In their AI disclaimer they say it will all be human art in the project, but thats simply a lie. I hate to see the backers that care about human made art being scammed.

Hi everyone,

I launched my Kickstarter campaign yesterday and also used Backermany newsletter service.

I believe it has been more than 10 hours since the newsletter went out, but so far I’ve only received 1 pledge from it. Is this normal?

Do pledges usually come in mostly within the first few hours, or can they continue coming in slowly over the next 24 to 48 hours?

I’m trying to understand whether this is still too early to judge, or if 1 pledge after 10 hours usually means the newsletter did not perform well.

Any experience or data would be really appreciated.

I hadn’t noticed this before, and I just realised these dates line up.

• Screenshot 1: The Dinosaurs of the Wild West Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing campaign that ends on 7 August 2026.

• Screenshot 2: According to IF Magazine, the creator behind the project, Luke Sparke, has a trial review scheduled for 7 August 2026, ahead of a four-week trial due to begin on 17 August in the Brisbane District Court.

IF Magazine article:

https://if.com.au/luke-sparke-facing-fraud-charges-over-alleged-breaches-of-the-bankruptcy-act/

Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?

Hi there, I did a crowdfunder at the back end of last year but due to problems with production I am only getting the goods back next week.

A number of my backers are in the EU and whilst I have an agent for GPSR purposes, the new PPWR regulations are concerning. I did not realise production would take this long and that this would be an issue.

I think I have around 39 backers across 12 countries, most have just one order per country but France / Germany have more.

I am very concerned around fulfilling these bearing in mind PPWR. I can't afford to register in each country.

I am thinking of perhaps just risking it and shipping anyway and hoping for the best!

The other option is to refund these backers only, which is possible, but still a significant chunk of money that I don't really have spare, ideally.

Any tips or thoughts welcome! I did hear that in Autumn some new guidance is coming out, and can hold off fulfilling these if necessary.

Afaik this is not allowed but I often see the "funded in <5 minutes" posts and badges on marketing materials - are these legitimate or is it generally a marketing tactic of having a friend or family member or secondary credit card drop money onto the project immediately after launch?

It seems like there should be a distinction between 1 purchase of $X within minutes of launch vs 100s of $5-10 purchases within minutes of launch. That said - what kind of following do people have that folks are waiting to buy asap...? Are the early bird offers really that good?