TechRaptor favorite Kingdom Death: Monster hit Kickstarter for the second time on Black Friday, November 24th 2016, and it did so with a bang. The campaign, which offered an updated version of the core game (dubbed version 1.5), and an upgrade pack for existing owners, took a mere 19 minutes to raise its first million dollars. Before the dust had settled on the first day of the campaign, over $4,000,000 had already been raised, and the campaign looked to be on track to break Kickstarter records.

Kingdom Death 1.5 not only passed up the previous record-holding game, but moved all the way into the fourth spot all-time on Kickstarter.

The campaign came to a close on January 7th, with the final tally coming in at a cool $12,393,139, rocketing past Exploding Kittens, which previously held on to the previous record for any project in the Games category after raising $8,782,571. The campaign was so successful that Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 now sits at the fourth highest funded project ever. On top of moving in to the fourth slot for overall funding, the amount pledged per backer for this project is notable in that it sits at an astounding average of $643 per backer. The campaign was actually so successful that the first wave of rewards, including the core game and upgrade pack, are already being hit with a delay because the Kingdom Death crew didn't anticipate just how many copies that they would need.

The 1.5 version of the game updates the core game pretty significantly.

Many people expected the campaign to follow a more traditional path, revealing new content and stretch goals as money-milestones were hit but, after the incredible initial influx of funding, Adam and Anna Poots took a different, entertainment-driven, approach to the campaign. Instead of simply revealing content at certain dollar amounts, dice-rolls, community challenges and even a Super Mario Maker Level were presented to the community as ways to both reveal, and unlock, new content. While this approach didn't sit well with some, it had others completely enthralled, waiting with abated breath to see what twists, and turns the campaign would take next, and what new content would end up being revealed.

I pinged Adam Poots with a few questions after the campaign came to an end. Here's what he had to say:

TR: How does it feel to have the fourth highest funded Kickstarter ever? AP: Surreal. I certainly need some downtime to prepare for the huge amount of exciting work we have ahead of us! TR: The King, Scribe and other parts of the cancelled Lantern Festival didn't make an appearance. Are there plans to add them to the game at a later date? AP: No comment. TR: The much requested Ringtail Fox didn't make an appearance this campaign, and from the sounds of it, it will have as much content as the core game itself. Will we see anything Ringtail Fox related before this KS is finished, or will people have to wait until 2020? AP: I am not sure at this point. My priority is now focused on the new round of promises we made this campaign. There are miniatures to make, manufacturing deals to finalize, tons of content to design, an onslaught of emails to answer. Ringtail Fox is going to have to wait. TR: Can you elaborate on the core/upgrade pack delay just a bit? AP: Oh yeah. That one is pretty simple. Before the campaign launched I got the long-winded manufacturing process on 10,000 core games and 5,000 upgrade packs. It looks like we now need 25,000 core games tho! So yeah, the physical delay of making more things! TR: Any other comments? AP: THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!! I WANT TO HIDE FROM THE WORLD BUT I PROMISE I WONT! LOL

Quick Take

I'm super excited about the success of this campaign. I've made no secret my love for Kingdom Death: Monster in the past, and I'm incredibly excited to get my hands on the updated rules, and to dig in to the new expansions as they ship in the years to come. Personally I loved how the campaign unfolded, and I was glued to the edge of my seat each day to see what new tidbit, or what new monster-bomb, would be revealed. I thought it was an exciting and fresh way to handle a Kickstarter, although I don't know if this approach would work without first having a known, proven commodity like Kingdom Death.