So another Kickstarter game, indy style this time

S

Sycraft

Supreme [H]ardness
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Nov 9, 2006
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It's just called FTL. I normally wouldn't be for giving money to a couple of guys who are on their first project, but they've delivered a working demo that is fun and gets high praise, so clearly they aren't talking out their asses in terms of being able to put together a game.

I'm in.

This keeps up, I'll be buying off Kickstarter more than stores.
 
Just one thing in general about Kickstarter:

It's been around for a long time and has been used for various projects. One should keep in mind though:

- Why is this project on Kickstarter?
- Why is the project not funded by a distributor?
- Why has no publisher showed interest in the project?

I am not saying that all the things on Kickstarter are rejects but there is a reason why publishers/distributors are not backing certain projects. Most of the time this reason is either lack of quality or lack of innovation or lack of something rather. Again, some things on kickstarter seem/are/turned out to be good, but from my own experience of backing several projects, i can say that most of them are stillbirths and/or failures.
 
uh till this past week(the whole wasteland 2 thing) i never ever heard of Kickstarter

can some one fill me in on it lol so what ppl just put there projects up and ppl can give them some funding if they like there project?
 
Savi said:
uh till this past week(the whole wasteland 2 thing) i never ever heard of Kickstarter

can some one fill me in on it lol so what ppl just put there projects up and ppl can give them some funding if they like there project?
Click to expand...

Pretty much, yes.
 
by the time any of these games come out, people will have contributed to too many kickstarters to remember :)
 
A solid working demo would be a requirement for a no name game. And the concept would definitely have to be something people have been wanting for a while.


I do wonder though... if they don't raise much on kickstarter, what then? They still need to follow through for those who did donate.
 
Parmenides said:
A solid working demo would be a requirement for a no name game. And the concept would definitely have to be something people have been wanting for a while.


I do wonder though... if they don't raise much on kickstarter, what then? They still need to follow through for those who did donate.
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They have a minimum funding goal and if they don't reach it then nobody gets charged and the project is cancelled.
 
Savi said:
uh till this past week(the whole wasteland 2 thing) i never ever heard of Kickstarter

can some one fill me in on it lol so what ppl just put there projects up and ppl can give them some funding if they like there project?
Click to expand...
You mean to tell me, you missed DFA? That's the one that pretty much gave this Kickstarter a... kick :D (for games, at least).
 
ScYcS said:
- Why is this project on Kickstarter?
- Why is the project not funded by a distributor?
- Why has no publisher showed interest in the project?
Click to expand...

In the case of this one? Because it is a little indy title. Even if they could get a pitch meeting with a publisher it just isn't the kind of thing a publisher would be interested in.

In the case of Wasteland, two reasons:

1) It is a style of games publishers have decided are "dead". They think that RPGs need to all be 3D and realtime. Turn based overhead RPGs are something that "gamers don't want" in their view. Of course that seems to be incorrect, not only from the funding, but from other titles. Recettear would be an example (overhead though not turn based). It is a JRPG translated for the American market. Very much SNESesque in therms of graphics style and gameplay. Even the translators figured a small market, 10,000 sales was their target, which would make the money spent worth it. It sold 100,000 copies in about 4 months. A "dead" style but clearly there was a market.

2) It isn't a "big money" game. Even if it is a great game and does well, it'll still probably be a million, maybe a million and a half sales. That's fine and I've no doubt inXile will be completely happy with that (and make a nice profit) but that isn't "big money" from a publisher's standpoint. They are looking for games that'll do 5 million, 10 million sales or more. So they get a "It just isn't worth our time," attitude.

Just remember that a publisher isn't interested in something doesn't mean there isn't a market. Publishers don't make all their decisions for the best of reasons necessarily. Some companies, who have the money, have just said "fuck it" to third party publishers because of that. Valve and Stardock would be two good examples that come to mind. They fund their own development because they can (both have other markets for funding, Steam for Valve, desktop customization for Stardock) and release on their terms.

Kickstarter is a way for people who don't have that kind of funding to try and get it. We'll see how it goes long term.

A solid working demo would be a requirement for a no name game.
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Ya that was the only reason I was willing to look at this one. If it was two guys saying "Hey we want to make our first game and, ummm, trust us we know what we are doing!" the answer would be no. However they had a demo on Onlive for a couple of weeks you could play (it's expired now), gameplay video, and so on. They clearly do in fact have the ability to make a game. If it is good remains to be seen, but they aren't just a couple of college students who think game programming would be cool
 
This looks interesting. Good to see they got more than what they asked for. I would have preferred a space flight sim, but since we are probably never going to get one (even space shooters are essentially dead) this looks like a decent alternative.

I'll give these guys a bit of money.

Since we are talking about Kickstarter projects, might as well post this one to continue spreading the word:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/355932838/crowdsourced-hardcore-tactical-shooter
 
ScYcS said:
Just one thing in general about Kickstarter:

It's been around for a long time and has been used for various projects. One should keep in mind though:

- Why is this project on Kickstarter?
- Why is the project not funded by a distributor?
- Why has no publisher showed interest in the project?

I am not saying that all the things on Kickstarter are rejects but there is a reason why publishers/distributors are not backing certain projects. Most of the time this reason is either lack of quality or lack of innovation or lack of something rather. Again, some things on kickstarter seem/are/turned out to be good, but from my own experience of backing several projects, i can say that most of them are stillbirths and/or failures.
Click to expand...

Basically for the reasons that Sycraft stated. It's the same reason that there are indie film festivals to get good indie films some coverage, where most big name producers (or in the video game market, publishers) don't want to spend a dime on a game that doesn't appeal to the biggest demographic market, because they always want to make that next big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. If it doesn't fall into the mainstream FPS/3rdPS it usually gets looked over.
 
I just want to plug FTL - really fun game, check out the demo on Onlive (unfortunately replete with laggy mouse and 30 minute time limit). If you've ever watched Battlestar, Star Trek, Firefly, or any other space opera and enjoy strategy games, this is excellent ship-to-ship combat at its finest (check out the vids on vimeo if you're interested). The demo is great fun and illustrates the massive potential here. Devs have been good with providing new videos illustrating new functionality, and it seems to be coming quick and fast - I've backed it for the beta access.
 
i just donated this after trying the demo and its not just move your ship hear and fire guns its like your the co of the ship you have to tell you men to go hear pick what systems to power up, what systems to upgrade. i think whits the 100k it made this could go far.
 
tunatime said:
its down i tried to play it and cant find it so i checked there page and they said they pulled it
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busmki - I know it's a fair bit of work to construct a demo from a two person team, but it must hurt their funding by a certain percentage if people aren't able to "try before they buy", even if it's before all the features are implemented..
 
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