Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
tegan

Wake Me Up Before You IndieGoGo: A Crowdfunding Thread

Recommended Posts

There's so much interesting/terrible crowdfunded crap these days that I figured a catch-all thread was a good idea.

 

Mighty No. 9 is getting a second go, in case you missed it the first time around. Their first goal is to fund full English voice-acting for the game, which we can only hope lives up to the precedent set by the Mega Man series.

 

 

 

 

Or if you're not into Mighty No. 9, you can fund this guy's potato salad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I wanted to post about the potato salad Kickstarter, and this thread is better than anything I would have made.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I wanted to post about the potato salad Kickstarter, and this thread is better than anything I would have made.

 

I've been sitting on this thread title for like a week waiting for an excuse to use it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I wanted to post about the potato salad Kickstarter, and this thread is better than anything I would have made.

 

Some days I love the Internet. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This has always been my favourite worst kickstarter. I don't even know how I found it, but it's hilarious: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richardgnw/thera?ref=nav_search

 

It's so blatantly trying to copy Touhou. It's just so bad....

 

Also I don't know whether I want to support MN9 to have an english dub. I do want that game though, so I'm glad it's being reopened for backers. I missed out last time.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the potato salad is at more than $70,000. I can't even make rent. Kill me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the potato salad is at more than $70,000. I can't even make rent. Kill me.

 

Average backer pledge is about $8, which seems about right for something that went viral.

 

(Although Patreon is basically this model - very low impact pledges, spread over a wide base, with a posted total so people are encouraged to maintain their pledges.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So is this the biggest failed gaming kickstarter so far?  Over a half million raised, and nothing to show for it.  I know a few prominent projects have gone dark, but not officially canceled yet.  The explanation kind of reads like exactly what you would expect out of a failed KS project:

 

"Working on Yogventures was an amazing experience and everyone at Winterkewl Games really wanted to achieve the very lofty goals the game set out to do, but lack of experience in planning and managing a project of this scope proved too much for our little team," lead developer Kris Vale said. "As you know we had a total of 6 people working on the project, Winterkewl Games was started to make Yogventures and while every member of the team worked tirelessly to make that a reality, in the end there was simply too much work to do on our own."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There are five people out there who just learned a $10,000 life lesson. Ouch.

 

Personally, the more ambitious the project, the more experienced the dev team behind it needs to be before I'd consider giving them anything. And here we have some giant customizable open world Minecraft killer. Oh what's that? This is the first project for this studio and the kickstarter page has zero details on the individual members' past experience? Sadly, I can't say I'm terribly surprised.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've been keeping tabs on this Kickstarter for Osamu Tezuka's "The Crater" from last year, which still has yet to provide any evidence that the book actually exists. There's a surprising number of people running to defend the project creator in the comments sections, despite their repeated promises and subsequent failures to provide any sort of informative update on the project status. It's a fascinating sort of Stockholm Syndrome deal.

 

I'm really glad I didn't contribute to that Kickstarter like I wanted to, but it's pretty lousy that this likely means the rights to the book are tied to a company that will likely never release it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I feel lucky that the worst I've been burned so far is just not being very impressed with Grim Dawn. I don't know how much money or how many Kickstarters it'll take, but the boom can't last forever (and in many ways, has already begun to wane, since the frenetic days of the Double Fine Adventure).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, I kind of looked at Yogventures and went 'there is no way that this will be what they want from it, at best it'll be a shitty Minecraft clone' but it'll be interesting to see if that translates to a permanent loss of popularity for the two Yogscast people who lent their credibility to it.

 

Very early on, I decided that I'd only back Kickstarters where it seemed like the creators had a good handle on the difficulties they'd face bringing their creation to market. I've backed a few unknowns and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far, although I'm getting increasingly worried about Hyper Light Drifter (but then I didn't put down much for that). I did back Lori and Corey Cole, which I think was probably a mistake, it's clear they got out of the game business a long time ago and have had major difficulties adjusting. (Idle Thumbs still haven't done all the custom backer songs they promised.) In general I took the attitude that I had to be judicious with my Kickstarter money and I could always buy the game when it was done and turned out well, give them a little boost after the project finished.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Merus, what's your concern with Hyper Light Drifter?  I haven't followed it much, but what I have seen had seemed to be rather positive and they aren't that old of a project. 

 

I just had to log into KS to remember what all I had even backed over the last couple of years (10, as it turns out).   There are only 3 I think were potentially risky.  But all of those are ones that I pledged to because I wanted to support the creator, not because I was pre-ordering something.  So even if they don't pan out, my intent was to help someone have a shot and that was fulfilled no matter what. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Merus, what's your concern with Hyper Light Drifter?  I haven't followed it much, but what I have seen had seemed to be rather positive and they aren't that old of a project. 

 

The dev log seems a little sparse for a game coming out in six months. I don't know how they're really going - they did show at E3, which is positive, but whether or not day-to-day development is going well, I can't really tell.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The only Kickstarter I've been genuinely burned one so far is the Clang one.

