Poll: Will Kickstarter do great things for gaming?

[Agayek]

Until we see a couple of crowd funded games make substantial profits, something like a 25,000 dollar game making 3 million, it is not going to be a viable avenue for these things.

Pretty much this.

It's certainly possible that Kickstarter will cause a big shift in the publisher/developer set up, but it's not terribly likely, nor has anything even approaching that possibility happened yet.

We might see some of that if Shadowrun Returns, Wasteland 2, or the Banner Saga turn a decent profit, but I'm not terribly hopeful. most of the people who want the game will have already bought it as part of the Kickstarter campaign, thus there's not a whole lot of people that are going to be paying for the game after release.

What we'd need is a game making a major profit after being funded entirely by Kickstarter. That's really the only way for it to have any appreciable impact on the industry at large.

 

[veloper]

Beyond these little dream projects, most kickstarter campaigns are about getting a workable demo completed to shop it around to major gaming studios. Sorry, but that is how it works.

Hmmm. I know that is the case with Takedown, so I purposely didn't support that project. The other projects in the 100K+ funding levels, seem to be legitimately independent.

Do you know of any other projects that want to sell their ideas to publishers?

 

[Thoric485]

I suspect, just like in the real industry, the majority of results will be underwhelming, some just bad, and a scarce few - utter genius.

It'll probably be worth it, but I expect most people's enthusiasm to cool off after the first few flukes. And that will be good, since then we'll see more devs approaching with pre-alpha footage and not just some concept art.

 

[Bad Jim]

Beyond these little dream projects, most kickstarter campaigns are about getting a workable demo completed to shop it around to major gaming studios. Sorry, but that is how it works.

Until we see a couple of crowd funded games make substantial profits, something like a 25,000 dollar game making 3 million, it is not going to be a viable avenue for these things.

Well Minecraft has already become very successful with this sort of funding.

The thing is, a project with a demo is much more interesting than just a bit of concept art, and will get an order if magnitude more investment. When there is a working build that they can play, they are likely to get another order of magnitude more investment.

A fair number of projects may be dropped halfway through when people realise they are a bit meh, but the good ones will go all the way. Ironically, the difficult part is likely to be getting the funding to make a demo from nothing but a little concept art and a dream.

 

[malestrithe]

Beyond these little dream projects, most kickstarter campaigns are about getting a workable demo completed to shop it around to major gaming studios. Sorry, but that is how it works.

Until we see a couple of crowd funded games make substantial profits, something like a 25,000 dollar game making 3 million, it is not going to be a viable avenue for these things.

Well Minecraft has already become very successful with this sort of funding.

That's one. You still need a few more before you can make a dent on the Big three gaming companies (EA, Activision-Blizzard, and Square Enix).

 

[LilithSlave]

It will. Corporations look too much at flawed statistics(much like how too many gamers care too much about vgchartz). And thus loads of good video games get ignored. It's incredibly stagnating. Much of video gaming is only made with the bottom line in mind. And in the long run, only caring about the bottom line, will not actually get you the bottom line.

Companies deciding what you want to play is a problem right now. I can bug a company all I want about a certain game, but it will likely go ignored and written off as being a "vocal minority". Just look at all the effort it took for Project Rainfall to succeed. Just look at how Megaman Legends 3 is still cancelled.

Kickstarter puts the power back in the hands of the fans for once. It puts the relationship of developer and fan in the proper place for once. One of goodwill and love for video games. Where gamers are investing in the future of games they love, not just grabbing a copy of a game with difficult to surpass getting for free. And developers facilitating that.

"I love you, please have my money" and "I love you, thank you for trusting me. I'll make you the best game I can." sounds a lot better than "greedy companies with nasty DRM" and "greedy fans STEALING our (major corporation) owned IP!" or "greedy fans buying and selling games USED!". Fans struggling to own what they own and corporations struggling to squeeze every last penny out of people who want to merely have the right to play games is the last thing I would consider an optimal relationship.

