Yes, this Kickstarter blog article is a grand master plan to sell you my voice for your trailers.
- Ryan Highley
- Jun 19
- 4 min read
Or that of a fellow voice talent.
Jokes aside, I may be slightly biased by personal interest in this, but all of this is backed by solid data.
There are plenty of crowdfunding platforms out there, and they all recommend investing in quality content to boost your chances of success.
Why add a voice to your Kickstarter, Ulule, or GameOnTabletop trailer?
Massive ROI
90% of marketers say video delivers strong ROI, and 60% measure it in pure engagement (likes, shares, comments).
Rising trend
By 2025, 93% of professionals consider video a “profitable” investment.
Voice = emotional impact + pledges
An MDPI study shows that a narrator’s prosody (tone, rhythm, energy) directly influences campaign success.
Kickstarter snowball effect
Projects that hit 20% of their goal are funded 79% of the time. “A clear narration helps break that psychological barrier faster.”
Sound > silence
Mute ads suffer from lower brand recall compared to those with audio.
Key Advantageses
Advantage | Whay is it useful ? | Quick verdict |
Emotional hooks | Voice sparks oxytocin: audiences bond with your world. | Retention + shares. |
Brand personality | Accent, pace, humor: they spot you in 3 s. | Locks in fans. |
Accessibility | Not everyone reads on mobile. | Voice + captions = inclusive & SEO-friendly. |
Trust | A human voice beats “scam fatigue.” | More clicks to your project page. |
Algorithmfriendly | Watch time soars, platforms push your content. | Organic visibility +++. |
The (rare) risks and how to avoid them
Risks | Workaround |
Budget | Fold VO costs into a clear stretch goal. |
Bad casting | Check the actor’s profile, credits, and wins first. |
Language barrier | Record a FR + EN take and add auto-subs. |
Too much chatter | Keep pace at 120–140 wpm; above that, comprehension and pledges tank. |
ROI (hard numbers)
Narrated trailers outperform:
Average completion rate jumps to 68 % on YouTube & Facebook vs 42 % for silent videos.
Click-throughs to the campaign page nearly double (5.2 % vs 2.3 %).
Average pledge rockets from €33 to €47.
When standard social-media conversion rates hover around 0.77 % on Twitter and 1.4 % on YouTube, it’s clear a well-cast voice isn’t a nice-to-have it’s the fuel that actually launches the rocket.
Quick decision matrix
Your situation | Complex rules to explain | Shoestring budget, straightforward gameplay | Shooting for maximum emotional hype | Charismatic creator already on camera |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Recommended move | Bring in a voice 😉 | Hear me out on a tiered-payment plan | Voice + cinematic mix—non-negotiable | VO coaching to refine it, or just let them shine |
Let’s look at some examples
Example 1 – Darkest Dungeon “Part of the success is no doubt tied to the casting.”
Darkest Dungeon is a dark, intense video game launched on Kickstarter in 2015. Shooting for $75 k, it ultimately pulled in $313 k from 9 369 backers—a huge win for an indie project.
One key ingredient: the casting. The game’s narrator, the Ancestor, is voiced by veteran actor Wayne June, known for his Lovecraft audiobook work. His chilling, possessed tone drops players straight into the nightmarish adventure.
Example 2 – Rise of the Necromancers
Rise of the Necromancers “Second Edition” is a strategy game where each player commands a necromancer bent on domination. Launched on Gamefound by Sore Loser Games, it raised $317 k—634.19 % of its $50 k target.
The pitch hit home with a dark universe, tight gameplay, and quality minis—and the trailer’s voice-over is just as committed, delivering a strong performance.
A textbook win for board-game crowdfunding.
What a voice! The perfect necromancer, embodied.
THE COST!
Crowdfunding is already a big gamble; it’s a leap into the unknown, and casting the right voice is no easy task either.
Once the trailer is finished, the VO laid down, and the audio properly mixed, it becomes something completely different. A successful campaign will always cover the VO, which is a fixed, measurable expense. Fold that cost into the overall budget or set it as a stretch goal, and everyone wins.
A video-game trailer starts at €/£/$ 1 000 in addition to studio, mix, and master.
I’m offering a base price of €200 ex-VAT for any trailer under 2 min 30.*
We take time to define what you need (tone, character, pace). I send takes, you give feedback, we tweak.
Then we agree on two success tiers : level 1 and level 2 balanced for both of us.
If your crowdfunding hits the agreed tier 1, you add €150 ex-VAT.
If it reaches the agreed tier 2, you add another €150 ex-VAT.
The goal is to make professional VO accessible and share a slice of your risk. If you’re not comfortable with the audio mix (a crucial step), I can handle it for an additional fee.
On regarde ça ensemble ?
📧 contact@ryan-highley.com
Je ne suis peut-être pas la voix qui match ton projet, mais discutons de tout ça et trouvons des solutions, je connais des comédiens et des comédiennes très performantes et de tout horizon.
Belle journée à toi
Fin du pitch. Générique. Campagne financée. Sources (parce qu'il en faut !) : "Audio Features and Crowdfunding Success: An Empirical Study Using Audio Mining" - https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/19/4/154 - Miao Miao,Yudan Wang, ORCID,Jingpeng Li, Yushi Jiang and Qiang Yang - 18 November 2024
Average Speaking Rate and Words per Minute - https://virtualspeech.com/blog/average-speaking-rate-words-per-minute - November 8, 2022 - Dom Barnard Kickstarter Stats - https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats?ref=about_subnav - May 8 2025 Shopify Stats - https://www.shopify.com/blog/social-media-conversion-rate - Aug 7, 2024 "State of Video Report: Video Marketing Statistics for 2025" - https://wistia.com/learn/marketing/video-marketing-statistics - March 26, 2025 Top 5 Insights from Wistia’s State of Video Report - https://wistia.com/learn/marketing/insights-state-of-video-report - April 15, 2024 The Most Successful Kickstarter-Funded Indie Games - https://intoindiegames.com/features/the-most-successful-kickstarter-funded-indie-games/ - Rahul Shirke - Undated
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