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Kickstarter pre-launch page

repo: n/a — this workspace (marketing-and-communication/, site/) · depends on: naming-and-brand

Where this stands (2026-09-13)

Parked since 2026-08-05; nothing here until Kris asks for the pre-launch page to actually happen. The store release came first: on Google Play since 2026-09-22, iOS with Apple for review as of 2026-10-19 (store-release); the trade marks the reward tiers lean on were filed 2026-10-19 (naming-and-brand). First step when picked up: draft the page copy — the pitch, the AI-transparency disclosure, the release framing (was task 001). The open questions (the exact publish date, where the disclosure sits) are prose below, each with a working default. No open issues. Past task files (to 2026-09-13): workshop/historic-docs/epics/kickstarter-prelaunch/tasks/.

What this is

A Kickstarter pre-launch page — the “notify me when this launches” page Kickstarter offers ahead of an actual funded campaign — targeted to go live within roughly a week of this decision being recorded. Not a full crowdfunding campaign.

Why a pre-launch page, not a campaign

Kris does not need the money. The goal of using Kickstarter at all is an invested audience, not funding. A pre-launch page is free to run, carries none of a full campaign’s all-or-nothing funding risk, and still does the actual job: it collects followers who convert into day-one backers/players once the real thing launches. The ~7-day target is a deliberate forcing function, not a hard external deadline — it exists to keep this from drifting the way open-ended “someday” comms tasks do.

Constraints that shape this epic

• Prototype requirement. Kickstarter requires software projects to demonstrate a prototype that reflects the project’s current state — no footage or claims implying functionality that doesn’t exist yet. The signed December 2025 APK already satisfies this, and it was honestly labelled a proof of concept at the time, not a preview of the finished game. Nothing further needs to be built to satisfy this rule for a pre-launch page specifically (a full campaign later may want more).
• AI-use transparency requirement. Kickstarter permits AI use in a project where there is real human creativity and involvement, but explicitly requires creators to be transparent about how AI is used, and prohibits projects with little to no human thought or involvement. This project is substantially built by AI coding agents under Kris’s direction (see public-site-and-comms’s /workshop page) — that has to be disclosed prominently and specifically on the Kickstarter page itself, not just implied by linking to the site. /workshop is written to be exactly this disclosure in substance (“concrete and non-hypey,” per its own brief) — reuse its language rather than writing a separate, vaguer version for Kickstarter.
• Release-target consistency. The public December 2026 release target was already announced on Medium in December 2025. Whatever the pre-launch page states about timing must match that everywhere, or the Medium post needs an explicit, visible revision — silent inconsistency between the two is worse than either alone.

Reward-tier design constraints

• Rejected: a $2 tier granting a year’s subscription. Three problems, all avoidable: it creates a delivery obligation against a game that hasn’t shipped yet; it locks in a subscription business model before that’s actually been decided as the right model for this game; and it anchors the whole product’s perceived value at $2, which is hard to walk back later.
• General rule going forward: low reward tiers should be things fulfillable the moment the campaign/pre-launch period ends — backer credits, beta-channel access, a backer-only devlog feed — not promises against an unshipped, undesigned business model.
• Merch constraint (from naming-and-brand): the game is Spellgrove (2026-09-11), so apparel carries that name or the Lor mark. The old constraint still applies to any reward that quotes the former title: “TEN THOUSAND” is a live registered US trademark in apparel (class 25), owned by Ten Thousand Inc. — never print the bare short form “Ten Thousand” on its own.

Scope

• Writing and publishing the Kickstarter pre-launch page itself.
• The AI-transparency disclosure text specifically for that page.
• Reward-tier list for the pre-launch stage only (typically just “notify me” / no paid tiers yet — a full campaign’s paid reward-tier design, if one ever happens, is future scope beyond this epic).

Non-goals

• Not a funded campaign. If Kris later decides to run one, that’s a distinct, larger epic that should reference this one’s constraints rather than repeat them.
• Not resolving the studio name or domain — this epic can proceed under the decided game title alone; see naming-and-brand for what’s still open there.

Key open questions

• Exact publish date within the ~7-day window.
• Whether the pre-launch page links to /workshop directly for AI-disclosure detail, or restates a condensed version inline on Kickstarter itself (Kickstarter’s own page is likely the higher-visibility surface and may warrant its own concise version).

Relevant docs

• epics/naming-and-brand/overview.md — the merch/trademark constraint this epic inherits.
• epics/public-site-and-comms/overview.md and the site’s /workshop page — the AI-orchestration disclosure this epic must surface prominently.
• marketing-and-communication/CLAUDE.md — the broader comms plan this sits inside; note its own open question #6 (budget: time-only, or any spend) is directly relevant here since a pre-launch page is the zero-spend option.

Work on this epic

The granular work is GitHub Issues, one label per epic: epic:kickstarter-prelaunch (private repository — sign-in required). The dated Where this stands section above names the open ones. The task files that carried this epic until 2026-09-13 are kept in the repo: task files to 2026-09-13 .

Also available as raw markdown.