The Kickstarter Bonanza - For Games

Let's be honest... Kickstarter is the best thing on the internet since redtube.

Let us discuss what kickstarter projects interest us. I'll skip the obvious ones and go for the more obscure projects.

Try to keep it to 3 max per post.


Drifter : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/celsiusgs/drifter-a-space-trading-game?ref=category



Basically, this game is an indie Pioneer project. I love space games that don't suck and have options for trade, going pirate... etc. Love sandbox games like this.



Pathfinder Online : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-technology-demo?ref=category

Excited to see how this works out.



Embers of Caerus : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/forsakenstudios/embers-of-caerus-investor-prototype?ref=live

Basically, Ultima Online... in 3D... I'm hopeful.
 
Damn it Jay, the Dead Linger sounds EXACTLY what I've been wanting in a zombie survival game. Huge world, the ability to barricade your own little shelter wherever you decide to hunker down, multiplayer silliness. I'll definitely be following this (looks like I can't back it anymore since it reached it's goal a while back? I'm new kickstarter so I'm really sure how this stuff works).
 
We already have a Kickstarter thread for Video games, which was already an amalgamation of two threads. We don't need more than one. Can we get this merged? Again?
 
Me too. It's the perfect game for me in almost every sense of the word. I look forward to its dev cycle... maybe even an Anticipation Station by year's end?
 
Machine of Death: The Game of Creative Assassination

In the world of our game, there exists a machine (the titular Machine of Death) that can issue little cards to individuals: death predictions. Nobody knows just how it works, but it’s always, always right. (You may recognize this concept from our #1 bestselling short story collection, which is also titled, COINCIDENTALLY, Machine of Death.)

The book was about exploring the existential ramifications of the existence of the machine in worlds otherwise much like our own. It’s a thoughtful, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, meditation on fate.

The GAME is about flinging SHARKS from CATAPULTS in order to kill imaginary people. It’s basically a game of Mousetrap or a Road Runner cartoon, except that it’s TOTALLY WITHIN THE RULES to create a QUICKSAND GENERATOR in a TREEHOUSE in order to DROWN A CHILD. (That was a real game we played.)
 
Is it just me or does it seem like that's happening more often than not with Kickstarters? Double Fine have yet to deliver their game, for example, (and has continually needed MORE money) and you've had some that are way overhyped like the Ouya. You have some success stories, like FTL or Shadowrun, but am I wrong in seeing there are are a lot more misses than hits when it comes to Kickstarter?

Has the hype for what oculd have been a great thing died down because too many people are ruining it for others?
 
Is it just me or does it seem like that's happen more often than not with Kickstarters? Double Fine have yet to deliver their game, for example, (and has continually needed MORE money) and you've had some that are way overhyped like the Ouya. You have some success stories, like FTL or Shadowrun, but am I wrong in seeing there are are a lot more misses than hits when it comes to Kickstarter?

Has the hype for what oculd have been a great thing died down because too many people are ruining it for others?
The big guys might be floundering but tons of indies are doing well. I'd say it's doing alright.
 
It's like Ash said. Most of the indies do just fine. It's even better if you look outside of board and video games on KS. Their music and art sections are pretty successful.
 

Dave

Staff member
I think the biggest problem with the chants one is that it's obviously ripping off Monopoly and would need to pay Hasbro a shit-ton of money. I have a feeling that this was the biggest hurdle.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Is it just me or does it seem like that's happening more often than not with Kickstarters? Double Fine have yet to deliver their game, for example, (and has continually needed MORE money) and you've had some that are way overhyped like the Ouya. You have some success stories, like FTL or Shadowrun, but am I wrong in seeing there are are a lot more misses than hits when it comes to Kickstarter?

Has the hype for what oculd have been a great thing died down because too many people are ruining it for others?
I think you'd have to break down Kickstarter by field to get a better view of what's working. I'm betting musician's Kickstarters are doing a lot better than electronics. If the songs are already written, and the money goes to recording and publishing, it's a lot easier to project the expenses than it is for developing the latest tech doo-dad.

