#kickstarter fund

[thesundialreview]

The Sundial Review Kickstarter

Happy December 1st (aka our official launch day)!!! Our Kickstarter fund is up and running -- help us create our first print issue and pay our talented contributors.

[spintheblog]

Interesting New Kickstarter Fund...Storms in the Desert

I received an e-mail this afternoon about the following Kickstarter project that is looking for backers—I thought it looked rather interesting, and a bit different from the kind of music that I usually feature here on Spin: the Blog (but music I like…

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[cadmiumbanana-blog]

people dying of hunger in foreign countries... OKAY MAYBE MY SPARE CHANGE OK

homestuck starts a fund for an adventure game... fans invest thousands upon thousands of dollars. 

for a fucking game based on a webcomic? take out a goddamn loan it's evident the shit will sell itself you bastard. 

[linuxgamenews]

Wasteland 2 campaign ends tomorrow, exclusives added for $30 backers

The Kickstarter funding campaign for post-apocalyptic CRPG Wasteland 2 is going to end tomorrow at 5am (EDT, sounds like), so if you've not gotten in on it yet, now's the time. Actually, it's the best time, because tantalizing rewards have been added for those who put in $30 or more: - An extra digital download of the game in any format. Many people wanted to be able to get a Mac AND a PC version, or PC and Linux, or even an extra PC version for a friend. Now you can. - Access to a collection of exclusive Ranger portraits that will double the pool of character portraits you have to choose from at the start of the game when you are rolling up your Rangers. This unique image collection will not only give you more Ranger portraits, but more Ranger icons used to display your party location on the world map. - Access to a four-episode Video Development Blog that will show you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the design and development of Wasteland 2. Sit in on designer meetings and art-review meetings to see the process behind how the game is made. See interviews with Brian Fargo, Chris Avellone, Mike Stackpole, Alan Pavlish, and the rest of the development team as they explain to you what they are doing and why they are doing it. - A novella by Chris Avellone based on the universe of Wasteland. Hit the source to fund, and keep your eyes peeled there for a greenlight launch party livestream tonight, featuring Avellone, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and others.

[linuxgamenews]

