Kickstart My Game

[J Arcane]

Originally Posted by crazyD

No, you're not buying a product. When I do it, I am. I see it as a pre-order, you see it as patronage. Both are valid views. Mine makes paying into this stupid.

[Ravenlock]

Originally Posted by crazyD

No, you're not buying a product. When I do it, I am. I see it as a pre-order, you see it as patronage. Both are valid views. Mine makes paying into this stupid.

Both are "valid" views if you're willing to throw your money away on false expectations. Nothing you've ever spent a dime on via Kickstarter was a pre-order in a legal business sense, and every single one of them might fail, leaving you with no recourse other than to sigh, shake your head and move on. The Kickstarter FAQ is very clear on this point. Your money guarantees nothing.

The web is an excellent resource for learning about someone’s prior experience. If someone has no demonstrable prior history of doing something like their project, or is unwilling to share information, backers should consider that when weighing a pledge. If something sounds too good to be true, it very well may be.

Now, I'm not pessimistic about Kickstarter at all. I've invested in a LOT of projects - maybe too many. But I'm not unrealistic enough to believe that all of them are going to turn out the way the pitch promises. Hopefully some of them will. I believe in their potential. That's what I'm investing in. The "reward" is a bonus that I look forward to if the project succeeds.

[crazyD]

Originally Posted by Ravenlock

Both are "valid" views if you're willing to throw your money away on false expectations. Nothing you've ever spent a dime on via Kickstarter was a pre-order in a legal business sense, and every single one of them might fail, leaving you with no recourse other than to sigh, shake your head and move on. The Kickstarter FAQ is very clear on this point. Your money guarantees nothing.

I generally buy products as a preorder from people I respect. Gamestop could always rip off your preorder money too. If they fail to deliver, they lose my respect. I've had one Kickstarter fail cause the dude running it was a piece of shit, and I definitely now try to buy from people I respect.

[Ravenlock]

Fair enough, then. In that case, it sounds like you know what you're getting into, so I say Godspeed, sir.

[J Arcane]

To get back on topic, I already mentioned this over in the oft-dusty Analog forum, but my own IndieGoGo campaign is up!

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogfor...ad.php?t=27036

Hulks and Horrors is now a thing that you can give your shiny pennies to so that I can make a kickass tabletop RPG.

[Ink Asylum]

Stoic, the developers of The Banner Saga, have posted an interesting read about what they learned while running their campaign. Considering that they've been one of the most successful that wasn't catering to existing fan bases like DoubleFine and Wasteland, this is good advice I hope other campaigns faollow.

• Start talking about your project anywhere you can weeks before putting up your campaign. Momentum is of utmost importance, and a cold start is the quickest path to failure.
• If you’re relatively unknown, you have to show actual gameplay. If you don’t have gameplay, make some.
• Imagine you’re pitching to a publisher when you develop your video. It should look like you put in some real effort.
• Make roughly half your prizes physical and the other half digital or in-game.
• The price of a prize should be roughly 8 times more than the cost to produce and ship it.
• International shipping costs more than $10. Plan accordingly.
• The lowest tier that includes your game will be the most popular, but your largest profit margin will probably be in the $30-$50 range. We offered three different prizes within this range to give backers the most incentive to go for it.
• People like physical prizes that are beautiful in their own right, not just a company logo. If it’s not compelling, don’t do it.
• Show an image of anything physical. We spent the time to photoshop an example of everything we planned to make.
• Show that you have a team ready to go. Backers won’t trust someone who can’t convince anyone else to work on the project.

[biosc1]

Um.

Yes please! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...efense-grid-2/

Defense Grid 2!

...and backed.

[J Arcane]

Just an update, Hulks and Horrors is nearly 20% funded already. We're hoping to hit $1,000 by Monday, so share it around!

[Spigot]

Doc, you might want to tweak the front page post. Bad Planet has made $13000, not $13.

[Ink Asylum]

The newest runaway success on Kickstarter is Castle Story. It's looking like Minecraft meets Warcraft, where you control a population of little yellow guys who mine the trees, soil and rocks out of the surrounding landscape to build a fortress brick-by-brick, then defend it at night from hordes of monsters.

They raised the $80k they were asking for in 5 hours, and they're already at $200k with 29 days to go.

[MosBen]

Bad Planet is interesting, but as we've seen in other situations it seems like they made some mistakes. A high asking price, not much publicity (as far as I know, there are only 17 days left and I'm just hearing about it now), and not much to show off other than Tom Jane and another dude talking at a camera. I'm skeptical that they're gonna make it, but I guess they could get some kind of insane end-of-campaign rush.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Originally Posted by MosBen

Because I can't seem to get sound through Flash videos these days (help!), I can't tell if the Mage Knight game is going to be a collectible game in the way that the classic game was and HeroClix Online is. I really like the strategic aspect of both HeroClix and Mage Knight, but I have no interest in dropping tons of money on a game to buy characters, especially if it's in the form of random boosters.

Hey, hey guys.

I missed when you guys covered it, but I was actually IN the Mage Knight Kickstarter video. It was a really neat idea for a project, but our goal was WAAAAAAYYYYYY too high.

[MagGnome]

Castle Story looks awesome! WANT WANT WANT!

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

Castle Story looks awesome! WANT WANT WANT!

They are making a ton of money, including my $15. They're going to be looking to the community to see what people want their stretch goals to be.

Personally, I'd like to see more variety in terrain and more brick types.

[Panthera]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

Castle Story looks awesome! WANT WANT WANT!

I agree, that looks exactly like the kind of game I want to play.

[biosc1]

For those who don't know, this is a great site to check on projects and find new ones - http://www.kicktraq.com/

http://www.kicktraq.com/categories/g...ames/?sort=new

[Spigot]

Oooh Castle Story... you had me at voxels...

[MagGnome]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

They are making a ton of money, including my $15. They're going to be looking to the community to see what people want their stretch goals to be.

Personally, I'd like to see more variety in terrain and more brick types.

More content, for sure. That's what I'd like to see. Games like Terraria and, obviously, Dwarf Fortress hold a lot of depth and appeal because of the sheer variety of things to discover, see, and do. A game like Castle Story would benefit greatly from a wide range of building options (different materials, fortifications, etc.), terrain, enemies, etc. Expand the content and the replay value goes up significantly, at least IMHO.

Originally Posted by Panthera

I agree, that looks exactly like the kind of game I want to play.

I thought of you when I was watching the trailer. This game looks like it was made for us. I really like the art style as well.

I'm donating, no doubt about it.

[Panthera]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

I thought of you when I was watching the trailer. This game looks like it was made for us. I really like the art style as well.

I'm donating, no doubt about it.

I think I've figured it out. It's just fun to watch little guys run back and forth and build things that you tell them to.

[MagGnome]

Yep, I think I'm just a control freak.