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Posted By Stephen B. about 1 year, 1 month ago
Springtime for KickStarter and Video Games!
It all started innocently enough one Wednesday evening in February. Tim Schafer, the man who had made such classic games such as Full Throttle, Grim Fandango, and Psychonauts, wanted to go back to the genre that launched his career: the point-and-click adventure game. But despite his previous accomplishments and successes with his company, Double Fine Productions, Tim could not get the funding to make such a game. Then he found the crowd-sourcing company, KickStarter, and got an idea. He’d appeal to the fans who knew of his work for the funds necessary to get a game off the ground, and even film its development to help give the fans a better connection with the developers and be a part of his “experiment”.
On February 8th, 2012, Tim Schafer launched his KickStarter campaign, asking for $400,000; a large sum of money when compared to other KickStarter campaigns (at the time). On the Double Fine Blog where Tim Schafer announced his campaign, he joked:
But jokes aside, Tim was actually much more humble and realistic about his campaign. His campaign would last a little over a month, which Tim figured would be enough time to reach his goal. In an interview he had agreed to do before his campaign had launched, Tim said:
About eight hours later after launching his campaign, Tim Schafer had reached his $400,000 goal. Within 24 hours, people had pledged $1 Million to his campaign. This shattered KickStarter records and got the attention of game developers, game journalists, and game players. Not only that, but a number of significant business and financial news outlets such as Inc. Magazine, Business Insider, MSNBC, NPR, and CNN all took notice.
This was when the “KickStarter Spring” began.
Tim Schafer upon checking his KickStarter Campaign… probably
But what exactly is this “KickStarter Spring” that I speak of? Just like the Arab Spring has brought about radical changes and revolutions across the Middle East, the same is happening, in a way, on KickStarter. In the past few months, several veteran gamedevelopers and game industry professionals have taken to KickStarter to help fund their games and projects. Some developers are even speaking out about how they truly feel about the current business model between developers and publishers, leading some journalists to worry if KickStarter might lead to more than a few burned bridges for developers. But just like the Arab Spring, it is still far too early to tell what the final outcome of the KickStarter Spring will be. It’s possible that the KickStarter Spring might just be a footnote in video game history, or it might become a major game changer that shakes up the traditional business model of how games are made.
Either way, there is a lot going on over at KickStarter, and I intend to cover it.
Well so far I’ve backed Double Fine, Wasteland, and now Class of Heroes 2.
Though you are right, it’s not looking good for CH2.
I don’t mind the article you wrote, in fact it is a very interesting topic to cover. It’s just that this kinda feels like more of a lead-in to something, and not the final word on it.
Any chance for some follow-up posts?
For the record, I’m aware of your sign off. It’s just that the tone of this comes off as a more in-depth series then just a once only thing, with the promise for more, maybe.
And you are precisely correct. This is an ongoing story and I have lots more information to cover, so you will be seeing lots more from me on this in the future.
The follow-up posts will be happening.
That is good to hear, getting things like this (this topic, and a series of articles) are something I’ve felt missing from the site for a while. Not knocking the guys who write for the site, just feel it has been somewhat lacking over all. Hence getting it is a win for all that enhances things, at least in my view.
Saying that, I do hope you at least report the good with the bad. A point I do feel needs to be made, if only because you entitled this the “KickStarter Spring”. Now while I do get where you are coming from, and it does make for a catchy heading with a good lead-in to some fun by-lines. It does give the impression that you are largely going to focus on the good and not the bad as much. This impression was reinforced by how you wrote the Gawker group editors views on the matter, namely how it reads like you simply bring it up just to wave the point away as if not that important to things. This is something that I think is a mistake.
Before I go on, I should at least make it clear that for the most part, I don’t bother with Gawker Media (I look at i09, but I’m a sci-fi nerd). I say “for the most part”, as I do look at the Kotaku.com.au sites and the other ones which exist. A point worth noting, as the Australian sites are owned by Allure Media and pretty much have their own thing going. Know I’ll do a reply to this post to make that point more clear, just because I don’t want to overfill this one and I believe making the point known about that is a good thing. There is a lot of anger still over that MTG date thing.
Back to the point.
