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Well, maybe and exception, but for non-business projects, Kickstarter works great if the idea of the project can make the people feel they're part of it.

I know about a movie, of a new Director that already made a pair of good very-low-budget movies that wanted to make a new one but better produced. Depending on the amount of money one send, you can get a different benefit like a DVD of the film, a ticket for the movie premiere or at least, see your name in the credits.

Simple projects that you don't expect much in return, but that you think they're a nice idea.

I don't see myself backing a business project with lots of money waiting for a big thing in return.

El Regreso Movie (Spanish)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/swimmingpoolqs/the-swimming-pool-qs-double-album-reissue-project

BTW Quick on CFLs are pretty common, but it is something you need to look for as a feature on the packaging. I assume it ads 25 cents to the manufacturing costs.

They must not be where I live. I've tried tons of different CFLs that advertise "instant" on, and they never are. I put a bunch of them in the basement, and while they come in instantly, they come on at like 25% brightness. When they reach full brightness in a few minutes, they are actually brighter than the 100 W incandescent bulbs they replaced. I initially replaced them because vibrations from people walking upstairs seems to cause incandescents to fail early. CFLs there last much longer in this case. Upstairs, without vibrations, they don't last any longer than incandescents.

I got a bunch of CFL replacements for recessed lights, and while they were pretty cheap and claimed "short warm up", they are getting longer as they age. After about 6 months it's almost too long to be useful and I'm considering going back to incandescent. Due to various state incentives, I got them for like $2 each, so I can't complain too much about cost when incandescent recessed bulbs cost about the same. I'd love to go LED, but with 11 bulbs in the kitchen, that's a pretty expensive proposition. I'd love to replace all my bulbs with something like this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/limemouse/lifx-the-light-bulb-reinvented?ref=live, but just replacing the recessed lights and fixtures in my house would cost around $2K.

It's a pre-buy.

Kickstarter Is not a store, but it does seem to work best as one.

"Call me a scrooge, but the idea of donating money to projects that will eventually charge you to purchase the product they produce seems ridiculous to me. On top of that, there is no guarantee that the project you donate to will see the light of day. Honestly, can someone tell me why this is such an appealing option?"

I don't think you're Scrooge but how about not quite clear on the concept.

You aren't donating. You are buying into.

We have a Kickstarter project which successfully funded to help our farm build an on-farm USDA inspected meat processing facility for our pastured pigs. See:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sugarmtnfarm/building-a-butcher-shop-on-sugarmountainfarm

Our project was successfully funded.
We're building our butcher shop. (We're about to make the next pour of concrete.)
People who were 'backers' got to choose 'rewards' which which in almost all cases are meat from our farm.
They are paying a price for product created by the project.
It's a pre-buy.
Think CSA.

It's isn't a donation.
It isn't tax deductible.
It isn't charity.

It is people backing a project that they want the product from because they feel confident in the creator's ability to produce the product.

It is important to understand that a Kickstarter project is not a store in the sense that you are not buying an existing product off the shelf but helping a creator bring a product to market. Generally you get some special aspect such as being first in line, special colors or features, added goodies like T-shirts, etc as well as satisfaction in being part of something. Most people who pledge to a project already know the creator.

So, if you're feeling Scroogish, be sure to back projects you feel confident in getting your 'reward' from. Check out the creator to see if you think they can produce.

Kickstarter actually started out as a way to fund arts projects. Like somebody wanting to create a sculpture, do a fancy mural, put on a play, even make a low-budget movie. These are all things that will probably never make back their costs and have traditionally depended on the generosity of donors. These have traditionally been people with deep pockets — businesses looking to generate goodwill, rich people who've gone philanthropist — but with the whole online crowd-whatever phenomenon, there's no reason ordinary people can't do this too.

