Kickstarter Too many Kickstarter projects? Is Kickstarter the new d20 glut?

renau1g · Jul 27, 2012

I personally haven't contributed to any Kickstarter projects (although I might have contributed to the Paizo one recently, but missed it) as I don't trust the anonymity of the internet.

Here's a few articles I found:

"According to the research, only about 25 percent of projects ship on time, and the more a project exceeds its goal, the more delays it faces. So, projects like the Pebble and the Ouya have a good chance of facing delays if the data holds true. The delays are quite long on many projects. Only 75 percent of projects deliver their products eight months after they finish."

Overfunded Kickstarter Projects Face More, Longer Delays

"A number of things can go wrong; just as with startups receiving investment, sometimes things prove to be harder than anticipated–as with this project to create an independent games label, which dragged on for a year after the funding closed without updates from the backers. Eventually they got back in communication and told their backers they’d vastly underestimated how hard it would be to start a company."

When Kickstarter Goes Wrong: Were 419 Backers Almost Taken for a $27,637 Ride? | Betabeat

"Back in March, a project on Kickstarter for American-made flip flops “with an eye on the environment” raised $56,618 of its $12,000 goal in order to build a sandal-making factory in the small town of Geneva, New York.... The project has had repeated delays with sporadic updates from the founders. Almost 10 months later, many of the 1,091 backers are steaming. "

Caveat Backer! Vere Sandals, Overfunded Kickstarter Project, Fails to Deliver | Betabeat

Revinor · Jul 27, 2012

I was wondering why some of the kickstarters are done by publishing houses with almost ready product. After all, they could just make a preorder available on their website to more or less same effect.

Advertisment is one part. But I think that real catch behind the Kickster is Gamification of the Preorder. All the funny titles, possibly to win exclusive rewards, signed copies, getting your name in the credits for virtue of paying 10 dollars extra - all these things make people preorder things they would never consider in normal case.

I was curious to see how Order of the Stick Kickstarter went and was cheering along. Not late afterwards I got bored, then annoyed. I think I have slowly reached the point where I will actively avoid anything advertised through Kickstarter and feel a considerable amount of schadenfreude to see them starting to fail to deliver after getting funded (there is bound to be enough rotten eggs in the basket).

Obligatory XKCD link.

jmucchiello · Jul 27, 2012

gamerprinter said:
There's also IndieGoGo, another patronage set up.

Just remember a project on IndieGoGo can be setup with the dubious feature where the project gets all pledged monies whether or not it reaches its goal. Some people find that a bit suspect. At least with Kickstarter there's something to the pledge "If we get this much money, we will do X. If not, you are not out a dime." The same is not true of all IndieGoGo projects.

Morrus · Jul 27, 2012

jmucchiello said:
Just remember a project on IndieGoGo can be setup with the dubious feature where the project gets all pledged monies whether or not it reaches its goal. Some people find that a bit suspect. At least with Kickstarter there's something to the pledge "If we get this much money, we will do X. If not, you are not out a dime." The same is not true of all IndieGoGo projects.

That may be so, but if you're not American you have no choice but to use IndieGoGo over Kickstarter. Kickstarter's an exclusive club at present.

gamerprinter · Jul 27, 2012

jmucchiello said:
Just remember a project on IndieGoGo can be setup with the dubious feature where the project gets all pledged monies whether or not it reaches its goal. Some people find that a bit suspect. At least with Kickstarter there's something to the pledge "If we get this much money, we will do X. If not, you are not out a dime." The same is not true of all IndieGoGo projects.

It could be taken the other way, however. I mentioned that my initial set of adventures were funded through Rite Publishing's in-house patronage system. What I didn't say, is that the project didn't get fully funded - at least not meeting the monetary goal of the patronage. However, we still put out the trilogy of adventures - I just had forgone the payments for the maps I created for it, so the project could be released. (It was my own project, so the loss in payment wasn't stopping me from releasing the products.)

For example, in my Kickstarter project to qualify as funded, I require collecting $4000, then as a second Tier for $7000. Even if we fully fund Tier 1, and something towards Tier 2, we will still put out a larger GM's guide, just perhaps not as large as our Tier 2 goal (200 pages.)

If I could use the moneys collected for even not hitting the $4000 goal, I would still release a product (just a little smaller than I planned.) By not being able to do this, unless fully collecting the minimum funding, I see this as somewhat detrimental to Kickstarter vs. other means of patronage funding.

Morrus · Jul 27, 2012

gamerprinter said:
I could be taken the other way, however. I mentioned that my initial set of adventures were funded through Rite Publishing's in-house patronage system. What I didn't say, is that the project didn't get fully funded - at least not meeting the monetary goal of the patronage. However, we still put out the trilogy of adventures - I just had forgone the payments for the maps I created for it, so the project could be released. (It was my own project, so the loss in payment wasn't stopping me from releasing the products.)

For example, in my Kickstarter project to qualify as funded, I require collecting $4000, then as a second Tier for $7000. Even if we fully fund Tier 1, and something towards Tier 2, we will still put out a larger GM's guide, just perhaps not as large as our Tier 2 goal (200 pages.)

If I could use the moneys collected for even not hitting the $4000 goal, I would still release a product (just a little smaller than I planned.) By not being able to do this, unless fully collecting the minimum funding, I see this as somewhat detrimental to Kickstarter vs. other means of patronage funding.

So you set a lower goal. The fact that you can - and did - do it for less money means that you set the goal too high in the first place. That's a feature of Kickstarter, not a bug.

Agamon · Jul 27, 2012

Morrus said:
That may be so, but if you're not American you have no choice but to use IndieGoGo over Kickstarter. Kickstarter's an exclusive club at present.

I didn't know this. I can back KS products through Amazon.ca. Is KS just NA-based?

gamerprinter · Jul 27, 2012

Morrus said:
So you set a lower goal. The fact that you can - and did - do it for less money means that you set the goal too high in the first place. That's a feature of Kickstarter, not a bug.

Perhaps it can be looked that way. But I still released everything I promised in the original patronage. Had I not been both the project creator and the project cartographer, it would have meant no maps - which really wasn't a possibility for an adventure arc. I don't know any other freelance cartographer who would have made the maps for no pay.

It wasn't that the patronage was set too high, it was just I had a work-around for not getting the full funding. Not every publisher has that option.

Minicol · Jul 27, 2012

I am getting fed up with Kickstarter myself. You get one for everything and its dog, and my budget is not infinite.

I have no regrets so far, but I don't tink I'll be going that way much more, unless I really like the products I get this way.

JeffB · Jul 27, 2012

They annoy the crap out of me personally. I am tired of seeing them on the front page, and I refuse to support any of them..even for products I might like.

That is the sugarcoated version. I toned down what I really would like to say out of respect for Eric's Grandma.