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Will Kickstarter Launch a Gaming Renaissance?
jfruh writes "Most gamers probably know that legendary game designer Tim Schafer turned to Kickstarter to help raise money a new adventure game; aiming for $400,000, he managed to raise more than $3 million. But you might not know that a host of other game projects are doing well on the crowdfunding site, with creators ranging from industry famous to unknown. By bypassing corporate funding and appealing directly to their audience, these developers are sparking a renaissance in quirky, personal games that probably wouldn't be backed by a big label looking for a sure-fire hit."
I personally am really looking forward to see what comes out of the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter.
There is a war going on for your mind.
As somebody who put in money for Wasteland 2, I'm negative about Kickstarter. I'll even join the official backlash team.
Let's wait until a single good game has been released under this model. Or really, a single good game has been released from somebody who doesn't already have a large fanbase and nostalgia helping him get attention.
Furthermore, there's really no accountability under this whole scheme. What if the game released is totally amateurish? What if the developers just pocket half the money? What if the money ends up not being enough and the game is only half completed? What recourse do the "donators" have?
System seems ripe for being abused...Leisure Suit Larry's kickstarter suggests the money is needed to make the game, glossing over that the game has already been under production for at least half a year. Presumably they already had the money, it doesn't mention where the donation's going.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
buy a consumer product. If you want to make an investment, make an investment.
Kickstarter is not a store, nor is it a brokerage. It is a place to donate and support things you'd like to see happen. Don't send any money their way if you're hoping for some sort of guaranteed return. It's a kind of participation, activism, or expression, not a kind of transaction.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Pretty much same here different games probably. I've funded 6 games in past 3 weeks or so. 5 of those have already hit their targets. Shadowrun Returns, Wasteland 2 and the DFA game are run away successes I think in this phase. I don't think the 6th one will make its targets.
I think it will be successful for well known but niche titles. I have very few problems giving my money to the original authors of the games as that is probably a safe bet. I have slightly more reservations with new content from unknowns or people who have only good mods in their pocket. But I have invested in both just to see if this spurs on new kinds of development but I'm not giving $15 or $1000 to just anybody as there are few guarantees here that the money will be well spent and I will see anything in return in 1-2 years.
I don't care for the latest action game or multiplayer whatever. I'm far more interested in games with content and choices and a little back story not ones that accurately model the reloading behavior of the latest military firearms. Unfortunately we seem to be getting better graphics and animation and worse content as years go by. These kickstarters are showing that there is a market for older style games from decades past that are being updated for today's computers without having to sell your soul to the publisher in exchange for money.
Who said "invest"?
From the Kickstarter FAQ: "A new form of commerce and patronage. This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project."
Kikstarter lets people who already have a name get funding for their pet project.
... of the modern videogame industry while I'm also pessimistic about kickstarter I'd rather throw money at people who love and care about games then just watch every game become an MMO and chained to online DRM (Starcraft 2, diablo 3).
Kickstarter is really tapping into a lot of negative gamer sentiment, especially if you grew up in the 80's and 90's and watched PC game quality dive off cliff after the early 2000's. The last decade has been probably one of the worst decades for gamers and gamers rights on the whole. Map editors, tools to mod games? Sorry we'd rather sell you bonus weapons and extra maps as DLC at inflated prices.
Most newer generation gamers didn't grow up playing Doom, Duke3D, Quake and many other early PC games so they have no f'n clue how bad games have become.
I just want to mention that Kickstarter is also getting board games off the ground as well. I actually only first heard about Kickstarter after playing Alien Frontiers a couple months ago. It is an enjoyable and well received board game that is the result of a Kickstarter project. There are many board games in development because of Kickstarter as well.
If this is supposed to be some gaming renaissance, why shouldn't Linux be considered? Apparently the rebirth of gaming can only be Windows/Mac?
It WAS considered. The reason why it won't be used is because it will cost more money and won't give any significant return. Also it will require either the existing programmers to learn the quirks of programming for Linux or it will require a seperate team to make the conversion later. Why throw a Renaissance if no one is going to show up?
"... Anyway, we want to let you know that we're definitely listening to your feedback and you can expect a full, considered response about Linux early this week. As a company, we are being very careful not to over-commit to ideas and features just to get more funding - everything we decide to include in Shadowurn Returns needs to be within our ability to deliver as part of a great product."
And Linux heads need to understand that porting games to Linux can be difficult. A big problem is when you start talking 3D. The 3D situation is a bit of a mess on Linux. If you want some more info on it from developers who have done work in that regard look for remarks by iD or Mozilla. Basically when you start talking more advanced features, only the nVidia binary blob drivers can reliably handle it.
Well that is a big recipe for fail if you are developing a game. You'd end up either having to spend tons more on Linux QA, or have a Linux client that was broken on a bunch of systems. You can avoid that by going 2D and using something like SDL which is pretty good at cross platform, but maybe you don't want to do that, you want 3D.
Plus there's the issue that maybe you don't want to develop the engine from the ground up. That's a lot of work, time, and potential for issues. There's a lot of game engines that can be licensed and many of the somewhat older ones can be had for not too much money. However if said engine isn't Linux, bringing it to Linux is a big undertaking.
Also all costs have to be weighed against returns. How many people are going to buy it only if a Linux port is available? You can't very well go and spend $30,000 on development and QA for Linux if you'll get $5,000 in sales for it, particularly if the project is on a small budget.
Finally for a small dev it can be a matter of who you have and what they are good at. So let's say they have no Linux programmers, or at least nobody who's got any real experience with this kind of thing. You then have to bring someone on to do that and they probably want a reasonable salary. This is on top of all the QA time and all that other shit. It isn't a case of "Just have this guy here work on Linux too," it can be bringing someone new in.