Kickstarter & crowd funding in general

Off-topic
#1

So, many of us came from Kickstarter and some of those have already backed other projects. I think crowd funding is a very interesting subject and hope that it will change the face of… well capitalism in general I guess. For some it’s just a trend, for others it’s a cause. It was already pronounced dead but one record keeps chasing the other.
What do you think? Will it last or is it a silly trend after all? Is it even a decadent luxury?

Moreover I’m curious about what projects you’ve backed so far, why you were persuaded to take the risk or why (in case) you were even ready to pay a multitude of the usual price?
(KCD is out of the picture of course, there are enough places here to talk about it)

My personal favorites so far are:

Project Eternity / Pillars of Eternity : Spiritual successor to the Baldur’s Gate series - one of my all-time favorites - and the first kickstarter I’ve backed. I was always wondering why nobody makes any infinity-likes anymore and then Obsidian struts along.

Tides of Numenera : Can’t say I’m much of a tabletop gamer but as a big fan of infinity-engine-games, ingenious stories and challenging moral choices, what could wake my interest more than a successor to the legendary Planescape: Torment?

Jagged Alliance - Flashback : Yeah, Jagged Alliance… nuff said. There are enough copy cats, the most of which are mediocre to say the least. Maybe those guys will get it right? Please?

Divinity: Original Sin : I’m not much of a fan of the Divinity universe and it’s games so far, but Original Sin really looks fresh and promising. More RPGs, moooore!

Hyper Light Drifter : I’m a big fan of Bastion and this game seems to be similar in gameplay and it’s pixel art is insanely gorgeous.

The Mandate : Space Opera, capital ship battles and space ship micro management - yes please.

Paradise Lost : What’s so awesome about pixel art? I don’t know, guess a big part of it is nostalgia. Combine it with Abe’s Oddysee’s gameplay and you’ll get this.

So those are just a tiny selection of all the shiny games I’ve seen backed so far. But it’s not all fun and games, it’s also music and movies:

Video Games: The Movie : Okay granted, I don’t care about much else besides gaming and music so what did you expect?

Siracha - the documentary : You have to eat something while gaming and it better be spicy!

Jeremy Soule’s The Northener : Here is one music entry. Jeremy Soule already made great music way before Skyrim (Icewind Dale, Guild Wars) and I can’t get enough of it.

Kung Fury : What else do I love? Cheesy 80’s movies of course, so put it in the basket!

I hope this wasn’t too much and I’m looking forward to see what you have to share from the world of crowd funding. :smiley:

Update on Kingdom Come
#2

When I support a kickstarter/crowdfunder I typically go to the level that gets the game to the finish line of its vision. For example, for KC: D, I went to the level that offered all three Acts. When I support a project I want to see the final version of story (or thinking in terms of dlc, I want to finish the complete game.) I’m currently supporting the following:

Shroud of the Avatar (I loved the Ultima games and they did fairly well in crowdfunding.)

Pantheon, Rise of the Fallen (Although it only raised a little over half of its goal and wasn’t funded, I’m really hoping that people get past their love/hate relationship with Brad McQuaid and let him create something equally great to EQ.)

Earthlock: Festival of Magic (Still in Kickstarter mode - I don’t typically care for turn-based games but this one just felt special to me.)

I also looked at Tides of Numenera, but like you, I’m not into tabletop gaming. That old age thing really does a number on your eyes and tabletops are hard to see, lol!

I think I looked at Divinity:Original Sin on Steam, so I wish it well. It looked interesting and I also love RPGs.

1 Like
#3

I discorver KS almost a year ago, and since then it’s almost my home page.
Wasteland 2 is the project that lead me to KS and I backed them immediately. At this moment I’m enjoying the beta version of the game (they give one new patch every couple of weeks). Although they promise the game finished in oct '13 in KS, the waiting is not in vain, they are polishing every detail. I loved post apocaliptic games since I played Fallout 3, but W2 moves away from the FPS and focuses more in the RPG, returning to the original Wasteland and Fallout 1&2. I hope the people of WH could do with KC: D what InXile is doing with W2: A very kick-ass game!
Ashen rift is another post apocaliptic game I backed. It’s having a hard time, but I really hope they can go on with it. And it has a companion dog too!
Torment: tides of numenéra is another game from InXile. I loved Planescape: Torment and I want more!
Stasis is a of sci-fi horror game, a point-and-click adventure in isometric point of view. The alfa version available (almost four months old) is very promising.
The mandate is a space RPG.
Darkest Dungeon is a roguelike dungeon crawler RPG that reminds me of an ancient game called Mordor: The Depths of Dejenol, developed for Win95 by MakeItSo Soft.
Asylum is a Lovecraftian themed game from the creators of Scratches (some of the devs of this game SHOULD be in an asylum). They developed (and give for FREE!) a mini-game called Serena (available in Steam too) developed with the Dagon engine which they are using for Asylum.
Machina arcana is a horror boardgame which mixes Lovecraft’s Mythos and a steampunk environment. I’m eagerly waiting this!
The convicted is other boardgame in which you have to defend you community from the attacks of beast and barbarians and other awfull things… Like Age Of Empires, but with meeples and a board!
And of course… KC: D!
And every couple of days I go through KS and look for new projects to waste money with, so the list continues to grow, while my money continues to go…

1 Like
#4

Let’s see, so far I’ve backed:

Guns of Icarus Online: Adventure Mode (adds an actual game world to GoIO, allowing single player + co-op gameplay)

Star Citizen

Shroud of the Avatar

Satellite Reign

Project Nimbus

Trainz: A New Era

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Darkest Dungeon

Sunless Sea

Wasteland 2

Carmageddon: Reincarnation

Next Car Game

… I think that’s it (so far). Not all on Kickstarter. Like you said in the other thread, sometimes one gets past you and you only hear about it after the KS is over. Thank goodness most of these people take PayPal afterward!

