The Game Crowdfunding Thread

[Tasty]

DONATE PLZ

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2029149553/cult-county-by-renegade-kid

  DONATE PLZ 

[a slime appears]

DONATE PLZ

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2029149553/cult-county-by-renegade-kid

  DONATE PLZ 

Tasty Meat

YES, PLEASE DONATE

[Takao]

Kickstarter Page

Project overview: Flying Hamster II is an ACTION-ADVENTURE GAME with PLATFORMING and RPG design elements. It is the direct sequel from the game Flying Hamster (2010) and is made by the same passionate team of professionals.

Why this project:

•     Flying Hamster (2010) was downloaded 1.7M+ times on PS Vita, PSP and iOS.
•     We received many messages from fans asking for a SEQUEL.
•     But most importantly: many people are craving for a new WONDER BOY / MONSTER WORLD game.

Flying Hamster II is our answer to both Monster World AND Flying Hamster fans, and more largely to any action-adventure games lover.

Why we need you: With your support you can help us make Flying Hamster II happen, and target new platforms!

Platforms: Flying Hamster II is developed for WINDOWS via STEAM, and depending on Stretch Goals achieved our goal is a multi-platform release on PLAYSTATION 4, PLAYSTATION VITA, XBOX ONE, NINTENDO 3DS and WII U.

Estimated release: Mid-2015.

Flying Hamster II is a 2D sidescrolling Action-RPG with hand-drawn 1080p Full HD graphics (note: resources are all in 4k resolution, just in case we require to use them one day), top notch animations and unique Flying Hamster humour signature!

Our main inspirations are the Wonder Boy / Monster World, Zelda series and Secret Of Mana, and along with our vision of what a 2D platformer RPG should be, we are ready to deliver the best gaming experience ever.

    EXPLORE the world, loot and slash many different enemies with your best weapons. Find new equipment and unique transformations granting you access to tons of secret passages and hideouts.
    DISCOVER the beautiful hand-drawn 2D environments in Full HD, talk and fight with smoothly animated characters or huge bosses.
    LIVE the amazing adventures of Newton the Flying Hamster, dive into this fantastic video game with its epic story and catchy soundtrack.

 

[Tasty]

Reminds me of Maple Story.

[magus]

that looks pretty cool but i might be biased by the fact that i really like monster world 3

[Tasty]

I backed that Hamster thing. You're welcome, Taco.

Now back CC. It's only fair.

[Great Rumbler]

Cult County is DOA, Andrex, you might as well accept that.

-Comparatively high goal
-Not well known
-Minuscule amount of gameplay footage

They totally botched the launch and it's unlikely they can find a way to come back from that. Might as well end it now, wait a few months, and then come back with a better campaign.

[Tasty]

You don't have to tell me. I know how KS's work and it was pretty clear after just a few hours.

I feel like if they had brought on a bigger name (like, Akira Yamaoka for the music or something), scaled down the platforms just a little to make the goal less ($300k for Weeoo, PS4, Xbone, and Windows? PS3, Vita, Mac, and Linux are superfluous enough for stretch goals IMO), and had gameplay footage ready to go*, it would have had an honest shot.

Still, you guys can still donate even knowing it probably won't make it. No risk to you and the KS won't seem to fail as bad as otherwise.

* They say they're going to release playable footage in less than two weeks anyways, so why not wait until then before launching the KS? Urgh it makes me so mad and sad at the little things they could have done to have a shot. It's obvious they put a ton of work into this KS too, it definitely comes off like a professional thing like Shovel Knight and No. 9 and not some no name thing. But I guess when you're gunning for half a mil that's probably required...

[Tasty]

Seriously this KS failing is completely ruining my mood. Jools remains the only game dev I've ever gotten to sign a game for me and I legit have loved his games since the first Dementium in 2007 (when everyone looked at me funny for hyping up a horror FPS for DS. But I was fucking excited!)

I just... feel so bad for them.

[tiesto]

That Hamster Wonderboy-ish game looks awesome.

[Tasty]

I honestly don't know what they were thinking with this KS.  $600k is a *lot* of money, and we *just* saw a KS that promised to reunite Matsuno/Sakimoto/Yoshida on a spiritual successor to a multi-million selling franchise just barely squeak past that mark.  Wayforward has a large fanbase going back almost 20 years and were putting forward a fairly well-known brand and barely got near that.