Besides that, I backed Unwritten: That Which Happened but I can't feel too bad about losing that pledge because, well, life just up and took a big ol' dump on that guys.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So how long until one of the big three prominently advertises that a Kickstarter game will be coming to their platform only for it to never materialize?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I backed the Yogventures kickstarter. I would like to say I'm angry, but I'm really not. It was so long ago, my interest in the yogscast dropped of the face of the earth and I regret it. I can't remember when I realised my money had gone to waste. Probably the first alpha demo? Their mention of 'Marching Cubes Algorithm' in the wrong context should have been a bit of a give away (something I only knew about because I studied it in my 3rd year project at uni).
 
Also their t-shirt was embarrassingly shit. For what was supposed to be a "T-shirt designed exclusively by the Yogventures concept artists!" it was just a white T-shirt with a black logo, saying 'yogventures' and an outline of Simon & Lewis. Just reeked of a cheap, shitty product that was hastily designed on the cheap, and pushed out to fulfil backer rewards. I never got a poster either, but I heard it was just key art. 

 

Does anyone know of the legality stuff in Kickstarter? It seems totally pointless to complain at this point to them, but my missus says I should try and see if I can get my money back? I doubt I will be able to though. I'm pretty sure I can't, but don't know the actual reasons behind why.

 

The rest of my kickstarters are pretty ace actually. Sealark is one I'm really looking forward to, and the Skullgirls one is awesome too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

hyperlight drifter has been extremely quiet throughout the entire development though

 

i backed it towards the end of its days because it was getting a lot of attention, looked neat (love those sweet gifs), and the lowest entry to get the game was fairly reasonable.  Out of all the games I've backed they are one of the quietest, even the 1-man team Void Destroyer updates fairly regularly with more progress

 

 

 

i have not been burned on anything yet, i got a refund when Death Inc. closed up shop which was very nice of them - could have taken the money and ran like some of the projects posted above.  Although, now that i think about it "Pulse" is one i am skeptical about - http://tinyurl.com/oq66u95

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the only thing a creator has to do is fulfil the backer rewards, or at least make a good faith effort. It's what's so worrying about the 'get the game!' reward tiers because you're promising people that the game will actually be made. Giving people TUG with Yogventures assets instead will probably cover them, particularly because of all the Minecraft clones I've seen TUG looks the most like it's going to be a worthy extension of the core idea.

 

I think, if you're running a game Kickstarter, you should promise that you'll either release the game or open-source the assets created when the project is abandoned, just to remind people that the project might be abandoned and actually evaluate whether or not the creators can do what they promise.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So how long until one of the big three prominently advertises that a Kickstarter game will be coming to their platform only for it to never materialize?

 

This is the only way to prevent any Madden game being released next year.

 

 

In general about Kickstarters, I actually think the public conception of them needs to be reframed. It should be seen as an outright risk in EVERY case, and the money your giving should be given in good faith that you trust the person involved/enjoy what they've produced so far. For example, I loved the trailer and kickstarter campaign for Hyper Light Drifter. I paid in early, and saw their pile of money sky rocket. Between the trailer and the kickstarter campaign feels of accomplishment, I got what I wanted. In return I donated money to a creator in the hope that it will allow them to progress with the kind of thing they make, because I enjoyed what they presented in the campaign.

This has a lot to do with why I like the idea of Patreon more. Though that still has rewards creeping in as a basic entitlement to turn it from patronage to being a purchased subscription to special content.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This has a lot to do with why I like the idea of Patreon more. Though that still has rewards creeping in as a basic entitlement to turn it from patronage to being a purchased subscription to special content.

 

Yeah, I really dislike when creators talk up Patreon-exclusive content. Mozart's Ascanio in Alba wasn't exclusive to Empress Maria Theresa. Patronage allows a creator to produce more and better work, which attracts more patronage. It's different from and less exploitative than a subscription service, which plays on people's fear of missing out. I'd like to think that a payment model based on positive emotions would be better than one based on negative emotions, but I guess I can't really judge people working in the insecurity of the arts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh my god, bob's game still exists kind of? And I guess Bob himself has fully succumbed to the madness that we all suspected lay dormant within?

 

"bob's game" reveals the nature of the universe for what it really is to a generation that needs it the most.  "bob's game" is the most important thing to happen to mankind in hundreds, if not thousands of years. 

"bob's game" is the vehicle for a prophecy, written by a "self taught" "genius" "prophet."  It carries within it a message that will revolutionize society and change the world.  It is the beginning of a new era for mankind.

"bob's game" actually alters reality itself for those who play it.  It is a key into another dimension.  It teaches the secrets of the heart, the secrets of mind control and psychic power to a generation that has has the wool pulled over their eyes by criminal syndicates.

"bob's game" is the ultimate cult game.  It is a new religion for the modern world, inspired by and intended as a natural spiritual successor to previous disguised religion games such as Earthbound and Zelda and movie retellings of an ancient spellbook (The Old Testament) such as "The Matrix."

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One thing I wish more people knew is that your ability to express ideas is a skill. If I had a deep, universal truth that would revolutionise the world, I know it would take me a very long time to work out how to express it in a way that didn't make me sound like I ran a blog written in Comic Sans.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

tegan I saw that recently too and was similarly mindblown. How is that even still a thing? Bob is an insane human being. I really want to play bob's game. I am completely serious about that. I'm convinced it will be a complete trainwreck if it is ever actually released, but also it's pretty fucking fascinating.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×