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Have we had enough of Kickstarters and Remakes ?
I don’t know if either were flat out scams, but apparently at least grosly mismanaged.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/07/17/sickstarters-yogventures-dead-confed-express-delayed/
Yogventures
They apparently did not have the skills needed to make the game and money was spent stupidly, like paying 30k for an artist for 2 weeks job with nothing much to show for it. In the end, 570k thrown in the wind.
Confederation Express
This is a trickier case, as the devs claim to have only postponed the development, but at the same time they are rising money on a different game in Kickstarter, so it’s at least a bit shady, if nothing else. Of course other devs have gathered money on other projects after a succesfull Kickstarter, both Double Fine and inXile did it, but they at least kept working on the original title at the same time.
I read about that earlier today. It’s crazy that they didn’t think this all through thoroughly. Some of the mistakes they made just lacked common sense…
Recently completed: Game of Thrones (decent), Tales from the borderlands (great!), Life is Strange (great!), Stasis (good), Annas Quest (great!); Broken Age (poor)
Well, maybe they really thought about all through thoughly 
Perhaps “big shot” or legendary names are not enough “per se” for a Kickstarter to work, now that we’re beyond the initial crowdfunding craziness.
That brings us to a certain paradox - IF, judging from the recent failed Kickstarter campaigns, it is mandatory for a campaign to early show some coherent, “final” work in order to attract backers and funds, it is in direct contradiction with the main principle of the Kickstarter which is “we need funds first to show you what we can do”. The way I see it, those Kickstarter campaigns will have to settle somewhere between the traditional pre-Kickstarter marketing, and the crowdfunding for it to be a “larger” game, not just to “be a game”. (for example, here’s RPG Kingdom Come Kickstarter, which is no different to a 90s pre-release trailer.)
Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale
Like Calavera fixed his tables and fooled everyone in GF
, there is no fair gamble here,not anymore after atleast 3 recent KS scams.
Which recent 3 ?
What Wilco and Tomimt said.
Scams? What scams?
Even Putin joined kickstarter now
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-21-a-few-extraordinary-pledges-secure-areal-kickstarter-success
I don’t know if either were flat out scams, but apparently at least grosly mismanaged.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/07/17/sickstarters-yogventures-dead-confed-express-delayed/Yogventures
They apparently did not have the skills needed to make the game and money was spent stupidly, like paying 30k for an artist for 2 weeks job with nothing much to show for it. In the end, 570k thrown in the wind.Confederation Express
This is a trickier case, as the devs claim to have only postponed the development, but at the same time they are rising money on a different game in Kickstarter, so it’s at least a bit shady, if nothing else. Of course other devs have gathered money on other projects after a succesfull Kickstarter, both Double Fine and inXile did it, but they at least kept working on the original title at the same time.
Promises are just that Words.
What i found Hilarious is the statement that they are not Obligated, imagine the feeling
of person who paid 10k for that stuff and got shitty game as replacement.
Then there is one pulling out Putin out of nowhere.
And to top it off another one realizing that the they don’t have skills. 
Sorry bad promise. 
Edit:
We have derailed the thread quite a bit, i think its better to continue the talk here
(if we must).
the main principle of the Kickstarter which is “we need funds first to show you what we can do”.
I would argue that this is NOT the main principle of Kickstarter, at least not video game kickstarters, or at least, it shouldn’t be. What it SHOULD be is, “Here’s what we can do—now we need funds to move forward and complete the project.” Anyone who backs a “We need funds to show you what we can do” project is asking for trouble.
Look at where we were less than 5 years ago - a scene dominated by The Adventure Company churning out bland titles every 3-4 months, adventure forums all but dead save zobraks, and the glorious reputation AGs had in the mud. If we were lucky there would be two or three AGs worth playing a year (usually indie), with none anywhere near 90s quality.
Now I have a hard drive full of new adventures I don’t have time to play, and many more on the horizon. The forum is bustling with activity and discussion of new (yes, new!) games, not 20 year old ones. We are no longer staring into our drinks looking to the 90s for nostalgia but tomorrow and next week. Life is pretty good.
Look at where we were less than 5 years ago - a scene dominated by The Adventure Company churning out bland titles every 3-4 months, adventure forums all but dead save zobraks, and the glorious reputation AGs had in the mud. If we were lucky there would be two or three AGs worth playing a year (usually indie), with none anywhere near 90s quality.
Now I have a hard drive full of new adventures I don’t have time to play, and many more on the horizon. The forum is bustling with activity and discussion of new (yes, new!) games, not 20 year old ones. Life is pretty good.
