The "Update on your Kickstarter's" thread

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Sycraft

Supreme [H]ardness
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So since some people like to hate on Kickstarter as nothing but scams, but other of us, like me, think it is great I thought a thread for those of us that have backed projects might be cool. In particular, give a general overview of the status of things. Such as:


--Backed: 9
--Final Product Delivered: 2
--Beta Delivered: 2
--In Production and On Track: 5
--Project Looks Dead/Vanished/Scam: 0

These are mine. So backed is how many projects you've funded (only successful ones). Final product ones means you actually got the end item, the release version. They delivered what they said. Beta delivered means that they've given you some early access version that isn't complete, but shows work. In production means something that is under development and is giving regular updates showing progress such that you are confident it is on track to be delivered. Dead/vanished/scam is for any project that seems to have either completely stalled with no feedback, or one that just up and disappeared from the web or the like.

So far, I'm pretty pleased :). FTL and the Defense Grid expansion are great (FTL frustrated me a bit, but I still really like it, particularly with a couple mods) and I'm salivating over Shadowrun, they are targeting June for release. Even the two small projects that I was worried about maybe not being able to deliver (Drifter and Kinetic Void) have betas out. They are rudimentary, but they are real and playable, and show lots of promise.
 
Shouldn't there be a tier between the bottom 2 something like:

--In Production but fallen behind schedule: and
--In Production but I have no clue what the schedule actually is :D ?

Therefore

--In Production but I have no clue what the schedule actually is: 1

They do update monthly and have shown pre alpha footage, but I don't know how close they are to schedule (as I don't know the schedule exactly, they could be months off), but there has been lots of designs/level concepts. But I'd prefer it if they took 6 years and made something amazing, than 6 months and delivered crap.

One problem is though, if you have "invested" in something, and I mean more emotionally than money wise 9as you aren't really investing :D) and you "get to know" the people behind it you might be more forgiving if the project is flawed... So it's hard to know if you are separating yourself from things and view it more...objectively. People are fine with railing against "faceless corporations", but if its a bunch of people (who have sent you "gifts") it's probably harder emotionally to do so. also to them you are still faceless (unless they do that scheme that French [I think] company was doing where they print out the people who preordered's faces [which is kind of creepy for some reason...:eek:]).

There is also a sense with lots of the released projects so far that would have been released anyway and saw an opportunity to get some bonus free cash/sales/publicity. They could say anything and that they needed whatever. :D
 
Well in terms of schedule I think you have to be flexible with that. I mean projects slipping deadlines is something you see everywhere, all the time. In terms of "On track" I mean that they seem to be making progress in a reasonable fashion towards their goal.

So as an example of on track, take Shadowrun. They slipped their original stated goal, but then they announced they'd be missing that pretty early on. However it is still on track. They release regular updates, including gameplay footage, have a new goal of June, and look to be doing well.

An example of something dead/vanished, though not a Kickstarter, would be Play Pro from EastWest. It was the upgraded version of their sampler promised about 3 years ago, and even listed for preorder on their site. Since then they took down the preorders and said nothing about when it might happen except "eventually" and they are "busy with other things." It's pretty clear at this point that the project has died. It may get resurrected at some point (this is big dollar commercial software we are talking about) but it is dead in every sense now.
 
I have only backed three projects so far (I want to back more in the second half of the year when my budget improves a little). Of the three, one is approaching alpha (Grim Dawn), one is in early development (Project Eternity), and one just barely ended its kickoff campaign (Torment). Looking forward to the alpha for Grim Dawn and the latest update on PE looks really amazing. Good times ... good times :)
 
None of the projects I've backed are close to release yet, but it seems like they are all making solid progress. Those are Starlight Inception, Planetary Annihilation, and Star Citizen.

However, I have purchased two games that received KS support, FTL and Strike Suit Zero.
 
I backed 1 . Castle story , game is still in active development
 
I didn't pay any attention to Kickstarter until recently. I've only backed Torment, but I've enjoyed a lot of stuff to come out of Kickstarter. Seems like a great new paradigm for funding. Really looking forward to Star Citizen too, though I didn't hear about it in time to back it. So after backing Torment I will probably back stuff in the future.

