I happen to really like the concept behind Kickstarter. It's like taking preorders without actually taking the money for the preorders until you have enough preorders to justify actually going thru with the project.
Case in point: AGP - Adventure Games Publishing - James Mishler's startup. James came out of the gate with a really strong product and offered subscriptions to upcoming products. Liking what I saw and looking to support a new publisher I ponied up for a sub - which was cancelled after one or two releases. I'm still out the cash on that (no biggie - I'm a grown man, I knew the risks)
Then we have iTabletop / Pandoren, a VTT which was asking for $200 from early adapters - and has now gone free.
I still do the preorder thing - DCC and Delving Deeper (edit - 11/8/12 and I'm still waiting on DD to ship - When the fuck did I preorder it?) are games I placed my hard earned cash in the hands of publishers and expect to see a product down the line. An act of faith, if you will.
With Kickstarter, you don't actually spend the cash until the project meets it's funding goals and reaches the end of the funding time set. Which is just a bit less of a gamble.
Some projects ask their backers for input, most offer extras for higher pledges. Eh, I've been doing the patron thing since Open Design started their patron projects. It resonates with me.
My latest is Adventurer Conqueror King. I know I saw someone else blogging about it earlier.
Oh, and DungeonMorph Dice, which I don't think would have been produced without Kickstarter. I'm looking forward to my dice ;)
Come to think of it, those are the only 2 projects I've funded that met their goals. The ones that crashed, crashed bad (and will remain nameless)
Picturing Solo History
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There are many gamers who will tell you that it was *Vampire the Masquerade*
that got them into roleplaying. That was in the 1990s. There are many
gamers ...
1 hour ago
I am very leery about pre-orders and often advise against them, but I recently pledged money on the ACKS project. The Kickstarter thing is a win-win situation for the gamer. If it falls through you haven't paid a cent. If they raise the money you get sent the finished product and have the satisfaction of knowing you helped make it happen.
ReplyDeleteI've been talking about ACKS a bit as well - looks well executed and is hitting on some fertile ground for expanding old school play.
ReplyDeletePlus, Kickstarter avoids Austrodavicus's bad pre-sell experiences.
Actually I've been lucky enough not to have had any such experiences, but I have witnessed plenty in our community.
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