The Ol’ Kickstarter Shuffle…
Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 31, 2013
Since the Red Baron Kickstarter campaign didn’t have such an auspicious start (mainly because of the lack of pre-KS marketing, IMO), Mad Otter Games has decided to cancel it… with full intentions to bring it back in the not-too-distant future, with a better, more finely-tuned campaign.
It’s the way of things these days, I guess.
In the meantime – speaking of advance marketing – Guido Henkel has announced that he’ll be launching a Kickstarter for Deathfire: Ruins of Nethermore, which will be launching in about a week (November 6th). Yeah – duh – I’m going to be chucking money at that one, all the time questioning my own wisdom of helping finance other people’s games while only dipping into my own pocket to finance my own.
I’m stupid that way, maybe.
Seriously, folks – I spent some time chatting with a friend (and a far more successful game developer than me) who is growing despondent over the current situation with indie games. A vaporware project in mid-Kickstarter and a single joke going for it was greenlit on Steam, while entire libraries of quality, decently-selling (by non-Steam standards) games are still ignored. The things that will make a splash and get funded / greenlit are not the same things that make quality games. That doesn’t mean they can’t be combined into the same package. But there are no guarantees.
I guess it’s the same old story: Luck and a good story (or line of B.S.) trumps a good product. At least for a while. But neither is very reliable in the long-term. Please note that I’m not talking about specific KS projects (I’ve backed plenty, and in principle I’m a fan of crowdfunding) – just the tendency for people to be far more willing to throw time and money at a promise than reality.
Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 5 Comments to Read
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Ayrik said,
Canceling a Kickstarter project halfway through and then restarting it seems like a really good idea because then you have all those previous backers, who will most likely back the next one as well, but will back it within the first few days, giving it a huge boost in the first week.
And, about financing other games but not your own. I actually stopped doing that and decided to start spending money on my own development. To be honest, it hasn’t helped me out at all, but I do feel better having nicer assets to develop with.
Rampant Coyote said,
Heh – yeah. I want to support fellow indies – it’s a big deal for me – but my game sales aren’t usually increasing, so I have kind of a semi-fixed pot of money with which to finish my game. It’s not a lot. Definitely not what most of these kickstartered projects get.
But I think it’ll be enough.
Mz said,
It was expected
A blatant WoT clone designed for quick cash grab. He could not even design levelling fom scratch (cloned it 100%).
It not shuffle – an old boxer returning to ring for fame. It only worked well for Micky rourke.
He should have returned with something fresh and original
Cloned Moba was wrong way to do it
TBD said,
Actually cancelling a kickstarter part way through sends a bad message to me and makes me less likely to back the project in future.
If you’re going to give up and not finish your entire 30 day campaign when things get difficult, how can I expect you to finish an entire year+ long project when things get difficult. And things WILL get difficult.
Tom said,
Hmm, the only mid-kickstarter games to get greenlit I know are Worlds of Magic and The Mandate, both of which don’t seem to be vaporware. WoM is actually out early 2014.