We have done 3 Kickstarter campaigns and there are three questions I get every time. Well, four, if you count, “What’s a Kickstarter campaign?”
- Why don’t you just get your daughter to pay for everything?
- Why does it matter if I back you or not?
- Do you think you really make the goal you set?
Let’s start with #1. Ronda has backed us on Kickstarter in the past and she is an investor in our company, although 95% of our funds from from other sources. As a responsible parent, I don’t want her to ever feel she has to choose to take work not in her best interests so that she can support her family. If she wants to spend the rest of her life as a farmer, I want her to have that option, as I think any good parent would.
We are all adults and we all work for a living. Also, the way the entertainment industry goes, you can never count on anything. I want her to be able to diversify her investments with a good conscience. I also don’t want to be in the position that I feel I can’t tell her she is making a bad decision because I owe her saving my company or something like that. Random fyi, she would never feel that way, but I might.
Also, no one person can back you more than $10,000 on Kickstarter. It’s supposed to be a crowd-funding campaign.
2. Yes, you matter
Kickstarter isn’t just about awards, although we do have cool awards, including getting a game where you learn math and history while dodging Honduran fruit bats. It’s not just about money. It’s about getting a crowd of people involved in what you are doing. I’ll write about that more in my next post (I promised to take the kids to the museum at 2 and it’s 2:10!)
Even if you can only back us $5 , it will get you a game and get a game to a student. As of today, we have enough backers to get our games to thousands of students and each of those 109 backers will get a game themselves as well as rewards such as a book of our family texts as we discuss business, history and whether there really are tigers living in the neighborhood (you get that if you back us $50 or more, plus we’ll sponsor two classrooms in your name).
3. Will you make your goal?
With your help, yes we will. We are raising $15,000 . We’re almost to $9,000 today and we always get about half of what we raise in the last 3 days. The funds will allow us to add Easter eggs, more game play, many of the ideas we have received from students and teachers over the summer of beta testing.
I promised to take my grandchildren to the museum, so I’m outta here, but please consider backing us on Kickstarter. Even $5 gets us closer to our goal and you will get the only bilingual math and history game that includes Honduran fruit bats.
As a proud sponsor of 7generationgames, I simply love knowing that I am helping out my hero’s dream. I remember before the internet. I had wanted to help Dr Mars badly, and didn’t know where or how to send the money. Now, thanks to the internet, I am not only helping my hero, and her family. I am also able to help classrooms of students. Students, and teachers, who need help.
I think it is ridiculous how people ask questions like that about my hero’s #3 daughter Rhonda. Peiple who ask questions like that I think are just being mean. Rhonda, and all my hero’s children, are amongst my hero’s greatest accomplishments.
Making math games for middle school students I know was a dream Dr Mars thought of years ago, when she taught school to pay bills to survive. To see 7generationgames.com become a reality is very inspiring. It is awesome to be able to help out with the dream made real.
I encourage anyone reading this to donate games. Play the games. Be part of the 7generationgames.com movement. You not only get smarter playing math. Your donation also helps out classrooms of students and teachers. And yes, you do matter.