Have you ever helped kickstart a game?

[obtainz]

Yes, in one case you're giving the developers money to fund the creation of the product, and in the other case you're giving the developers money to fund the creation of the product. Totally different, you're right.

Investors are expecting a return on their investment. An investor will be repaid monetarily for their investment and will profit if the company they invest in profits. A funder is repaid only with the ability to play the game.

[falinder7]

Pillars of Eternity
$140
No regrets

[Remilia]

Best kickstarter was the potato salad one still.

[A Chozo]

Yooka-Laylee. Because Banjo-Kazooie has a precious place in my heart. THUS IT SHALL RISE AGAIN!

[Pull My Finger]

No and never will. I dislike the whole idea on several levels.

[deadman1]

Only once.

Never again.

[ldev]

Yeah, kickstarter was a new thing, there was this 'spiritual successor' with 'original designers' yada yada, I was drunk and got scammed of 30 dollars.

It's my own fault, I don't blame this scam site, I'm just puzzled authorities allow for it to run.

[deadman1]

Yeah, kickstarter was a new thing, there was this 'spiritual successor' with 'original designers' yada yada, I was drunk and got scammed of 30 dollars.

It's my own fault, I don't blame this scam site, I'm just puzzled authorities allow for it to run.

It's not technically a scam.

People just need to realize they aren't purchasing something, they are making an investment.

If the investment falls though, well then you are SOL.

[Edge-]

It's not technically a scam.

People just need to realize they aren't purchasing something, they are making an investment.

If the investment falls though, well then you are SOL.

It's more a donation than an investment proper, as laws that exist to protect investors from fraud etc. don't yet apply to crowdfunding projects.

[Polar1]

Pretty much the thread title, have you ever backed a game on kickstarter? If so how much did you pledge and for what game?

I myself just backed Divinity Original Sin II after playing the original over the last few days, I put $125 towards the collectors edition, my first time I've backed something, but I'm really enjoying the first game, so I think it's worth the $$$, they're almost at the end of the campaign now, just under 40 hours left and we're almost at the last stretch goal, just $220,000ish left to go.

So what games did you help kickstart and why? If you never helped kickstart a game, what put you off?

It does not make sense to me to give money for a potential future consumption. The project may fall through or deliver partially. I don't get a say in any change of direction of the project. And the reward for a successful project is "here, have a license to use the outcome of the project." Plus, a successful kickstarter campaign is by no means equal to a successful project. I see every day people passionate about awesome ideas who just can't handle a budget. So, it's just burning money to me.

[Deleted]

Once. Will never do that again.

Game changed dramaticly during the development, that much that I didn´t liked it anymore, and later it just vanished.

[Akonji]

The only game I've backed (so far) was Divinity: Original Sin 2 after thoroughly enjoying Divinity: Original Sin.
I bought the Double Dibs bundle for a friend of mine and myself for $50 (even if it was through Paypal and not Kickstarter due to not possessing a credit card) and doubt I'll regret it if it's going to be anything like the previous game.

I'd definitely back more games if only Kickstarter would allow Paypal...

[Deleted]

I backed 'For My Sister', which was a cool adventure/platformer, but soon after the devs received private funding, cancelled the kickstarter, and then went silent for about a year. Might back again, but only on titles I genuinely trust. Might back Original Sin 2; bought 1 and it was kinda decent.

[Deleted]

pCars and another racing game; forgot the name . Neither on kickstarter, but crowd funded directly via the developer. Reasonably happy with both "investments".

[Jakexe]

Only Star Citizen ($100+) but i'm pretty sure every one on the planet has done that by now from looking at their budget.

[Usagi Senshi]

Adding one more to my list: Indivisible (for $30) but that one is on indiegogo :P

[Deleted]

Yooka Layle.

Because it's the best thing ever to get kickstarted.

[kail]

It does not make sense to me to give money for a potential future consumption. The project may fall through or deliver partially. I don't get a say in any change of direction of the project. And the reward for a successful project is "here, have a license to use the outcome of the project." Plus, a successful kickstarter campaign is by no means equal to a successful project. I see every day people passionate about awesome ideas who just can't handle a budget. So, it's just burning money to me.

It's there for those who would not mind losing the money they gave to the project. I wouldn't advise anyone to help a project with X amount of money that you will later miss, the outcome is far from certain. If someone wants to see a project completed and $20 is nothing to them, then it wouldn't be such a bad idea to research further into the project and later back it.

