Compared to three years ago, there are fewer game Kickstarters that offer physical rewards, and that's a good thing.
A lot of early campaigns wound up with a bunch of orders for physical goods (deluxe editions, t-shirts, figurines) that have a high marginal cost. Later (smarter) campaigns are offering digital art books and soundtracks instead, which have almost no marginal cost.
In short, don't get into the T-shirt / CD business TOO, in addition to your main product, if you can avoid it.
This calls to mind the (ongoing) MST3K Kickstarter, and his explanation of how much of the first couple million is going to fees + fulfillment of awards. At the level I pledged, I would love to dismiss the physical awards and just have the digital movie copies. But I can't.
A lot of early campaigns wound up with a bunch of orders for physical goods (deluxe editions, t-shirts, figurines) that have a high marginal cost. Later (smarter) campaigns are offering digital art books and soundtracks instead, which have almost no marginal cost.
In short, don't get into the T-shirt / CD business TOO, in addition to your main product, if you can avoid it.