I'm probably going to end up writing a lot, as always. So I'll split this into two comments. This one's solely about the reward tiers!
I agree that some of your tiers could definitely use a price boost, and that the cost of the game in general could be higher as well. It has twice the amount of words as Heaven's Grave! Please do consider it, even if it's just boosting the price up to $17/£13.5. Anything up to $20 would be quite fair, I think, for ~20 hours of gameplay and generously un-gated bonus content.
I also think you'd be justified for charging a little extra for the "fan disc" content, but it seems like you've already thought that one out and decided against it. You could still consider including the extra content for all backers, then releasing it as paid DLC or part of a "special edition" for non-backers post-release.
Remember, you're not being greedy, you're doing your best to raise money so you don't let down your fans. We want you to succeed! Being good to the people who love your games means trying to raise as much as you can, to make the best product you can.
I wrote a list of suggested tiers/prices below, rather than listing all the minor changes. Assume all of them include the tiers' perks unless it says otherwise!
SUGGESTED TIERS/PRICES:
- £2 Thank you/backer updates/name in credits
- £6 Wallpapers
- £7 Copy of TRoS (+thank you/updates/name in credits, no wallpapers)
- £10/11.5 Thorns of War Early Bird
- £12/13.5 Thorns of War
- £19/20.5 Thorns of War + TRoS Bundle
- £25 Three love letters
- £30 All love letters
- £45? Blackcross & Taylor Bundle Pack (A copy of Heaven's Grave, Thorns of War, TRoS, and The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, plus all previous perks. Not to be included with higher tiers.)
- £60 Beta access
- £80 Choose a POV scene (Thorns/Rose)
- £120 Fashionista (only one NPC outfit, not two!)
- £130 Lady's Maid (She's the main character, so changing her outfit feels more special!)
- £160 Join the Cast
- £200 Budding Playwright
I'm repeating myself from another comment, but TRoS should have a low tier at the game's regular price, so anyone who just wants to try the series for the first time can, without a major financial commitment.
Instead of automatically including a copy of TRoS in every tier above it, have the option to "add" a copy by pledging the combined cost of the two tiers (e.g. pledge £30 for the love letters + £7 for TRoS = £37).
Some people who already own TRoS won't want a second copy. Having it as an "add-on" stops backers from feeling like they're paying for a key they won't use, gives you less work mailing out superfluous keys, and means that anyone who wants a copy at a higher tier can still get it. That said, I suggested a tier that bundles both TRoS and ToW to make it easy for the many people who will likely want to get that option.
Have a step-by-step FAQ about how to add TRoS to your tier, and mention it in the description of the TRoS tier (e.g. "a key for The Rose of Segunda can be added to any tier. Check the FAQ!") Once the Kickstarter is over, ask the backers to mention if they added a copy to their tier in the backer survey.
I recommended Tier 9 (a bundle of all your games) because it would be easy to fulfill and provide immediate backer satisfaction. They'll be getting three awesome games right away! It also advertises how you've made lots of games before, and it could provide extra exposure and reviews for Heaven's Grave. You can include a sentence or two about each game in the FAQ with links to their Itch/Steam pages, too.
For the Fashionista and Lady's Maid tiers, I was a bit confused as to when the outfit would appear in-game, and whether this included love interests. Will you write a scenario around the outfit to include it in the game? Or does it appear in bonus art?
For the POV scenes, it says "first come, first served," but you'd have to somehow make it obvious to anyone considering the tier which characters are still available, which could change over the course of the campaign as people swap tiers. Even if you try to do it in order of who backed first, I'm not sure Kickstarter provides you with the tools to keep track.
I'm not sure what the best solution would be. Personally, I think it could be fun, if a bit messy, to have separate tiers for all the characters. Limited to one each. So someone would buy the "Charlotte: Thorns of War" tier if they want to choose her scene. It would put pressure on backers to quickly snatch the tier of their favourite characters, plus it'll be fun for everyone to see which tiers get taken, dropped, switched around, etc.
At its current price, I'll be getting the Epistolary Romance tier because I know I'll desperately want all the letters when the game is released. £30 ($50 in my currency) is about as high as I can go on my current budget. I totally understand if you want to raise the cost of it, but I'd probably drop back down to the game-only tier if that happened. I'm not sure if this would hold true for other backers as well, but I thought it might be helpful for you to know!
