Kickstarter - Weekend News Roundup

When I find five or more kickstarter updates I prefer to round them all up in one news-bit. So lets get started as I have six of them for you today.

Ultimate Fantasy Studio has a new post-funding update for The Meridian Shard.

Aside from the demo, I have made great progress over the past month with many improvements to the game design, animation frame rates and icon design. These two videos will show some of the painstakingly detailed backgrounds I have made, including a new dungeon floor mat that looks fantastically aged and colored with randomized stains and tones over all the stones. You will also see some of the new menus and items in action as well.

Inglenook posted a new post-funding update for Witchmarsh.

Apologies for going a bit quiet there, we've had our faces planted firmly in code, story documents, research and the many joys of business administration. We henceforth promise to make these updates more frequent.

Trexrell posted two updates for Demon's Revenge found here, and here.

This is a Vlog of myself Tyrell talking about the current status of our crowd funding efforts. I want to think positively and move forward with everything we have now.

The Hard West Kickstarter is now over, and made $94,183 of the $70,000 goal.

Thank you kindly for your backing!

While the timer suggests it's over, it's actually only the beginning. We're finally able to focus on making the game, but there's still a whole lot more in the store for you.

Kai Rosenkranz's kickstarter for a new music album has 13days left, and has only managed to earn $15,999 of the games $20,000 goal. So keep spreading the word.

My new album made it past the 75% mark. And who did it? YOU did it!

I cannot thank you guys enough for all your support. This really means a lot to me! Can I hug you? We still have more than 2 weeks left, and I'm starting to believe that we can actually make it. But no … Must. Not.

And for last a new article from ten ton hammer about kickstarters being the, "The Land of Glorious Vaporware and Disappointment."

I just hate early access and I hate Kickstarter for video games. It’s just not good. It’s not good at all. Just recently, Stomping Land got pulled from Steam for being vaporware. The developers apparently had the audacity to just take money and not do anything. Proving yet again that early access and Kickstarter are terrible ideas for monetizing video games.

More information.

People need to understand what Kickstarter and Early Access mean. It means you want a game to be made, and are trying to help developers make it. It also means you have to accept the failure that might come. My kickstart/early access has been up until now very positive. I have yet to support vaporware. And yet, I am very aware that it's possible, and its also possible that I will support what turns out to be
a complete failure or a game vastly different than I expected (which turned out to be the case for me with Unrest, though I still enjoyed it for what it was.) People need to go in with both eyes open. At the end of the day if I get one Expedition:Conquistidors for my investments, and one failure, than I am still very happy.

Finding success on Kickstarter involves two things: 1) the realization that any money you provide is essentially a "donation" in the hopes of something you really, REALLY want coming to light, and 2) the need to do some research and know what you're getting into.

I've backed a handful of games on Kickstarter, including Shadowrun Returns, Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Torment: Tides of Numenara. Of the two that have come out (Shadowrun and Divinity), I've been very, very pleased. I've also played a bit of early access Wasteland 2 and have high hopes for PoE and Torment. So… although the system isn't perfect, I also know that I just would never get to play these wonderful games without KS.

Now, it's quite possible that one or more of the remaining games might not work out, but I'm OK with that, as I've already had GREAT fun with the two that have come out.

Thanks for the Kai update, I had forgot he was doing a Kickstarter.

I don't know what that Kickstarter loser is doing but my donation to success rate is well over 90%. However I would say the vast bulk of the Kickstarters missed their original completion date. But I think of the 50 or so games I've backed, there are two that are far behind in their project but the updates show the games are coming together nicely. And there is only one game I am pretty sure won't get made, but the developer is still posting updates about the game.

I like the comments in that blog and let me add one:

I once bought a music CD at a garage sale. The CD case only had 1 of the 2 CDs. Proving that garage sales are a terrible idea for buying CDs. It’s just not good. It’s not good at all.

I agree with Dajjer…I don't know what the Ten Ton Hammer guy is doing but apparently he has no idea about it. Same as Dajjer I pledged in a couple of dozen games and till now I wasn't disappointed once. Instead they almost always even turned out to be great investments.
Just one example: I pledged for the double pack for Divinity: Original sin for 40$ (31€) and got two game licenses with additional goodies. If I bought two licenses of Divinity:OS at release instead (without goodies) that would have been 80€.

I can only assume that the guy who wrote this article has absolutely no ability to judge projects appearing on Kickstarter and heavily invests into projects where some school kid promises the next World of Warcraft.

-If I like the idea in a kickstarter project but I am not too sure whether or not I will really like it, I invest up to 15$ into it.
-If I am sure that I will like it, and if the team has a very professional campaign where they are able to show something and/or some big names are behind it, I pledge 20$ for the base game.
-And if the conditions for 20$ are met and I want to support them even further I might also invest additional money if the returned value is good. But with this I am very hesitant. For me this is the most difficult point which can also lead to disappointment. For now I expect to be disappointed with Wasteland 2 and JA:F. Both are games I invested lots of money in, which both seem to rush their release. But that's my own fault and if I only invested the minimum pledge I would probably still be happy about it.

Why are Wasteland 2 and JS:F disappointments without having actually played the finished games? Worse than some well known reviewers everyone hates. At least wait till you play the complete game before denouncing it. As for "rushing release", haha, there are ppl saying THE EXACT OPPOSITE that these devs are taking too long.

If I was a developer, I would hate you all. You guys just look for excuses to hate everything. Even contradictory reasons!!! Bizarre!

I back a project if I believe in the concept.

I don't see crowdfunding as an investment where I get my money back in some way. It's a donation for things I like - nothing more nothing less.

I'm a niche gamer - and I know it. I'm backing mostly projects that don't have a chance in the mainstream market.

Originally Posted by PegasusOrgans
Why are Wasteland 2 and JS:F disappointments without having actually played the finished games? Worse than some well known reviewers everyone hates. At least wait till you play the complete game before denouncing it. As for "rushing release", haha, there are ppl saying THE EXACT OPPOSITE that these devs are taking too long.

If I was a developer, I would hate you all. You guys just look for excuses to hate everything. Even contradictory reasons!!! Bizarre!

I have access to both Early Access versions and why I only checked in for a couple of hours, both games seemed far from finished. In one hour of Wasteland (last Early Access Version before release) I encountered more bugs, problems and unfisnished mechanics and content than in 100h of Divinity (release).

I don't need excuses and I won't hate them. But these are the two projects I pledged the most money in (both 165$) and I feel like they they are rushed. That may partially be due to Wastelands 2 lack of communication + lack of updates in their Early Access build. JA Flashback just feels like an Alpha and in addition the developers wrote:

We originally said we would launch in November 2014, but as we would be competing with a lot of big titles at that time, we have decided for this slot instead.

If I pledged just the minimum I would say the same but probably be not as sad about it.

Personally I would never say that the developers take too long if I can see that they make progress. To me the only relevant factor is how well is the game at release. If I have to wait 5 years for the release - I don't care.

I do my final judgements after release. I actually make Review Videos about all games I play (in German).
Just saying these are the only two projects so far I expect to be disappointed with when they release. And even they will (probably) not be total desasters like Ten Ton Hammers article implies they should be as this is the "harsh reality".