Hi guys, thanks for your support - there has been a number of positives throughout the experience, and the support here has definitely been the highlight!
Yes, there are a number of learnings, that would probably be of benefit to others who try to go down the same route:
* Graphical presentation of the game (and the marketing) is extremely important. More time should have been spent on graphical polish than gameplay systems prior to the KS. The environments were especially bland, as I spent more time on collapsing rope bridges and the display of navigation paths than I did with populating them with props, adding grime to the wall textures, etc.
* The marketing is equally as important as the game. The KS page needs to look very slick - mine looks like a programmer put it together and has only improved slightly when I replaced the old, blocky titles. If you're an unknown, the pitch video needs to show a game that is reasonably polished graphically and needs to be a more professional recording.
* 2D games get more of a pass graphically than 3D - you can make a 2D game that could have been released 20 years ago, as long as the art style is strong and coherent. Subterranea got a lot of, "but it looks like NWN1/NWN2/Runescape!". It seems that if you're doing an indie CRPG, you shouldn't be off the AAA graphical quality pace by more than 5-7 years.
* I should have spent more time on other sites than the Watch and the Codex prior to the KS - but I just didn't have time to do that along with everything else.
* Running with a non-USD currency probably didn't help - this might have hurt Zaharia too...
* Starting before a weekend probably hurt initial momentum.
* KS fatigue would have to be a factor. I suspect that many CRPG fans pledged for Pillars of Eternity and Torment and are waiting for those pledges to be fulfilled before going out to seek other CRPG KS's. And there were a number of other CRPGs on KS at the same time, with Darkest Dungeon and StarCrawlers being rightly successfull, and others like Zaharia, SAGA Heroes and Subterranea struggling for traction. Although Celestian Tales: Old North bucked the trend, being quickly funded by an Indonesian team in New Zealand Dollars, but that's probably because it's a JRPG with a strong art style.
It'd OK! The campaign will run to the end, and the development of Subterranea will continue regardless - it doesn't cost me anything to do so, so why wouldn't I? On funding, my inclination now is to get a game released to help fund the completion of Subterranea - to that end I'm exploring a collaboration on a different style of CRPG (also D&D 3.5) with a talented artist, and may also look at releasing something small in a different genre that I can get looking polished graphically with my own skills...