A former Kickstarter supporter retrospective
I've recently seen a few posts about the good and the bad of Kickstarter crowdfunded projects and decided to go back through a few I supported to see how things panned out. Note that these days I can't really afford to support Kickstarter projects, but back when I was working I used to support quite a few.
>>>THE GOOD<<<
Myrrk Book One, Ram Skull Games: The book almost made me high from its lovely ink smell. Top quality product with lovely art that took me back to C64 ZX Spectrum days.
Graphic Novel Adventures (all the sets in different Kickstarters), A.J. Porfirio: Hassle free crowdfunding, and the books themselves are lovely.
Blood Sword 5, Dave Morris: I'm as much stoked that I helped bring this book back from obscurity than the fact that I actually own a hardcover copy. I was so happy to help Dave bring back the last book of this series to stick one in the eye of the Ebay scalpers.
Mark Lain's gamebooks: I didn't back Zero to Hero 0 because it was crowdfunded just before I got back into the hobby, but I backed the next two, and provided some proofing and playtesting for good measure. Because of that, I am still yet to read one, because I'm trying to forget the paths and secrets!
Tang Garden, Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi: I hoped to play this stunning-looking game with my mother due to her love of gardens, especially orientally-themed ones, but she died before we could try it out. It came with alot of stuff due to several smashed stretchgoals, so now I have a pile of shrinkwrapped boxes sitting in a corner ready to be put in storage of a game that'll never be played.
Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night, Koji Igarashi: A bit like the Shenmue project with a Castlevania creator wanting to make a 2D castlevania-esque game but needing crowdfunding because Konami only wanted to make Pachinko machines. The end product was stellar, with so much care and love clearly poured into it. And unlike Shenmue, this dev didn't sell out.
>>>THE BAD<<<
Wanderer Gamebook + System 1 and 2, Jacob DC Ross: My own fault this one. I didn't read the pledge entries properly, otherwise I would have known they were only supplying discounts for the physical version of their books, not the book itself. Eventually I checked the discount code they gave me, and it discount a whole $2 of an item that costs almost ten times that, so to claim it I'd have to spend as much money again to what I already gave them in funding. Again, my own fault, but it wasn't a nice trap for them to set anyway, so I won't support them again.
Nemesis of the Nin Witch, Dave Sharrock: I'm only listing this under the bad because I feel bad for Dave. Things went a bit wrong for him and he had to cancel this, and he refunded everybody even though a few of us wanted him to hold onto the funds. The book will still be released by a publisher in the near future.
Startropolis, Sandy Peterson: Don't even get me started on this fustercluck. Most people will complain how none of the pieces fit properly making the game fiddly and annoying to play. I can't join in that chorus, however, as I never received the game at all, and when I contacted the project owner they wanted more money from me to ship it. They also never sent one of those survey emails either. Shoddy project, shoddy product. They're now trying to reengineer the pieces so that they fit better and have promised to send out replacement packs to backers... what are the odds they send me one of those when they never actually sent me the game? Muppets.
Bitten Survive the Dead, Grim Games: The project owner took the $16,234 raised by this Kickstarter and bolted, never to be heard from again. He probably went to France to party with Megara's former owner.
Shemue 3, Ys Net: This started as a wonderful project by the original Shenmue creator who wanted to get funding for the game because no studio wanted to fund it. He raised $6.3million dollars, and then, keeping that money, sold out by signing the game to the publisher Deep Silver. When it came time to give out the download codes, I told them to go f*** themselves.
Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium: I got sick of Chris Roberts turning this project into the 'oh, look how much money we're making, let's try to break records!' and then running crowdfunder after crowdfunder for this project. The amount of money being made became more important than the project itself, and at the end of the day I just gave up on it. I'm sure Mr Roberts is still patting himself on the back about it, though.
OUYA console: Well, at least I can look back on this and laugh about it. I still have the console sitting next to the TV. My cat uses it as a step to get up behind the telly.
Transcendent: I was an executive producer for this film, but ironically never even received a copy. Last I heard the director had put it up somewhere on the internet for free.
>>>The LIMBO (but still on the way)<<<
Cthulhu Parlour's Hotel Lovecraft, Oliver McNeil: This has shipped, but I believe its fallen victim to the same shipping hell as so many Ebay orders do now. I'm sure it'll reach me eventually, but for now nobody knows where it is.
Dracula, Curse of the Vampire, Jonathan Green: Most of us know of the sad loss of the main artist which stalled this project. With a new artist now on board, we're just waiting on the book to be finished, which will probably be a fair while yet. Updates are regular.
Choose Cthulhu 2, Edward T Riker: Still being written.
Steam Highwayman III, Martin Noutch: Still being made, and the updates are regular.