10 Tips for Raising Money on Kickstarter

Double Fine, the game developer, raised $3.3 million for its adventure game, Double Fine Adventures. InXile, a game development company, made $500,000 in 17 hours for its role-playing game, Wasteland 2. Both did it on Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. Naturally, it would be easy to think of Kickstarter as a virtual Gold Rush. That would be a mistake. Kickstarter has its challenges. Even as a successful participant, I’ve hit some bumps along the way. The lessons I’ve learned from this experience are worth observing. If you’re looking to get funded on Kickstarter, here are ten tips to help you succeed. 1. Do Your Research Not every project will work on Kickstarter, and even fewer will create a feeding frenzy. So do your research. Observe, for example, what has worked and what hasn’t for other project creators. To find successful examples, look at sections of the site such as “Staff Picks” or “Popular.” To find projects that have not hit their goals, look at some of those under “Ending Soon.” Obviously, projects succeed and fail for different reasons, but researching examples of each will help you get a feel for what to do and what to avoid. 2. Define Your Goal Decide exactly what you want to accomplish and how much money you need to do that. Remember, if you don’t meet your goal, you get nothing. Better to ask a reasonable amount and then work hard to exceed that goal. Double Fine initially asked for $400,000, but blew that out of the water. If possible, have at least a group of friends who will support you with pledges from the get-go. That will help you build momentum. And remember, you cannot change the amount after you launch. Also, think about how long your project should run. Kickstarter recommends a maximum of 30 days, but some people have succeeded with longer cycles. Consider your audience and how long it will take to get the word out when making this decision. As with the funding amount, you can’t change your project length once it’s set. 3. Consider Your Rewards and Costs You’ll quickly learn that people want something in exchange for their pledges. Create rewards, gifts to backers based on the amount they pledge, starting at low values, like $5. That way you can reward even small-time backers. Double Fine is a good example of a project that created great rewards tailored to their audience. Their lowest reward was a digital copy of the game for $15. The highest was a private party with the developers for $10,000. Another critical factor to consider when creating rewards are related costs. For example, if you’re going to send your backers something by mail, calculate the postage and packaging you’ll need. Don’t get blindsided and discover that your costs will cancel out a part of your funding. 4. Prepare Your Pitch How you introduce your project can make a huge difference. On your project page you’ll describe your project, goals, and rewards. Be specific and include engaging images of your work. Kickstarter recommends that you also create a video. Make it fun, natural, and compelling by including key elements like people talking about how great or important the project is. Remember, your pitch should pump people up about your project and show both your enthusiasm and your ability to follow through. 5. Market the Hell Out of It Once you’ve pulled the trigger and published your project, it’s time to promote via social media, friends, family, even strangers. Any updates you post will automatically be sent to your current backers, but urge them to re-post and re-tweet. If you can find a way to make your work newsworthy, pitch popular websites and newspapers. 6. Keep It Alive Your initial marketing may bring you some early success, but you need to keep feeding the fire. Find ways to update the project. Add new and fun rewards as you go. Keep people informed about your progress, and definitely share any good news or milestones like “We’re halfway there!” 7. Listen to Your Backers Many of your backers will offer advice. Listen. Some of them have backed many projects and know what works. Others just have an opinion, and even if you don’t agree, consider how many other people — potential investors — may think the same way. 8. Be Patient There will be times when pledges seem to flow in steadily, and times when it seems that nobody cares. When this happens, you’ll need to stay positive and re-engage those who got you this far. Start by letting your biggest supporters know it’s time to step up and spread the word. If they’ve backed the project, then they also want it to succeed. 9. Be Flexible and Creative Be prepared to do things you never anticipated doing. You hadn’t considered a special T-shirt as a reward? Maybe you should. A supporter offers to create limited-edition rewards to help your project? Why not? Bottom line: Be open and flexible. 10. Have Fun This is going to be a crazy ride so enjoy it. And remember, if at first you don’t succeed….

[linuxgamenews]

Wasteland 2 Kickstarter May Start an Admirable Trend

The Wasteland 2 Kickstarter has already more than exceeded its goal of $900,000. With 25 days still to go, it's approaching $1.5 million in pledges, a figure which will ensure the game lands on Mac and Linux in addition to PC. It's nice to see a game like Wasteland that is nearly 25 years old get the opportunity for a sequel thanks to a new method of funding, but this particular Kickstarter may result in more than just a (very) long-awaited sequel being made. The latest update on the Kickstarter, written by inXile boss Brian Fargo, recounts a story of how Fargo was kind to a young neighbor of his 20 years ago. He used this as the launching point to talk about a Kickstarter initiative he'd like to help start which he is calling Kick It Forward. "And speaking of goodwill it occurs to me that we can harness the power of Kickstarter in a more meaningful way," Fargo wrote. "Fan funding is bigger than me or Wasteland 2 as I have remarked before. The development community has come together to support us in ways that I didn't think possible and our power as developers will ultimately come from us sticking together." Noting that "both gamers and developers have so much more strength than they realize," he said he will be pledging money made by his Kickstarter-funded game to future Kickstarters. This won't be money that fans have donated -- there's no need to worry about seeing your money go to a project other than Wasteland 2 if you pledge. Instead 5 percent of profits generated by Wasteland 2, tentatively set for release in late 2013, will be sent to other Kickstarter developers.

[linuxgamenews]

