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Kickstarter is probably the most well-known crowd funding website in existence. Here you can obtain money for any creative projectnote  you have by submitting a description of your project (usually alongside a short video) and promising rewards to people who "pledge" different amounts.

While the site had enjoyed a reasonable success beforehand, Kickstarter went through an explosion in popularity after February 2012: not only did an iPhone dock become the first project to raise a million dollars, but legendary game developer Tim Schafer announced he was going to raise money for a new adventure game, and Double Fine was only asking for $400,000 as its goal. Said project ended up raising over three million, with one million raised in a single day. The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive also joined the 1+ million club the same month. Here you can find a nice retrospective they released for their fifth birthday.

Schaefer's success then caused a large number of game developers to turn to Kickstarter in the following months, and later talents from other fields as well. The website has played a significant role in popularizing the concept of crowd funding as a whole.


Kickstarter projects include:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Nozomi Entertainment wanted to get an English-dubbed HD Blu-Ray release for the first season of ARIA. The Kickstarter proved spectacularly successful, allowing them to dub all three seasons and the OVAs for HD Blu-Ray.
  • Cannon Busters, a pilot for an anime based on LeSean Thomas' short-lived 2005 comic of the same name. Raised over $150,000 on a $120,000 goal, and a full series was picked up by Netflix.
  • MECHA-UDE, an anime by Sae Okamoto, who's most well known for the animated short 11:08.
  • The visual novel Nekopara received an Animated Adaptation (the game itself was released on Steam).
  • Red Ash: Gearworld: Keiji Inafune's Anime adaptation of his Red Ash video game.
  • Time of Eve was hoping to raise $18,000 for an English subtitled release on Blu-ray. Instead it got over 10 times that and hastily added more subtitles, a dub, artbooks, merchandise and shorts.
  • Under the Dog, an OVA set in a near future world, where the United Nations trains augmented assassins.
  • Some of Osamu Tezuka's manga (such as Unico, Atomcat, Triton of the Sea!, and The Amazing 3/Wonder 3) managed to gain an official English translation thanks to a successful Kickstarter which would be published by Platinum Manga and Classic Manga Works during the early 2010s decade.
  • Unico: AWAKENING, an upcoming manga series that will re-imagine Osamu Tezuka's Unico by Gurihiru and Samuel Sattin. Octas Inc. will serve as the manga's publisher with an English and Japanese release. Raised $63,000 over its initial goal of $50,000 with 581 backers when the Kickstarter was barely 24 hours old after its launch on May 1, 2022. Closed with $179,794 and 2,453 backers on June 2, 2022.
  • TEZUCOMI, a deluxe two-volume tribute manga to Osamu Tezuka's works handled by different artists around the world. Closed with $95,907 and 1,121 backers on December 12, 2023.
  • AnimEigo completed a wildly successful Kickstarter for a Blu-Ray of the original Bubblegum Crisis, and went on to achieve the same for Riding Bean.
  • Funimation funded a new dub for The Vision of Escaflowne that includes scenes that weren't on the original Bandai Entertainment release.

    Art 

    Comic Books 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2017 continuation)
    • And a new Kickstarter in 2021 to bring it back with its own hosting instead of dealing with getting cancelled by TV networks or streaming services.

    Magazines 
  • E1M1 Magazine, a magazine dedicated to old-school first person shooters. Issues #1 - #3 were successfully kickstarted in one campaign, and they recently launched a second campaign for issues #4 - #6.

    Music 
  • Animusic 3
  • Savlonic's debut album Red.
  • Theatre Is Evil, an album by Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. Notable for surpassing its $100,000 goal to the tune of $1.2 million, and the album debuted on the Billboard top 100 Album list at number 10 due to the immense number of Kickstarter pre-orders. (Later provoked a bit of a controversy online when Palmer invited local musicians to play with the tour gratis.)
  • Ted Leo's The Hanged Man.