The reason why I think it is a mistake is that it can lead to the simple problem of overlooking all the bad that can be found, or seen with Kickstarter. Be it that they never got any real promotion, the project never got enough funds, what it did get was quickly lost in fee’s and the like (see War Balloon Games and how they spent the money made), or the project just fails before it hits the market. Know I’m not one to who wants to put down services like this, just that I think it needs some level of balance that reminds people that success isn’t a given just because you have a KickStarter. Worse, it can mean that those making the product are going to waste a lot of time, money and energy on mistakes that others would have made sure to direct them away from (like getting the paperwork done right, and on time). If this even hand isn’t heard or given, the throwback against this might result in some unwanted and otherwise unwelcome resulting.
Taking the Arab Spring as the example (openned with this article), while there has been some truly big changes taking place in the Middle East over the last 2-3 years which has seen many old powers and forces simply fall to the will of the people, the ones who have replaced them haven’t shown themselves to hold the best interests of their people at heart. Egypt is a great example here. People power came together to bring down a leader who lost touch with the people, something that saw the army (etc) switching sides and joining the people. Since then, things have taken changes unwelcomed by many as the army (the true powers of the county) side with the more powerful groups who wanted to work with them, which has in turn lead to a greater risk of conflict in that part of the world. Something that has happened in Libya, Syria and the others.
To cut things short, just make sure you report this in a fair way.
Just a small note, it might be an idea to make it clearer in future when you are doing a series of posts. Makes sure people know what to look out for, and be a hell of a lot more interested in when it does show up. I only say this as it did get lost in all the other info you presented.
(Added note. Simple went with Kickstarters as often as I did because that is what the article is entitled. This doesn’t mean I forget other sites such as IndieGoGo, etc.)
For the point on Allure Media, I felt it was right to make this somewhat clear. Simple version, when you see anything run by Gawker Media that happens to have a .au at the end, that’s because it’s NOT Gawker Media hosting it. The Australian sites are pretty much their own place with their own staff, their own rules and communities. Something that is a big thing.
This doesn’t mean they simply repost whatever crap you get on the US one (even if there is a deal about that), but it does mean they can report whatever they want using the brand they are working with. Take Kotaku.com.au, the staff there damnwell make sure that they have a good working relationship with developers and their community, write up some truly great and in-depth articles (that the US site simply steals, then writes a poor version of) and otherwise gives some good insite on the gaming and it’s lifestyle in Australia. Hell, it’s one of the best at doing it online for here.
Which leads to how good their relationship is with developers. This write-up over the Trails HD arg is a good one. http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/04/the-trials-hd-riddle-finally-revealed/
Sorry to bring this up, just wanted to make it clear that the info given about Kotaku.com.au comes from the GOOD version of that brand, not the bad one.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to contribute to the Double-Fine Adventure (lack of funds at the time), but I am thrilled that more developers from the old days of games are noticing his example and using it themselves. This method allows consumers to vote with their wallets in a much more direct manner than is possible through the normal route of game distribution by letting people support the games they want to play right from the start.
I also have to say that this is a very well-written article that I found both interesting and informative. I look forward to seeing more about this in the future.
Thank you! I spent a LOT of time on research, cross-referencing, etc. And there will be more from me in the future!
I like the whole kickstarter thing since it’s potential to bring games that gamers actually WANT and not shoveled out copy-paste-by-the-books shlop we seem to get these days. It’s mostly the reason i’m just not giving a damn about the professional side of games and sticking to the indie side when i buy games (since there’s always something INTERESTING to play that i WANT.)
Though, i can’t shake this feeling that somehow kickstarting may be picked up by corporate or abused somehow causing some very bad things to happen and ruining it for those using kickstarting for good.
You’re not the only one that has concerns and feelings about that. I’ll be sharing some whispers I’ve heard in my research about what publishers may be thinking in regards to KickStarter.
I would hope that with this explosion of kickstarter funded games by industry veterans there’s a lot of journalism following these projects (just like this article and promised future interviews by the author). And I hope that none of these vets use kickstarter abusively because they could really ruin it for everyone else.
If they did, it wouldn’t just be bad for them and everyone else on KickStarter, but also for the people that work at their companies
Honestly I really hope that BioWare tries this out with a new franchise, to see if they could do without EAs oppression and be able to make a game without origin or any publisher mandates on story or gameplay. They might be able to do really well, and gain back the trust of their fans after the ME3 debacle. Bioware made great games back in the day and without EA putting their fingers in where they don’t belong, and I hope kickstarter could help them do that again.
They did. Their campaign is called “The Banner Saga” and it has 89 minutes left on it, with about 700% funding!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/the-banner-saga
But granted, this isn’t BioWare themselves doing this, but three FORMER BioWare devs that formed their own studio after leaving.