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Kickstarter Games: Where They Are Now

Posted by Soulskill on from the diving-scrooge-mcduck-style-through-pools-of-money dept.

We keep hearing success stories of indie video game projects that found funding through Kickstarter. Some have simply met their goals, while others have far exceeded the money they original asked for. Rock, Paper, Shotgun has provided updates on the progress of a huge list of funded projects. Many projects turned out to have unrealistic release dates. For example, Double Fine Adventure missed its August timeframe because it's getting a new engine. The new Leisure Suit Larry missed its October plans and hasn't been terribly open about a new one. However, most projects are humming along nicely, and some, like FTL: Faster Than Light have been completed and well received. The article exhorts all developers working on these games to make communication a priority, since the users are the ones who put up the cash, and deserve to know what's going on.

5 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Star Citizen by Bodhammer · · Score: 3, Informative

    I pledged out of nostalgia for Wing Commander, Freespace 2, and Iwar 2. I'm confident he will deliver.

    --
    "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
  2. I feel like we should be on that list by wintersynth · · Score: 5, Informative

    BlindSide was an early Kickstarter success, raising only 200% of our goal, about $14,000, but we released our beta on time, as promised.

    Granted, it was the last day of the month and we stayed up 36 hours straight doing it, but we did it.

    Maybe it's time for a little "how to manage slipped release dates" guide. I think it would look like this:
    1) Communicate
    2) Communicate
    3) Communicate
    :-)

  3. FTL: Faster Than Light by RocketScientist · · Score: 4, Informative

    FTL is an incredibly fun game that they mention shipped pretty close to their timeline. All software timelines are somewhat fungible, and game producer provided timelines even more so. But they got pretty close. And the shipping product is *great* and was on steam sale last weekend. Rounds don't take a stupidly long time, the game's pretty replayable, etc.

    Good times.

  4. No it did quite well by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Informative

    Game was released and works fine, and has done decent Steam sales after the release. It's had pretty good reviews by the press too.

  5. Re:It hasn't been all that long. by Seumas · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sure. Here's a google docs spreadsheet of it that I keep fairly up-to-date (maybe not to-the-minute, but I update it maybe weekly or more).

    I might write an article some day about it or something, but other than that, I have no particular "claim" to the work, so people are welcome to use it however it may be of interest to them.

    http://goo.gl/AiGW2