Like you, I'm bothered by the fact that Kickstarter is now dominated by startups who use it to get seed capital. There's something just plain messed up about a for-profit business that might well make its founders rich starting out by passing the hat. Still, I'm forced to admit that some intriguing projects (Pebble, Ouya, and even the much-maligned Orbit) might never have gone anywhere without the generosity of "backers". I guess there's nothing really wrong with it, as long as people understand that the money they're offering is a gift, not a purchase or investment.

But to answer your question: this is one of those weird online enthusiasms, like that Korean guy with the weird dance moves. My favorite example is this Halaal restaurant I used to live near which for no obvious reason has hundreds of 5-star reviews on Yelp. Now this is a decent restaurant, the food is OK, and the staff is very hospitable to everybody who comes in. But they seem very confused by all the non-Muslims trooping through the door. Why pay extra to eat Halaal if your religious beliefs don't require it?

Yelp is full of stuff like this, and let's not forget the bus monitor whose bullying incident earned her almost $700K. Very silly, but not that big a deal, except maybe for the potential fraud.

Posted also on the Kickstarter comment section:

Kickstarter project creator here: I'm the guy behind OpenBeam (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ttstam/openbeam-an-open-source-miniature-construction-sys).
And in case anyone's wondering - we shipped the majority of our rewards a *month* before the original promised date. That probably puts me in the top 5 percentile of projects...

Let's take a look at the new rules one by one:

“What are the risks and challenges this project faces, and what qualifies you to overcome them?”

- Okay, this is perfectly valid. I am surprised KS haven't done this earlier, because there are quite a few clueless guys (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/277210494/paint-be-gone) - *(http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/277210494/call-key) and http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/277210494/key-pad-case) out on here who seems be doing the "throw s*** at the wall and see what sticks" model of development.

"Product simulations are prohibited. Projects cannot simulate events to demonstrate what a product might do in the future. Products can only be shown performing actions that they’re able to perform in their current state of development."

"Product renderings are prohibited. Product images must be photos of the prototype as it currently exists.
Products should be presented as they are. Over-promising leads to higher expectations for backers. The best rule of thumb: under-promise and over-deliver."
Okay, so KS want a working prototype. I get that; that's pretty straightforward. But it doesn't stop someone from *faking* a prototype on camera. This however, won't stop a project like iCase (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1791911961/i-case-iphone-4s-and-iphone-4-bumper-case) from being a train wreck, as the protoytype would likely have been SLA, painted, and the problem wouldn't have been apparent until the metal parts were CNC machined and fitted and found to short out the iPhone's anntenna.

The OpenBeam project would have passed these requirements; we had a physical prototype for shooting the video, as part of a good product development practice.

"Offering multiple quantities of a reward is prohibited. Hardware and Product Design projects can only offer rewards in single quantities or a sensible set (some items only make sense as a pair or as a kit of several items, for instance). The development of new products can be especially complex for creators and offering multiple quantities feels premature, and can imply that products are shrink-wrapped and ready to ship."

And how would KS define "Multiple copies" of a reward? This I have a problem with. When you're in production, you are trying to get the manufacturing volume up to bring the costs down. If I were launching OpenBeam now, would I be limited to selling one stick of aluminum and one of each bracket to my backers (who wouldn't be able to do anything useful then with this?) If I packaged it up as a "kit", like I had on my KS, would I have gotten around these restrictions? Who decides whether multiple copies of the same item is required for the item to work (ie, construction toy kit), and when it becomes a way to side step your rules? How much "individual judgement" is there to allow the listing of a project, and do you consider the project creator's background (ie, having successfully delivered on a previous project) when you allow them to post? With the amount of controversy about what gets allowed (*cough* Tangibot (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattstrong/the-tangibot-3d-printer-the-affordable-makerbot-re)*cough*) and what doesn't on Kickstarter already, this rule is probably going to make your selection process more Apple App-store like (arbitrary with no recourse for the project creator if you are not selected).

