Kickstarter Projects

[DanGarion]

There has been some talk about Kickstarter on the board as a way to entice Jim to make a new game, but what I wanted to do here was give us a place to talk about KS projects that we want to share with others on the board with.

I've backed 3 Kickstarter projects this past year with the most recent being the one for The Order of the Stick (click here for the project). I've been reading this online comic for what seems like years now, it's based on characters in a D&D type universe.

In the past I've backed Coffee Joulies which I gave to a friend as a Christmas gift and the Glory to Rome Black Box Edition Rome Demands Beauty game reprint.

I know that some of you have also backed projects and I thought it would be cool for us to share what we have backed in the past and also bring attention to those that you are looking to back in the future.

[Autumn]

Yeah, this is great. I never get around to looking at Kickstarte,r and when I do I get quickly overwhelmed, so I'd love to hear about good projects.

[mckerney]

What I've backed:

No Time To Explain (video game)
Glory To Rome - Just the mini expansion level
Eaten By Zombies! (Card Game)
Oh My God! There's An Axe In My Head (Board Game)
Double Fine Adventure Game - Hooray adventure games!

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Autumn

Yeah, this is great. I never get around to looking at Kickstarte,r and when I do I get quickly overwhelmed, so I'd love to hear about good projects.

Everything I've funded has been something I've read about somewhere else, haven't given to anything I've just seen on the Kickstarter website listings.

[ISiddiqui]

Yeah, whatever I've seen I've usually been linked to from Facebook.

[DanGarion]

Wow. Order of the Stick hit it. 38 hours to go!



The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive by Rich Burlew — Kickstarter

[rowech]

iDreamSaver - Home

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Wow. Order of the Stick hit it. 38 hours to go!



The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive by Rich Burlew — Kickstarter

[samifan24]

I've backed:

Elevation Dock - iPhone dock
Wishbhone - Headphone cord tie

Both were successfully funded but I haven't received them yet.

[DanGarion]

Here's a good one for baseball fans.

The Hall of Very Good



Hall of Very Good by Sky Kalkman — Kickstarter

[britrock88]

A Show with Ze Frank by Ze Frank — Kickstarter

One of the internet's most entertaining corners will be buzzing once again.

[mckerney]

Double Fine Adventure by Double Fine and 2 Player Productions — Kickstarter

Double Fine's adventure game Kickstarter closed at $3.3 million.

[mckerney]

A few video game Kickstarters.

Wasteland 2
For anyone who didn't see the thread about it. They're currently at $1.4 million.

The Banner Saga
Turn based combat strategy game with cartoon style animation that is being made by several former Bioware developers. It looks like they're going for episodic content as a $10 backing will get you the first episode. There will also be free multiplayer. It just went live yesterday and they've raised $97,350 for their $100,000 goal.

FTL: Faster Than Light
Roguelike-like where you command a spaceship, focused on exploration and ship combat. With 10 days left they've raised $120,000 after a goal of $10,000.

There's also talk of a Kickstarter for Dead State and a possible Baulder's Gate III. It's great to see developers are starting to be able to get projects started or completed this way and avoid going to a publisher for greater revenue down the road and keeping full ownership of their IPs.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Here's another video game Kickstarter:

Shadowrun Returns by Harebrained Schemes LLC — Kickstarter

It's a turn-based Shadowrun RPG.

It looks cool and they are almost already at their goal of $400,000 in the first couple of days.

This brings the number Kickstarter projects I back to 3: Wasteland 2, The Banner Saga and Shadowrun. Since we all know that video games are "art", I think this makes me an official Patron Of The Arts, so long as that art is a turn-based RPGs of some kind or another.

[DanGarion]

There is a Leisure Suit Larry Kickstarter Project!

[mckerney]

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

There is a Leisure Suit Larry Kickstarter Project!

I still remember playing a text version of Leisure Suit Larry waaaay back in the day.

[mckerney]

Shadowrun has enough funding for a Mac version, soon to be enough for Linux as well. They should go well over their initial goal so it should be interesting to see how much they can add.

[Matthean]

It's interesting to see how many games are getting Linux versions as were a game done with a publisher mostly comes out for Windows and maybe a Mac.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

There is a Leisure Suit Larry Kickstarter Project!

I'm curious what developers we will see turn to Kickstarter to revive an old series or genre next. I had thought of Doug Church of System Shock and Thief fame, but then remembered he is at Valve so he can do what he wants there with the endless resources Valve has.

[Qrusher14242]

There's also a Tex Murphy kickstarter beginning in May...can't wait!

[mckerney]

Double Bear is planning a Kickstarter for their game Dead State that has been in development for a while. I think it is currently a part time project for them with everyone on the team working full time jobs. Would be awesome if they could raise enough to work on the game full time.

[Shkspr]

I'm betting that the Larry Kickstarter is the first high-profile one of the post-DoubleFine era to fail. I think they'll top out at $250 or $300K. The Jane Jensen project is one that I'd love to support, but it's a "subscription", and I'm still not certain what I'd be getting for my donation.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Double Bear is planning a Kickstarter for their game Dead State that has been in development for a while. I think it is currently a part time project for them with everyone on the team working full time jobs. Would be awesome if they could raise enough to work on the game full time.