Kickstarting the future of game publishing: An interview with Brian Fargo

When I was 12 years old, my days mainly consisted of one thing: playing games on my Commodore 64. I would set my alarm early to get some gaming in before school, think about the games all day during school, then come home and play as much as I could before my parents made me stop and do homework or chores. Aside from TSR's Gold Box series, the two games that molded my childhood and my love for gaming were Wasteland and The Bard's Tale. Both of these games were made by Interplay Productions, a company founded by Brian Fargo in 1983. Fargo has always been an iconic figure to me. I regularly name my MMO characters Faran Brygo (a name he used for an NPC in the original Wasteland). I'm certainly not alone in my love for Wasteland (which I have labeled for years as my all-time-favorite RPG), but I think it's safe to say that many gamers who enjoyed Wasteland always wondered why there was no sequel. Fallout 1 and 2 were "spiritual successors" to the game, but for copyright reasons were never actually labeled as true sequels. Fargo tried to make a true sequel for 20 years, but was always met with brick walls from publishers who weren't interested in resurrecting such an old game. Enter Kickstarter. After the wild success of Tim Schafer's Double Fine crowdfunding campaign, Fargo got the idea to try this out for himself. The timing was right with the current nostalgic gaming scene, the popularity of the post-apocalyptic genre, and the fact that most of Interplay's original fans are now in a position to where they make a little more income than that of household chores. We sat down with Brian Fargo to discuss his views on the potential of Kickstarter, the future of Big Brother game publishers, and Wasteland 2.

Massively: Tell us about how you first learned of Kickstarter. Was it from Tim Schafer's Double Fine funding campaign? Brian Fargo: I had only vaguely heard of Kickstarter in the past but it didn't hit my radar until after Double Fine raised a million dollars in a short period of time. He was as surprised as the rest of us when it brought in such a large amount and over-funded his request. Before I could speak to my guys I had people sending me messages via Twitter and Facebook that this could be perfect for Wasteland 2. I then threw the idea out there and it gained traction pretty quickly. But even then I was afraid to get excited about it for fear of the disappointment of not being able to make the game once again. You'd been working on getting a true sequel to Wasteland out for the last 20 years. Can you give us any examples of the resistance you faced when you brought this idea to publishers? In the beginning it was just a matter of having rights to do so. When we released Wasteland we were one of the top developers in the world and had several #1 successes with Bard's Tale, yet we really were not making much money. I tried to re-negotiate terms but I was offered but a small increase from what we were getting. It would have been crazy to stick with the same business model if a #1 hit wasn't getting us anywhere. There were people making decent money on games in the late 80's but they tended to be 1-2 person teams and there was no way I could make decent RPGs with that few people. So I became a publisher to change our model and EA wanted to pursue making a Wasteland 2 without us which was certainly in their rights to do so. I continued to pursue them to license the rights since they were not producing a game but they wanted to hold onto them. I finally gave up and decided I would just go make a new post-apocalyptic game that shared many of the sensibilities with the first one. We had many discussions about what made Wasteland great and through those discussions Fallout was born. But then I was able to work out a deal with EA that allowed me to get the rights I needed and secure the trademark. At long last I was finally going to be able to jump back into the post-apocalyptic fray after so many years. But incredibly, I had no interest from ANY publisher. And then Fallout 3 became a HUGE success in 2008 and I thought for sure that would get me a deal, but again, zero interest. And then I brought Jason Anderson and Mike Stackpole aboard and still nothing. The resistance from publishers ranged from absolute indifference to not knowing what I was talking about. I would speak quite enthusiastically about how great party-based RPGs were and that there was little competition, but I might as well have been pitching 4D tic-tac-toe. Most times I would not even get an reason as to why the publisher didn't like the idea or it would be a very generic "moving in another direction." It was aggravating. The time is certainly right for this project to take shape. Gamers are yearning for nostalgia and crowdfunding is quite honestly the best way to go about something like this anyway. Had you given up on Wasteland 2 before this? I really don't give up easily on anything but I have to say I had pretty much given up on this one. But with a little encouragement I decided ONE LAST TIME to try and launch the game by appealing to the fans. I knew there was a desire for the style of game but every time I spoke with a publisher it just went nowhere. I had shelved the idea a couple of times because I was busy but the last time there appeared to be no hope. I even gave a speech at GDC China last year in which I lamented on the loss of this style of game. So many of the people I have met in China, Korea, Singapore, Germany, France, (the list goes on) say how much they loved Wasteland and Bard's Tale yet I could not get anyone to bite. This game was unlikely to ever see the light of day if not for fan funding and digital distribution.

