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Topic: Kickstarter - The Thread. (Read 415057 times)
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Chimpy
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10619
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Wait... restaurants were being funded on Kickstarter? ... THE... FUCK? I mean, what in the actual fuck?
Kickstarter is way easier than sending out emails for Nigerian Princes these days as a way to separate fools from their money.
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'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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Goldenmean
Terracotta Army
Posts: 844
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Kickstarter is great for a certain type of product and terrible for others.
Plenty of people have an idea for a boardgame and a crude prototype they've been dragging around to their local store for the last decade. Not everyone has the resources to throw five figures to have a print run of it made. I've backed a few hundred board game kickstarters and none of the ones that actually succeeded have failed to deliver thus far. They haven't all been great games, but such is life.
There's also an entire class of "boutique" board game that just wouldn't exist without kickstarter because they're so economically unfeasible. The Ogre reprint, Kingdom Death, Cthulhu Wars. None of those would have been made without kickstarter because they're ridiculous behemoths with a preposterous price point, but there's a demographic that's crazy for them. Probably the same with a lot of the miniatures heavy games we get from Soda Pop or Cool Mini or Not, etc.
Comics, books, board games, really any sort of single auteur or very small group type project where all you need the money for is a print run are great for kickstarter.
Video games are terrible because hardly anyone who wants to make one actually realizes how hard that will be. I back plenty of video game kickstarters also, but I view that money as more of a burnt offering to the gods. If they answer, maybe I'll get a fun video game in a couple of years. If not, enh, that's what I get for setting my money on fire.
Blue sky technology projects are terrible for obvious reasons. Most R&D everywhere doesn't actually pan out.
I find movies are generally the worst kickstarters though. Their pricing tiers are practically always offensive. There's a kickstarter to make a movie out of Dragon's Lair going right now that just boggles the mind. The lowest tier that actually gets you a copy of the movie? 125$ But don't worry, you can get a signed 8x10 photo for only 50$. I pretty much only ever back movies if I really love the creators. I tossed money at Anomalisa because I'd pay Charlie Kaufman money to punch me in the face. That guy can do no wrong in my book.
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Teleku
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10510
https://i.imgur.com/mcj5kz7.png
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I think you guys are forgetting the ‘donation’ aspect of Kickstarter also. It’s not always about “what good deal can I get by backing this product early”. A lot of projects are basically “Hey, I have this idea for something. If you think it should exist also, please donate. And I’ll give you some small silly thing in return since it’s expected in kickstarter.” This can be for shit like movies and restaurants. I sure as fuck would never back a restaurant, but I’m also not a foodie. I can very well see people reaching out to various communities (restaurants, brewing, hat making, ect.) and basically asking the community to fund them so they can start their business idea. Or you know, kick start it.
I’ve been like that with some video games. I backed Wasteland 2 and Torment at well above the levels needed to get the game. Not because I actually gave a shit at all about all the stupid extra stuff they give, but because those are games I think should be made, and I’m happy with giving money to people who have given me a lot of joy in the past.
I mostly agree with Goldenmean. Most of the physical tech product idea’s are not cut out for Kickstarter, R&D cost being way higher for most things than Kickstarter can provide. I don’t go near any of that shit. I disagree on video games though. I think it’s a great platform to get games out there, and has resulted in a ton of games I’ve really enjoyed being created. As long as you don’t back anything that’s promising to do what normally takes 100 million dollars, and/or the developers are shady as fuck nobodies, then you should be fine.
On the whole I think Kickstarter has been a great thing in general, with the positives outweighing the negatives by a pretty significant amount.
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"My great-grandfather did not travel across four thousand miles of the Atlantic Ocean to see this nation overrun by immigrants. He did it because he killed a man back in Ireland. That's the rumor." -Stephen Colbert
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Quinton
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3332
is saving up his raid points for a fancy board title
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Where Kickstarter is great for most manufactured things (be it board games or consumer electronics) is *after* the prototype is done, the testing is done, and you simply need the cash up front to order the components and run the line. If you're doing it right you've done all the math and know where the price breaks are, what minimum numbers you need to hit, have factored in shipping and handling, and haven't foolishly signed up to deliver trinkets and schwag rewards that are more hassle and/or expense than the actual product.
Any sooner than that and not only do you risk failing and falling on your face because you cannot predict your R&D costs, you risk that you're unveiling your idea possibly 6-18 months ahead of production, which unless you have some *amazing* unique idea and way to build it opens the door for folks with more resources to build the same thing faster and beat you to the launch -- if your hope was that your kickstarter launch would be the beginning of your company selling whatever it is you're building this is a great way to give up any first mover advantage by showing your hand way ahead of time.
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Ginaz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3534
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« Last Edit: January 26, 2016, 08:02:11 AM by Ginaz »
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Rendakor
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10131
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It looks alright because I like both ARPGs and SNES-era graphics...but they say the game will be $20 and the cheapest KS package is $25.
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"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42632
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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And a wild Smedley appears...with a 2D pixel rpg. Every word in that sentence is a blight.
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Margalis
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12335
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Maybe they should have spent less on high-powered veterans and more on at least one person who can do pixel art.
It looks worse than most micro-budget pixel art games being made by one or two people.
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vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
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Tebonas
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6365
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I backed this before I realized Smedley is involved. Thanks for the warning people (and shame on Obsidian for tricking me into backing this).
