Kickstarter Projects Worth Considering

[Opa Opa]

Does anyone feel more wary of backing projects now because of this?

No, I never felt comfortable with the kickstarter model to begin with. I read the terms of use and discovered virtually no repercussions for the kickstartee to not follow through with the successfully backed projects.

That being said, I do feel bad for people that donated to the Yogs-thing. Although, they're sending people a code to some game... Better than nothing I suppose.

[flex wood]

There may actually be a legal infraction somewhere in the mix as many youtube personalities are paid to promote product and they do not state that they are being paid to do so, which is against the law. We shall see!

I'm not sure if that is actually breaking any laws or even against terms of youtube. I mean it's shady and all but I just don't care really. I pretty much hate every popular video game related youtube personality except robbaz, so the content id thing was pretty funny for me to watch. If making videos is so expensive and time consuming for these people now that they are making so much money, they need to look at why it became so expensive and time consuming and go back to what they were doing in the beginning when they weren't making loads of money.

There are reasons I only watch robbaz videos on youtube, the main one is he isn't a shill. He only has footage of the games he's playing and doesn't need to use a bunch of animation and editors to make a good video.

[AppleQueso]

Does anyone feel more wary of backing projects now because of this?

No, I never felt comfortable with the kickstarter model to begin with. I read the terms of use and discovered virtually no repercussions for the kickstartee to not follow through with the successfully backed projects.

In a way, I kinda see that as the point, you're basically taking a risk and investing in a project. It's not a preorder, it's an investment, and part of investing is doing so with the understanding that things might fall through.

I feel that the spirit of kickstarter is best embodied in small scale projects. The stuff done by maybe one or two people out of their basement just asking the public to believe in them and help out.

I don't really have any qualms with what people do with their own money, but let's face it, something like Mighty No. 9 could've found a publisher if they wanted. As is, there's the cool fan participation angle, which is neat, but imho it's not really what I think kickstarter should really be all about.

[Anapan]

I just bought a small portion of potato salad that will have a warning label attached to it.

totally worth it!
Seriously tho, the recipe book will be awesome - being so well crowdsourced and all.

[lisalover1]

Does anyone feel more wary of backing projects now because of this?

No, I never felt comfortable with the kickstarter model to begin with. I read the terms of use and discovered virtually no repercussions for the kickstartee to not follow through with the successfully backed projects.

In a way, I kinda see that as the point, you're basically taking a risk and investing in a project. It's not a preorder, it's an investment, and part of investing is doing so with the understanding that things might fall through.

I feel that the spirit of kickstarter is best embodied in small scale projects. The stuff done by maybe one or two people out of their basement just asking the public to believe in them and help out.

I don't really have any qualms with what people do with their own money, but let's face it, something like Mighty No. 9 could've found a publisher if they wanted. As is, there's the cool fan participation angle, which is neat, but imho it's not really what I think kickstarter should really be all about.

I feel like every aspect of Mighty No. 9's creation was intended by Inafune as giving the biggest and clearest possible middle finger to Capcom that he could. By which I mean making it as much like Mega Man in terms of design and production, as well as the Kickstarter model itself, which is about as far removed from AAA development as you can get outside of self-funding. And you know what? I love the game for that.

[Gunstar Green]

I personally think it's great that Japanese developers are testing the waters of going sans-big-publisher by taking advantage of things like Kickstarter. This was also a way for Inafune to resurrect the fan involvement aspect of Mega Man Legends 3.

[marurun]

I tend to feel conflicted about Kickstarter (and Indigogo, etc...). On the one hand, I like the idea that small teams with ideas that need capital can get help from their potential audience. However, I see far too many people asking for money without a real clue, or way too early in their product development cycle.

More to the Inafune thing, it isn't like Japan is averse to smaller companies and dev teams. Look at all the little companies that form when a larger one collapses. When Toaplan collapsed a half-dozen smaller companies grew from it. Honestly, I think Steam, Microsoft, and Apple have done more for smaller indie devs in the US than Kickstarter, and now Steam is starting to pay off for Japanese devs as well. Really, with the doujin market in Japan, the biggest challenge for Japanese devs is finding broader publishing avenues, and the iOS and Android app stores and Steam have done far more to that end than Kickstarter.

[Gunstar Green]

I just see it as another tool that's there if you want to use it. Kickstarter is not inherently good or bad. It did bring me FTL and Shovel Knight, two of my favorite gaming experiences of the last decade. Stuff like Steam has made it easier to get indie games out there and stuff like Kickstarter has given teams more opportunity to expand their budgets.

Sometimes the result is great, sometimes the result is mediocre, but as long as you understand you're investing in the creation of a product and that product might flame out I don't see a problem.

Could Inafune have found another publisher? Definitely. But he didn't, and he's got a budget that far exceeds what he needed and gets to be his own boss. I'm waiting to see how the game ultimately turns out before I pass my final judgement.

I totally agree that Steam has done wonders for the doujin market, especially for Western gamers to get access to those games.

[BogusMeatFactory]

With Mighty No. 9, it may be a middle finger to Capcom, but the thing is, I am sure that every single Megaman game presented to capcom was turned down. Publishers are fickle and strange, following some mystical occult-like methods to decide what should and should not be made. Whatever reasons, they made it quite clear that a new MegaMan was NOT happening.

Hey why not get the next best thing?

[Damm64]

So i saw this now

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/45 ... od-diaries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZCoGlZ6vng

I really wish they go and release their game on GoG.