How MysteryAngel87 saved our Kickstarter campaign

It was 2 hours before the deadline of our Kickstarter campaign, we’re 90% funded with €13,500 of €15,000 pledged. Dries and I both assumed that it was over. We did everything we could to get this Kickstarter campaign funded, but it was time to face the music.

With only 2 hours to go, we would need €1,500 in pledges or an additional 25 backers at €60 per pledge. We couldn’t fund the Kickstarter campaign ourselves: not only is it against the Kickstarter rules, we also wouldn’t have the money required to fund a first production run. So we started sending emails to our manufacturers and suppliers that, alas, the campaign wasn’t successful and that perhaps we’d do a relaunch next year…

Deus Ex Machina!

…then suddenly we received an email from Kickstarter.

huh, wait… WHAT? How is that even possible?!

It turned out to be a huge pledge from a single unidentified backer with no nickname, but a very appropriate email address:

mysterysangel87@gmail.com

Who could be responsible for such a thing? Was it one of our parents, friends or family members, or just a cruel joke? We didn’t even consider the fact that this could be a benevolent benefactor.

The emotional rollercoaster

We did what everyone would do in this situation, we lost our cool and called EVERYBODY we knew. Everybody denied any involvement, some were even offended that we would consider them a ‘suspect’.

We were up €15,087 with 30 minutes to go…

…when 15 minutes before the end, a backer cancelled their €50 pledge…

If one (1) more backer would cancel within those last 15 minutes, everything could still fall apart.

Palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy, mom’s spaghetti.

5 minutes before the campaign deadline, Dries could no longer cope ?

Payment failed?!

The campaign ended with only €37 on top of the funding goal. But funded nonetheless! Kickstarter started charging all credit cards…

Yet another twist upon twist: Mysteryangel87’s payment didn’t come through! At this point we were on the floor after the wildest emotional rollercoaster ride of our lives.

It seemed like the worst case scenario: a funded Kickstarter campaign where we promised backers a great game, but €1,500 short for a production run.

We suspected malevolence, ill will, foul play. I know you expected more of us since there were 260 kind-hearted people who just pledged to our Kickstarter but our emotions got the better of us. We decided to send Mysterysangel87 a message through Kickstarter:

The response was swift:

Hooooozah! We pinched ourselves blue and couldn’t believe what had just happened. Still can’t fully grasp what, how and especially why this occured.

Setting the record straight

This post seems to revolve around a single backer, making it seem like he’s the only one responsible for the success of our Kickstarter campaign. Just to clarify:

WE ARE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL TO ALL 225 BACKERS.

The Kickstarter community consists of some of the most amazing people out there. Their continued support means everything to us and a lot of other creators who couldn’t exist without them. ????

Unravelling the identity of the MYSTERYSANGEL87

Is this person a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma? Let’s put on our deerstalker hats, get out our magnifying glasses and use our powers of deduction.

1. The email address is MYSTERYSANGEL87: 87 could be a random number or it could refer to the year of birth, making this patron 30 or 31 years old
2. Google Analytics shows that this pledge originated from Belgium, the browser language was set to nl-nl (Dutch).
3. The message on Kickstarter was written in perfect English. The messages was signed with ‘benevolent benefactor’, not the easiest words in the English language
4. When we first saw the pledge, we tweeted a screenshot and asked ‘is this some sort of joke?’. The message through Kickstarter started with ‘this is not a joke’. That might indicate this person follows us on Twitter.
5. The pledge was made 30 minutes before the end of the campaign so this person must have followed our campaign closely.

 

That’s it… That’s all we’ve got so far. We sent another message through Kickstarter thanking this backer from the bottom of our hearts. No response to date.

Help us unravel this mystery. All clues or tips are welcome. We need to catch this guy or girl and give him or her a piece of our… heart! ❤️

Bring out the Sherlock Poirot inside of you and send us a message if you have any hot leads!