This is a very niche developer who is barely known, even among the mainly Nintendo handheld audience they've targeted in the past, trying to fund a game with no footage on consoles whose audiences have no reason to know who they are.  It's not even leveraging one of their known properties, though I doubt a Mutant Mudds sequel would get anywhere near $600k either.  Renegade Kid fans have 3DSs, this isn't coming to 3DS.  Non-fans aren't going to be interested in what appears to be "yet another zombie game in a brown place" (consoles have tons of stuff like that) from a previously-handheld dev.

We've seen 5th Cell splash trying to move to console, Wayforward's had a very rough go of the same, so yeah... this was never going to end well.

Probably a combination of the Nintendo fan media constantly hyping their stuff (which I'm not exactly innocent of, either...) and seeing the uber ultra successful KS's. Really confused why they didn't just wait until they had a playable build for video. Maybe they're not so proud of it?

[Great Rumbler]

Apparently they're working on a demo that they plan to show off before the end of their fundraising, but if they're that close to a demo they should have just waited another week or two.

[a slime appears]

I honestly don't know what they were thinking with this KS.  $600k is a *lot* of money, and we *just* saw a KS that promised to reunite Matsuno/Sakimoto/Yoshida on a spiritual successor to a multi-million selling franchise just barely squeak past that mark.

Unfortunately I'm not able to comment on this discussion but I just wanted to say that $580,000 isn't a lot of money for a multi-platform console title. I've been working with teams of all sizes with huge and small publishers so I feel I can provide an accurate opinion. Half a million these days gets you a small team (>10) working on a project for a full year and that's if the company is located in an area with a low cost of living or the team is all remote. What you're not considering is all the overhead a real company has to manage including massive dev costs associated with just getting a game on a platform (day-to-day operations, Q&A, software licensing, submission, etc) and paying their employees a decent salary (possibly including medical coverage, transportation costs, etc). You're also completely ignoring the chunk that Kickstarter and Amazon take out of the final budget (~10%).

The reason why you see a lot of Kickstarter projects go so cheaply is because a lot of companies invest their own saved capita to offset development costs with the idea that they'll make it back through sales once the product is released. Or it's from a small team of inexperienced developers who don't mind being paid a minimal amount of money because their cost of living is so incredibly small. Kickstarter has unfortunately really skewed the public's perception on what they think games cost to make because now they see a dollar amount tied to a project. The Skullgirls Kickstarter controversy is a good reminder that the public has no clue how much these things cost.

You pointed to Unsung Story but you're forgetting that Matsuno is just a contractor hired to create the initial design plan and provide development feedback. Sakimoto is a composer and music is usually the cheapest part of development since it's a pretty straightforward process that's independently created. Yoshida is a concept artist that is paid per piece and again it's a small part of the overall development budget since all of that was already created and paid for before the Kickstarter started. Hiring contractors, even as celebrated as they are, doesn't cost all that much and since they're Japanese they already get paid a lot less then someone comparable in the US. Money isn't even the big hurdle, the real trick is convincing these people to attach their name to your project. The brunt of development (and burn-rate) is handled by Playdek, a respectable company which has a very low production overhead and makes mobile games.

[Positive Touch]

600k may not be a lot to make a game with, but it is a LOT to expect people to blindly front you. if you dont expect to get that much from a ks (which you shouldnt) for your multiplatform game, then you should aim for one platform and hope to cover the cost of future ports from sales money or a publisher or something.

high costs mean shit-all if you cant even get the money together up front to start development. if all you can get is a meager amount of cash then you need to develop a game that can be built on that amount of funding.

[a slime appears]

600k may not be a lot to make a game with, but it is a LOT to expect people to blindly front you. if you dont expect to get that much from a ks (which you shouldnt) for your multiplatform game, then you should aim for one platform and hope to cover the cost of future ports from sales money or a publisher or something.

high costs mean shit-all if you cant even get the money together up front to start development. if all you can get is a meager amount of cash then you need to develop a game that can be built on that amount of funding.

Look, I'm not mister moneybags but half a million really isn't that much these days in game development on this side of the planet. It's actually a pretty paltry sum that has typically been relegated to hand-held titles or small PC games. The wrinkle is that Kickstarter is now exposing the true costs of these projects and consumers are scoffing because they lack the knowledge or business insight on how to budget the funding of a professional artistic endeavor.

You're not just paying for a singular product; you're paying for the livelihood of a small team of individuals and their families for a short period of time and hopefully they deliver an entertaining game at the end of it.

[Great Rumbler]

Unfortunately I'm not able to comment on this discussion

And yet you did anyway!