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Gimfain
Terracotta Army
Posts: 553
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There are two problems with this kickstarter, I still don't have true grasp on how the game will be played and its absolutely ridiculous to think they can go from start of project to full launch in a year.
Grim dawn is feature complete almost 4 years after the start of their kickstarter, path of exile took 2.5 years from alpha to launch. This is going to be another kickstarter that takes forever to be launched.
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When you ask for a miracle, you have to be prepared to believe in it or you'll miss it when it comes
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Every time an RPG brags about the writer hired to write the backstory, lore, whatever - I immediately know the game is going to be a hot fucking mess.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42632
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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What do you mean? R.A. Salvatore killed it on 38 Studios MMOG Lore.
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Ginaz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3534
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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I just don't get it. Smed has literally walked through fire and brimstone and his big idea to throw his weight behind is "game a 2 man team could make with RPG maker."
What the fuck.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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"The Shoes of a Clown" - Smokey Robinson it's obvious missing things like physical goods hampered our efforts Yes. It was the lack of t-shirts and mouse pads that doomed it, surely.
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« Last Edit: January 26, 2016, 12:04:27 PM by Sky »
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shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
the plural of mangina
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Because even in real life all gamers are whores for loot.
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I have never played WoW.
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Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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People who still have a SNES plugged in deserve to be left in the cold when the other shoe drops.
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Margalis
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12335
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The Smed KS thing smacks to me of being put together by a bunch of people who graduated from being workers to being managers, which is exactly what you don't want in a small KS project.
In a small team managerial skills are much less important than being able to just do the work. The game looks visually much worse than many 1 and 2 person games. It reads like the people doing it either can't or won't just sit down for X hours a day and do the day-to-day work of making a game.
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vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
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Merusk
Terracotta Army
Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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People who still have a SNES plugged in deserve to be left in the cold when the other shoe drops.
Which shoe would that be? We've got that, a Genesis and the PS2 still plugged in. If they work, no reason to waste time migrating to emulators.
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Ginaz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3534
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People who still have a SNES plugged in deserve to be left in the cold when the other shoe drops.
Which shoe would that be? We've got that, a Genesis and the PS2 still plugged in. If they work, no reason to waste time migrating to emulators. If I could find a reasonably priced N64 that still works I would get it, too. I really liked the wrestling games they had, like WCW vs NWO World Tour and Revenge, and the Rogue Squadron series. Rogue Squadron was the only reason I got a GameCube over a PS2 because it was a Nintendo exclusive. I ended up regretting that decision because I didn't like the GC version of RS since they decided to shoehorn in a shitty 3rd person shooter instead of just going with the space combat.
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jgsugden
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3888
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I have an N64 plugged in at my folk's place... right next to the Atari 2600. There are some simple games out there that are still fun to play every once in a while.
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2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
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Thrawn
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3089
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"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the Universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
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Furiously
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7199
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Dude, I don't want my mind literally blown.
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MahrinSkel
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10858
When she crossed over, she was just a ship. But when she came back... she was bullshit!
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So, the "Coolest Cooler", which we mocked way back in this thread (I noted that it failed to include the one thing that would make it a better cooler, a paramagnetic cooling system), went on to be the biggest Kickstarter campaign ever ($13.3M), and has not delivered a single cooler to backers, although it is listed on Amazon at $500. The founder provided this graphic to explain why he can not fulfill Backer Rewards: And he has helpfully noted that the red area of the 'Gap' is 'Not To Scale', but he is currently seeking investors to help him provide those backer rewards (having spent $4.5M on development and overhead). --Dave
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--Signature Unclear
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Wow, sounds like he won't be breaking even.
Literally couldn't care less.
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Furiously
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7199
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I think that's the same graph Star Citizen will be using in a few months.
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Chimpy
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10619
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I think that's the same graph Star Citizen will be using in a few months.
Pretty sure it will have a larger block of Hookers and Blow "external consultants".
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'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Failed pledges is a false loss, they don't have to create inventory for those (only applies if failed pledges results in dropping under initial project funding level).
That they blew 2M on themselves shows a blatant mishandling of the money, but hey. Why not?
The most troubling thing is that they blew 2.4M on development of a product they were asking 50k to develop.
I mean the most troubling thing other than they have 7.4M they seem to be pocketing. Dude claims the company is broke and they're selling coolers on amazon to drive revenue to get coolers for backers (er...huh?)...I wish I was 7.4M in the bank broke.
Craaaazy.
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Chimpy
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10619
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I read a couple of Amazon reviews, they were pretty negative. I guess the thing weighs like 50lbs empty.
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'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42632
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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Why the fuck would you need to pay $500 for a cooler with all that shit on it? Even worse, why would you pledge money to some dipshit online that says he could build this monstrosity but doesn't actually even have a prototype at the time?
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Margalis
Terracotta Army
Posts: 12335
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"A fool and his money are soon parted."
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vampirehipi23: I would enjoy a book written by a monkey and turned into a movie rather than this.
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Tebonas
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6365
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Now you people made me look.
Basically that is the cooler equivalent of that Homer Simpson car. Everybody who got burnt by this deserves it.
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jgsugden
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3888
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I don't know... I'd enjoy a cooler like that... for 80 bucks.
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2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
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Pezzle
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1618
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And 40 pounds lighter.
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