Kickstarter: Corruption of Ideals?

[Morgan Ramsay]

I am saying "DO IT" - Steal as much money from people as you can, make a mediocre product (or no product at all) just as Paul suggests, and pocket the difference on top of the revenue for maximum gain with minimal risk.

Making a promise, receiving consideration, and not delivering on that promise with no intentions of ever doing so is called fraud. Existing laws provide consumers with a means to obtain relief from fraud; however, fraud cannot be eliminated by regulation. Accredited investors, too, have been defrauded. As Kickstarter points out on its website, "due diligence" is the name of the game.

My goal here is to promote thought about the big picture. KS can be a way to reduce risk and increase profit as well as increase marketing and site traffic if you do it right. Further, it is inevitable that a large scale fully funded game simply won't be made. What's wrong with pointing that out?

A successfully backed project that fails to be completed is very different than a successfully backed project that was started to defraud backers. The Star Command project could eventually become an example of the former and illustrates many of the ailments that affect startups. War Balloon spent most of their Kickstarter funds in the wrong areas, misappropriated funds to nonproject expenses (e.g., incorporation, and conference exposure despite not having a game), paid exorbitant prices for legal aid and the production of backer incentives, paid shipping costs, and misplanned their campaign. At the end of the day, they found themselves $50K in debt. How do we solve these problems? That's what's important.

not having a publisher breathing down your neck for the same reason. (Not that I am pro publisher either, but its important to acknowledge what little good they do)

Every meaningfully Kickstarted developer becomes their own publisher. That includes Double Fine, Harebrained Schemes, and inXile Entertainment, as well as the smaller and new developers who have relatively little experience with publishing. The anti-publisher stance is meaningless rhetoric and is, in fact, damaging to the overall "indie" community. Successful publishing requires competencies in several domains to which most developers have not even been exposed. Kickstarted developers who have not thought about what becoming a developer and a publisher means will experience serious and probably fatal difficulties, as they find themselves merely breaking even or, worse, operating at an unsustainable loss.

[terin]

Obviously Morgan I am not actually in favor of defrauding customers outright (Just to be perfectly clear). Finally you and I have some common ground here. Absolutely a project that was intended as fraud to begin with is a different story: But the results are the same. Frankly, you can't PROVE that Star Command made legitimate mistakes on their budgeting. Maybe they just wanted to live their dream of going to Pax and have some secret clandestine deal with the lawyer. I don't believe it, of course, but the point is: Mismanagement and fraud are not all that dissimilar and the results are basically the same. As indies we need to be aware of Star Command's mistakes to not repeat them - so once again I point out the importance of this thread, not as a knock against indies or kickstarter, but as an identification of the risks involved with this so called 'free money,'

And once again we find common ground: Not all indies are good at handling their publisher roles. I would say this is the second most common point of failure for indies on these forums. The first being simply not being able to get the game done with the level of polish needed to compete (or not done at all). The good news of that is if Kickstarter helps with the complete+polish phase more focus can be brought to the publishing role.

That said, very, very, few publishers I have worked with have been worthwhile value additions to a game and no worldwide publishing deal I have experienced ended up benefiting the developers more than it cost them. Most of the good ones are for specific tasks or territories with cash paid against royalties and/or a couple are cash paid to complete the product (against royalties).

But obviously you need someone working on promoting the game and securing distribution deals. It can be someone in house (which costs you time) a professional (like me, who costs you money and potentially some royalties) or a publisher (who costs you a royalty amount). Still has to get done and be budgeted!

-Joe

[LiquidShock]

I looked into starting a campaign on KS but decided against it for one reason that I can't believe has not been brought up.

Small indie dev shops are usually limited on the number of people working there and once you have a funded campaign besides game production you also take on a new role of order fulfillment. Depending on the perks you offer you may have now just become a T shirt, Poster, and any other tangible good you offered maker. It is fine for the name in credits, beta tester, pre order, etc because those are part of the development process. But now you have to design a T shirt have it made and ship those out the same with any other tangible item you offer. I for one don't have the extra time or desire to add that to my collection of hats that I already wear.

[lennard]

As indies we need to be aware of Star Command's mistakes to not repeat them - so once again I point out the importance of this thread, not as a knock against indies or kickstarter, but as an identification of the risks involved with this so called 'free money,'
-Joe

Not looking to start a fight but this is the crux of why your thread rankles me. I have taken a huge financial risk to become an indie and Kickstarter helps me get the word out and get funding in one swell foop. You are not an indie as far as I can tell. You are selling a service - one that Kickstarter competes with. You are within your rights to "defend the consumer from the evil and fraudulent indie" but it's a bit bizarre to me that you are coming onto this site to do so. The consumers aren't here and we are the crowd for whom KS (and it's variants) can be a real lifeline. I don't know why consumers like to fund KS projects - I expect the novelty is wearing off - but since games are now usually free or a whopping $0.99 to $6.99 I'm not too concerned if the end consumer decides to kick in $25-$50 in 2012 money into somebodies indie. campaign. I was spending $49.99 back in 1982 to buy Atari VCS cartridges...

[BantamCityGames]

Kickstarter FTW!