I’m going to start a new habit of listing some cool Crowdfunding projects you should check out every month. Not all of them get the press they desparately need, so why not tell the four people who read my blog about them?
Only games. Not MMORPGs or table-top games, I never liked them and there are way too many of those on Kickstarter to begin with.
So, you’ve been thinking about that game you want to make. You’ve thought about it for a long time, and you think you know exactly how you would go about doing it. You decide you’ll post your idea on Kickstarter.com so you can get funding to start making the game…
…yeah… don’t do that. Your first step for getting funding to make your game is to make the game.
Doesn’t make sense? Hear me out. Kickstarter projects often succeed on credibility, about how much backers trust that you can make what you promise you can. Also, it’s difficult to understand exactly what the game would be without seeing the game in action. Even if you think you need money to make it, you won’t get any money without making it first. It’s a classic Catch-22 scenario.
So, you’ve been thinking.
You’ve been watching television. You’ve been reading internet news. You’ve been reading the local newspaper and magazines and books.
You’ve seen that Kickstarter is a great way to get money directly from fans/customers for you to use to create your product.
You’ve seen that many indie games have achieved success on the site.
You’ve decided that you will make a Kickstarter campaign for your game!
The Kickstarter campaign for “James – Journey of Existence” was a huge success!
We got $312 funded of our $5,000 goal (a little over 6%). 28 backers in total contributed to that. Why do I call this a success?
My Kickstarter for “James – Journey of Existence” (http://kck.st/19wTNSh) has only 25 backers so close to the end, which is a little embarrassing, when the beginning had so much promise. On the other hand, the new IndieDB page for “James – Journey of Existence” (http://www.indiedb.com/games/james-journey-of-existence) already has 4 followers after about 24 hours of being up, so it seems an easy and safe simulation of how a Kickstarter would play, given the growth in community rises at almost the same rate.
There were several things wrong with the Kickstarter campaign. One major one was the current quality of the game itself: the environments were bland, the animations were crude, and the character designs were lacking. Art is in the eye of the beholder and some have truly loved the game’s style so far, but I can’t argue with the masses. And here’s my first step in fixing that: new character designs for James!
