Is Kickstarter doomed?

[max_cady]

This has been in my mind a lot lately... I've backed three projects as of 2011/2012, which were:
-The Ouya console;
-Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse;
-Piers Solar HD for basically every console, including the Ouya and the Wii U;

The Ouya is out now, but the overall impression is that it's was a doomed project from the get-go. Sure, it's cheap, but given the Android's updates and the monthly hardware refreshes on those devices, it's already a dated hardware by today's standards. The games have to be ported because of Android's heterogeneous hardware and those games were meant as 10-20 minute distractions, hard to play them on TV for much longer( though I'd buy it for JRPGs alone).

And speaking of games, how many of those crowd-funding projects have actually come to fruition? It's strange that developers ask people for money to pursue their projects but there have been no shortage of stories of devs burning through the budget money and in some not cases, having to retool the game.

Which brings me to the ultimate issue of the day: Is Kickstarter not living up to it's full potential, are the people/devs asking for donations simply underestimating their expected budget or were just way in over their heads?

[TimmiT]

Here's a list of successful gaming Kickstarters that I know of:

- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- Shadowrun Returns
- Mercenary Kings
- Cloudberry Kingdom
- Strike Suit Zero
- Kentucky Route Zero
- Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
- Ravaged
- Cthulhu Saves the World
- Thirty Flights of Loving
- Super Ubie Land
- Organ Trail: Director's Cut
- Pinball Arcade DLC
- Sequence
- Idle Thumbs podcast
- Leisure Suit Larry remake
- No Time to Explain (though this did turn out to be shit)
- Octodad: Dadliest Catch is likely going to live up to what it's promised
- Double Fine Adventure is living up to what they promised so far. They did need more money eventually, but they're getting that through sales of their other games.

It's easy to negative and think of how it could all go wrong. And it can always go horribly wrong, that's the risk of even publisher-funded games. My advice is to only fund games by people who have experience making them and of who you know that they can deliver on what they promise.

[George]

They just released Shadowrun Returns and its getting good reviews. I have not picked it up (even tho I'm a fan of the universe), but I will soon enough when I beat some of the summer games i got. (talk about bad timing for release).

[MrFranklin]

It is the nature of the beast with anything like this that you will get a lot of people that set out to scam others or have lofty ambitions beyond what they are really capable of with nothing to show for it.

I think part of the problem is too many people don't fully understand what Kickstarter is. They need to understand that they are investing money into a project they hope to see reach fruition, i.e they aren't pre-ordering a guaranteed product. It is a very risky business and people need to be aware of it and not just throw their money at something lightly so that the people who actually deserve it and will actually do good with it see that money instead.

[Nameless 24]

I've only thrown a Kickstarter at one thing, "Not Enough Rings", to see if this works.

Not a HUGE deal if I lost £40 on it, as it will tell me to never trust Kickstarter again.

[crackdude]

Why don't we start a Shenmue III kickstarter, send the money to Yu Suzuki.

[Barry the Nomad]

I've only thrown a Kickstarter at one thing, "Not Enough Rings", to see if this works.

Not a HUGE deal if I lost £40 on it, as it will tell me to never trust Kickstarter again.

I'm certain Not Enough Rings will go smoothly. The book is already designed, they're just sending it to the printer, and it looks like they've worked with printers in the past.

[Nameless 24]

I'm certain Not Enough Rings will go smoothly. The book is already designed, they're just sending it to the printer, and it looks like they've worked with printers in the past.

So I've heard! That's great news!

I do fear not obtaining an e-mail from them, asking for my address to post it to though. Outlook is so shit when it comes to performance, and counts non-spammy e-mails as spam.