[a slime appears]

 

Well, the discussion was about the Renegade Kid Kickstarter in particular and the predictions on its success. I was just commenting on a small point that Oscar made about the cost of development appearing to be too high or disproportionate to other successes. I just wanted to throw in my two cents on the topic of development costs since it's something I've had a lot of professional experience with.

[Great Rumbler]

Nobody's commenting on whether $600k is a decent budget for a game this size or not, but on whether $600k is viable on Kickstarter. And the reality is, it isn't. Especially given all factors related to the game in question.

[a slime appears]

Nobody's commenting on whether $600k is a decent budget for a game this size or not, but on whether $600k is viable on Kickstarter. And the reality is, it isn't. Especially given all factors related to the game in question.

I'm sorry, this page says otherwise: https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?category_id=35&sort=most_funded

[Great Rumbler]

For every game that makes over $600k, there are probably at least 10 that end up getting far less. And those that made over that amount had some really good reasons for doing so, reasons that the game we're talking about severely lacks.

[a slime appears]

Well, I'm no expert on what makes something a Kickstarter success and it appears that very few people are.

It would be nice though if a lot more games were funded! The AAA publishing model is all sorts of broke and Kickstarter is doing some pretty impressive numbers for a service people openly laughed at in the industry a few years back. The one awesome thing is that it's empowering a lot of small independents to make their games (ignoring the creepy visual novels). I mentioned it briefly earlier, but if you're a small team of people and don't have to worry about anything else besides getting a modest salary and software licenses then you can do quite a lot on Kickstarter. Look at Planets³* (a game I funded) for example! It's a team of people, most of who are new to the industry or recently graduated, and they are putting together an awesome idea and game concept.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

* Please fund Planets3 in addition to Cult Country.

[close]

[Takao]

Slime, there are less than 40 gaming Kickstarters over the amount RK wants. There have been 4,422 successfully funded video game Kickstarters. They're the 1% of crowd-funding.

[a slime appears]

Slime, there are less than 40 gaming Kickstarters over the amount RK wants. There have been 4,422 successfully funded video game Kickstarters. They're the 1% of crowd-funding.

All I'm saying is that games have very real costs attached to them and how you fund it doesn't change the burn-rate for a project. I'm speaking in general terms about the cost of development and not what amount is appropriate for Kickster because frankly that's something no one knows. It's incredibly difficult to accurately predict the cost of development unfortunately but there are lots of examples of games that have been funded for above $500,000 and they have similar levels of effort and dev-time or much higher.

Also Takao you are completely right about the amount of funded Kickstarters. A vast majority of those titles are from very small teams of people and independents and they can afford to be so cheap because their costs are super small. Once you start getting into the multi-platform and complex genres with multiple SKUs you immediately start seeing costs rising upwards. We can play armchair bizdev all day but the fact of the matter is no one knows what the secret sauce is to get something consistently funded and I wasn't even remotely talking about that.

Although some of you have already astutely pointed out what works and doesn't but that's not something I can or have commented on. However I do appreciate the insight because I am learning myself.

[Stoney Mason]

I don't really follow the kickstarter stuff anymore. I ultimately felt I didn't really like the process so I stopped doing it. But it seems like Kickstarter has found its level in the sense that it seems to be better for a certain size project which is a low level smallish in scope indie game. Like I said, maybe I just don't follow it enough anymore but the bigger, high ticket profile stuff seems to have decreased in frequency by comparison.  (I mean relatively speaking. None of the things on kickstarter are really big budget games)

Like I have a feeling if something like Republique came along now it would fail miserably. Not necessarily because of quality issues but because the novelty is gone.

[Tasty]

I don't really follow the kickstarter stuff anymore. I ultimately felt I didn't really like the process so I stopped doing it. But it seems like Kickstarter has found its level in the sense that it seems to be better for a certain size project which is a low level smallish in scope indie game. Like I said, maybe I just don't follow it enough anymore but the bigger, high ticket profile stuff seems to have decreased in frequency by comparison.  (I mean relatively speaking. None of the things on kickstarter are really big budget games)

Like I have a feeling if something like Republique came along now it would fail miserably. Not necessarily because of quality issues but because the novelty is gone.

Not sure I necessarily agree. There was certainly a big KS fad phase where it seemed like a ton of projects were getting over a million each, but it's still true today that a cool idea with some large-ish names behind it can get funded. Now, I don't know if Republique would get as *much* funding today as it did back then, but I do still think it'd get funded.

[Tasty]

yosp knows what's up.

Also they announced Project Morpheus support. Please fund if you want an awesome VR horror experience.