    Tabletop Games 

    Toys 

    Video Games 

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • Ava's Demon: Books one and two.
  • Awkward Zombie: Volume One
  • Brawl in the Family: Volume One and Volumes 2 & 3
  • Broodhollow: To finance the publishing of book one, "Pretty Little Things".
  • Check, Please!: Volumes one and two were financed through Kickstarter. Volume three is still in campaign, but has already reached near ten times what was requested.
  • Cucumber Quest: Publication of various books.
  • Deep Dive Daredevils: A Diesel Punk webcomic about the USS Custer and its brave crew.
  • For several years now, weekend Dumbing of Age strips have been funded as stretch goals from the drives for the strip's print volumes.
  • Erfworld, four times. The first was a project to make a motion comic from Book 1, that ended up funding several other goals. The second, an alphabet book featuring characters and creatures of the world. The third, a set of lapel pins featuring the battle crests for the seven major factions in the world. The fourth project is currently underway, with the goal of funding production of Book 3.
  • Girl Genius: The Professors Foglio sought funding to print volume 12 of the comic, and ended up with enough to reprint the entire run. It's currently the fourth most funded Kickstarter in the comics category.
  • Heroes of Homeroom C: To fund publication of graphic novels.
  • The Intrepid Girlbot: To fund volume one's publication.
  • Johnny Wander: To finance the printing of the third paperback volume.
  • Let's Speak English: After the comic's conclusion, a print edition of the comic was funded through Kickstarter.
  • Moby Dick: Back From The Deep: To finance the printing of physical copies of the issues.
  • The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive
  • Penny Arcade Sells Out: Rather than one specific project, PA is looking to get the fans to pick up the site's operating expenses for a year. If successful, then they can work on projects for the fans instead of for advertisers.
    • Downloadable Content podcast season 2: "Funded" at $10, reflecting the creators' desire to restart the podcast.
  • Poison Ivy Gulch: Its first book collection Poison Ivy Gulch Saddles Up
  • The Sanity Circus: To finance having the first 10 chapters published in a book.
  • Sleepless Domain: An English release of the comic's first print volume was funded through a Kickstarter campaign.
  • Temerity

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Barry & Joe: The Animated Series
  • The Legend of Vox Machina: Critical Role launched the project in March 2019 with the original goal of $750,000 USD in 45 days to fund a two-part animated special of an original story featuring the character from Critical Role's first campaign. The original goal was met in 40 minutes with the first stretch goal of $1 million being completed by the end of the first hour. By the time the campaign finally closed on April 18th, they had raised $11.3 million USD, taking the crown of highest funded video project from MST3K and making them the fifth-highest funded Kickstarter project ever.
  • Niko and the Sword of Light, funded initially as an animated Comic Book app.
  • The Saga of Rex: a traditionally-animated film project based on a graphic novel by Michel Gagné (whose references include The Iron Giant and Prelude to Eden).
  • SWAT Kats: Revolution: An attempt to revive one of the most radical cartoons of the '90s.
  • Wakfu: In an attempt to provide an English Dub for English broadcasters. It worked and now the show airs in select Cartoon Network markets, and on Netflix for most of the world. At the time its campaign ended, it was in the top 5 most funded animation category ever.
    • Six Years Later, Wakfu got another Kickstarter, this time for a fourth and final season. which reached €1,522,816. note 

    Other Projects 
  • The Ouya: An open, hackable console based off the Android OS which retails for $99. Its controller features two analog sticks, eight buttons, and a touchpad screen.
  • Potato salad: The most famous "joke" Kickstarter on the site, funded at $10.
  • RiffTrax wanted to live-Riff Twilight in August 2013. They asked Kickstarter users for $55,000 so they could get the rights from Lionsgate. They ended up with $264,860. The studio declined, so the guys ended up taking on Starship Troopers instead. RiffTrax returned to Kickstarter when they wanted to get the rights to live-Riff Godzilla (1998). (After Twilight, they made sure that the studio was already OK with the plan as long as the check cleared.) They asked for $100,000, and got it in a couple days. So they announced (again, after checking with the studio first) that if they reached $250,000, they'd add a live-Riff of Anaconda to the schedule. Final total: $265,011.
  • TV Tropes (yes, this very site) launched a Kickstarter on November 30, 2014, seeking at least $50,000 to improve the site and the servers it's on. It was part of a change of leadership with the original creator and founder stepping away from running everything behind the scenes. In the words from the staff:
    After 10 amazing years, it's time for TV Tropes to grow a beard.
    • On December 8th, the $50,000 minimum funding goal was achieved.
    • On December 26th, the first $75,000 stretch goal was achieved, allowing the team to get more servers, hire a part time programmer, and work on an API.
    • On December 30th, the last day, and with at least four hours left, the second and final $100,000 stretch goal was achieved. The staff will then work on Season 3 of Echo Chamber and a vlog series. In the end, $105,186 was raised from 3,109 backers (not counting any PayPal donations).
  • Fruitbat Factory, the publisher of 100% Orange Juice!, opened a Kickstarter campaign on January 30th, 2018 to produce a line of a plushies based on the characters from the game. The campaign met its funding goal within 72 hours since it started, with extra funding going towards producing cards, accessories, and extra character plushies.
  • The Ollie Chair

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