Kickstarter Not On The Decline

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Despite the recent wave of negative news, and projects missing their funding goals, Kickstarter is not on the decline according to the developer of Wasteland 2.

"I think the projects that do most well on Kickstarter are things where you've been denied the ability to get it somehow, or there's a hole in the marketplace that needs to be filled with a fanbase behind it," Fargo said. "Well, those holes have been filled over the past couple of years. It's getting harder to find things where people resonate and think, 'I really want some of those things'.
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I really think it is on the decline. It won't exactly fade into nothingness, but the rush to put everything on Kickstarter is eventually gonna end as more and more people who contribute are disappointed by the scams or aren't as captivated by the novelty of crowdfunding. There's some kinda steady state ahead and me too crowdfunding sites will also take some of the money pie over time.
 
I certainly don't have any issues with it (or with Steam Early Access) but I am very choosy about which projects I support ... I think in the exuberance of the early days that people supported projects that they shouldn't have ... it appears to have settled down a little since then (which is good) ... also, this is more targeted at the games portion ... the other portions don't have the negative projects that the games side did (and that other part of KS is about 2/3 of the funding)
 
Kickstarter Companies just need to work on their communication skills.

The ones I have backed have been terrible. How much effort does it take to write a 50 word progress update once a week say? It's good practice to keep backers informed of progress and issues.

Typical techs.
 
daglesj said:
Kickstarter Companies just need to work on their communication skills.

The ones I have backed have been terrible. How much effort does it take to write a 50 word progress update once a week say? It's good practice to keep backers informed of progress and issues.

Typical techs.
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Although I agree that some need to work on their skills in this area, I am not sure that weekly updates are needed for all projects ... some of the projects I support take well over a year to complete ... some weeks I might expect multiple updates (because their is a lot happening) and other times maybe once a month or so

If we are talking about just the software and hardware side I think the biggest benefit would be to require a business plan (KS should establish a common format so all follow similar protocols) ... it can require information on schedule milestones ... key participants (executives, team leads, etc) ... it can reveal other external backers ... resume of the key project lead ... etc ... if you look at most of the high profile failures it was for teams or individuals that were out of their depth and didn't plan effectively

I think if KS requires the folks on the software and hardware sides to follow a little more rigorous process it won't hurt the serious companies or individuals and will either weed out the pretenders to force them to do better prep so they can succeed ;)
 
kbrickley said:
Although I agree that some need to work on their skills in this area, I am not sure that weekly updates are needed for all projects ... some of the projects I support take well over a year to complete ... some weeks I might expect multiple updates (because their is a lot happening) and other times maybe once a month or so

If we are talking about just the software and hardware side I think the biggest benefit would be to require a business plan (KS should establish a common format so all follow similar protocols) ... it can require information on schedule milestones ... key participants (executives, team leads, etc) ... it can reveal other external backers ... resume of the key project lead ... etc ... if you look at most of the high profile failures it was for teams or individuals that were out of their depth and didn't plan effectively

I think if KS requires the folks on the software and hardware sides to follow a little more rigorous process it won't hurt the serious companies or individuals and will either weed out the pretenders to force them to do better prep so they can succeed ;)
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Totally agree on the basic business plan. Seems a lot of them never even bother brainstorming pros and cons/things to do/things that could go wrong/contingencies/support/supplier negotiations at all.
 
daglesj said:
Totally agree on the basic business plan. Seems a lot of them never even bother brainstorming pros and cons/things to do/things that could go wrong/contingencies/support/supplier negotiations at all.
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Exactly, and I think if KS develops a good template and process for this it would benefit all three key players (KS, the funders, and the project teams) ... I like that KS helps keep some software projects out of the hands of the publishers so that the game developer can actually release the game that their consumers want to buy and the game the developer wants to make, and not the game the publisher wants to sell or market ;) ... and I think a tool like the project plan template would help them continue in that role
 
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