[Bebpo]

Classroom Aquatic struggled to reach 30k

600k is a lot for a game with no big names attached.

[Great Rumbler]

Like I have a feeling if something like Republique came along now it would fail miserably. Not necessarily because of quality issues but because the novelty is gone.

You're probably right in regard to Republique, people are becoming more picky since those first 6-8 months after Doublefine's success when it seemed like every game was blowing past its initial goal. On the other hand, Republique didn't hit its goal with ease, it took a huge push to limp across the finish line. But games are still regularly finding success regardless.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

What Oscar says: yes, games cost more than $600k to make, obviously. That doesn't mean your $600k Kickstarter will be successful. Most projects without nostalgia/talent are struggling to pass the $100k mark. The only two "no names, no IP" Kickstarter successes I can think of over the past year are Hyper Light Drifter ($650k) and Darkest Dungeons ($310k). Both those projects have a strong visual aesthetic, unique tone hook (Ghibli retro / Gran Guignol roguelike), and lots and lots of gameplay footage. They also had superbly low up-front goals ($27k and $75k, respectively). By "succeeding" early on, there's a snowball effect that encourages latecomers to pile on and continue contributing.

Devs looking to Kickstart their project are absolutely in between a rock and a hard place - lie about your game's cost so you can hit a smaller goal, or be realistic about cost and not have a snowball's chance in Hades of getting funded? I honestly don't know. But I do know you're never going to hit above $500k unless you have a much-loved developer with several million-selling titles to their name. That ain't Cult County.

I don't expect a game-related Kickstarter to pass $1 mil again until the inevitable Igavania.

[a slime appears]

Slime - what dog said.  I'm well-aware 600k doesn't go far in game dev anymore, but that's entirely different from what I was saying.  I worried a little someone would read it that way, though. 

All I'm saying is regardless of what it costs, it's a lot of money to ask for in the current KS climate, unless you are a very big (clearly bigger than Matsuno or Wayforward) name.  Even when KS was novel, it would have been tough for a relative nobody like Renegade Kid to pull that amount.

That the amount is far less than the cost matters about as much as it did when Sony was trying to get $600 for a PS3.

Yeah, I completely understand. I didn't misconstrue or misunderstand but I just wanted to say my piece not because of you but I constantly see the general gaming public has zero clue what goes into game development and balk at these supposedly high costs. My comment was completely focused on just the general cost of development and not Kickstarter at all. I was hoping my explanation in the first post and my further clarification a few posts later would've communicated that but c'est la vie. For what it's worth I'm reading these comments very carefully and will be echoing these sentiments so I genuinely do appreciate the opinions posted in this thread.

Also Planets³ got funded!

[The Sceneman]

Oh my god that Hamster game looks incredible. Will back with the quickness

[Tasty]

Some Castlevania composer joined that Hampster thing.

Big news?

[Sho Nuff]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

[magus]

from the look of it that hamster game will be lucky to reach it's initial goal, the same thing happened more or less to la mulana 2, then some asshole like molyneux launch something like godus and it gets 600k$

i swear watching kickstarter is like turning on the tv and realizing they are still doing that awfull reality show but they somehow stopped doing that show you liked

[Great Rumbler]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

Yeah, they desperately need something to show off other than footage of the original Outcast.

i swear watching kickstarter is like turning on the tv and realizing they are still doing that awfull reality show but they somehow stopped doing that show you liked

I guess if you ignore that wide variety of games that have been successful over the past two years.

[Stoney Mason]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

Sad. I really would like such a thing quite a bit. But yeah has no chance in hell. Kickstarter ends up depressing me more than exciting me a lot of times.

[Great Rumbler]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

Sad. I really would like such a thing quite a bit. But yeah has no chance in hell. Kickstarter ends up depressing me more than exciting me a lot of times.

Then you should avoid this thread and stick to the one I made only for games that have already been successfully funded.

[magus]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

Yeah, they desperately need something to show off other than footage of the original Outcast.

i swear watching kickstarter is like turning on the tv and realizing they are still doing that awfull reality show but they somehow stopped doing that show you liked

I guess if you ignore that wide variety of games that have been successful over the past two years.

but awfull reality show are successful, it's not my problem if you like them dog

[Great Rumbler]

but awfull reality show are successful, it's not my problem if you like them dog

You brought up one game that probably won't get funded and another that did to complain that nothing good ever gets funded. Okay, magus.

[Stoney Mason]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

Sad. I really would like such a thing quite a bit. But yeah has no chance in hell. Kickstarter ends up depressing me more than exciting me a lot of times.

