With all the threads on Kickstarter, i’d like to speak from the perspective of a very picky backer of certain projects .
For one , i don’t like products that look so professional it appears they would have no trouble getting backing from a private source . This includes Planetary Annihilation , Ouya , or anything that comes from an established full time dev house . I want to feel like I’m helping to create a game or whatever that wouldn’t exist without my help . At that point I’m really just paying for a pre-order .
Like a game only has a week to go on kickstarter and their no where near getting funded , that’s something I can get behind . Games that have so much press once the Kickstarter is launched their funded within 24 hours, umm if its that popular don’t you think a publisher would of taken interest and funded it .
I’m the opposite. I don’t back things based on how poorly they look. If a project appeals to me, I will back it based on how much effort the developer has put into the project itself, how much effort they put into the presentation of the project, and how confident I am that they can follow through and complete it.
People who post stuff that shows no time commitment, or who obviously have no clue about what it takes to finish a project, I skip those without a thought.
What I mean is I don’t like to see major million dollar projects on KS , if you need that much money get it from a publisher . The 10k under dogs are always awesome though .
Eh. It’s not about the money with them, they COULD go for the investors but by going through kickstarter they essentially gain a “community” for their product. And it’s also invested and has pre-sales. Why WOULDN’T they go with kickstarter?
I think it should be open to anyone. It’s more about who has artistic control - the developers, or the publisher? Now, publishers have a lot of good ideas on what is going to sell and sell big, so I’m not trying to say that they are not useful. But in the case where someone, regardless of budget, wants to put out “their game”, then let them use Kickstarter.
But you would be surprised. Publishers aren’t hanging around trying to pick up games that are going to cost 1 million dollars, and make them 2 million dollars. That might seem like a lot of money to you and me, but to a big publisher, that’s pocket change and not worth the risk (The ratio of games that make it big, and games that go bust is very low).
That is an important point that many devs lose sight of. We are not our audience.
As far as KS goes. I don’t really read or care about backstories or the people doing the project. (unless it is directly impacts the quality of the product).
KS is about supporting projects. I will happily support any project that interests me and I want to see come to light. Anything not directly about the product/project is just marketing fluff. I don’t support marketing, the product needs to stand on its own right. KS is not a charity.
Only things I’ve supported were indie documentaries on KS where I got a copy of it to watch. Therefore I was the equivalent to a gamer buying a game he found interesting rather than someone in the documentary world having an interest in seeing the movies made.
Gamers telling other gamers to check something out, posting it on gaming sites/forums, telling their friends, etc is far more likely to go “viral” than dozens of developers throwing $20 at it and moving on.