There's a bunch of others before these ones, but they are so old now I can barely remember them.
>>>THE GOOD<<<
Myrrk Book One, Ram Skull Games: The book almost made me high from its lovely ink smell. Top quality product with lovely art that took me back to C64 ZX Spectrum days.
Graphic Novel Adventures (all the sets in different Kickstarters), A.J. Porfirio: Hassle free crowdfunding, and the books themselves are lovely.
Blood Sword 5, Dave Morris: I'm as much stoked that I helped bring this book back from obscurity than the fact that I actually own a hardcover copy. I was so happy to help Dave bring back the last book of this series to stick one in the eye of the Ebay scalpers.
Mark Lain's gamebooks: I didn't back Zero to Hero 0 because it was crowdfunded just before I got back into the hobby, but I backed the next two, and provided some proofing and playtesting for good measure. Because of that, I am still yet to read one, because I'm trying to forget the paths and secrets!
Tang Garden, Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi: I hoped to play this stunning-looking game with my mother due to her love of gardens, especially orientally-themed ones, but she died before we could try it out. It came with alot of stuff due to several smashed stretchgoals, so now I have a pile of shrinkwrapped boxes sitting in a corner ready to be put in storage of a game that'll never be played.
Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night, Koji Igarashi: A bit like the Shenmue project with a Castlevania creator wanting to make a 2D castlevania-esque game but needing crowdfunding because Konami only wanted to make Pachinko machines. The end product was stellar, with so much care and love clearly poured into it. And unlike Shenmue, this dev didn't sell out.
>>>THE BAD<<<
Wanderer Gamebook + System 1 and 2, Jacob DC Ross: My own fault this one. I didn't read the pledge entries properly, otherwise I would have known they were only supplying discounts for the physical version of their books, not the book itself. Eventually I checked the discount code they gave me, and it discount a whole $2 of an item that costs almost ten times that, so to claim it I'd have to spend as much money again to what I already gave them in funding. Again, my own fault, but it wasn't a nice trap for them to set anyway, so I won't support them again.
Nemesis of the Nin Witch, Dave Sharrock: I'm only listing this under the bad because I feel bad for Dave. Things went a bit wrong for him and he had to cancel this, and he refunded everybody even though a few of us wanted him to hold onto the funds. The book will still be released by a publisher in the near future.
Startropolis, Sandy Peterson: Don't even get me started on this fustercluck. Most people will complain how none of the pieces fit properly making the game fiddly and annoying to play. I can't join in that chorus, however, as I never received the game at all, and when I contacted the project owner they wanted more money from me to ship it. They also never sent one of those survey emails either. Shoddy project, shoddy product. They're now trying to reengineer the pieces so that they fit better and have promised to send out replacement packs to backers... what are the odds they send me one of those when they never actually sent me the game? Muppets.
Bitten Survive the Dead, Grim Games: The project owner took the $16,234 raised by this Kickstarter and bolted, never to be heard from again. He probably went to France to party with Megara's former owner.
Shemue 3, Ys Net: This started as a wonderful project by the original Shenmue creator who wanted to get funding for the game because no studio wanted to fund it. He raised $6.3million dollars, and then, keeping that money, sold out by signing the game to the publisher Deep Silver. When it came time to give out the download codes, I told them to go f*** themselves.
Star Citizen, Cloud Imperium: I got sick of Chris Roberts turning this project into the 'oh, look how much money we're making, let's try to break records!' and then running crowdfunder after crowdfunder for this project. The amount of money being made became more important than the project itself, and at the end of the day I just gave up on it. I'm sure Mr Roberts is still patting himself on the back about it, though.
OUYA console: Well, at least I can look back on this and laugh about it. I still have the console sitting next to the TV. My cat uses it as a step to get up behind the telly.
Transcendent: I was an executive producer for this film, but ironically never even received a copy. Last I heard the director had put it up somewhere on the internet for free.
>>>The LIMBO (but still on the way)<<<
Cthulhu Parlour's Hotel Lovecraft, Oliver McNeil: This has shipped, but I believe its fallen victim to the same shipping hell as so many Ebay orders do now. I'm sure it'll reach me eventually, but for now nobody knows where it is.
Dracula, Curse of the Vampire, Jonathan Green: Most of us know of the sad loss of the main artist which stalled this project. With a new artist now on board, we're just waiting on the book to be finished, which will probably be a fair while yet. Updates are regular.
Choose Cthulhu 2, Edward T Riker: Still being written.
Steam Highwayman III, Martin Noutch: Still being made, and the updates are regular.
There's a bunch of others before these ones, but they are so old now I can barely remember them.
Published on January 26, 2021 02:45
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