# Kickstarter pre-launch page

## overview.md
```yaml
id: kickstarter-prelaunch
title: Kickstarter pre-launch page
area: comms
summary: A free "notify me on launch" Kickstarter page to build an invested audience — not a funded campaign, since the money isn't the point.
repo: n/a — this workspace (marketing-and-communication/, site/)
depends_on: ["naming-and-brand"]
```

## 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`):** "TEN THOUSAND" is a live registered US trademark in apparel (class 25), owned by Ten Thousand Inc. Any physical apparel reward (shirts, hoodies, hats) must print the full title "Lor: The Ten Thousand Things" or the Lor mark — never the bare short form "Ten Thousand" on its own. This is a hard constraint on reward-tier art, not a style preference.

## 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.

## status.md
```yaml
updated: 2026-08-05
parked: true
tasks: {"backlog":1,"needs-input":0,"ready":0,"doing":0,"review":0,"done":0}
open_questions: []
tag: parked
next: Parked — not being worked right now.
```

## Task summary

1 backlog · 0 ready (parked, so nothing is marked ready regardless of what's underneath). This epic isn't being worked right now.

## Open questions

None tracked. The real open questions (exact publish date, disclosure placement) are recorded as plain prose in `overview.md`, each with a working default the draft task already assumes.

## Next

Nothing — this is parked. Pick up when Kris explicitly asks for the pre-launch page to actually happen.

## tasks/ (1)

### kickstarter-prelaunch/001 — Draft the pre-launch page copy
```yaml
id: kickstarter-prelaunch/001
title: Draft the pre-launch page copy
epic: kickstarter-prelaunch
state: backlog
priority: 1
blocked_by: []
estimate: M
created: 2026-08-05
updated: 2026-08-05
claimed_by: null
claimed_at: null
delivers: []
review_artifact: null
```

## What to do

Draft the Kickstarter pre-launch page copy: pitch, the AI-transparency disclosure (reuse `/workshop`'s language rather than writing a vaguer version — see `overview.md`), and the December 2026 release-target framing (must match the existing December 2025 Medium announcement exactly, or flag the mismatch rather than silently picking a wording). No paid reward tiers needed at pre-launch stage. Default assumption unless told otherwise: a concise disclosure inline on the Kickstarter page itself, plus a link to `/workshop` for depth — a compliance-critical disclosure like this one shouldn't depend on an external link working.

## Definition of done

A complete draft, ready for Kris's review before anything is actually published (publishing itself is a separate, human-approved step — see `overview.md`'s note on outward-facing comms actions). Flag explicitly, in the draft or alongside it, whether the Medium release-target wording actually matches what this draft says.

## Where the work lands

`marketing-and-communication/` in this workspace repo (draft as a file there, not published anywhere yet).

## Docs to read first

`epics/public-site-and-comms/overview.md` and the site's `/workshop` page (the AI-disclosure language to reuse); `epics/naming-and-brand/overview.md` (the merch/trademark constraint, relevant if any reward-tier art is drafted); the Medium announcement URL in `brand/brand.json`'s `mediumUrl`.

## questions/ (0)

## deliverables (0)