sky pies said:
veloper said:
Kickstarter game projects are best suited for relatively simple ideas with modest presentation. Great for gamers who don't mind primitive gfx in their games and who can spare a little change to give some motivated uglies a chance to realize their cool, but modest plans.
Everybody else should probably just stay away, or more gamers will just become disappointed with the whole thing. I expect a lot of crowdfunding gamers are going to learn this the hard way however.
How does the source of funds dictate the applicability of those funds to ambitiously scoped projects? I mean kickstarter as an arena for otherwise underrepresented game makers of internationally worthy talent is a given, but i don't quite see the logic in saying it cannot make the leap from 2D indy-style games to 3D "epics".
Because a smaller scope and cheaper presentation, means less work and a smaller(dedicated) team, which means less chance of critical elements failing.
The source of the funds matters insofar a lot of little crowdfunders together still don't make a replacement for the project manager such as a publisher would place, but are just a bunch of nobodies, who only happen to be some dollars lighter.
The only control you have is deciding to become a backer in the first place and you have to make that choice based on the information you have at that point. That information will be less complete, the bigger the project is.
A good pitch for a small project tells me a couple things:
-what should the finished game look like: simple (yet cool) ideas that require fewer hours and less skill are less risky
-who's making it and why: here I want to get an impression of what makes those ugly mugs tick and how they work together
-scope and how long would it roughly take: if you've got just a small band, you can make a decent guess of how much they would need to make to stay warm during the entire project.
The bigger it gets the more question marks remain.
Sure, perhaps if a newbie is asking for support in making the next Mass Effect or KOTOR like series it us obviously going to flop, but isn't that the fault of the newbies, not the funds?
It's the fault of the backers for being so dumb, if the project flops and they become disappointed.
All that money from a successful kickstarter campaign, is assurance to the newbie team that they could make it. They get nicely paid to practice and learn at the very least. The only real losers are the backers. It's no longer their money.
PoE was of course made by seasoned professional game makers who had the tools and wanted to specifically counter industry norms, so I don't know, I guess in saying here that intention and skill can, theoretically, turn an ambitious kickstarter into a winner, regardless of it's being a kickstarter.
PoE still had a couple things going for it: they went for 2D scenery and they aimed for something very similar to what some of their ex-BI employees already managed to create in the past.
I gave Obsidian the benefit of the doubt and threw just a small amount at them anyway, but I wouldn't have done so, if they had pitched a project with AAA values.
Also, I don't think enough credit is being given to the makers of the game for what they have delivered. You guys are disappointed with the story above all else, it seems, and perhaps it was a bit flat I still don't know personally, but let's count our blessings with this game.
They took seriously so much that has long since been brushed under the carpet: the BG aesthetic and storytelling style, spell systems, difficulty. They have not set the game to spark an epic trilogy. They have not released micro payment content. They have not released developer mods.
They are *always* tweaking the game. Last time I checked it's a single player experience but they have been making changes and fixing bugs like a nest of MMO developers. They're seemingly tirelessly devoted to getting it right and keeping it enjoyable.
I mean these guys may have made a somewhat unexceptionable game, but they have done it in an exceptional way.
It's only the results that count and I already gave them enough credit.
PoE's good for what it is, but it's not great. I can't expect more from it since the project wasn't exactly what I would normally even consider to back.