Tell us about the game. How true to the original do you plan to make it? I want this game to be comfortable for either a Wasteland of Fallout 1/2 player to be able to step into like a comfortable pair of shoes. Obviously the graphics need to be updated and will have different combat systems etc. but there is a tone, stats, and interface that comes with the RPGs from that era. People are very clear about wanting THAT experience and none of this "re-imagining" business. The game will initially take place in the (American) southwest with you controlling a band of desert rangers like the first game. The game will have scope and scale like both Wasteland and Fallout; it will be open-world in the sense that we don't lead you around by the nose; it will have multiple approaches to most things to avoid the moralistic "right" solution; it will be skill based; NPCs will join the group and not always behave like you want, and it will not require hand-eye coordination. Oh, and tons of weapons so people can shoot their way through situations instead of charming anyone. Will there be a way for fans to submit ideas on what they'd like to see in the game, or is the foundation already established? We already have the forums up and will be using them primarily for the broad strokes, but if we see some clever specific ideas we will integrate them. Nothing is in stone yet and the fan input is key. Some people have raised concern that it will be a free-for-all, but my job is to act as the editor and help to harness the ideas and serve up the appropriate decisions. I have the writers and designers scoping out the locales and dialogue, but we will greatly rely on input for interface, combat system depth, and graphical tone. But once things are agreed we stay consistent with the consensus of direction. It is no different than when I used to make my producers create vision documents at Interplay, only this time the fans will sign off on the vision. On top of this we will open up gameplay for feedback to make sure we are hitting the right notes. The goal for the Wasteland 2 project is $900k to get the game started, combined with a $100k investment from you, for a total of $1M. Amazingly enough (but not surprisingly), that $900k goal was reached after less than two days. Do you have plans set up for what you'll focus on expanding first if the funded amount goes to $2M? $3M? Beyond? Assuming we go way beyond the goal we will continue to balance adding more content and other formats. We have already committed to Linux/Mac at $1.5 million so I imagine there could be a tablet version after that. But the most important thing is that we don't compromise the PC version in any way shape or form for other formats. The fans have entrusted us to create the right kind of game. This truly was the best way for this game to have been funded. Do you see Kickstarter campaigns as the future for indie developers at some point, or mainly for well-known and trusted names? That is difficult to answer as a large part of it depends on the budget request. I have seen some smaller unheard-of indies doing quite well but once you request budgets this size it becomes a whole other conversation. I would assume it would be difficult for an unknown but you never know these days. Every week I get up there is a paradigm shift or new business model that seems to have appeared. Running Interplay was child's play compared to the knowledge base you need today. Do you think funding campaigns like this will spell the end for big game publishers, or cause them to re-evaluate their business approach in the future? Well it would certainly be overstating the cause to expect it to spell the end for them but it should be some sort of wake up call. There are fans that are going unnoticed and there is a treatment of developers that is abysmal. I hope all the talented developers find a niche audience that allows them to make games with the purity of a direct relationship with their fans. Do you have a classic game (not developed by you!) that you'd like to see resurrected or given a sequel through Kickstarter crowdfunding? I don't even want to hint at what other things might be interesting to me. I am laser-focused on Wasteland 2 and it is all-consuming for me... in a good way. Thanks for your time, Brian! by Shawn Schuster ~~~ If you'd like to help Wasteland 2 become the greatest sequel to the greatest RPG of all time (in my humble opinion, of course), head over to their Kickstarter page for more information.

[linuxgamenews]

Double Fine Raises $3.3M via Kickstarter to Make New Game

Video game creator Tim Schafer has raised more than $3.3 million via Kickstarter to develop a new point-and-click graphic adventure game.

His company Double Fine promises to release the game for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android. Shafer, who is known for his participation in the creation of games such as Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle is only the second person to exceed $1 million of funding via Kickstarter so far. He convinced 87,000 backers overall and 114 people to donate at least $1,000 to the project. His initial goal of $400,000 was achieved within five hours of posting the project. Elevation Dock, advertised as "the best dock for iPhone" became the first million-dollar project on Kickstarter just hours before Double Fine's Adventure closed. ElevationLab pulled in more than $1.4 million on a $75,000 goal.