“
Kickstarter” appears to be a buzz word of 2012 in gaming
right now. Over the last two months, I’ve heard this term at least once a week,
but I only had a vague idea of what it entails through context. I decided to
look into it and was so impressed with the idea that I wanted to contribute to
perpetuating the buzz. Kickstarter has been around since 2008, but its recent
success in the video game department has perhaps put it more prominently on my
radar. In March 2012, “
Double Fine Adventure” took the #1 spot of highest
amount of funds raised by amassing $3,336,371 with an original goal of only
$400,000. This has made it quite a success story and word of it has gotten
around fast.
Kickstarter is an online fundraiser, or “
crowd funding,”
website which utilizes fan interest and support to create new projects. Those
projects include all forms of literature and art, not just video games. Crowd
funding itself has been developing online as early as 2001. This system is
mostly used to help fund indie projects that otherwise may not get off the
ground without relying on bigger publishers who not only take their share of
the profit, but also often influence design decisions and steer projects away
from perceived risks that might negatively impact sales. The system instead turns
fans of the project or project owner into a form of investor. Although the
donators do not actually own any part of the projects made, the developer often
promises perks depending on how much money is donated in the form of goods or
services. For example, many indie games I looked at offer you a copy of the
game when it is released for a small donation, and lead up to meeting the
developers or invitations to gaming expo for some of the large donations.
 |
| The idea this picture represents is worth $3.3 million! |
When the Kickstarter project for “Double Fine Adventure” ended
in March, it proved that customer loyalty can be tapped in an all new and
direct way. This allows smaller game developers to work independently without
the influence of big-time producers and publishers. It has shown that the system
can work when the conditions are right. Double
Fine intentionally chose to make an “
adventure game” to provide a type of game
that current publishers refuse to touch and classify as a dead genre that
appeals to only a limited, and unprofitable, crowd. The response on Kickstarter
is certainly an eye-opener then. This project has shown that fan interest in
supposedly “dead genres” can certainly surprise you, and that game publishers are
perhaps not in touch with what consumers actually want anymore. They are
attempting to mitigate financial risks by eliminating risky ideas or game
projects, but as a result the entire industry is flooded with game
regurgitation and stifles growth in creativity and innovation. – This is
something I’ve felt personally throughout the last decade and am happy to see
that there is a developing alternative to signing over your projects to the big
label publishers.
The recent success of “Double Fine Adventure” has certainly
encouraged more developers to seek fan support in their projects, some of which
include
Wasteland 2,
The Banner Saga, and
Shadowrun Returns. These games are still
running their fundraising on Kickstarter as of today and are already slated to
take their spots in the Top 10 highest grossing projects as soon as they close.
Wasteland 2 in particular will be
sitting right next to “Double Fine Adventure” in 2
nd place if it
closed today, and still has 6 days left to collect donations. As I mentioned, Kickstarter
has been running since 2008, but in just a three short months video game
projects have risen to take the 5 of the 10 top grossing spots in the last 4
years. Though its doubtful that bigger publishers will see this as a threat, I’m
sure gets the attention of many aspiring developers with limited budgets out
there. As far as I’m concerned, I’m just glad to see that quality games
that are true to their developers’ visions will still have a means by which
they can be made without any outside influence or interference.
 |
Wasteland/Fallout fans everywhere fainted at this announcement...
then woke up and got out their wallets to donate $2.2 million as of April 10th. |
Anyone who read
my article about Downloadable Content knows
that I sometimes see publishers as money-grubbing
liege lords of the gaming
industry, sacrificing the quality and integrity of video game making in order
to milk their customers for money by nickel and diming them for content and
upgrades that could have (and should have) been released in the game itself. It
also comes as no surprise that they continue to put a hold on projects such as
Wasteland 2 which they see as financially
risky, but fans see as the best thing to happen to post-apocalyptic genre since
Fallout 2. I had heralded content
released by Steam as a way to combat the over-pricing of video games put out by
big developers, and now happily add Kickstarter to the list of potential ways
to contribute to the quality of the gaming industry by investing in projects
YOU want made, and allowing game developers insight into games we actually want
to play rather than be spoon-fed games by the big names of the industry.
I’m momentarily filled with hope that video games will
continue to grow and flourish as art and literature rather than remain stagnant
and mass produced to maintain a market status quo as I’ve felt it’s been over the
last decade or so.
-TOP
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