(Edited to add: The real problem, that KS probably don't want to admit, is that none of their hipster workers have a sufficient engineering / science / technology bac

Sounds a lot like this Android TV dongle I saw on kickstarter. Looks like it got fully funded, and then some, but people could have just gone out and bought something exactly the same off numerous chinese websites, for cheaper. I think the only thing that was original here was the case.

Obviously you're not aware of the Eyez scam.

The first update after they were successfully funded was a picture of the design crew enjoying a Caribbean vacation. They took $344,000 in the scam.

Also, The AmbioLight I think is also to blame for the rule changes: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bc26/ambiolight-a-one-touch-room-makeover/

People discovered that the two scammers who setup the campaign hadn't innovated anything at all and were just acting as resellers of an existing product from a Chinese manufacturer as they had doctored exiting promotional images by removing the original manufacturers name. Oh and they added on an extortionate markup to the product.

Read: http://hackaday.com/2012/08/27/theres-trouble-brewin-on-the-ol-kickstarter-site/

Don't forget about CamCrate. There are a few others out there that the project creator went MIA.

Now I'm part of a few projects that have had delays. Most of the problems come from the fact that they are outsourcing to China and it's hit or miss what you get. Some of them have overly optimistic timelines also. Most have never done a project like this before and get in way over their head.

Couple this with KickStarter getting linked to non-tech websites and it's just a recipe for disaster. For example I backed the FirePiston. And it got linked to a bunch of outdorsy websites where I'm sure most people thought that they were actually pre-ordering something. So they're all up in arms about not getting something they were 'promised' in April.

Don't forget about CamCrate. There are a few others out there that the project creator went MIA.

Now I'm part of a few projects that have had delays. Most of the problems come from the fact that they are outsourcing to China and it's hit or miss what you get. Some of them have overly optimistic timelines also. Most have never done a project like this before and get in way over their head.

Couple this with KickStarter getting linked to non-tech websites and it's just a recipe for disaster. For example I backed the FirePiston. And it got linked to a bunch of outdorsy websites where I'm sure most people thought that they were actually pre-ordering something. So they're all up in arms about not getting something they were 'promised' in April.

I'll bet most of these changes came out of the failures which is "Orbit":http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/832784035/orbit-a-swiveling-smartphone-suction-mount

Nearly a year after getting their funding, their product is nowhere in sight, promises made were not kept, the funders are upset, the project owners are MIA and all of it gives Kickstarter a black eye.

Posting as AC because I'm a funder, but not related to the project or Kickstarter in any other way.

Is a creator legally obligated to fulfill the promises of their project?

Yes. Kickstarter's Terms of Use require creators to fulfill all rewards of their project or refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill. (This is what creators see before they launch.) We crafted these terms to create a legal requirement for creators to follow through on their projects, and to give backers a recourse if they don't. We hope that backers will consider using this provision only in cases where they feel that a creator has not made a good faith effort to complete the project and fulfill.

The funny thing is that a few weeks ago, someone tried to create a fork, but he got slashed pretty badly by the community and his Kickstarter campaign failed. I suppose this guy has a second chance now.

He didn't get funded because it seemed pretty scammy, especially considering the guy wanted half a million dollars.

From the KS, answering what he plans to do with all that money:

Raw Materials, Production and Quality Assurance.

QA? Was he planning to hire dedicated QA people?

Shipping and receiving.

Funny, I can receive packages for free.

Planned losses on international shipping.

Are they actual, realized losses? If you know they're coming, why not adjust prices on the front end?

Customer service portal.

FOSS.

Full time support staff (phones, email, and technical).

How many? Are you included? What is the "technical" contact method, exactly?

Replacement parts inventory.

Should be built into the price of the replacement parts.

Brick and mortar location for supporting and servicing the TangiBot.

Office park space is pretty cheap.

Shipping and receiving.

The expense so nice you name it twice.

R&D expenses to build on open source and give back to the community.

A blanket statement unbacked by anything other than a promise.

