Why Is This Kickstarter Tanking?

I don't know, maybe people are just a little burned out on Kickstarter right now?

The Black Glove sounds like a game we’d love to play: A surreal first-person adventure from some of the people who made BioShock. But its Kickstarter campaign isn’t working out. Even though it’s had a great deal of publicity, it’s only raised about 20 percent of its $550,000 fundraising goal.

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Primarily, because the game is weird.
Very weird.

I get where the devs were going with Bioshock, with the setting being put around the late 1950s, early 1960s.
They did it authentically and it was well done.

This, on the other hand, feels like a late 1960s, early 1970s exploitation film... in game-form.

You know, if they were to remake System Shock 1 and 2, or at least make the same games with modern graphics, you could put me down for four digits worth of a donation.
But this is just... 1970s-style weird.

^ what he said

I'll only back a game (or thing) I didn't know I wanted until I saw the crowdfunding campaign. This doesn't qualify. If it gets made, or doesn't get made, I don't really care. If it gets made and is awesome, then I'll buy it, otherwise my money is best served elsewhere.

Nobody deserves my money unless there is a finished, fully demonstrable product. Fuck Kickstarter.

Yeah I always felt like Bioshock was way overrated compared to System Shock 2, I'm not really eager to see more in that same vein atmosphere-wise.

This kickstarter isn't about funding but testing market acceptance. People have finally realized that.

Looks like one of those Point and Click adventures. Which I would suspect is something that a female or an upscale casual gamer would like to mess around with after a day at the office. The rest of us want to kill shit. Maybe they should remove the arcade thing (too hard for casual gamers) and try getting Forbes or WSJ interested in their KickStarter?

I think people are starting to realize that even if it is a cool looking game from good devs, that Kickstarter money isn't enough to make the game that they really want. Sure they may get a game, but not the game of their dreams. Kickstarter will work for truly small scale games, but I think you are going to see it less and less. I mean look at Double Fine. They were going to crowd source everything, but after Massive Chalice they have decided to either find a publisher, or publish other people's projects to gain the funding they need.

Megalith said:

Nobody deserves my money unless there is a finished, fully demonstrable product. Fuck Kickstarter.

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I supported the Wasteland 2 and River City Ransom Underground projects, but my views have since shifted to be pretty much in-line with this sentiment.

Red Falcon said:

Primarily, because the game is weird.
Very weird.

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This too. The game looks kind of lame.

Most of my friends that were using Kickstarter in the past rarely use it any more. I asked one why and he said too many of the projects he kicked in for did not deliver.

Personally I still kick in for a bunch of games, but most of them never get funded, no matter how nice they seem.

Well if you draw the venn diagram, it sounds like it appeals to the intersection of:

1) People who liked bioshock, but hated having combat in the game.

2) Genuine fans of suspiria and other similar cinematic turds (not just someone who says they like them because someone told them you are supposed to think they are awesome to be cool and edgy and shit).

3) People who like adventure games, but hate the point and click interfaces and interesting and charming art.


So like... 6 people.. maybe 7.

Something small.

I for one was not a fan of the bioshock trilogy. It was ok story wise, and gameplay wise. Graphics were always sad to me.

I have backed about 5-6 Kickstart games. A few failed and went nowhere. I lost my small amount of funds I contributed.
I have also backed a few others that are well under way such as Pillars of Eternity. From what I've seen, this will come through.
I recently started thinking about how crazy it is for me to back any Kickstarter games. I have a family, job, and very little leisure time I can spend on video games.
Based on this, I do not want to waste my time playing previews or betas. I want to play finished, high quality games so i can maximize my play time.
All of the updates the developers send out might have been interesting to me about 10 years ago (before marriage & kids!). Now, it's just another email I don't want to make time to read.
I dunno - I think I'll just stick to buying games from Steam/GOG when they are patched up and well reviewed. Heck, I have about 500 games in my Steam account now. I have played about 50 of them? Based on my free time and my game collection, I am fundamentally an idiot if I spend money on new games when I have old games I haven't even looked at yet.

^ Yeah, I would definitely say it's time to start prioritizing your family.
Being financially secure, one can do what they want, and Kickstarter is no exception.

But in your case, man, cancel those Kickstarter donations and take your family to a movie or a park or something.

The comes across as way too pretentious. People are sensitive to that kinda shit.

