Kickstarter - The Thread.

[Ruvaldt]

I wasn't interested in Banner Saga until I read that.  Gladius is one of my favorite games from that generation.  I keep hoping to see it on PSN, but to no avail.  I replayed it three years ago and loved it as much as ever.  I'll check out Banner Saga now.  And maybe fire up the PS2 emulator over the weekend...

[Tebonas]

Since I backed the Banner Saga I already had some time playing it (for 5 or so hours), here my first impressions.

I rather enjoy it. Its an RPG Oregon Trail with Tactical Combat. The combat might get boring if this game goes on too long, because there isn't much enemy variety, but they throw you in the middle of an original and interesting story not based on standard fantasy cliches. Plus, your decisions in the cutscenes really have consequences and they are pulling no punches. I managed to kill off one of my playable characters before his group even left the first village.

A few downsides I could think of shouldn't be ommitted.

The lore and story is not presented on a silver platter, you will have to get the big picture by integrating the bits and pieces you get from the different characters yourself. Personally I love that, but I already read people complain about it.

About every character is his own class, but these classes are only distinguised by one special ability, race (giant or human) and whether they are melee or range fighters. Could have been streamlined or distinguished further, but fits the narrative so I don't mind either.

So I would defnitely recommed taking a look. Especially if you are in Viking mode this is a no-brainer.

[Sky]

Especially if you are in Viking mode this is a no-brainer.

Just started a diorama, hopefully for a contest if I can paint quickly enough. A Valkyrie and a Fire Giant facing off over a dying (or dead) Viking. And I just started reading The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland...

So yeah. I want to hold out for a sale, but viking mode.

[sickrubik]

Bunch of the guys behind the old 1Up Show on 1Up back in the day have been producing some great documentaries and have started a Kickstarter to create a 6-part series about game culture. Should be fantastic stuff.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/area5/outerlands-season-one

[UnSub]

I've done a bit of analysis on Kickstarter video game delivery rates for projects funded 2009 to 2012. This gives these projects all of 2013 to finish their title and send it to backers.

Key points:

 - Only about a third of projects (37%) fully delivered on their promises by the end of 2013, despite running a long way over their initial planned delivery date.
 - If you add in partial delivery, such as only delivering episode 1 or releasing on the PC but ignoring your mobile release, it comes up to almost 1 in 2 (45%). But that's still a lot of backers who haven't received anything.

This is at the overall level - better selection of projects means a better delivery rate than that.

There are titles in alpha / beta / early access etc, but my interest was on final delivery, not indefinite "we're working on it" mode.

[JWIV]

Especially if you are in Viking mode this is a no-brainer.

Just started a diorama, hopefully for a contest if I can paint quickly enough. A Valkyrie and a Fire Giant facing off over a dying (or dead) Viking. And I just started reading The Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland...

So yeah. I want to hold out for a sale, but viking mode.

Speaking of viking mode then, you may want to keep an eye on this Sky -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctn_X6UYKwc&hd=1

[Paelos]

I've done a bit of analysis on Kickstarter video game delivery rates for projects funded 2009 to 2012. This gives these projects all of 2013 to finish their title and send it to backers.

Key points:

 - Only about a third of projects (37%) fully delivered on their promises by the end of 2013, despite running a long way over their initial planned delivery date.
 - If you add in partial delivery, such as only delivering episode 1 or releasing on the PC but ignoring your mobile release, it comes up to almost 1 in 2 (45%). But that's still a lot of backers who haven't received anything.

This is at the overall level - better selection of projects means a better delivery rate than that.

There are titles in alpha / beta / early access etc, but my interest was on final delivery, not indefinite "we're working on it" mode.

That's good analysis, but I would like to see it broken down by total pledge value. Are the higher dollar projects ($1M and up) failing at a higher or lower rate?

[UnSub]

It's too hard to say right now - there aren't that many $1m+ projects.

[Paelos]

Yes, but that analysis tells me something. As the money increases beyond $100k, failure percentages get much worse.

[Sky]

Or projects are larger, more complex, and large teams are more difficult to manage.

Late > pushed out the door just to hit an arbitrary deadline.

[Paelos]

I don't disagree that it's more complex, which is why it shouldn't be run through a form like Kickstarter.

[Ingmar]

If 'undelivered kickstarter $' includes things that are funded but haven't missed any promised deadlines, etc., then it still isn't telling us anything useful.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, undelivered on that chart might just be saying "they got the money but they aren't finished yet." That's no reason to say the whole thing is a failboat. There are plenty of other reasons than that.

[Sky]

What examples of big ($500k+?) games through KS have been failures? As in, not released, horribly bugged release or just crap games (though the last two are par for game releases, so not sure that qualifies as fail, heh).