The interesting difference here is the barrier to entry: The Replicator 2 is a physical object. It needs a supply chain, and shipping arrangements, and a manufacturing base to fork it. (Instead of in pure software where the only thing besides the people you need is some web hosting.) So, it'll take others quite some time to set up a fork of reasonable size and quality, and a fair amount of money.

The funny thing is that a few weeks ago, someone tried to create a fork, but he got slashed pretty badly by the community and his Kickstarter campaign failed. I suppose this guy has a second chance now.

he is one year too late
http://www.mbot3d.com/

Wierdly both right and wrong...

Correct in that you wouldn't expect a refund, but incorrect in that you can really be refunded something that you never paid.

KS only take the money once the project reaches the end of its funding period, and only if it has reached its goal. (kickstarter faq link)

The interesting difference here is the barrier to entry: The Replicator 2 is a physical object. It needs a supply chain, and shipping arrangements, and a manufacturing base to fork it. (Instead of in pure software where the only thing besides the people you need is some web hosting.) So, it'll take others quite some time to set up a fork of reasonable size and quality, and a fair amount of money.

The funny thing is that a few weeks ago, someone tried to create a fork, but he got slashed pretty badly by the community and his Kickstarter campaign failed. I suppose this guy has a second chance now.

Anyone wondering about the quality of this endeavor should check out the silly Discworld short that Snowgum Films did without a budget: Run Rincewind Run!

There's also the behind-the-scenes pictures.

There was a Kickstarter campaign that I supported that didn't make it. It would bring Octave+gnuplot (like Matlab but free as in speech) to Android. It could be used as a graphing calculator or so much more - you can learn about it on the kickstarter page. The developer said he is targeting getting this working largely to support students and professionals in developing countries, but I would use it here in the US. He said they had been contacted by the Indian Ministry of Education because they were interested in their students using the end product as they are using Android tablets in education now. The FSF (Free Software Foundation) handles donations to Octave development and should be able/willing to fund this. The developer has continued on without funding, but I imagine one reasonably large donation could make a huge difference for the users. I think you can just contact the developer through Kickstarter.

I'll take the bait, what app do you have on iphone that there is no equivalent functionality within the android market?

iPhoto for one. I use it for review of DSLR images since I can quickly zoom to 100% on a 15MP JPG file to make sure focus was correct in specific locations.

It's also very lame but twitter clients are better. It annoys me that it matters at all to me but it does.

There are also some specialized weather apps like Dark Sky that I like. (though it looks like you will be getting that particular one eventually).

There are a LOT of interesting photo apps. There are some on Android but I don't think at the same level of functionality.

I have a MINI Coper and the MINI Connected smartphone integration is IOS only at the moment and has been for years (that one I think is silly on their part).

Possibly Android has astronomy apps as good as Hidden Sky and Star Walk, but I'm not sure...

Also a ton of interesting drawing apps, like Paper to pick a recent example. I know Android has some drawing apps but I'm not sure they are at the same level.

There are others I'm sure, those are just what I use most often...

Just in general if any mobile application comes out you know there will be an iOS version at least, and maybe or maybe not an Android version.

The headmounted display (HMD) the NYT article leads off with wasn't created by Valve though. It was created by Palmer Luckey. Gabe helped him assemble a tiny little 8 person corporation to commercialize the design (and probably offered private financing to help make sure it gets off the ground in style, though that has never been publically reported). He may not need the financing though. The Oculus Rift Kickstarter ended a little over a week ago and was phenomenally successful. They're calling it one of the top 10 Kickstarters so far. That same HMD has been credited to John Carmack too, so it's not too surprising the NYT got it wrong.

As for the people complaining about how clunky the pictures look, ever heard of prototyping? That's what that was. Check the Kickstarter page for what the Rift 1.0 kits will look like when they ship this December. You can bet the Rift 2.0, likely to be available commercially next year, will look even slicker.

