Kickstarter - The Thread.

[Tale]

Do you want Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords to bring a vampire comedy documentary to the USA? Would you like to know more?

[Sky]

You enjoy uno?

Yes.

[lamaros]

Its an internet niche celebrity fueled kick starter, unless it somehow gets mass viral energy it will stall pretty hard.

Or unless they start doing the 'woah fans, upgrade your pledge to $500 for all this useless shit we've just added' thing.

[lamaros]

Do you want Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords to bring a vampire comedy documentary to the USA? Would you like to know more?

The answer to the question is yes.

[tazelbain]

Does the NSFW deck Kickstarter exclusive mean the NSFW deck never be available anyway else?

[Sky]

Most gaming companies weasel in some verbiage about possibly being available at cons and such. Not like these will be rare, they may as well just release the whole thing to retail after the project fulfills.

[satael]

Most gaming companies weasel in some verbiage about possibly being available at cons and such. Not like these will be rare, they may as well just release the whole thing to retail after the project fulfills.

And it's not really that much work for them to release the same deck (as far as effects go) with slightly different art judging by the kickstarter page. Hell they might even release a limited NSFW-edition with improved artwork to really cash it in if the game is a success after the kickstarter- 

[tazelbain]

Ya, it's just a quirk of mine. I just don't feel interested in KSers if I am not getting in on something *special*. Otherwise its just pre-ordering which is boring.

[Thrawn]

Ya, it's just a quirk of mine. I just don't feel interested in KSers if I am not getting in on something *special*. Otherwise its just pre-ordering which is boring.

I don't think it's even a quirk.  Once the game has hit the funding level, if you're not getting a bunch of extra stuff or in desperate need to get it the day it's released you can probably just get it much cheaper elsewhere a few months after it ships.

[Sky]

KSers

Kickstarterers.

[Rendakor]

I thought he meant Kill Stealers.

[tazelbain]

Kinky Stenographers

[Rendakor]

See, that one doesn't work either because a Kinky Stenograph isn't a thing.

[tazelbain]

Oh, shit! I better get my money back.

[jgsugden]

See, that one doesn't work either because a Kinky Stenograph isn't a thing.

I believe there are some Mad Men scenes with Christina Hendricks that might challenge this theory.

[Ginaz]

Looks like Harebrained Schemes has launched another KS for their 3rd Shadowrun game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong.  The game was going to be made anyway but the KS seems to be aimed at funding extra content.  They've met almost all their stretch goals already with 24 days still to go.  One of the funding goals that was met was to include animated cut scenes for key points in the story.  The reward tiers aren't that great but at least you know you're getting an actual game by pledging.  I'm pledging at the lowest tier, $15, because I really enjoyed the last two games and was probably going to buy this day one anyway.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong

[MahrinSkel]

The Exploding Kittens thing did flatten out quite a lot as predicted, but is now getting a bit of a second wind of press coverage as it has set the record for most backers ever.  "Trend" at KickTraq is $15M, projection is $7.6M-12.1M. Daily data is jumping all over (presumably in response to press coverage), with a slight upward trend over the last few days after crashing hard.

Amusingly to me, the projection puts it right in the range to make both me and Sky wrong (although his odds are better than mine).

--Dave

[lamaros]

My "double from now" call is still a chance, but most likely is sky will be bang on.

Have they added in extra loot so that people will go hung ho at the end for stretch rewards?

[Sky]

Been doing the KS thing a while and have a bunch of friends who run KS; some pretty regularly.

Kicktraq is interesting for historical data, looking at daily +/-, but it's vaunted algorithms suck and always have.

[Thrawn]

Conan is over 3.2 million with less than an hour to go.

Minis and all that are tempting, but have managed to not back based on the fact that the gameplay looks so simplistic I can't imagine the game actually being much fun to play.

Plus getting another $35 or so tacked on on TOP of the Kickstarter amount for shipping costs.

[jgsugden]

I looked at it and said I'd be willing to go up to $80 - and then realized it'd be more like $200.

[eldaec]

Conan is over 3.2 million with less than an hour to go.

Minis and all that are tempting, but have managed to not back based on the fact that the gameplay looks so simplistic I can't imagine the game actually being much fun to play.

Plus getting another $35 or so tacked on on TOP of the Kickstarter amount for shipping costs.

The thing I really don't get about miniature based games, is that if you aren't going to paint them (which I would think is the case for the majority) trying to figure out which mini is which with dozens on the board makes for an awful game experience.

Under that the game design for conan does look better than most miniature games, but still not for me.

[Sky]

Even if you don't paint them, if you shoot them with some white primer and give them a wash of black or brown paint to pop out the detail they look good enough for gaming. You can do it in batches by two-sided taping them to a yardstick or something.

Even though I've been (slowly) painting my Zombicide heroes, I think the zombies might end up with something like that.

[Trippy]

Godus posts moved to the actual Godus topic.

[jgsugden]

Speaking of painting figures, Bones II https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-ii-the-return-of-mr-bones just started shipping... mine should be at my house today.

[Sky]

Got mine today, but I didn't get much this time. Core, Expansion 1, DDS, one of the paint sets.