QFT
Adventure games have clearly gained more visibility thanks to Kickstarter, there’s no question about it. Now it will be a waiting game to see how the developer world reacts to it.
At the same time though, I think it is harder for KS projects to get full funding at the moment. People seem to be in a waiting mode as well, as I think many people are waiting what will happen with a lot of big hitters. Some small successes have been around and out of the big KS project Divinity: Original Sin has already been a pretty decent hit and has gathered good reviews as well. If that continues I think people might get more interested in opening their purses again.
But at least for now it is interesting, that even some projects with “big names” in them aren’t pulling in that much money. The best example of this is Subject 13 by Paul Cuisset. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1993213058/subject-13-by-paul-cuisset/?ref=kicktraq
They have a reasonable (I’d say far too small, but I think that whole thing is more of a promotion than anything else) goal, that they still haven’t reached, despite what they show of the game looks pretty good. Their KS pitch video is pretty bad toughg. In the early days of KS graze they’d flown over the goal though.
The Adventure Company churning out bland titles every 3-4 months
This is worth thinking about, I’d almost forgotten about TAC.
If the 90s were dominated by Sierra and Lucasarts, the 00s was all about TAC, Daedelic, Telltale and maybe Kheops. The thing about big publishers like these is they have the tendency for ‘sameness’. This was a good thing for Sierra and Lucasarts: all their beloved titles looked and felt the same. Somehow for the big publishers of the 00s the same approach led to blandness. It was as if the publishers were so nervous to make any game too hard, too easy, too exciting, too boring that they removed any distinctiveness in order to please everyone, but thrill no-one. Each big 00s company I mentioned had at least one great game, but the problem is they repeated the formula again and again until it was worn out.
Is anyone sad TAC is gone? I don’t see any tribute threads or memorials about the time when the most exciting game of the year was the latest Agatha Christie title. Unlike Lucasarts and Sierra games, TAC and Kheops games were played and enjoyed by AG fans (usually because they were the only things around to play), but quickly forgotten. With Kickstarter, that won’t happen. I think we’ll see a lot more variety under the ‘Kickstarter era’, for better or worse. We will get more than a few failures, but they will be remembered. And we are seeing that those companies who are still around - Telltale and Daedelic - are discovering they can’t keep repeating the same formula forever, and that they have to evolve and change. I think that’s a good thing.
I think the main problem is disproportion between investment, risk and reward.
Sure if you look at the reward as being purely the game and the other stuff you get, and compare the investment with the price of simply buying the game when released, but if you look at the investment as into the future of AG, as an investment into making sure the kind of games we love are going to continue to be made, then it is not necessarily the case.
In the end it really depends on whether or not you are willing to and can afford to, spend money on ensuring a vibrant AG scene, or if you are content to just sit back and hope it will happen.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
I think the main problem is disproportion between investment, risk and reward.
Sure if you look at the reward as being purely the game and the other stuff you get, and compare the investment with the price of simply buying the game when released, but if you look at the investment as into the future of AG, as an investment into making sure the kind of games we love are going to continue to be made, then it is not necessarily the case.
In the end it really depends on whether or not you are willing to and can afford to, spend money on ensuring a vibrant AG scene, or if you are content to just sit back and hope it will happen.
You’re right, but Kickstarter campaigns should try to attract as many people as possible - also those who want to just get the game at a good price. I think there’s just not enough people who are willing to pay premium to ensure a vibrant AG scene.
After seeing how awesome Divinity: Original Sin has worked, and soon Pillars of Eternity, im all for kickstarter.
After seeing how awesome Divinity: Original Sin has worked, and soon Pillars of Eternity, im all for kickstarter.
Inafune’s Project, Brian’s Wasteland2…well known names and projects with good team potential will likely do it better in future too.
But everyone is hopping on the bandwagon so scams will blend in as well.
Its a matter of Faith and Goodwill now.
Even with Tim’s Broken acts Age, fans still invested in MassiveChalice.
After seeing how awesome Divinity: Original Sin has worked, and soon Pillars of Eternity, im all for kickstarter.
Inafune’s Project, Brian’s Wasteland2…well known names and projects with good team potential will likely do it better in future too.
But everyone is hopping on the bandwagon so scams will blend in as well.
Its a matter of Faith and Goodwill now.Even with Tim’s Broken acts Age, fans still invested in MassiveChalice.
Yep, just gotta choose wisely is all I feel. There will be some dogs mixed in, no doubt. But in general I think its a great landscape to bring great gaming back to us in terms of games outside of what exactly the popular masses want, like FPSers etc…
Seeing classic cRPGs, adventure games etc…coming back and people finding new love for them and getting a chance via kickstarter excites me.
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