My problem with kickstarter/early access is information fatigue. Before KS, there were only a few data points to process about a peripherally known game
a) Pre-release (here’s what we think this game is going to be)
b) Release (here’s what this game is)
c) Post release (here’s what we fixed/added to the release)
Now it’s an a) -> z)^n death by a thousand cuts feed of info. “WE’RE IN QUATERNARY ALPHA 647 AND WE JUST ADDED INTERACTIVE DONKEY DICKS; RUBIDIUM TIER BACKERS SHOULD CHECK THEIR INBOX FOR IN-GAME TRADABLE BEANIE BABIES”
So as a result I just completely tune out and ironically am less aware of coming games/the indie scene than I was before kickstarter took off.
Kickstarter’s website is still horrible and makes trying to sift through the trash projects (of which there are a ton more) a pain in the ass. I don’t find it worth the time anymore.
Mainly i just check kicktraq for interesting projects.
As long as Kickstarter is the only way to get a nice, boxed version of a game, I’ll be supporting Kickstarter projects. I hate that games are going digital only and have never paid full price for a game without a box. I like the artwork, the design, the extras and have supported 3 games at higher, collector’s edition tiers because I enjoy having the physical goods that much. I’ll kickstart other projects that don’t have physical goods at lower tiers but only if it’s something I really want to succeed and just want to show my support.
I have backed two games and one documentary. None have delivered so far, but the movie isn’t suppose to be out until Jan and the trailer seem promising. Jon’s At the Gates game is slipping but progress has definitely been made. The 2nd game had one update and fell into a black hole.
Anyway I’m holding off funding more until I see some deliverables.
Without it Jon Shafer doesn’t get his game made, Skullgirls doesn’t become a good game, Faeria might not have been made, so it’s had some huge successes.
It’s also had some huge fails like Mighty No.9 and some projects that didn’t get completed.
Ultimately it’s up to consumers to make smart decisions with their money, and I wouldn’t invest anything in a KS that I couldn’t afford to lose. I’d never put in more than the price of a new game.
Delays are common, but that’s normal for dev.
I think it’s 30% based on Lab Zero’s listing of costs.
Well, I think if the right group of people present the right game concept, and it shows it’s doable to make it (with a prototype demo for example), I think they still can get a good funding and we get a good game.
The Skullgirls example couldn’t have been done without crowdfunding. That was a perfect storm scenario given the tragic history of Lab Zero. They had more bad luck in one year than Stardock had in its first 10.
I love kickstarter, and am really happy with the games that I invested in which have come out - Divinity Original Sin, FTL, Elite, Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2 – and have high hopes for Torment. I also invested heavily in Shroud of the Avatar purely out of nostalgia since the Ultima games were so important to me, even though I was very skeptical that Garriott could create a modern game, but I’m very pleasantly surprised so far . Also invested in Star Citizen for the same reason but was more optimistic…and now I’m concerned about how that game evolved into a fundraising machine.
But overall, those games have, if anything, largely exceeded expectations - spectacularly so, at times - so I’m really happy that kickstarter has more than doubled the number of games I would typically be anticipating.
I bought into the “hype” at the start and spent way to much money; Still waiting for most of the projects I backed; after spending 265$ on Star “Lets keep adding stretch goals and sell virtual ships” Citizen I’ve since reduced my max to 20$ for any project but haven’t helped/Bought-into kickstart anything for over a year.
I’ve mostly given up on Kickstarting games. There’s already many, many more games I’d love to play than I’ll ever have time to play. So… I mostly just pick up a few games every once in a while when there’s a sale on.
I feel pretty OK about the games I have Kickstarted, though. Granted, I haven’t got my copies of a few of them because apparently it is an insurmountable technical problem that I switched the email addy I used for Kickstarter while some of thee games were still in the making. But I’ve just bought those games when they were released, and so far they’ve been pretty great.
What? No. It’s 5%. Amazon gets another 5% for processing payments. That’s it, at least on domestic Kickstarters. International projects don’t go through Amazon for fee collection and might have VAT, so that’s a little different but it still works out to be around 10% total, of which KS themselves get 5%.
hey a fellow Meriwether backer! That is one weird project to follow i find (i keep losing their not much happening original webpage, then having to go back to the kickstarter page to see the updates). But whatever happens, i think the project has been very interesting, and it’s been great to learn about the people and setting the game is about.
Limit Theory will help salve the wounds of the dropped single player off-line mode in Elite: Dangerous (and i’ve been reading their servers are already down!) and i really don’t know what to expect from Star Citizen, it has the money to completely floor a whole world of gamers…or not!