As for the people complaining about getting sick or eyestrain from it, it may come as a shock, but the past 20 years haven't been completely useless in determining what was wrong with '80s VR. Human vision is now so well understood that a layman can explain the basic issues with VR. It doesn't take an optometrist anymore. More to the point, Carmack has done some real science using the Rift prototype he has and determined that the biggest driver for making VR work (or not) is latency, in both headtracking and the display. Get that roundtrip loop down to less than 20 milliseconds, and human vision (and brain) buys it. It looks like looking at a world, after that, and no longer induces vertigo. The hardware is finally at a point where getting under that limit is feasible.

The biggest reason VR can succeed this time is display technology. Smart phones have driven the costs of conveniently small conveniently high resolution LCD panels into the ground. What was once a ridiculously custom built $50,000 piece of gear is now a $300 piece of gear made of off the shelf parts originally intended for phones. Right down to the sensors. Trackers on a chip have also gotten both very sophisticated and astonishingly cheap. It ain't the '80s anymore, kids.

What does all this have to do with Valve? Valve in general and Gabe Newell in particular believes that this time, VR WILL work, and that the platform of choice to get it off the ground is the PC. PCs tolerate new peripherals better than any other platform, especially since many platforms don't tolerate 3rd party peripherals in any form at all. Good luck creating a 3rd party peripheral for the PS3, for instance. Of course, if Microsoft succeeds in killing the PC as we know it with their own app store, then Valve needs their own platform. Hence, the hardware design interest. If their platform includes ready-to-run Virtual Reality that actually lives up to sci fi dreams, so much the better. The results may ultimately become Yet Another Walled Garden (YAWG. Catchy, eh?), but so it goes.

you think that companies are inherently altruistic

- no, Mr. Logical Fallacy, I do not and none of it comes out of my comment, but keep building your house of straw, because you think it's going to be easy to take it down.

if only there were less government intervention, then everyone would be better off.

- this is not a question, this is not a hypothesis, this is a fact. Historically speaking, countries with bigger governments and more laws and regulations are worse off than countries with smaller, less powerful governments (relative to the power of the individuals).

So USA was a strong country, economically speaking, when the gov't was not even 1% of what it is today, that's before the gov't figured out how to crack the Constitution.

So USSR was in a terrible economic shape, same with China, when it was a completely command economy.

You can cite Scandinavia and Somalia, but you never look at the facts. Scandinavia does not do deficit spending, the size of its gov't is covered by its income, and the gov't has been shrinking in Scandinavia for 20 years.

Somalia is a war torn country, where people fought against the powerful Communist regime that was in place after the British rule was replaced with it.

So you think if only companies didn't have to comply with all of the filing and other regulatory regulations then the small investor would be better off?

- yes, absolutely. On average people do not gain anything by gambling on prices of IPO stocks, I am talking about public 'investors', who are basically made into the ESCAPE PLAN, and the reason it's an escape plan (exit strategy), is because the IPOs are inflated by the process.

The initial public offering shouldn't be in the hands of government regulators. Actually the Free Market found a temporary solution to this, that everybody on /. seems to cheer, here it is. Are you against the idea? This is the free market trying to undo the damage that the gov't regulations have caused, but I wouldn't be surprised if at some point the gov't turned around and said: this kickstarter thing, it's competing with our ability to steal money from people on IPO scams.

As to your concern about RISK, well that's the point - gov't CANNOT REDUCE RISK.

Tell me, Mr. 'Intelligent', how did gov't reduce risk of people losing their money on Facebook IPO exactly?

Come on, do tell, I am listening. All those regulations, all those rules, and so what? FB is way overvalued, its revenues are going to DROP, there is no way it's worth 38 bucks or 18 bucks or 8 bucks. Maybe 2-3 dollars (if that)?

But some people made crazy money on this, but is that an EFFICIENT allocation of resources, to allow certain people to make CRAZY money on something like that?

I'll answer this question myself, because I don't believe you understand what 'efficient allocation of resources' means. The answer is NO, it was never an investment that was worth 100 billion. It was never an investment that was worth 5 billion. But the problem is, more than that has been pumped out of the pockets of the VICTIMS that the gov't turned the poor investors into.

