Dead Matter - zombie shooter which got delayed for a year, (supposedly backer alpha in Dec) has produced a “Teaser Trailer”:
I’ve backed a number of things and all but one were fully realized. The one ‘failure’ was Robotech RPG Tactics which successfully delivered about half of the minis they promised before announcing failure earlier this year due to loss of license. This one has mildly ticked me off because:
- The project claimed to only need $70k to fund but wound up collecting nearly $1.5M
- The creators split the game into two ‘waves’ and after delivering the first, they then proceeded to string along backers for 3 years before capitulating
- As near as I can tell, one of the biggest reasons for the failure was a dramatic over-production of the first ‘wave’ box set. Rather than the initial funding being used against Kickstarter deliverables, it was clearly used to fund a production run numbering into the tens of thousands – which subsequently failed to sell at retail. So the creator rolled the dice to get rich rather than meeting his obligations.
Yeah, that project was kind of a shitshow. Here’s the thing: Palladium is infamously poorly run and struggles just to run their RPG business. They have zero previous experience with miniatures games. So those are red flags right there. They did at least realize that, having zero experience with miniatures games, they could use help from people who do minis professionally…but they contracted Ninja Division. And that wasn’t really a red flag at the time, I don’t think, but since then they have apparently had no end of problems and unprofessionalism laid at their doorstep so, y’know, probably not a great choice there either. And then that relationship dissolved (and while it’s probably impossible to tell exactly whose fault what was, it seems like Palladium and especially Kevin Siembieda, who owns Palladium, have a lot of fault they’ve tried to offload onto Ninja Division). So, yeah.
I’m actually kind of amazed they shipped anything.
I’ve never been a fan of Siembieda, but a chance to have some cool Robotech minis convinced me to ignore my misgivings and back it anyway.
In hindsight the red flags are copious, but at the time of the Kickstarter they sold it very effectively as a completed product that just needed manufacturing funds. I don’t doubt that Ninja Division dropped the ball on a few things, but regardless of how severe those ball droppings were, they don’t hold a candle to the crap that Palladium proceeded to pull over the next five years.
The business about using Kickstarter funds to dramatically over-produce wave one content for them to subsequently flip is what annoys me the most.
Oh, backed that! Looking forward to trying it.
I thought hard about backing Robotech but decided against it at the last minute. The minis seemed to be a huge pain to put together, etc, so I definitely lucked out. The concept as a whole looked amazing though. Would love to put together some destroids someday though.
Jeff Vogel (owner and primary operational member of Spiderweb Software) was talking about maybe doing a Kickstarter for their next new RPG franchise and lo and behold, here it is:
I was kinda hoping for something a little wilder and weirder (your Geneforges or even Nethergate, though that game didn’t do well enough for a sequel, much less a spiritual successor), but regardless, for Spiderweb I am there day one with bells on.
That Scroll of Absolution is a pretty great idea for a backer reward, methinks.
Queen’s Wish made it’s funding already, which is great to see.
I slowed down in my Kickstarter backing but I somehow still have a big list that I’m currently waiting on:
Kitchen Rush - Piece of Cake - looked like a fun game that I could play with my girls in a year or two
Fireball Island - never played the original but looks like a fun family game, especially with the marbles!
Unbroken - solo game for me
Sweet Mess - err, another fun good game to play with the girls when they’re ready
Deadwood 1876 - hoping this will work out in our very small game group
Chronicles of Crime - one to play with my wife since she really liked Sherlock Holmes
The Little Game Master - a kid RPG storybook, to try and increase nerd factor on our girls
Tiny Epic Zombies - I really enjoy the few games of this series that I have
Masque of the Red Death - looked like a fun game that my wife would play w/ our group
D-Day Dice: 2nd Ed - probably more for solo play
Root - looked like a fun game that the girls might like at some point
Too Many Bones: Undertow - I really like the original so wanted more
The 7th Continent: What Goes Up, etc - playing the original game w/ my wife right now
The Networks: Executives - the base game went over really well w/ our group
Reaper Minis 4 - lots of minis for cheap, we backed the 3rd one too
Founders of Gloomhaven - backed mostly to keep supporting him
Diceborn Heroes - looked like a really fun dice co-op game
Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5 - I went nuts on the original but scaled back a bit for this, still love the design
The Ninth World - older one, will probably just sell it when it comes as I’m not as interested now
Whew, quite a list still. I’ve cut back to only checking once or so a month to see if there’s anything really neat that I’m missing.
I try really hard not to browse Kickstarter. Just backing new projects from people I have already supported tends to mean 2-3 backed projects a month and I have threads like this to tempt me further. I don’t need the pure straight-to-vein hit of the main site.
Yeah, even if I go browse through my list of Kickstarted items I have to be careful not to look at their recommendations of things I might be interested in, because I probably would be.
Right? I just want good things for Jeff. He tries so hard to keep doing his thing in this industry and keeps just barely scraping by. And hey, he made the Geneforge games, which I love.
So I got a chance to play the beta version of Grim Peak a few months ago, and it has some pretty crazy co-op puzzling- goes a very long way with some very simple rules. I’d compare it to Forbidden Desert, but with a more engaging monster stabbing theme:
I really thought I was in trouble when I saw the words fantasy and cooperative together. Then I saw it maxes at 4 players, phew safe… unless it comes out with great reviews. I’ll have to watch this when it releases. Thanks!
Queen’s Wish is ~11.3k from the fourth realm stretch goal. So happy for Jeff and Spiderweb.
All right! No Thank You, Evil! reached its goal and is kickstarted, for the second time!
IndieGoGo is sending debt collectors after the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega folks.
Dear Vega+ Backers,
As you are aware, we recently provided the Vega+ team a provisional extension (June 15th) to fulfill, based on some requirements from us. These included sending us contact information of Sky representatives, and refunding backers immediately upon request, as well as providing Indiegogo with a review console.
Unfortunately, these asks have not been met and we are unable to further provide the Vega+ team an extension. This has been a challenging situation for all involved, and one we thought would be resolved with the backers receiving their game consoles.
This week, we will be working with a collections agency to attempt to recoup funds disbursed, in an effort to be able to refund backers. Please note that, while we are pursuing collections, this process can take considerable time and the Vega+ team still has the opportunity to fulfill on their obligation of shipping the consoles to backers. We refer you to the Vega+ team for any updates on shipping. The campaign is still open to the Vega+ team, and they continue to have the ability to update you all via our platform.
We hope that the Vega+ team follows through on their promise, and that any remedial efforts on our part will be rendered obsolete.
Thank you for your understanding, and patience.
Trust & Safety, Indiegogo
Wow! Has this sort of thing ever happened before?