Kickstarting and Screaming

Looks more like it was influenced by the space combat mini game in SWToR.

I wish they’d start holding off a bit to space things out. I’m perfectly happy to back awesome old school gaming, often for more than the minimum necessary to get the game, but I can only afford to do so so often in a given month.

Danger sign 1: I’ve backed so many Kickstarters I now remember my Amazon password without checking.

FTL, Wasteland 2, Double Fine, Banner Saga, Shodowrun

Tony

Unless the people behind the Kickstarter already own the license, I’d rather see spiritual sequels than actual sequels for the most part. Unless things ended on a cliffhanger and then tanked before the sequel could be produced, it’s more important to preserve the ideas and gameplay principles than the specific details. Licensing costs money that could be going to the game, and on a Kickstarter budget I’m not wild about that.

I love Jane Jensen’s games, and had you asked me yesterday if I would kickstart a Jane Jensen game I would have said yes in a heartbeat. The project outlined there though… not so sure about that one. A wee bit ambitious.

Aw come on, Polite. We’ll never get another Gabriel Knight game if everyone thinks like that.

And nothing is preventing anyone from starting such a thread.

The perception at the time (and you are a day late here, Grifman) was this new thread would exist IN PLACE of multiple new game threads. However, it was later said that high profile games, or games that recieved funding and looked to become an actual product, would then get a unique thread. Then later, since I’m not sure if you kept reading before quoting that old post of mine, I agreed that was a splendid idea.

I ended up backing Spriter based on the current version offered on the Kickstarter page. It has potential and I for one suck at animation, so a tool that makes it a lot easier gets my dosh.

I just kicked money to Starlight Inception. Yay! I really hope that – especially in light of the success of FTL – more spacey games get launched because of Kickstarter. :)

So I’ve been musing over kickstarter lately. Can someone give me an idea of how it works specifically?

  • what fraud prevention mechanisms are in place?
  • if a kickstarted project fails is there any liability anywhere?

Interesting that the Double Fine adventure went platinum and the Jane Jensen option seems to be languishing. Manny >> Gabe?

Quality of prior work aside, Jensen just isn’t nearly the internet celebrity that Schafer is.

Well that, and the GK games are ancient history in video game geological terms. Schafer has been consistently producing for quite some time.

As far as I can tell, Jane Jensen’s done one major computer game since the last GK game came out in 1999. Before that, she had two GK games to her credit.

Tim Shafer not only has more games in the classic adventure game years on his resume, he’s also been front and center in current design. Brutal Legend, Costume Quest, Psychonauts, Stacking, Iron Brigade–perhaps not all successful, but all widely-reviewed, much-discussed, and Tim has never been one to shy away from an interview, convention panel, or the like. Jensen, by contrast, seems very happy to live on her rural farm and seems kind of oblivious about how to self-promote.

It should also be noted that Double Fine were the first biggies to test this strategy, and did so with a 30-day window. Jensen and her team gave themselves a 45-day window, and should surpass $50,000 in funding–1/6 of their ask–today, on their second day. There are many differences here, in other words. Suggesting that Manny’s status as a game character is the primary reason doesn’t really cover it, althought it well may be.

EDIT: unnecessary snark self-edited out.

Deary me Trigger - you’ve become quite the grump haven’t you.

I’d like to see a discussion about this. I’m sure all the devs on this board can tell us how many games go over budget, how many games get deep into the schedule and find features that don’t work right and need to be cut, how many games get delayed for all kinds of reasons and end up costing more. What happens when one of these projects runs into trouble? Do they ask for more money? Will people give it? How much more can they ask for?

This system won’t have proved itself to me until someone completes and releases one of these games and everyone is happy. And speaking of happy, how entitled do you think some of these gamers are going to feel if the game doesn’t arrive when they want it and the way they want it? I can see the rhetoric moving from I paid $60 for this game and I demand satisfaction to I’m an investor in this game and I’m suing you for satisfaction…

I’m not convinced. I kicked in $50 to The Banner Saga because I think Kickstarter is an interesting experiment; I’d like to see it succeed, I just see people funding things willy-nilly and my own experience in the workplace tells me that very few projects finish the way their creators intended.

That’s pretty much the same direction my thoughts were going. Additionally, it really seems like there’s a serious Kickstarter bubble going on right now.

It’s important to keep in mind that actually most Kickstarter projects don’t shoot way past their initial funding goal in less than 24 hours. Double Fine Adventure was a landmark for the site. The progress so far on Jensen’s project could still easily see meeting the $300k goal in the next 43 days, and it’s not really fair to describe it as “languishing”, though it’s clearly not drawing the same level of interest. As for their $600k stretch goal? Well, we’ll see, I suppose. I’m hoping!

Shadowrun shoots past its target in 24 hours!

It’s weird - on one hand some people wait for stuff to drop to $4.99 to maybe think about buying it, while on the other people hand over $1000 for a Jane Jensen title that might not materialise. It’s like the Anti-steam sale. And the market is big enough to accommodate both these groups.