In your words: hundreds of thousands of companies are looking for investments, while all the credit that banks allocate goes directly to the US Treasury because of the inflation and completely worthless money - interest rates are at 0, this means holding US dollar is worth than holding almost anything material, because material things (that don't go bad) at least stay with you, they don't disappear over time.

You are better off investing in a TON OF JUNK IRON today than investing in any gov't debt or playing in IPO casino, that is very much regulated by the gov't.

The purpose of IPO is not to allow the public to gamble, the purpose is to allow the company to have some money to START THE BUSINESS and to allow the public to S

We know there are a lot of great projects that fall outside of our scope, but Kickstarter is not a place for soliciting donations to causes, charity projects, or general business expenses.

Instead of stalking me in every post on Slashdot and claiming that because Kickstarter has changed the language they used since I last reviewed it, that I'm "making things up", try adding something of value to the conversation.

First - THEY ARE DONATIONS. I'll grant you that they no longer seem to actually call them that, but in every regard, they definitely treat them as donations. If they're not donations, then what is it called when you click a button to give someone five bucks and there is no reward level for it? Or when a reward level is $10 and you give them $20? Or when you give them $20 and click the "don't give me any reward" option? That's a donation. You may be promised a reward for certain levels of donations, but they ARE merely donations. They are NOT transactions of money for products, like a marketplace (though I understand one could see room here for semantics).

Anyway, there is nothing about backing a project that is anything like "ordering something from Amazon". When I order something from Amazon, I know I will be taken care of. Even if it is from a merchant who is merely listing their items on Amazon. Amazon backs all purchases through their site, whether that requires a refund or sending out another item or sending out a replacement.

If a Kickstarter project does not fulfill their rewards, it's just tough shit for you. It used to be that it *was* treated as a donation and it was specifically stated that you are NOT paying for any items, services, or experiences even if they are listed as rewards. Since your first comment provoked me to go look at their literature again, a lot of that sentiment seems to no longer be included. I'm not sure why they've done that, but it seems strange, since it actually could make it *less* clear just what you're doing when you chip in a few bucks.

If you actually believe that it's "just like ordering something from amazon", why don't you show me examples where someone has failed to fulfill their rewards and Kickstarter has set things straight for all of the backers? I'm not merely being rhetorical, either. As someone who has followed Kickstarter for more than two years and backed almost a couple hundred projects, I can tell you that I have *never* seen or heard of it happening and I would actually be interested if anyone can show where it has.

MANY kickstarters have not fulfilled their rewards by the date promised. That's reasonable. Things come up. Delays occur. Projects encounter hurdles and are more difficult than expected. But, eventually, it has to be called a failure. Or a scam. or a fraud. Or . . . whatever. And some of these *HAVE* happened. Where is Kickstarter on those? What are they doing to enforce the meaningless TOS clause that "rewards must be fulfilled"? When my delivery doesn't come from Amazon or it's broken or something, I just email them and they apologize profusely and give me free overnight shipping of the thing to rectify it. What does Kickstarter do?

Here's one example of such a Kickstarter. They don't seem to have been a scam, but they could have been. And to my knowledge, Kickstarter never stepped in or attempted to do anything about it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1536325846/dice-age-the-new-era-of-dice?ref=live

They received successful funding (more than 300%). The Kickstarter closed almost *fifteen months ago*. People didn't start receiving their rewards until about a month ago, despite many comments over the year and change asking what was going on and if people were ever actually going to get their rewards. As of today, about 20% of the backers have gotten their pledge fulfilled.

They may have decided to strip the "these are donations" language from their documentation on the site, but that doesn't change what they are. You are making donations and being promised rewards and there is nothing to guarantee those rewards will be fulfilled and many kickstarters are absolutely *not* about facilitating a product transaction even in the loosest sense.