I've backed a couple probable failboats (TUG, but I knew that going in), but some show some real promise and it's stuff publishers aren't really touching anymore. If Eternity, Torment, Jagged Alliance, Wasteland 2, Divinity, and this new Kingdom Come thing all end up being crap, I'll start to come over to Paelos's side. But as of now, those games pretty much would not have been made barring a miracle of "Hey, let's have Firaxis make X-Com" proportions.

[Paelos]

I think the overall percentages are on my side tbh, but I'm willing to let time sort out how bad Kickstarter can truly get.

[sickrubik]

The only project that I've regretted so far, because they are far behind is the Two Guys from Andromeda KS.

"Estimated delivery: Feb 2013" has not really come to fruition.

[Quinton]

I've been pretty surprised at how well the random software stuff I've backed has been doing.  Certainly better than I expected for most.  The common theme is that most of the projects have been or are running late, but that's not at all shocking to me -- unrealistic schedules are common even without kickstarter, and the super-successful projects (from a funding standpoint) tend to acquire serious feature-creep via stretch goals that make the schedules even more unlikely.  Of the stuff I've backed:

Delivered a playable game:  Shadowrun Returns $(1.84M), The Banner Saga ($724K), Valdis Story ($50K), Double Fine Adventure ($3.34M)

In Alpha, but showing promise:  HEX ($2.28M), StoneHearth $(751K),  Planetary Annihilation ($2.23M), Grim Dawn ($538K), Wasteland 2 ($2.94M)

Haven't checked on in a while:  Solforge ($429K), Castle Story ($702K), Legends of Eisenwald ($84K), Pixel Sand ($14K) -- believe these are all in alpha/beta now, but have not tried recent builds.

A Complete Mess: TUG ($293K), CLANG ($526K)

Interestingly, the ones in the 3rd and 4th categories are ones I backed at the lowest tier that gets me the software.  The ones in the first two categories I was enthusiastic enough about to pay for various levels of extra goodies.  Wasteland 2 was my pick for "sounds great, but will these guys be able to actually deliver anything at all?" highest risk.

[schild]

Solforge is completely playable and fine, it's just a shitty game. I haven't gone back into Castle Story either, but I really should.

[MrHat]

Biggest thing I learned last year kickstarting games is that I seriously have a hard time enjoying a game that's alpha. 

Guess it taught me to just sit tight and wait and play a finished product.

[Sky]

Need a new xbox? KS, of course.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37831855/imahvelgaming-on-youtube-needs-a-kickstart

http://www.youtube.com/imahvelgaming

[HaemishM]

 

[jgsugden]

Hey, you can buy a place on his friend's list for £15.  £15 for a friend that is in the top 1% of a game is a ... well, pathetic.

[Nerf]

That almost makes me want to create a KS account just so I can ask him ridiculous questions about his retarded campaign - things like "Have you considered a reward level that involves you getting punched in the face?  I'd be very interested in donating for a reward that involves you in physical pain."

[Sky]

From the Dep't of Unfortunate Names: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1302882483/thundercock-miniatures-modular-dungeon-terrain

[jgsugden]

From the Dep't of Unfortunate Names: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1302882483/thundercock-miniatures-modular-dungeon-terrain

Your Thundercock is out of action.

[Sky]

He's pretty bumbed out.

To be serious, though, even beyond the name he was fucked. Too low a goal, in the last couple months people have received their dungeon pieces from an established company's KS (Dwarven Forge) and the guy wasn't even including the connectors to link the terrain pieces together (which is the old system DF used and dumped because it sucked). And they weren't even the first stretch goal. Total thundercockup.

[Rendakor]

The lack of connectors is why I wouldn't back Thundercock (although the name would've made their introduction to our D&D game very entertaining).

[Sky]

I kinda did want a t-shirt.

[KallDrexx]

Kickstarter for a Chipotle burrito 

[Paelos]

Truly what they intended.

[murdoc]

Change your passwords, Kickstarter was hacked.

https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/important-kickstarter-security-notice

[Trippy]

Their fucked up Web site is making it so difficult to change your password.

[JWIV]

Their fucked up Web site is making it so difficult to change your password.

It's not entirely god awful.  Just obnoxious to have to do the current and new password crap on the page since they're at opposite ends of the screen and it's non obvious.

[Trippy]

I have a bunch of Kickstarter accounts (thanks to HEX >.>). For about 75% of them I had to log in again after hitting the Change Password button in the warning banner at the top of the screen (same was actually true of the profile link as well). On top of that there were actually two different second log in pages I was taken to for some inexplicable reason. And then they fucking have the password change backwards where it asks for your old password *after* you enter in your new password -- it should ask for that first (making that effectively a 3rd log in for most of my accounts). And then just to salt the wound some more on about 20% of my accounts log out didn't actually work. It showed me as logged out but when I tried log in it tried to log me in to the account I just logged out of (asked for just password, no email).

[Zetor]

At least they salted the passwords and used bcrypt. Progress!

e: yeah yeah bcrypt creates salts automatically. Whatever, at least they didn't use raw MD5 or even plaintext...