I have been following the development of "Dead State" for a while now. I think it would be a perfect game for a Kickstarter.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

I'm betting that the Larry Kickstarter is the first high-profile one of the post-DoubleFine era to fail. I think they'll top out at $250 or $300K. The Jane Jensen project is one that I'd love to support, but it's a "subscription", and I'm still not certain what I'd be getting for my donation.

Yeah I wasn't really sold on the LSL one when I read it.

Make Leisure Suit Larry come again! by Replay Games — Kickstarter

It has gained steam since yesterday though and is now up to 180k.

[jeff061]

Originally Posted by Qrusher14242

There's also a Tex Murphy kickstarter beginning in May...can't wait!

Such massively under appreciated games. I have such fantastic memories of The Pandora Directive and Under a Killing Moon. Hell I still play through them on occasion. They hold up incredibly well.

[mckerney]

Isn't the Leisure Suit Larry just a remake rather than a new game? A remake on it's own doesn't excite me that much.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

I'm betting that the Larry Kickstarter is the first high-profile one of the post-DoubleFine era to fail. I think they'll top out at $250 or $300K. The Jane Jensen project is one that I'd love to support, but it's a "subscription", and I'm still not certain what I'd be getting for my donation.

I felt the exact same way looking at the Jane Jensen one.

[Ragone]

I was tempted to start a beer tent kickstarter.. but i'm afraid that kind of large transaction over the internet may cause some unwanted attention...

Anyway, i'm looking forward to the shadowrun game

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Shkspr

I'm betting that the Larry Kickstarter is the first high-profile one of the post-DoubleFine era to fail. I think they'll top out at $250 or $300K. The Jane Jensen project is one that I'd love to support, but it's a "subscription", and I'm still not certain what I'd be getting for my donation.

I'm surprised by it, but the Leisure Suit Larry project was successfully funded.

Still have the same feelings about the Jane Jenson Kickstarter, though they have at least provided details on the GK style game they'd making. And it is great to see that it looks like it has a good chance of being successfully funded having raised pledges of $237k of the $300k with 21 days to go, even though I'm still unsure if it's something I'd want to fund.

[ISiddiqui]

I do love me some Kickstarter. A few of the ones I've recently backed:

Gungor Live CD/DVD by Gungor — Kickstarter

Hall of Very Good by Sky Kalkman — Kickstarter

Rooster Sauce: "It's Cluckin' Awesome!" by John de Mars — Kickstarter

Blue Blood Playing Cards by Uusi — Kickstarter

These two are still active (well one for a few hours):

Pure Sodaworks: Taking Our Sodas from Fountain to Bottle by Pure Sodaworks — Kickstarter

Mystery Pets Art Book by DianaSprinkle — Kickstarter

[Telle]

I'm backing the Pirate Farmers. They're doing urban farming here in Buffalo and need the money to pay for a dump truck to transport compostables to the farm to enrich the soil.

[Fidatelo]

I sort of feel like the Double Fine thing was the beginning of the end for Kickstarter. I have nothing to back this up, but it feels like more and more 'big' projects are getting on Kickstarter, and they are all getting massively overfunded, which is leading to more and more of the same. In all this, I have to believe the truly independent little guys are going to get lost in the shuffle, as there is only so much funding to go around. Which of course was the problem Kickstarter was trying to solve, wasn't it?

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

I sort of feel like the Double Fine thing was the beginning of the end for Kickstarter. I have nothing to back this up, but it feels like more and more 'big' projects are getting on Kickstarter, and they are all getting massively overfunded, which is leading to more and more of the same. In all this, I have to believe the truly independent little guys are going to get lost in the shuffle, as there is only so much funding to go around. Which of course was the problem Kickstarter was trying to solve, wasn't it?

I dunno, I don't think that most of the money that has gone to those projects would have been use to back other Kickstarter projects.

[MacroGuru]

I kicked in 15 last night for Shadowrun which ended at 1.8 mill I can't wait for it to be released now.

[PurdueBrad]

I took the plunge on supporting my first Kickstarter project, a zombie role-playing game that is set up to work with multiple systems, including (my favorite) Savage Worlds and Modern Path (the contemporary Pathfinder version). The cool thing is that all we're really covering is the final printing costs as it is ready to go. They made their money but the rewards are really nice and the guy, from talking to him, seems really cool. So if any of you guys are RPG players, consider taking a dive on:

Mortiston, USA-An All-American Zombie-Apocalypse

[Senator]

I am supporting this one, though I doubt he will reach his mark.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...=home_location

[Matthean]

This could easily go in the game board thread, but Zombiecide had a goal of $20K and it finished with $781,597. The game is basically made so they are just trying to lower cost.

Zombicide by CoolMiniOrNot — Kickstarter

[Danny]

I was surprised that one made so much with so little actual information about gameplay and a lack of any user reviews what so ever. I am confident in my choice to kickstart Ogre instead of Zombicide.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Danny

I was surprised that one made so much with so little actual information about gameplay and a lack of any user reviews what so ever. I am confident in my choice to kickstart Ogre instead of Zombicide.