Crowd Funding, with things like Kickstarter, bring the LOVE back into the equation. Remember love in the video game community? I forgot it existed, too. It's been a long time since I never had an internet connetion.

 

[Bad Jim]

What happens when one of these kickstarter projects bombs so badly it doesn't get finished? You know there is going to be at least one. What will happen?

If history says anything, those who contributed to the project are going to yell and scream and throw a tantrum demanding their investment back. Then every major publisher can look smugly at them and say "Welcome to our world, *****!"

Then consumers, hoping to mitigate their risk, turn back to the major publishers and ask :

"That looks nice, can I play a demo?"
"No"
"If I don't like this game, can I trade it in?"
"No"
"If the game doesn't even work, can I get a refund?"
"No"

 

[Bostur]

the whole kickstarter 'kick' (sorry I couldn't help myself) doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I understand if you really truly care about an IP and would do anything to play a new version of that game.

But why are we paying for games to be made? I understand it's a great tool for indie developers or developers who don't have the kind of capital to make games themselves But it just seems so silly to me.

We live in a world where Day-1 DLC justifies a boycott, Being forced to buy our games new is an outrage, Micro-transactions/online-passes are looked down on and monthly subscriptions are going the way of the dreamcast.

Yet we're still willing to pay out of our own pocket just for them to make a game so they can charge us again? so as long as the company is upfront with just wanting your money gamers have no problem with it?

I don't have anything against anyone who donates but it just seems that our gamer ideals don't always match up.

In practice it's not much different than preordering. Except in these cases it's preordering a game that wouldn't have existed otherwise and no one else is willing to fund. The kickstarter funding includes the finished game, it's not like we have to pay twice.

Also I avoid Day-1 DLC, microtransactions, shallow gameplay, in-game advertising, DRM. And I even get a boxed copy with a manual, how sweet is that. From a purely economic perspective Double Fine Adventure and Wasteland 2 is a much better deal for me than what most publishers can deliver.

Of course there is a risk in it. The developers might take all the sweet cash and run away to a tropical island. In the case of Brian Fargo and Tim Schafer I'm willing to take that risk because I know how much they love making games.
The games may also end up being total disasters but that risk is the same with any purchase, especially preorders. I trust Double Fine more than I trust EA or UBISoft.

 

[Sexy Devil]

I very much doubt it. The only games that are getting huge amounts of funding are the long dead games that internet-dwellers wish to see return. For instance, of all the things that could have been made, the thing on Kickstarter with the most funding is a sequel (Wasteland 2). I've long argued that people don't want to see originality so much as derivative ideas which they like and this pretty much confirms it.

Kickstarter will start providing the internet-dwelling niche with alternatives (which already existed in spades, mind you) to mainstream titles and not much else.

 

[Sonicron]

I think Kickstarter (and the like) will prove to be a great thing for small game developers and their customers because it allows said devs to get entirely new ideas off the ground or make a game about something too obscure to be profitable for the AAA section of the industry; for example, I currently have a $125 pledge logged for Shadowrun Returns, an upcoming game set in a fictional universe largely known to pen&paper RPG players and SNES nostalgia buffs, but not many folks beyond that - and the project's head honcho is the one who originally invented Shadowrun. I'm ridiculously giddy about this thing, yes, but do I think it'll impact the gaming market in any significant or lasting way? Unlikely.
The truth is, while I doubt Kickstarter will have any kind of negative influence (short and long term), crowdfunding just won't be able to summon up the humongous mountains of cash needed to pay for the development of a Gears of War, a Devil May Cry, a Starcraft II etc. Yes, I believe it'll do great things for gaming, but not the kind that will be seen by the vast majority of consumers.

 

[porpoise hork]

I think Kickstarter COULD do great things, except for one problem.

What happens when one of these kickstarter projects bombs so badly it doesn't get finished? You know there is going to be at least one. What will happen?

If history says anything, those who contributed to the project are going to yell and scream and throw a tantrum demanding their investment back. Then every major publisher can look smugly at them and say "Welcome to our world, *****!"

