Kickstarter craze

[desocietas]

Seems like everyone's working on their Kickstarter these days...

I know I've already sponsored the Banner Saga and the (in)famous Tim Schafer project.

Now there's this!
http://kotaku.com/5896727/these-guys-want-half-a-million-to-prove-that-people-still-love-jrpgs

That old skool package sounds pretty drool-worthy...

[jobocan]

Yeah, not too sure how I feel about some of those (see: Double Fine project... they should have had enough money already ), there's some times I do think it's worth helping out. So far I've only helped with the 3rd edition of High Score (a video game history book), but this is another one I'm probably gonna check out... Not too sure about that 500k target though...

[jcalder8]

So if they don't make it they just keep everyone's money? I hadn't heard about projects like this before but I will pass. Back when I was a boy we just preodered stuff that we wanted to let the company who was interested in it.

[scott]

Everyone send me money in the name of VGCollect! I promise it will go toward hosting and other site.. related.. things. And NOT toward gambling, hookers and booze...

Sounds like an excellent plan, yes?

[jobocan]

So if they don't make it they just keep everyone's money? I hadn't heard about projects like this before but I will pass. Back when I was a boy we just preodered stuff that we wanted to let the company who was interested in it.

The way I understand it, with kickstarter, you only end up paying if the goal is met. At least that's what it said when I donated for the book.

[matt]

ha @scott

I don't know how I feel about this trend but it's obviously working for now. It's a good way to invest in a game/product that you know you'll support. Overtime tho, I can see these things starting to look desperate.

[amauriel]

I backed the Double Fine Adventure. I love Tim Schafer (have even been considering picking up Once Upon a Monster) and will basically open my wallet for anything with his name on it. Add Ron Gilbert to that and I'm double sold. Besides that, I feel that the press that it got really shows the publishers that maybe we don't all just want Madden and Call of Duty.

However, I don't really see it working for too many other games. I only donated because I have a deep love for these guys and what they do and they had already made their goal by the time I made my pledge so I  knew they would follow through. And I get a Steam copy of the game when it's released, as well as Beta testing.

[ffxik]

Very tempting on the Gaijinworks.  Working Designs was by far my favorite publisher and I was sad to see them go after Growlanser Generations came out.  I'm pleased to know Victor is still out there trying to give some of us some variety.

The only downside is contributing to the Kickstarter, then paying full price for the item when it comes out. 

[foxhack]

I'm not giving Vic Ireland a single cent. Especially if he wants to spend it making trinkets like that.

ESPECIALLY if he still intends for us to pay full retail after giving money. What the hell, man? All the other gaming kickstarters offer FULL VERSIONS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GAMES upon release. Trinkets aren't going to cut it anymore.

I donated money to the Nubuwo kickstarter. I plan to donate money to the Sherlock Holmes ICOM rereleases, too. But I got (or am getting) something decent out of my donations there, not just financing someone's obsession with useless crap.

I don't buy games for the toys. I buy them for the game itself. Yes, the bonuses are often good. I love getting music CDs and books. But watches? Really? THERE'S A REASON WHY YOUR COMPANY FAILED, VICTOR.

Edit:
Welp, that sounded a wee bit more bitter than I intended it to...

[madmax]

Most of the people dong this have something under their belt already. A game or something and that instills trust. The problem is that I have never seen one of these finish. There was an awesome 16/32 bit inspired jrpg that was posted likea year ago. I haven't heard of it since. It got a lot of money...

[ffxik]

I'm not giving Vic Ireland a single cent. Especially if he wants to spend it making trinkets like that.

ESPECIALLY if he still intends for us to pay full retail after giving money. What the hell, man? All the other gaming kickstarters offer FULL VERSIONS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GAMES upon release. Trinkets aren't going to cut it anymore.

I donated money to the Nubuwo kickstarter. I plan to donate money to the Sherlock Holmes ICOM rereleases, too. But I got (or am getting) something decent out of my donations there, not just financing someone's obsession with useless crap.

I don't buy games for the toys. I buy them for the game itself. Yes, the bonuses are often good. I love getting music CDs and books. But watches? Really? THERE'S A REASON WHY YOUR COMPANY FAILED, VICTOR.

Edit:
Welp, that sounded a wee bit more bitter than I intended it to...

I won't deny the fact that Vic need to tone the extras down or do away with them altogether.  That aside. Working Designs published some of the best niche games out there.  The fact he is still willing to do it makes me happy. Turning to Kickstarter for cash from fans, then charging full price for services rendered, basically double-dipping the fans.  Makes me die a little inside.

Regardless, givin that most of the games he is going to release is going to be more than likely digital only means I won't be buying them.  I have a rule I don't buy digital games, anymore.

[psydswipe]

I put $50 toward Wasteland 2 to get the boxed copy with a map. There aren't many games that would cause me to use Kickstarter, but I like the original Wasteland a lot so I feel it was worth it. They are well past their goal so it should get made. I imagine you must get your money back if the game isn't ever completed. Paying is easy enough as you go through Amazon.com who does get a percentage of the funds.

[jobocan]

I'm not giving Vic Ireland a single cent. Especially if he wants to spend it making trinkets like that.

ESPECIALLY if he still intends for us to pay full retail after giving money. What the hell, man? All the other gaming kickstarters offer FULL VERSIONS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE GAMES upon release. Trinkets aren't going to cut it anymore.

I donated money to the Nubuwo kickstarter. I plan to donate money to the Sherlock Holmes ICOM rereleases, too. But I got (or am getting) something decent out of my donations there, not just financing someone's obsession with useless crap.

I don't buy games for the toys. I buy them for the game itself. Yes, the bonuses are often good. I love getting music CDs and books. But watches? Really? THERE'S A REASON WHY YOUR COMPANY FAILED, VICTOR.

Edit:
Welp, that sounded a wee bit more bitter than I intended it to...

Actually here you get the special edition of the game if you donate 59$ or more so... there's that. But I do agree that he went a bit too crazy on worthless trinkets. I mean... posters, pocket watches, plushies, music boxes, pins, a trip to E3 wut? They could probably ask for half their goal if they weren't making all these random extras.

[scott]

Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the Working Designs games. But, wasn't Working Designs infamous for also mistranslating games and sometimes blatantly changing things around? I know that's what they did with Shining Wisdom anyway. Personally I love jrpgs, but I don't love when publishers tamper with the product. Translate it, release it Stateside and don't mess with the developer's artwork. If you want to change the story around, develop your own games.

[jobocan]

You know, something just struck me as odd here. Maybe I'm just being slow but... This kickstarter is made partly as a way to promote JRPGs in the West.... so why is their first kickstarter project for a WRPG? I don't know, I just thought it was a bit weird.

I do agree with some people in the comments though, they should definitely offer downloadable versions of the game as one of the reward tiers, that would do great here since I'm guessing a lot of people will be transitioning to the Vita somewhat soon and having a PSP UMD game would be rather useless to them. It just makes sense IMO.