Well, I'm debating putting my game up on IndieGoGo. As a Canadian I can't do Kickstater unfortunately. I want to raise funds, to gamify / incentify beta testing, ie Gift cards, etc. for those who fully participate in the beta testing process, as well as some additional funds for marketing the game once it is done. Couple questions:

By using IndieGoGo to raise some funds, do you think that comes across as "cheesy" or "desperate"?

Has anyone ever used Kickstarter, IndieGoGo or equivalent to raise funds? How successful was it?

By using these services, does it help to further promote your game?

Interested in your answers.

I've been looking a little at Kickstarter recently, and from what I could tell, its fairly easy to get around US$5,000 there. I saw several game projects that raised up to $60,000 - $80,000, and the highest one was just over $100,000.

If you've pretty much finished your game, $5,000 would be a great marketing budget for an indie. If you've yet to start working on it, $5,000 is too little to get any work done.

If you're looking for beta testers and marketing for an almost done game, I think it would come off prudent rather than cheesy. But if you say "I have a great idea for an mmo let me have money so I can hire people that know what they are doing" that would come off cheesy

It doesn't have to come off as desperate. I have seen some many professional, fun projects.

Your video is key. Be sure to get someone good to put it together; feel free to email me if you want a suggestion. I've seen statistics showing that projects do best when the video focuses on footage from the game / film. Humor is great but must be done properly.

Does your game have a release date?

I agree with applawreigns. If you make a kickass video, and share it via Reddit.com/r/indiegaming, Hacker News, Twitter, Facebook and Google+, that will drive a lot of traffic to your site regardless of where it's hosted or how it's asking for money. I would almost recommend doing it via PayPal yourself if you're that nervous about using IndieGogo.

When making a video, you may even want to hire a professional to do something cool. I really like the videos done by this guy: http://grumomedia.com/

You can see an example here:


He does startup videos but he has a knack for explaining complicated ideas, which might be perfect for WorldAlpha.

Also, as far as your indie marketing strategy is concerned, you should introduce your game to communities of other MMORTS games like http://www.king-and-country.com/ and http://www.endofnations.com/en/