Ooh. Next time you comment on one of my posts, can you add something in there about my mom or my breeding or something, too?

Project Creators are required to fulfill all rewards of their successful fundraising campaigns or refund any Backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill.
Project Creators may cancel or refund a Backer's pledge at any time and for any reason, and if they do so, are not required to fulfill the reward.

While KickStarter's ToS requires that the KickStarter be set up by a U.S. resident paid through a U.S. bank account, the project can actually be led by - and funds transferred to - anybody from anywhere. The clause itself is fallout from their working with Amazon to handle payments.

You'll see projects from Finland, Germany, Israel, etc.
http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/ - hit up the 'cities' search.

In this case, the project creators seem to be from Finland and thus likely subject to Finnish law.

Only permanent US residents paid through a US bank account are eligible for Kickstarter. Why does the Finnish government think it can dictate the terms of a project where a US company is paying a US resident to do stuff?

Supposed to, yes. It should fall under contract law. Things do get a little more complicated with KickStarter and similar CrowdFunding platforms, though.

Let's say the project is for Group X to perform at Broadway. What is the final product you would get back from that?
Let's say they then offer stickers at a $5 pledge level. But you pledge $100 instead. Is that $95 then not a donation with nothing in return?

Even when pledge level/reward are all on the up-and-up.. what if the project doesn't deliver?
By KickStarter ToS, they must either deliver on the promised perks, or refund backers. Problem is - they may not refund. If they don't, KickStarter says you're on your own (despite the ~5% they take). The problem with being on your own is that a e.g. $25 pledge isn't particularly worth going into legal (contract law) proceedings over.

That's all setting aside that many actually do view KickStarter as a donation platform and perks delivered as being optional.

Some good reading, straight from the horse's mouth:
http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/accountability-on-kickstarter

You put LiftPort on the front page and forget their KickStarter campaign?
It started on the 23.08, and in 5 days it's raised $27.514 of the 8000 goal.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaellaine/space-elevator-science-climb-to-the-sky-a-tethered

"Community Project" = Kickstarter money has run dry and they don't care any more.

If ever there was a failed Kickstarter project this was it. It was the biggest and best and promised unicorns and ponies and delivered almost nothing.

What the hell do you expect Samsumg to do? Make a damn oval phone? A TRIANGLE?

A triPhone? That sounds close enough, so they'd still get sued.

Too late, there's a kickstarter project for that.

Are you trying to get your spouse to let you pull the trigger on the Reaper minis Kickstarter?

On this topic, a notable Kickstarter has just opened, for a game that started on a console aaaaaaaaaaaand now is PC only :) http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/379129851/armada-online

The closest we had was Great Giana Sisters...

Which you can celebrate by joining in at Kickstater for Project Giana, the grandchild of Giana Sisters (8 days to go). Sorry, I don't think they will be targetting the C64.

I think it's totally unrelated, but this is awesome timing for this Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tesla/electricity-the-life-story-of-nikola-tesla?ref=card They're making a movie about the life and creations of Tesla.

If you don't want to donate to the museum it might be nice to donate to that project in the same vein. (I'm not affiliated with this at all and haven't looked in too deeply, just happened across it today)

It's scary, the knockoff IP Giana Sisters is innovating more between versions than Mario is.

Ditto, except MOO 1 not MOO 2 (I play it some but it's just not as good as the original).

Speaking of not as good as the original, I also still play TFTD. Tacky and unoriginal as the story may be, it has some elements I like.

BTW have you seen XComUtil? (ironically, the guy's now at BioWare): https://sites.google.com/site/stjones/xcomutil Speaking of DLC...

Also http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/69341191/xenonauts/ and http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/News (I've played the latter, it's excellent).

They achieved the $525,000 "remove all ads from the comic" goal(which was double their minimum to remove just the annoying ads).