I'd be fascinated to see if someone has published Kickstarter statistics for completion rates, on-time delivery of products, etc. Having watched a lot of GeekBeat's coverage of trade shows lately, there are a lot of companies at those shows whose products went through Kickstarter. There may be an equal number of companies who should be at those shows with products, but failed to deliver, I don't know. I remember when people said the Pebble watch was going to be Kickstarter's first major failure, but they've got Best Buy selling their product now, so they got through the rough patches.
 
As someone who's backed a dozen Kickstarter projects here's my philosophy.

You're not buying the game, nor as you investing to get the game... you're donating money to someone to make you the game and you're given rewards depending on your donation if the game comes out and you have little to no control how good or bad it will end up.

This is why I always back projects that already have done 50 % of its way, have something concrete to offer me other than "concept ideals". It's a lot easier to back a project with video and ideology than someone talking to you with drawings. All projects are temporary. They are finite. However, if the scope is weak or the project charter doesn't appease me, I don't back them.

It's being smart about things. My biggest regret is supporting Massive Chalice, where the stumbling company didn't deliver their 1st game properly and the game promise was SO APPEALING TO ME I said fuck it and supported it.

I'm sad to see this particular project fail so badly but let's be honest, hundreds of projects are in the works in one stage or another. We can take 1-2 bad eggs and go, "EVERYTHING IS MKAY". It's stupid.

I'd love to see how in global how Kickstarter projects are doing. I'd love to see yearly analysis, particularly for the gaming side of things.

Then again, most donations are are 10-15$. Basically, lunch. So meh.
 
The title of the other Kickstarter thread is pretty accurate.

This is passing the risk directly to the consumer, for good or bad.
 
There are two games I've kickstarted and they seem to be on track. Big indicators which help are
1. Established designers. Have multiple games under their belt
2. Established publishers. People or persons running the kickstarter have done it before. This one is huge. If they haven't done the logistics before, there's no reason to believe they can handle a hundred thousand dollar kickstarter.
3. History of update AFTER KICKSTARTERS END. I can't stress this enough.

Whether you choose to support a project or not should be supported by these factors in addition to all the normal things you decide when supporting a product.
 
Kickstarters can be very hard to compare.
Some, especially for board games, for example, "have done" the hard work and just need financing for the production stage. Similar to the big figurines one whose name I forget - we all knew they could make the mini's, they already had (most of them) prototyped, they know the material - they needed money as investment to buy supplies in bulk, warehousing etc. They can make a pretty good guess at how much money they'll need, how long it's going to take, etc - though there are always possible unforeseen circumstances.
Same thing for a lot of the music KSs: already-written songs, already produced, needing money to print the discs and ship them? Yeah, that's probably not going to fail.
In computer game land, you've got far more of the different kind: "here's a great idea, give me money so I can try to create it". Yes, they'll also have plenty of planning and theorizing done beforehand (if not, you're an idiot to fund them), but most of the costs are in the actual time consuming bit: programming, QA,... - where a lot can go wrong, and it's hard to predict how much time it's going to take or how much it's going to cost. Heck, ask any publisher how designers and budgets go together.
Some Kickstarters, you're an investor. Some Kickstarters are basically just pre-orders. Some Kickstarters are pie-in-the-sky dreams being funded because of popularity. Some are artists (of any kind) trying to find a way to create their vision of a game/cd/book/painting/whatever without interference from Big Money.


Also, as far as that Ctulhu Monopoly is concerned...That's not a separate game. No offense, but if your boardl ooks like that, you're getting sued by Hasbro.
 
It looks like this game isn't happening after all -- the $122,000 that was raised through Kickstarter has been spent and there is no end product to show for it. The project author didn't itemize his expenses, so there isn't even a good accounting of where all of the money went. Lawsuits are no doubt on the horizon.
(via Valleywag)
Cryptozoic, the makers of the hex TCG (alpha at the end of September) http://www.hextcg.com/ have promised to make and give every backer a free copy of The Doom That Came To Atlantic City

Source: www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/hex-mmo-trading-card-game/posts/571721
 
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