The Kickstarter effect - Doublefines success bigger than just a game.

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
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Sep 5, 2010
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We all know about it, Doublefines super record breaking Kickstarter campaign. According to a blog by kickstarter, Doublefines success rippled to other game kickstarters. There is a graph in the blog that visualizes this.


Frankly, I think this is a great direction, not only for indie game developers, but for game consumers. Now we kind of have a "pick n' choose" type thing, where we can have a person investment in, and we have a minor say in what types of games we'd like to see in the market. If we don't like it, don't invest. If you do, then invest what you wish.


I'm interested to see if any really big name companies try something like this.

Thought it was interesting and worth sharin'
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Aug 8, 2010
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Steam should link to kickstarter. Imagine it. You find a promising start-up on steam, and pay them a bit, through steam. If it fails, you get your money back/in your steam wallet. If not, the "pledge" is added to your game library, and you get the game on release. The cost of having your game put on steam is included in the kickstarter budget, but setting yourself up for a pledge is free. (Though i guess there'd need to be some kind of quality control).
 

Empyre

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Feb 8, 2011
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That's not how investment works. You lose your money if the investment fails, but you make a profit if it succeeds.
 

tyler

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Sep 11, 2013
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I think he means that if the money isn't raised you get it back, because that's how Kickstarter works.
 

Empyre

L6: Sharp Member
Feb 8, 2011
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Oh, I see. That's very different, then. Nevermind.
 

Harribo

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Nov 1, 2009
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http://penny-arcade.com/report/edit...athan-blow-explains-why-microsoft-is-aiming-a
...The developer was excited about the things he saw coming to the Steam platform; he said he was “super impressed” by the work being done and the conversations he had. “[Valve] had a bunch of indie developers up there, and they wanted to show us their plan, and talk about whether it meets our needs for getting our games on [Steam],” he explained.

...Blow wouldn’t say what he saw at Valve, but he did say one of Steam’s problems is that it’s hard to have a limited number of people looking at the games being submitted and still make sure games that deserve it get through. The submission pipe is filled with games that barely work, as well as a flood of submissions for re-skinned versions of popular, existing games. ...... “In that noise, some really good games get lost. Indies e-mail with games, demos, videos, and sometimes it’s actually a good game, and the indie community knows it’s a good game, or someone in the press knows it a good game, but Valve doesn’t know it’s a good game,” Blow said. There are plans to help with these issues, and Steam has a few other tricks up its sleeve for the future.

From the looks of this article it seems very are allready trying to improve ways into the steam store for indie devs, maybe a Valve version of kickstarter-esqe game funding is on it's way

also, 2nd comment down is doc from the Cafe :D
 

Okrag

Wall Staples
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Jun 10, 2009
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Calling it now, some big million dollar kickstarter(not necessarily one of the ones around now) is going to fall apart after getting it's funding and ruin it for everybody.
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
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Something that's bugging me just a bit about kickstarter is that the big ones are showing that amount of money got is proportional to a) amount of fans already had and b) amount of money spent on raising awareness.

Which has the issue of being considerably less than great for start-ups, who have basically none of either. Don't get me wrong, i look forward to a Double Fine Adventure game or Wasteland 2... but do those companies really have a £21 million defecit between "money they have" and "money they need"?

I guess it makes sense. It's basically a two-year pre-order. I just wish it needed less to get more out. I guess it's great for start-ups looking to, say, hire artists or sound designers late in development. But for going from zero to anything, its not as good as it could be.
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
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May 19, 2008
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My only concern with this trend is what we'll see come out of it when these games get closer to releasee (or are released). Unlike a game funded entirely by the studio or publisher, where all consumers get is the choice to buy the final product or not, Kickstarter allows people to "invest" in the game early in its development. And, unfortunately, the gaming community has a bad habit of believing itself entitled - and if the notion that they have this investment in the game's development comes about, things could get out of hand quickly.

The ongoing fiasco regarding Mass Effect 3 shows that players do not have much concern for the wishes of the studio, they want what they want. With a boxed product bought at release, if unsatisfied with a game, they can usually return it, or trade it in, or sell it to someone else and move on. Maybe they'll complain on the internet. They are very much outside of the creative control of the game, and it's something they have to deal with. But Kickstarter allows people to believe they are buying into the development process, or the creative control. It's people that funded the game, a game that the people want.

One false step by the developer that the "investors" don't like, and two things can happen: either the developers take a step back because the players want them to, sacrificing their vision of the game, or they stand their ground and defend their creative goals, and suddenly the whole "connection with the community" brought about by the crowd-funding collapses around them. And while a lot of people will say the first option is a good thing, it really isn't. Every gamer, especially those "savvy" enough to help Kickstart a game, wants to believe they're an expert on games, but they aren't, and the developers are. And while there is value in a developer being responsive to community wishes, the community can't completely drive the development process without something being lost.
 

littleedge

L1111: Clipping Guru
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Mar 2, 2009
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I just want to point out the OotS also got over a million dollars and that it is a webcomic that is updated once a week MAYBE and isn't /that/ well known.

It also introduced a bunch of people to Kickstarter and Comics have been more funded since.