Topic: 'Big indie' Kickstarters are killing actual indies

[idolminds]

Article on Polygon

The article talks about the funding goals of these big Kickstarters and how unrealistic they are. Every project seems to lowball their goal and hopes they can overfund by a lot to make up for it. But that isn't being honest and makes projects that set out a more appropriate goal seem "overpriced" by comparison to a lot of people.

"In order to finish Yooka-Laylee we will need to expand our team to an 'N64 size' roster of around 15, which we'll look to do immediately upon reaching our funding goal," that game's Kickstarter stated. "Therefore the vast majority of our budget will be allocated to wages and office space, plus the cost of outsourcing sound, testing and version creation."

That's a realistic statement, but the idea of paying 15 people, along with office space and the other costs associated with the development of a project this size, with a $270,000 budget — the campaign's minimal funding goal — is absurd.

When you ask for half a million dollars when you really need $5 million, it becomes impossible for games with realistic budgets to survive. It’s not that people don’t understand what a game costs, it’s more that Kickstarter is actively distorting people’s understanding of a sane budget. The ecosystem is being poisoned for projects that need to raise their actual, workable budget for a game.

[idolminds]

A similar article popped up on Gamasutra that takes a slightly different view. In this one it asks you to consider if Kickstarter is actually where the entire industry is heading, where AAA developers use it as a very early testbed for ideas.

Previously if you were someone responsible for making executive decisions publishers tend to make -- such as which games to fund -- your job was to spend a lot of money and be wrong as little as possible.  Also you needed to see 2 years into the future.  Anyone in that role would want to mitigate risk in every conceivable way.  And they do, which is why we see so many of the same dominant genre trends and sequels.

Imagine if you're one of these execs and I told you you could offload all the risk of your position?  "Tell me more," you reply, stroking your white cat in your executive swivel chair.  "Well, we can spend next to nothing Kickstarting an idea and only fund a team if the Kickstarter is a success!"  In other words, Kickstarter backers become a lot like external consultants.  They add weight to a corporate decision and become the spectral fall guy if anything goes wrong.  Actually it's worse than that.  Corporations pay consultants.  In this case, we pay the corporation.

Oh and if anything goes wrong on that Kickstarter funded game?  Like, I dunno, the concept you pitched, once you get it playable, ends up not being fun?  Which happens all the time in game development?  You're only legally on the hook to deliver something to the backers.  You can lay off most of the development team and take the quickest route to a shippable title that legally meets the bare minimum of Kickstarter's contract.  This is the corporate level version of failing fast.  Well, we only spent $10M instead of $250M.

Is this really going to happen?  Am I crazy?  No.  No I am not crazy.  IT'S ALREADY HAPPENING.  The Black Glove, a failed Kickstarter for a game by some of BioShock's former developers, recently cancelled their project entirely.  Their reason?  No publisher would fund the game after its Kickstarter failed.

Interesting take on the situation.

[gpw11]

A similar article popped up on Gamasutra that takes a slightly different view. In this one it asks you to consider if Kickstarter is actually where the entire industry is heading, where AAA developers use it as a very early testbed for ideas.
 Interesting take on the situation.

I've kinda thought that this is the way Kickstarter should go in some ways.  Say Sega has a hunch that a new Shining Force game or remake of Shining Force 3 is worthwhile, but they also know it's risky.  Put a kickstarter up and minimize that risk.  Gauge interest, gain some of the initial development money back and so on and so forth.  It'd be a good way to get some cult classics brought back to life through remakes or sequels that we otherwise wouldn't see.