[Ginaz]

Looks like Harebrained Schemes has launched another KS for their 3rd Shadowrun game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong.  The game was going to be made anyway but the KS seems to be aimed at funding extra content.  They've met almost all their stretch goals already with 24 days still to go.  One of the funding goals that was met was to include animated cut scenes for key points in the story.  The reward tiers aren't that great but at least you know you're getting an actual game by pledging.  I'm pledging at the lowest tier, $15, because I really enjoyed the last two games and was probably going to buy this day one anyway.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong

Another successful KS for these guys.  They managed to get over $1 million and met all their stretch goals, including the last one that adds a mini campaign with 4-5 hours of game play.

[HaemishM]

Those guys have shown the model for how you do a KS'ed video game. Shadowrun was fucking fantastic and I look forward to playing the expansion. Unfortunately, they appear to be an exception to the rule.

[Jeff Kelly]

In the wake of all of the Godus kerfluffle a few numbers were released on the performance of KS.

37% of all projects that met their funding goals delivered on features and on time. Another 8% 'partially delivered'. That's close to a 50% sucess rate. Which is amazing and a rate that angel investors or VC firms could only dream to achieve (rates in those sectors are closer to 2% - 5%). As a general rule of thumb, in R&D only 10% of all projects succeed and they have to pay for the rest.

Kickstarter is a huge success. The perception of Kickstarter is different though. Mostly because when high profile Kickstarters fail, they fail spectacularly and publicly.

Broken Age - even though it is successful just late - and Godus will shape the perception of Kickstarter more than the legion of 100% successful projects like Psychonauts, Shovel Knight, Divinity OS, Wasteland or Shadowrun. Even projects that technically met most of their promised goals and should be considered successful - like Elite Dangerous - are seen as failures.

[lamaros]

In the wake of all of the Godus kerfluffle a few numbers were released on the performance of KS.

37% of all projects that met their funding goals delivered on features and on time. Another 8% 'partially delivered'. That's close to a 50% sucess rate. Which is amazing and a rate that angel investors or VC firms could only dream to achieve (rates in those sectors are closer to 2% - 5%). As a general rule of thumb, in R&D only 10% of all projects succeed and they have to pay for the rest.

Kickstarter is a huge success. The perception of Kickstarter is different though. Mostly because when high profile Kickstarters fail, they fail spectacularly and publicly.

Broken Age - even though it is successful just late - and Godus will shape the perception of Kickstarter more than the legion of 100% successful projects like Psychonauts, Shovel Knight, Divinity OS, Wasteland or Shadowrun. Even projects that technically met most of their promised goals and should be considered successful - like Elite Dangerous - are seen as failures.

You're not comparing apples and apples.

[Jeff Kelly]

Could you elaborate?

I know that Kickstarter is not a VC platform, I also know that a lot of KS backers don't see themselves as patrons even though they technically are. A close to 50% success rate is quite amazing though if you consider what KS is - a patronage platform wher you can spend money to ensure that something gets made that otherwise probably wouldn't.

Regardless of what people think KS is not a shop and it's not a preorder platform. You aren't even required to make the finished product a funding goal of your kickstarter (in fact KS would like to discourage that to give people even less of an impression that KS is just a shop).

Doesn't matter though for that kind of platform 50% success is great. The perception that this is not is what's the problem, a problem that will eventually sink KS.

[Paelos]

5% of what Kickstarter reports as pledged would be over $76M in revenue for them. For essentially doing just a hair above nothing. That's what the real miracle is out of all this.

It also shows that 85% of everything gets funded, while more than half of those fail. That's not a good hit rate for me, especially when you get nothing out of your money except a product you would normally buy anyway.

"Games" is a category they use showing a 34% success rate. I'd assume that's all games, not just video. I'd like to see the Video Game success rate, which I would imagine sucks.

Focus on their most high dollar stuff? The $200M+ stuff like Games, Films, Tech, and Design? It's closer to 35%. And that's not showing us per dollar. We don't see the total dollar success rates versus failure rates. That would be interesting information, because all projects aren't equal. To me the 4 $10,000 projects that succeed don't outweight the 6 $100,000 projects that fail.

[Lantyssa]

That's why it's important to use KS judiciously.  Don't back a project if not getting it delivered will upset you.  It's important to view it as a way to say "I like this idea and I'd like to see you attempt it" rather than "take my pre-order money".

The big projects shouldn't even be permitted, but it's not like KS is going to turn down free money.

[eldaec]

It isn't quite a pre-order but clearly markets projects on the basis of you getting cool stuff in return for money.

It can be used for high concept potato salad nonsense, but it is just as valid as a way to take pre-orders that make customers feel like special snowflakes for ordering early. Any pre-order carries risk. KS only carries more because it happens earlier. Distinction without a difference.

[Jeff Kelly]

The biggest issue I have with KS is that they don't want to really clear up what the service is for to not limit their own buzz and revenue stream.

Unfortunately there's now four different viewpoints on what KS does that contradict each other and negatively influence the public's perception and expectations:

- what KS actually is according to KS itself (a patronage platform with no legal obligation to receive a finished product)
- what KS actually can be according to the legal landscape (forget the no legal obligation part)
- what KS backers mostly expect KS to be (glorified preorders that do exactly what has been advertised and have the same mass production quality one is used from actual products)
- what companies actually use KS for (A venue to use KS backers' pledges to get additional funding by a publisher/Investor)

The biggest issue is that what KS claims it's for is not how companies use it for and how companies use it is not what backers expect it to be. On the other hand without those diametrical viewpoints KS wouldn't be as popular as it is so there's not really an interest to change the perception of KS.

This can only end with lots of angry and disappointed people.