@ Karthik:

Holly shit, I did not know that AMA even happened.

Also,how can we have Season 2 now that Wash is dead? :(

Luke Maciak wrote:

@ cptacek:
We can’t. Joss Whedon probably could, if he owns the rights – which I’m not sure about. If he does not, then I believe it would be against kickstarter TOS to try funding something you don’t own, even if the plan is to buy it out.

See his reddit AMA for Whedon’s response to this idea.

@ cptacek:
We can’t. Joss Whedon probably could, if he owns the rights – which I’m not sure about. If he does not, then I believe it would be against kickstarter TOS to try funding something you don’t own, even if the plan is to buy it out.

Could we kickstart Firefly?

@ Mart:

Of course. We still need publishers to make those multi million dollar games. Kickstarter however can be a great place to launch medium sized games that fans would love but the publishers would not touch with a 10 foot pole because they don’t fit into their idea of what triple A game should be:

– an established franchise or something that will establish one
– possibility to crank out endless sequels
– merchandising tie-ins
– online multiplayer
– etc…

And yes, ideas are cheep. Execution is what matters. Granted, most of the well funded projects on Kicstarters have one of these going for them:

– celebrity spokesperson
– high profile, credible team that is known to deliver quality content
– kick-ass prototype that shows they mean business

You need at least one of these – if you have all 3, you are actually very likely to be funded.

@ Liudvikas:

I would also live to see Overgrowth on Kickstarter. The open-ended, free running combat system they are putting together is ridiculously awesome.

@ MrPete:

To be honest, I’m usually not even looking at the awards. I’m mostly happy to just give the project some money, and receive a copy after it launches.

@ karthik:

Yeah, maybe it’s a fluke – I don’t know. But it’s just two kids with a cool idea, and a prototype with no celebrity backing, and no previous credentials. Most of their funding seems to be from the low level pledges of less than $50. I think I saw one backer who gave them 2k and maybe about a dozen who gave more than $200. It seems like it can be done – little guys can actually get their project funded.

Luke Maciak wrote:

@ karthik:
…
They wouldn’t get millions, but even the 200k that FTL got is nothing to scoff at.

Holy crap! FTL raised 200k? This is insane. The last time I checked, they were at $26000. This changes my opinion of Kickstarter viability. Scratch out my previous comment!

Interesting enough, of the kickstarts you mentioned I knew every single one.
And I’m a backer for Shadowrun and Wasteland 2…
Other stuff I support with kickstarter are a brasilian enthusiast creating his own post-apocalyptic/icecapmelted animated short film, one guy making really cool playing cards and -mainly- a friend in TX who’s publishing a Hard SciFi-RPG called Dark Nova (their first extension is open for some more days if you’re interested).

But as it was said: funding mainly is a question of getting the word out and nothing helps spreading said word faster than a well-known name in the team.
And for me: the rewards. At least partly. Some projects do spike my interest but just can’t get me to spend money…

You know what I would kickstart the shit out of – Syberia 3.
I’ve been waiting for this game for far too long and as far as I know it is so due to the lack of funding.

So Benoît Sokal if you are reading – shut up and take my money!

karthik wrote:

The consistent theme across most over-funded Kickstarter projects is that they’ve been pitched by well known (famous, even) names in the industry. Failing that, the team at least has an excellent pedigree (ex-Bioware/ex-Disney, in The Banner Saga’s case).

This has been a very important factor thus far. If not for this, it would be very difficult for a team to get fan-funded.

All those ideas are great, but I have only put my money down on Wasteland 2, well because I like RPGs && I like RPGs with isometric UIs.

While I love that Kickstarter provides a non-traditional avenue for devs to market their ideas directly to the people buying them and not at the mercy of publishers, we should not be too carefree about this. Publishers aren’t all evil and devs aren’t all awesome. They sort of check-and-balance each other out and usually, a nice working product does come out. However, take one of them out of that equation, I find that it’s a risk for my money.

I do realize the huge gulf between “awesome idea” and “awesome product”, so it’s a catch-22 for me. I would gladly buy the product if it is awesome, but if I don’t fan-fund it now, there won’t be a product in the first place. :P