PaigeFTW: No gaming guarantees with Kickstarter
BY PAIGE TAKEYA
Gamers like sequels. It’s a fact. Knowing that at least one new Assassin’s Creed game has come out every year since 2007 is comforting, as Ubisoft makes minute adjustments to the already successful formula.
But gamers also like innovation, and new IPs are hard to come by these days.
That’s when Kickstarter seems like a good idea. Budding young developers with big ideas need a little advance money to make their dreams come true. If all goes well, backers are essentially just … preordering a game – a game made by the people, for the people.
In my experience, Kickstarter only works out if, ironically, corporations or established entities are the ones making the pitch.
I have, in total, backed six games on Kickstarter. Two of them delivered. Two of them took my money and closed up shop with little more than a “sorry, this didn’t work out.” One has been “on hold” since 2012. The last one is Shenmue 3.
Of the two successful campaigns, one of them was by a developer who already had finished the game but just wanted to publish physical copies of it for a convention, and the other was a visual novel based off a popular web comic, and the girl behind that has an extensive online shop and sells print copies of her books on the regular. (Also, visual novels are pretty easy to make, honestly.)
But the others were all by inexperienced young adults who ran into personnel fights, technological mishaps and life crises that made them throw in the towel. We didn’t think building textures would take so long, they say. Our artist quit unexpectedly, so we have to start over. The money is gone, but we’ll try to refund (on request).
Luckily, I’ve only lost $50. But I’ve learned my lesson: always read between the lines. At least the big companies don’t take your money without giving you something in return.
