Indie Game Publishers: How to Pitch One and What to Check Before You Sign
November 8, 2026
Kickstarter for Video Games: Setting the Goal, the Timeline and the Rewards
Kickstarter is all or nothing: if your game misses its goal by the deadline, no backer is charged and you receive nothing. If it succeeds, Kickstarter takes 5% and its payment processor takes roughly 3 to 5% more, and the money starts moving 14 days after the campaign ends. A campaign can run from 1 to 60 days, and Kickstarter recommends 30 or fewer. If your rewards include Steam keys, Valve’s rules make 30 days the limit. Below are the rules, how to set a goal you can actually reach, a timeline to work back from, and the Steam key rules that shape your rewards.
Kickstarter’s rules, in numbers
From Kickstarter’s own help pages
- Fees: 5% of the funds collected, only if the project is funded, plus a processing fee from Stripe of roughly 3 to 5% (fees)
- All or nothing: miss the goal and backers are not charged; once a campaign launches, the goal and the deadline are locked, and the only way to change them is to cancel and relaunch (funding)
- Length: 1 to 60 days, with 30 days or less recommended (duration)
- Payout: pledges are collected over 14 calendar days after the deadline, then one payout starts, and your bank can take another 3 to 14 business days (payouts)
- Who can launch: creators aged 18 or over in 25 countries, including Greece, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, the UK and the US; individuals need residency and a government ID from that country, and EU projects accept IDs from other EU countries (eligibility)
Setting the goal
Because the money only arrives if you hit the goal, set it at the least that finishes the game and pays for the rewards. Projects stay live until the deadline and can raise more than their goal, and anything above it can pay for stretch goals.
A worked example with made-up numbers: you need EUR 20,000 to finish the game and EUR 2,000 to produce and deliver rewards. With up to 10% going to fees, a goal of EUR 24,500 leaves you about EUR 22,000. Tax on rewards depends on your country, so ask an accountant before you fix the figure.
For context, the one large data set on video game campaigns we found is from Narwhal.ax, published by GameDev Reports in November 2025. Across 17,000 video game campaigns since 2009 it gives an overall success rate of 32%. It counts 1,335 video game campaigns in 2024, which raised USD 25.2 million together, and none of the 15 campaigns that asked for USD 2.5 million or more succeeded.
A timeline to work back from launch day
Ten to twelve weeks out: Steam page, build, budget
Put your Steam store page up first, because Steam keys can only be promised as rewards for a game that has already confirmed Steam distribution. Prepare a trailer, a playable build or demo, the budget behind your goal and the reward list. Then submit the project to Kickstarter for review.
After approval: the pre-launch page
First-time creators can set up a pre-launch page once the project has been reviewed and approved. Visitors click “Notify me on launch”, the follower count appears on the page once 10 people have signed up, and Kickstarter emails every follower when the campaign goes live. Send every link you have to this page: your Steam page, your Discord, your newsletter, your press kit.
The 30 days
Post an update at least once a week, answer every comment, and keep creators supplied with a demo and a press kit so coverage keeps arriving after launch day. Our guide to getting streamers to play your game covers how to approach them, and the Steam demo guide covers the build itself.
After the deadline
Pledges are collected for 14 days, then the payout starts. If you use Kickstarter’s pledge manager after the campaign, its fees match those on a funded project.
Rewards and Steam keys
Steam’s rules for keys and crowdfunding
If your rewards include Steam keys, stop at 30 days
- Steam keys can fulfil crowdfunding rewards, but only for a game that has already confirmed Steam distribution.
- Steam asks you to request keys only for time-limited campaigns, and it sets the maximum length of a time-limited campaign at 30 days.
- Do not promise more than 2,500 Release State Override keys, the keys that give players access before release.
- Steam keys are not meant for late pledge campaigns that keep selling before the game is on sale on Steam.
- Pre-purchase keys sold outside Steam should open the game when it goes on sale on Steam, and Steam customers should never get a worse deal than key buyers.
Within those rules, digital tiers are the safest: the game on Steam, beta access inside the 2,500-key limit, the soundtrack, a digital art book, a name in the credits. Physical rewards cost money to make and ship, and that money comes out of your goal, so keep them few and price them with shipping included.
Kickstarter or another route
A campaign does two jobs at once: it raises money and it tests demand in public. The pre-launch page only emails people who chose to follow it, so the crowd on launch day is the one you built before it. If that crowd is small, compare the other routes first:
- Grants pay for development without taking revenue. Our overview of grants in Europe has the 2027 deadlines.
- A publisher can fund the game in exchange for a share of revenue; see what to check in a deal.
- Early Access is a different tool. Valve’s Early Access rules say plainly that it is not crowdfunding: the game has to be playable when someone buys it.
Two studios on IndiePump.space link a Kickstarter project from their press kit, and both have a demo on Steam.
On IndiePump.space, with a Kickstarter page
Demo available
How IndiePump can help with a campaign
Our older guide to a compelling crowdfunding campaign goes deeper on the page and the story. For hands-on help, our funding service plans the campaign and its numbers, and social media management and PR and email outreach fill the pre-launch page and the 30 days. A free press kit page on IndiePump.space gives creators somewhere to request keys while the campaign runs.
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