They did not reach the $999,999 goal of "no ads on the forums or anywhere else" goal, but that is hardly "failing". Nobody is going to pay utorrent over half a mill to remove those ads for 12 months, let alone cosplay up some dude as an anime princess.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pennyarcade/penny-arcade-sells-out

Hey, you know: shag all that. Let's make NASA into a national http://www.kickstarter.com/. Pour loot into NASA, instead of these godforsaken SuperPAC ads, and we'll be all over the solar system, lickety-split.

seems to be on time,
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=live#AndHowFarAlonAreYouInBuilOuya

Alex Gizis of Connectify here. Sorry to pitch you here, but this is one of the reasons that we created Connectify Dispatch. By using link aggregation to divide your traffic across a couple different links you can assemble a fast download speed even in the presence of throttling. We use real-time throughput stats to decide how to divvy up the traffic. Plus the pretty graphs give you a sense of what we're doing and why (bandwidth, latency and reliability of each link, mostly). On Kickstarter now: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/523076551/dispatch-the-internet-faster

Actually half of his three-and-a-half hour keynote was on his quest to make the perfect VR headset, leading to a lot of involvement with http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game

The game is on Steam too with a 2 pack deal. The first is sometimes sold for 75% off (2.50 or 3.25 with all the expansions). The first one is a blast and I can't wait to try this one out. Both games have demos.

On the topic of tower defense, check out Defense Grid . It's a more pure tower defense game (with a crapload of polish). Free demo on steam. Do note, it's cheaper to buy the game (with expansions) on their kickstarter (belive $15 gets you the game + expansions + any games developed from the Kickstarter even the full sequel, I did the $60 level to get 3 sets of codes for friends). They'll send you one steam game code right away (which you get to keep even if they don't make their funding goal). They're also aiming to port their engine to Linux and Mac OS.

Last there's Dungeon Defenders and Sanctum on Steam. Both co-op tower defense games. DD seemed more slow paced but had more rpg elements in it (and 4 player co-op). Sanctum I was not too impressed with. That said Orcs Must Die is very solid, humorous, and fun.

But really, if you haven't tried a tower defense game yet, start with Defense Grid (again free demo) and you'll see what a good polished game it is.

Now go check to see what things have been made possible via Kickstarter . Even things for all to enjoy .

"shipping soon", a printed web comic, an iPhone dock, no thanks dude.

As a nerd who was heavily into consumer VR headsets and has been disappointed in the offerings available since the 90s, this excites me. Now consider that:

1. People here are highly interested in tech stuff (you know, stuff that matters)
2. Putting something here, to the attention of the 100s of thousands of Slashdot users increases the chances that a project such as this will reach its funding goal and you know, we get the story about it successfully shipping in the next year.
3. They already have a working prototype (must have missed the duct tape) and working software.
4. The developer units (you know if you pledge $300) ship in December.
5. Not all of us are cynical assholes and are willing to chip into other fellow geeks/techies/engineer's dreams.

So excuse us while we get excited over new tech and chip in any way we can to make it happen instead of bitching and moaning about it on a forum.

Now go check to see what things have been made possible via Kickstarter . Even things for all to enjoy .

You can always develop for this thing: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console It will be available to buy March 2013.

It does seem a pretty solid answer to the question:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=search

I'm a backer precisely because large deployments of similar hardware make for great indie games. Too often with Android games I don't have the device that the author had, so it either doesn't fully utilize my device (e.g. RoboDefender) or crawls on unaccellerated GPU hardware (e.g. Meteor). The OUYA may be the next Amiga-500... For the cost of two XB360 titles.

They stole this idea from http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pennyarcade/penny-arcade-sells-out . Jerks.

The Apple Connector has been around since the original iPod although it didn't support USB until the 3rd Gen iPod. Still, it's been very close to a "standard" since 90% of MP3 players, 90% of tablets, 30% of smart phones currently in use the same connector.

If you have Dock-Based Peripherals, you should still be able to use them in the future with a "Pear" Device (Bluetooth to Apple Dock Converter)..