*The game... lol, I guess that was a Freudian slip. I don't really see the "game" here.

Youn said:

*The game... lol, I guess that was a Freudian slip. I don't really see the "game" here.

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No, you had it right the first time.
Because no one knows what the hell that is!

This Kickstarter campaign is failing because IMHO the game premise sucks. Worm holes...Aliens....Spooky Theaters....art deco designs and more period costumes?? Come on, Bioshock team, unless your goal is to inspire several thousand SteamPunk fans, mix it up a bit.

We know you can make games that are weird and pretty, but now its time to make one that is weird and pretty but perhaps a little more fun to actually play, those 1999-esque shooter mechanics your games rock are not exactly in keeping with the times.....

They change the name of this game to System Shock Infinity............they make more money.
Just saying....

Because save for a select few fools, people are starting to figure out that not only are pre-orders a stupid idea since it encourages lots of money to be spent on marketing rather on the game itself, and you end up with a load of crap. Kickstarter is literally worse than a pre-order, as you aren't even guaranteed the game itself, yet alone the promise that it will be even half decent.

Kickstarter, who takes 10% for doing jack squat, is the dumbest investment idea ever invented, where you have tons of tiny investors that have so little tied up in a project that they have no motivation to do much due diligence in researching the viability of the project, the sum that reasonably needs to be made, whether or not they'll take the money and then still sell out for millions to a large company like facebook, and follow up with realistic deadlines and be able to pull the plug if/when the developers are obviously just squandering the money and not likely able to bring a decent project to market.

People will likely rage, but even the "successes" are IMO a failure, such as Star Citizen. They have raised $55 MILLION dollars to date merely on the PROMISE of a game with virtually nothing that could be considered close to a real beta available after years, they continue to insist they need even MORE donations, and are selling T-shirts, hats, and so forth, but the real kicker is they are going Pay-2-Win despite the huge sums of money raised by offering in game digital packages for as much as $15,000 on a game that doesn't even exist... yes, that is not a typo. They have a $15K package for sale. Even single bugged incomplete ships are selling for as much as $500, and going forward are unlikely to have ships for less than $100. They say "well you'll be able to get these ships for free in game just by playing", but if it weren't an unbelievable grind to achieve that, they wouldn't be worth the $500 to $15K to buy them with real cash, meaning that if the game ever actually launches that the "noobs" not paying hundreds of dollars will be mere fodder for the pay-2-win players... who hopefully will realize this, quit, and leave a universe quite devoid of players, which won't really matter much to the devs who will have already pocketed countless millions and enjoy nice cocaine hooker parties in their California mansions. So the whole idea of paying more than $60 for a video game, yet alone one that doesn't even EXIST, is absolutely ridiculous to me and ruinous because of the opportunity cost since all the money being shoveled onto such "Simpson's Monorail" projects is money that isn't going toward normally funded games.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Combos/The-Completionist
In for three... not a shameless money grab at all.

Kickstarter: A way to get people to pay you money on a promise that you don't have to keep, all so you don't have to have a job while you attempt to make good on your promise.

I've not backed it because it looks boring.

Not to say that adventure games are boring, but what is this about? This seems more like a pitch for a clever idea about a game, yet not a finalized idea/draft of what the game is about.

All I know is "Magic glove" and that's it

Some ot the opinions here are ridiculous. As if Kickstarter was all about video games and if all video game projects are about huge games. If some game developer just doesn't find investors, Kickstarter is the only way to at least have a chance for a game that isn't Call of Duty XX. I backed lots of games, most of them by small developers, some even just by one person, others because I know the work of those people. I backed Elite: Dangerous and Divinity. Original Sin. I backed Pixel Kingdom (which basically no one knows about). I backed Lightpack (Ambix like illumination fpor TVs and monitors). That one came from Russia, was delayed a lot, made in China - and it's fantastic. I backed Kingdom: Come Deliverance etc. And I have backed projects just because I thought it deserves a chance. I had 1 project folding after payment. Well... I've bought a lot of shitty games I didn't play. I can see no difference really.

The main reason for me not to back more project at the moment is the fact that I just don't have the time to play all games that might be interesting. There are still some lined up. That might be the case for others as well.

Oh, and yes, I'm a backer of Star Citizen, too, and I don't care of it takes another 3 years.

If you kick people in the balls enough times, eventually they will walk away.