I was on the fence about “Obduction,” and now the KS is over AND they’ve stopped taking orders on their site, too!! I’m kinda bummed, but I have a feeling I’ll get the game for $5 someday. They wanted $250 for the art book (which is generally what I pledge for if one is available) and that’s just too much IMHO.

1 Like
#6

Ah I’ve seen this one, it looks very beautiful and those people seem to really know what they’re doing. It also seems to be pretty far advanced in it’s development. What’s holding me back is the childish look, I’m not really the target group for something like that. On the other hand I’ve backed Project Phoenix, which looks even more childish but I guess the team and the main musician convinced me to invest. Definitely taking another look at the end of Earthbound’s campaign. Hope they’ll make the goal.

Oh this looks nice but it seems to have some flaws like the feeders are too inflexible and not very threatening or the items lying around look more like power ups out of quake (he even shows quake) and that doesn’t really go well with the survival horror approach. Whether a campaign takes off or not really depends on details like that. The guy who makes it seems cool though, hope he keeps going if he doesn’t make the goal and maybe tries again sometime later.

I’ve also backed Darkest Dungeon and Sunless Sea. I love Darkest Dungeon’s dark, lovecraftian atmosphere, the panic/insanity mechanic and it’s art-style but I have the feeling it will be difficult to the bone, which is not a bad think but lord will we be suffering. :smiley:

The only campaign I’m backing at the moment is JetGetters. It’s nothing big but I like aerial dogfights and it looks entertaining enough.

#7

I am a member of WMD forum as well and they have much more advanced approach than kickstarter. In fact it was founded earlier, than kickstarter became famous. If some of you heared about Project CARS you know what I am talking about. The whole idea is brilliant, funding by community excludes greedy and often ignorant publishers (hint EA). I believe the future of industry is crowd funding.

#8

Yes I’ve been watching project CARS for some time now, because we sometimes render cars at work (with RTT) and project CARS really looks great for realtime rendering. What’s weired is that Project CARS seems to be the one and only project on WMD. I didn’t even recognize WMD as a portal, save for the name. It seems to work signifcantly different to other cf-platforms - more closed and focused on big investors, which makes it more similiar to traditional ways of raising borrowed capital.

#9

Yes, pCARS is the first project on WMD so far, but if it sells well, then I am sure the platform will be much more recognized and will evolve. It’s indeed closed for everyone outside at the moment, but only because the funding is over. There are about 30 000 members (backers) there and it’s them who funded the project for the most part. The rest is by SMS (developers). There are investors, but they don’t have any say in game development, which is the essence of the whole system. The process this game being developed is not traditional at all. We (WMD members) get builds every day, see everyday progress and developers’ reports, can talk to them and they communicate a lot. It’s very exciting and nothing like anything else.

#10

Think, we have a desire for “other” games, beyond the mainstream. It is rare to find a pearl or rough diamond that impresses you from the start. Am by chance about this KS project
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/uncasualgames/ancient-cities/description
Stumbled, could be exciting …
What do you think?

#11

Looks interesting. How closely yu been following?

Still allot of money to reach funding, in 4 days.

2 Likes
#12

This can develop into exactly what i always wanted. Going into my crosshair, cheers mate.

3 Likes
#13

I’m still in the observation phase … I guess they will not create it in the first attempt yet, not optimally prepared. But I would wish that they get the chance at a 2nd start. Can not at present assess which target group the developers have in mind and whether they are aware of the potential of their project as a learning game in schools.

Would like to play. Should it work towards the end of the CS campaign, I jump on the train :wink:

#14

I´m sitting in the train :wink:

#15

Well they have 27 hours to go, and they only need 150 so dollars, looks like they’ll make it.

Edit:

They actually reached their goal.

2 Likes
#16

I would advise to get a refund for Star Citizen if you still can, that game is not doing well. Just a couple of days ago, the developers sign the full game to the bank as collateral so they get another loan.

#17

Not true at all. If you’d been following SC’s development closely, you’d know before even reading alarmist headlines that the project is going EXTREMELY strongly, especially in the area of finance. They just raked in another million selling space motorcycles last weekend, lol.

Here’s the official response from Ortwin Freyermuth, who, along with Chris Roberts, basically owns Star Citizen and Squadron 42. There’s a lot of financial terminology in his response, but there has to be, because we’re talking finances. If anything seems unclear, just look it up.

Bottom line, the only thing posted as ‘collateral’ for the loan is the tax rebate money which is offered by the UK government, which the government has to pay in any case. Even if the UK government were to somehow collapse, Star Citizen itself, which is owned by the USA branch of CIG, would be completely safe.

Even if CIG had to repay the loan without the benefit of the UK tax credits, they have “ample resources” to do so.

Panic level: zero.

It doesn’t hurt to do a little homework before repeating every alarmist headline that you read on trashy click-bait sites. :slight_smile:

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