Though that's just speculation.

Well there is risk in any type of investment. Becoming a backer of a project on Kickstarter you pretty much (or at least should) know that there is a chance that the developers might screw it up and you lose your money. That is why anyone who does decide to back a project should only invest what they are OK with possibly losing your money.

If a prefect that gets funded doesn't get made, yes there will be plenty of pissed off backers who will demand a refund, but in the end its a risk we take to hopefully see a game made that we want to play.

 

[WanderingFool]

I had two paragraphs written, but my window freezed and I lost it. So here was what I wrote in TLR format.

If you have a group of people that want to make a specif genre of game, and a group of people that want to play a specific genre of game, and the second group has the ability to give money to the first group to make that game a reality, than fucking awesome.

*Edit*

I was going to add more to my original post before it was lost.

The only problem I see is when, not if, a kickstarter fails. Now, we already had two Kickstarters that didnt meet the goal set (one I feel shouldnt have met the goal, and the other which actually just stopped.) But as of yet, there hasnt been a game made with Kickstarter yet. Its always a possiblility that a Kickstarter project like DoubleFine adventures, Wasteland 2, or Shadowrun may end up not even finishing. IS that possible, maybe it is, but those guys seem to know what they are doing, so its also not all that likely.

But what about the Indie dev that uses Kickstarter to raise the funds to make a game, and they meet the goal. But what if after getting the funds, the project falls apart? While the possiblities of Kickstarter are great, so is the chances of failure.

 

[zellosoli]

I certainly hope so, as I see it its a way for the gaming community at large to have more input into what games get made and what features and developments can be focused on rather than a pot luck risk by a developer, and it allows another for developers to make their games without having to rely on publishers which can meddle and effect the end product with rushed deadlines and such.

Ive already backed the new shadowrun game and looking forward to seeing more options of games to back.

 

[Rariow]

I like the idea of Kickstarter. I like what it CAN do. But it depends mostly on the internet community. If there's one thing the internet community is good at doing is proclaiming something as the new best thing ever, then forgetting about it in a couple months. It'll do good for a while, then start declining. I hope I'm wrong and for once we here can actually keep doing a good thing for a long time, but I fear the hype train is all that is keeping Kickstarter going for now. I voted "Probably not".

Please, prove me wrong.

 

[Sonicron]

I think Kickstarter (and the like) will prove to be a great thing for small game developers and their customers because it allows said devs to get entirely new ideas off the ground or make a game about something too obscure to be profitable for the AAA section of the industry; for example, I currently have a $125 pledge logged for Shadowrun Returns, an upcoming game set in a fictional universe largely known to pen&paper RPG players and SNES nostalgia buffs, but not many folks beyond that - and the project's head honcho is the one who originally invented Shadowrun. I'm ridiculously giddy about this thing, yes, but do I think it'll impact the gaming market in any significant or lasting way? Unlikely.
The truth is, while I doubt Kickstarter will have any kind of negative influence (short and long term), crowdfunding just won't be able to summon up the humongous mountains of cash needed to pay for the development of a Gears of War, a Devil May Cry, a Starcraft II etc. Yes, I believe it'll do great things for gaming, but not the kind that will be seen by the vast majority of consumers.

right there with you for shadowrun chummer.. they are 20k short of 1.75 m at which point we get physical adepts (magical ninjas) and there is still 13 hours to go. i havent been this excited for a game in so long.

Oh really? Must have missed that bit about the Physical Adepts. Damn, that'd be cool.
I hope they hit that last stretch goal. And this game is going to be great, we both know it.

 

[Sonicron]

-snip-

... Aaaaaand the barrier's torn down.
10 hours to go, $1,750,607 pledged. ... This is so cool.

 

[Lunar Templar]

i'm going to say

maybe.

i like the idea of it, in that, games people want will get made that other wise wouldn't have gotten made

but we'll really need to wait and see if the investment pays off or not