[Cyclone Jack]

I have backed 28 projects (some of which were not video games), most of which were backed for $25-50, though a few of those were backed at, or just over, $100. I have been happy with the majority of the projects I have backed, while a few were admittedly less than stellar. That said, I'd say my ratio of good:bad from Kickstarter has been greater than my good:bad ratio from AAA titles over the same time frame. About half of the projects I have backed have been released, and none of the projects I have backed have been cancelled (though one did not fully fund). Some of the projects I have backed:

Grim Dawn: I am a huge ARPG fan, and when I saw Bruno was working on another ARPG using the Titan Quest engine, I just had to jump on it. I backed this at $100 for the physical boxed edition. I currently have over 400 hours in the beta version and have been playing since its original alpha release. I would say I have already gotten my monies worth from this game, and I am very much looking forward to the finished 1.1 release (because every 1.0 has bugs).

Tesla Effect (Tex Murphy): I have always been a fan of the Tex Murphy games (and Access Software games in general), ever since playing Mean Streets (and Links, and Countdown, and Crime Wave) oh so long ago. I backed this at $100 for the physical boxed edition. I have played through the game twice, and I feel like they did a great job with this game. It is a very solid entry in the Tex Murphy series, and I am more than happy I backed the project. Another reason I backed this is because I know they had tried returning to Tex numerous times, all of which were denied by publishers (who most likely couldn't get past the emphasis on story and a first person game that wasn't a shooter), and this was their last attempt at bringing Tex back.

Soule Symphony No. 1: As a fan of Jeremy Soule's music since Total Annihilation, I felt compelled to back his first symphony. This has not yet been released, but the snippets of music I have heard from the backer updates have been quite amazing. I have also enjoyed reading Soule's updates and his explanations of how his music comes to him.

RimWorld: This is a top down sandbox survival game set on an alien world where you help a handful of survivors and build up a community. It has grown quite a bit and Tyran, the developer, has been very vocal on his updates. This was, admittedly, more of an impulse backing, as it had some elements that made me curious (it already had a cover-based system for combat). I'm glad I backed this, as I have enjoyed watching this grow from a fairly simple game to a much deeper game with many, many layers.

Divinity: Original Sin: After watching some of the videos released during the original Kickstarter, I was amazed at the depth of the turn-based combat (SRPG being my second favorite genre). I can say that, for me, D:OS has the best turn-based combat I have ever played (and I've played a very large number of SRPGs). While the story was a bit weak, the combat more than made up for it. I enjoyed the game enough to back D:OS2 at a higher tier than I did on the first game.

Jagged Alliance: Flashback: I still do a full play through of JA2 on a yearly basis, and I have been waiting for another solid JA game for a very long time. I was hopeful this would be it, but it turned out not to be. That said, I'm no more upset for backing this project than I am for buying the unbelievably lackluster Total War: Rome 2 or XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

Star Citizen: As a fan of Wing Commander and Freelancer I chose to back SC. This is obviously not out yet, but I do like the direction it is going, even if it is a bit slow going. FWIW, I backed this at $60.

Massively Overpowered: Massively was one of the few gaming sites I would check on a regular basis. I was quite upset when AoL decided it was going to kill it. Once they announced a KS I immediately backed it, and I'm happy I did.

It does not make sense to me to give money for a potential future consumption. The project may fall through or deliver partially. I don't get a say in any change of direction of the project. And the reward for a successful project is "here, have a license to use the outcome of the project." Plus, a successful kickstarter campaign is by no means equal to a successful project. I see every day people passionate about awesome ideas who just can't handle a budget. So, it's just burning money to me.

This is all true. However, one must consider that many of these projects would have never hit the market, or would have taken many more years of development time. Most of the games I have listed above are in genres that publishers do not consider to be viable. Their RoI will take too long (ie: not obtained within the first month of release), and as such they are not interested. Publishers are also not interested in small, niche games that have a small budget, because the RoI will, again, be small. The problem is that there isn't a good place for games that fit between the small, indie budget games, and the large AAA publisher-backed games. This is where crowd-funding comes in.

Another thing that crowd-funding does is it allows private investors to see that there is a market for a product. If a studio wants to gain funding from a private investor, they can use KS to see how many people are willing to back the project. Anyone can *say* they want to play a game, it's completely different when someone is willing to put their money on the line. A private investor can see that a project has brought in half a million or more, with tens of thousands of backers, and know that yes, there is a market for this product.

All that said, yes, backing any project is a risk. If one is not willing to take that risk, then one should not back a project.