Yeah I was surprised too. The artwork is stellar though. OK, I just went and watched their minor walkthrough, and I'm still not sure. It seems like the board should be twice the size although the smaller size might make it more exciting/challenging. Not sure I like one person shooting zombies and another player having 6 zombies show up because of it.

[mckerney]

Carmageddon: Reincarnation by Stainless Games — Kickstarter

[Senator]

Heard cool things about Tammany Hall so I backed it.

As well as MoveeGo to help with my sports video taking.

And then this for my kid, American Ace Arcade.

I like the idea of supporting unique ideas.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Xenonauts, that "spiritual successor to X-Com" that's been in development for ages has finally launched a Kickstarter to help it get over the hump:

Xenonauts by Goldhawk Interactive — Kickstarter

[mckerney]

I'm surprised at some of the video game projects that are being successful and that some of the projects that have recently started didn't wait a bit so they weren't coming on the heels of some of the larger projects (which also makes me wonder what is in the works that will pop up in a couple months).

I'm also wondering if we'll see Steam start doing Kickstarter/Desura style alpha funding, as it's the sort of thing Gabe Newell had talked about wanting to do in the past. Plus there are Kickstarter projects that will be doing betas on Steam or providing Steam keys to project backers anyway, it seems like a logical next step for Valve to do.

The one roadblock I could see is that Valve doesn't release any sales numbers for Steam and they often have developers signed to a NDA so they cannot either, and the amount raised seems to be something popular with and necessary for a Kickstarter project.

[whomario]

What happens with surplus of money btw ? Just going into the pockets of the companies or even individuals ?
In an ideal world, wouldn´t the extra money be wired back to the funders ? (If they get double of what they need, everybody gets back 50% of what he paid)

Not really interested in the games aspect much, but there are a ton of interesting ideas floating around. The sort of thing i think is just pretty cool : POSTCARDS FROM NOWHERE by Going Nowhere — Kickstarter

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by whomario

What happens with surplus of money btw ? Just going into the pockets of the companies or even individuals ?
In an ideal world, wouldn´t the extra money be wired back to the funders ? (If they get double of what they need, everybody gets back 50% of what he paid)

I'm not sure what happens with the surplus, or if it's even fair to call it that. For example, if you are looking to raise $10,000 so that you can print 1000 copies of some card game you invented, and people donate $10 and in return get a copy of the game, just because 2000 people donate doesn't mean you just got an extra $10,000 of 'free' money, because you have to now print 2000 copies and give those extra 1000 people a copy of your game.

Now, for video games that are digital downloads or something, it's a bit different I imagine, as the costs associated with giving copies to those extra 1000 backers are not nearly the same as for the first 1000 backers. At that point I agree, I'd like to have a clearer picture of what happens with the money, although I'm assuming it just becomes profit in the same way it would if I bought the product commercially at a later time.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Now, for video games that are digital downloads or something, it's a bit different I imagine, as the costs associated with giving copies to those extra 1000 backers are not nearly the same as for the first 1000 backers. At that point I agree, I'd like to have a clearer picture of what happens with the money, although I'm assuming it just becomes profit in the same way it would if I bought the product commercially at a later time.

In projects that have had excess funding it's typically been spent on things more programmers to add features or port to different platforms, hiring people for music or voice work, licensing tools used in making the game. There's plenty of things for money to be spent on in a making a game other than printing copies, though some of the projects do offer physical rewards to some reward tiers.

A few examples from projects that went way over their goals:

Wasteland 2
-At $1.5 they were able to do Mac and Linux version.
-At $2.1 million they contracted with Obsidian for help writing and software tools for making the game.
-At $2.5 million they hired more designers to create more areas within the game.
-At $3 million they hired programmers to create a mod toolkit to be released with the game.

Banner Saga
-$600k allowed them to hire the composer of the PSN game Journey to create the soundtrack.
-At $650k they were able to put the game on different platforms.
-At $700k they added more content to the game.

Shadowrun

[gstelmack]

Isn't there also the "pay it forward" thing, where projects agree to kick 5% of their excess forward to other projects?

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Isn't there also the "pay it forward" thing, where projects agree to kick 5% of their excess forward to other projects?

The kick it forward is not excess funding (which I think would be against Kickstarter rules, all funding must be spent on the project). Those who are doing kick it forward are committing to give back 5% of the profits made from the project after release to other Kickstarter projects.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by mckerney

The kick it forward is not excess funding (which I think would be against Kickstarter rules, all funding must be spent on the project). Those who are doing kick it forward are committing to give back 5% of the profits made from the project after release to other Kickstarter projects.

What happens if you get so much funding that you can't even find good ways to spend it all on the project? Do you start just making things stupid-extravagant? "The game board will now be made from only the rarest oak trees hand-cut by indigenous people and glossed to perfection by a 100 day process involving the cured sweat of Tanzanian armadillos."