Then you should avoid this thread and stick to the one I made only for games that have already been successfully funded.

I get it. You like kickstarter. Calm down. I'm just talking shit. Nothing meant by it.

[magus]

but awfull reality show are successful, it's not my problem if you like them dog

You brought up one game that probably won't get funded and another that did to complain that nothing good ever gets funded. Okay, magus.

umm yeah? i'm saying this looks more promising than a game made from someone who has always disappointed and under-delivered like molyneux or some no-name dev that was inspired by at least 3 different popular ip, so i'm sad to see that it's struggling... why are you getting your feather ruffled?

[Great Rumbler]

I get it. You like kickstarter. Calm down. I'm just talking shit. Nothing meant by it.

I guess that came across as curt, but it wasn't supposed to be. Watching neat Kickstarters flounder is depressing, checking up occasionally on successfully funded games is less so [unless they fail spectacularly, although that can be entertaining sometimes].

But I will be curt with magus in the KS threads, as his constant grousing justly deserves.

[magus]

be the mutley of my dick dastardly GR

[a slime appears]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

There's no mention of them retaining the voxel engine. My backing depends on that. SERIOUSLY.

[Great Rumbler]

Voxels are so hot right now.

Actually, a voxel-based game just got funded a few days ago:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1247991467/planets3

[a slime appears]

Yes, I funded it!

[Takao]

I kept on thinking about Dustforce as I watched that Outcast video.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Some Castlevania composer joined that Hampster thing.

Big news?

She's great, and her involvement in whatever IGA has planned will be vital, but for this project, I doubt she'll make a significant difference.

Also, it's easy to promise to compose music for a game that won't be funded...

[Great Rumbler]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/outcast-reboot-hd/outcast-reboot-hd

Outcast reboot

And nothing to show aside from a painting...good luck guys

[a slime appears]

Sooooo Outcast seems to be chugging along. They're already at $111,530 with 29 days left to go!

I assume that's a good amount to be at so early in the funding, right?

[Great Rumbler]

Sooooo Outcast seems to be chugging along. They're already at $111,530 with 29 days left to go!

I assume that's a good amount to be at so early in the funding, right?

For the average Kickstarter, the first two days and the last two days probably account for roughly 2/3 of their total take.

Outcast's funding total at this point is...cautiously optimistic.

[a slime appears]

Sooooo Outcast seems to be chugging along. They're already at $111,530 with 29 days left to go!

I assume that's a good amount to be at so early in the funding, right?

For the average Kickstarter, the first two days and the last two days probably account for roughly 2/3 of their total take.

Outcast's funding total at this point is...cautiously optimistic.

I hope it goes through 'CAUSE VOXELS.

[Takao]

Yeah, FH2 isn't going to get funded. Oh well, Game Atelier's doing a few promotions with their existing games in an attempt to try.

A bunch of their iOS games are now free:
Flying Hamster - https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/flying-hamster/id403533758?mt=8
Flying Hamster HD - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flying-hamster-hd/id408869936?mt=8
Gauge - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gauge-game/id512206751?mt=8
Sunflowers - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sunflowers/id512309474?mt=8
Zorbie - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zorbie/id592117730?mt=8

Their two Vita games have been price cut to 50 cents:
Flying Hamster HD - https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-ca/games/flying-hamster-hd/cid=UP4178-PCSE00257_00-THEFLYINGHAMSTER
SunFlowers - https://store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/#!/en-ca/games/sunflowers/cid=UP4178-PCSE00047_00-TGASUNFLOWERS004

[Tasty]

DONATE PLZ

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2029149553/cult-county-by-renegade-kid

DONATE PLZ 

[Great Rumbler]

If I find half a million stuffed under my mattress, I'll pass it along to those guys.

[Stoney Mason]

Hopefully Outcast makes it. I'm still skeptical though.

[tiesto]

Never heard of Outcast, surprised it's got a lot of money based on nothing but a single image. That Flying Hamster game looks great, shame it's not getting funded.

[Tasty]

If I find half a million stuffed under my mattress, I'll pass it along to those guys.

Cool, thanks buddy. Seems like a long shot but every bit counts.

[Great Rumbler]

Never heard of Outcast, surprised it's got a lot of money based on nothing but a single image.

It was one of the first true 3D open world games. Pretty advanced stuff back in 1999:

[Tasty]

3DS beating Vita and Weeoo beating PS4. And Android beating iOS. And Linux beating Mac.

(It's releasing on Windoze as part of the initial goal.)