Kickstarting and Screaming

Meh, what’s to take seriously? Claims that this this will “kill Kickstarter”?

When they ran the KS, Steam had the de-facto monopoly. So much so, that “you will get a steam key” (or whatever they said) was shorthand for “we will deliver this to your PC”. You’re choosing to take them literally. That’s your right, of course.

But here’s the thing. Since then, things have changed. They decided to use another delivery company, because one is now widely available, that makes their costs more manageable.

What will happen in the future isn’t that “KS will die” or that projects will fail to fund. Projects will simply say “we will deliver this to you”, and that will be the end of it.

edit to add: I just caught up on the Epic thread, and see this is being hashed out over there. Sorry for spreading it in here.

There were other stores at the time of all of these Kickstarters. They couldn’t have specified Epic, of course, because Epic hadn’t launched their store yet, but they did specify the stores they were going to provide keys for, often including non-Steam options. People specifically want Steam, and backed in the expectation that they would receive Steam, and it is materially different from what was promised. It’s really not analogous to a delivery service because it also affects how you run the game once it’s out and what sort of back-end features it can use.

Now, whether “you can get it on Steam, you’ll just have to wait an extra year” is the level of betrayal some people are making out is I think much less supportable. But it isn’t a non-issue, either.

(Also I can’t imagine it will materially harm Kickstarter, or even make much of a dent in support for videogame Kickstarters. I think the bloom’s already left that rose due to a bunch of high-profile complete failures and the general sense that you can get these games cheaper later. The companies that were still worth backing getting bought by major publishers, on the other hand…)

It’s really simple: if you change the shit you said you were going to do, you offer a refund.

Even in the super hyperbolic example of FedEx vs UPS. I’ve heard stories of people saying they can’t use one of those services because they do some stupid thing like drop it off next door, leave it outside in a high crime area or public apartment pick up area, etc.

Let’s say shit changes and maybe your KS company needs to use FedEx now, but if you specifically said you were shipping UPS and now it has to change, maybe there’s a dude who’s game will now be stolen on delivery unless he takes off work and sits and waits for it. You don’t tell that guy to fuck off and deal with it, you offer him a refund, even if you don’t understand why he might not like that change. Because anything else is just bullshit.

You might say, “well he’s still getting the game” but to him it’s not the same. You don’t get to tell him it’s the same because you aren’t him.

Further, and back to the actual thing, why not take some of that money hat Epic just gave you to be an exclusive and refund the <5% of people who are both upset about Epic as a thing and motivated enough to ask for a refund because of it. Instead of having a bunch of crusading nerds following you around to every announcement badmouthing you.

Steam/Epic store aren’t just delivery companies. they’re service providers that you require an account with.

Traditionally a delivery company is only involved in the logistic pipeline once. Imagine if you had to log into DHLDIRECT instead of UPSNOW everytime you wished to play your guitar, or whatever?

But even so it’s a definite bait and switch. As A steam key Vs their own DRM free key Vs epic key all have different monetary values to me, i.e. pay more to get a Steam key.

Also, it doesn’t “cost” them.anything to give away Steam keys. But because they signed a deal with Epic they’re now prevented from doing that. I don’t see why they couldn’t ship Steam keys to backers and then exclusively sell to new customers on the Epic store.

2 sets of patches which is an extra expense, and they’re grabbing the money now.

If you would like to try the Roguebook alpha and support Abrakam’s (devs of Faeria) roguelike card battler, you can do so for 1 euro:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/abrakam/roguebook

image

This will get you a STEAM key for the alpha:

Limited Roguebook 1€ Pledge

In celebration of E3, get the Alpha for 1€ TODAY! We’re offering 33,333 limited Alpha pledges until Sunday, the 16th of June.

You will receive access to the Alpha version of Roguebook WITHIN 24 HOURS of making your pledge!

Why 1€ and not 1$?

Well, we’re from Belgium, that’s why. That’s how Kickstarter works. Any currency will do, though!

We appreciate your support in making Roguebook a reality.

EDIT: Might as well add the Kickstarter video for convenience:

SkateBIRD looks like a cute Tony Hawk-lite with a bird skating around miniature skate parks doing tricks and finding hats. There’s some chill jazzy hip-hop tunes to accompany your little bird’s escapades.

Glass Bottom Games is a small indie team with several small games under their belt like Hot Tin Roof, Jones on Fire, and Spartan Fist. SkateBIRD is a pretty big swing for them, and I think it looks delightful.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meganfox/skatebird-be-a-skateboarding-bird

I’m going to be arguing with myself for the next 36 hours over whether I need this or not.

On telling her of its existence, my partner asked if it’s a dexterity flicking game where you flick little tic tacs at spiders.

Now I don’t want to watch the video incase that turns out to be not how it plays :(

So appearantly Itch has crowdfunding too. No idea if this is any good but it’s space so I wager we have a few interested in this board.

Just the text in the link is enticing!

Goddamn that does sound cool. What the heck is an itch.io?

Itch is another store. Has been around a long time. More in the indie side of things. Let’s sellers set their own margins too. Has also other things then PC games. Though not a huge budget to market the selves.

Because while Valve doesn’t in practice limit the number of Steam keys you can generate and distribute, they do require the game to be also sold on Steam.

If you’re a fan of Endeavour: Age of Sail and wanted more, then good news! The expansion Kickstarter is live! But only for two weeks:

Is Endeavor: Age of Sail the same game as the original Endeavor? Just a new edition?

Yeah, they Kickstarted a new edition of the game a year or so ago.

A team of former AAA devs in Montreal are making AWAY, a real-world survival game where you play a sugar glider (flying possum). It looks to be doing what the Shelter games have attempted, but without their odd art style and sometimes limited gameplay.

DFor some strange reason I thought AWAY was a boardgame and I was all cited about it since my nephew is really into boardgames and one about nature would be extra pertinent for him. So it’s a bummer that it’s a PC game.

Then I think this is the Kickstarter you might have missed. (Not mentioning it to rub it in, but so you know it exists and can get it at retail.)