As far as released stuff, I enjoyed FTL, along with Dungeon World (a tabletop RPG) which I've bought in print and PDF since its release. Both of those came out of KS and have been awesome.
 
Backed Carmageddon first. Moving along nicely in development right now.
Star Citizen is the other. Also progressing nicely. Was gonna back Torment, but was on the fence too long and missed the KS.
 
Wasteland 2
Project Eternity
Grim Dawn
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Shadowrun Returns
Grimoire :eek:
Star Citizen
Divinity: Original Sin
Paper Sorcerer (minimum pledge)

^All in development.

I bought into the Alpha for Underrail. 0.1.7.0 version

I bought into the Beta for Path of Exile. 0.10.5b version
 
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Doublefine adventure is a two part kickstarter they're making a game and filming the production. I've seen tons of videos of the production. The game is more or less on schedule I think. I haven't had time to watch the last couple videos.

Paper Sorcerer is in post production I've played a couple version of the beta. it''s a few months behind because of more art assets he's adding. I don't mind this one is just a one guy product and he updates regularly.

Armada Online - Failed. Refunded. They really just did not do a good job of putting their name out there. Kickstarter was to fund a larger cleaner version of armada online which I already own.

Shadow Gate - Just started a couple months ago just sorta ongoing.

I'm not 100% certain what else I've kickstarted I gotta go check my emails.
 
Nothing I've backed has finished yet, but everything still looks on-track. Off the top of my head I think I backed:

-Takedown
-Carmageddon
-Grim Dawn
-Planetary Annihilation
-Star Citizen

I also backed Ground Branch and Realm Explorer but those didn't meet funding requirements, unfortunately.
 
I'm in the same boat as everyone else, everything I've backed is still in development:

Wasteland 2
Grim Dawn
Project Eternity
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Divinity: Original Sin ( In progress)
CONSORTIUM (In progress)

It looks like the first one I'll see will be Grim Dawn, which is scheduled for summer release
 
The only one I'm currently funding is SpaceVenture by the guys who made Space Quest. I believe they're aiming for a release by the end of the year. They just released some Alpha footage and it looks like things are coming along.
 
Sycraft said:
So since some people like to hate on Kickstarter as nothing but scams, but other of us, like me, think it is great I thought a thread for those of us that have backed projects might be cool. In particular, give a general overview of the status of things.
Click to expand...

People have a right to be skeptical because overall more has fizzled than seen the light of day and videogames by nature are difficult to finish even with a big publisher and lots of funding. I dont think anyone's hating on it for being a 'scam', more like its still grey area and the potential for fraud and abuse of the system is high. There's precedent for this.

At some point it will be another bubble that bursts and the requirements and expectations of someone seeking funding will have to become a lot more stringent.
 
odditory said:
People have a right to be skeptical because overall more has fizzled than seen the light of day and videogames by nature are difficult to finish even with a big publisher and lots of funding. I dont think anyone's hating on it for being a 'scam', more like its still grey area and the potential for fraud and abuse of the system is high. There's precedent for this.

At some point it will be another bubble that bursts and the requirements and expectations of someone seeking funding will have to become a lot more stringent.
Click to expand...

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog
Games funding really didn't even take off until 2012.
2011: $3,855,692
2012: $83,144,565
They already have 11 that have successfully come out. How many have fizzled out?
 
odditory said:
People have a right to be skeptical because overall more has fizzled than seen the light of day and videogames by nature are difficult to finish even with a big publisher and lots of funding. I dont think anyone's hating on it for being a 'scam', more like its still grey area and the potential for fraud and abuse of the system is high. There's precedent for this.

At some point it will be another bubble that bursts and the requirements and expectations of someone seeking funding will have to become a lot more stringent.
Click to expand...

Until EA gets its shit together Kickstarter will be in demand. Publishers are driving Developers to kickstarter in droves.
 
I've only backed Dreamfall Chapters, the sequel to The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. They seem to be making progress toward their November 2014 target release window. I'm really psyched for this one and hope they can make it happen.
 
I've backed the following, but the earliest any of them project to be complete is near the end of next year.

- Torment: Tides of Numenera
- Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues
- Camelot Unchained - Funding open til May 2nd
 
I backed Star Citizen and Planetary Annihilation. Both are months/years from release, and sending way too many project updates for my taste.
 
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