Kickstarter


Kickstarter is probably the most well known crowd-funding website in existence. Basically, here you can obtain money for any creative project[1] you have by submitting a description of your project (usually alongside a shot video) and promising rewards to people who "pledge" different amounts.

While the site has enjoyed a reasonable success beforehand, in February 2012 everything changed: not only did an iPhone dock become the first project to raise a million dollars, but legendary game developer Tim Schafer announced he was going to raise money for a new adventure game. Said project ended up raising over 3 million, with 1 million raised in a single day. The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive also joined the +1 million club the same month.

Schaefer's success then caused a large number of game developers to turn to Kickstarter and popularized the crowd-funding concept to a new height.

Notable Kickstarter projects include:
  • Successes
  • Failures (Either canceled or folded)
    • Ouya (The most successful project at the time. People were disappointed with the under-performing console and the lacking games. The company later went bankrupt, and its assets were sold off to Razer.)
    • Yogventures (Canceled after creatives troubles, budget issues and bankruptcy.)
    • Red Ash: The Indelible Legend (Will be published regardless)
    • RetroBlazer
    • Rampage 3 (After previous failed funding attempts on Indiegogo and Kickstarter, Uwe Boll posted an infamous video rant on YouTube insulting his non-backers.[2])
  • Other/Controversial (Either in Development Hell or in some other controversial situation)
    • Potato salad (The most famous "joke" kickstarter on the site. The funding was so massive, it became a charity party.)
    • Tropes vs. Women in Videogames (the project has yet to come to fruition, despite the funding it received)
    • Veronica Mars film (2014) (The project was fully funded when Warner Bros was brought in for production. Fans were not happy.)
    • Broken Sword – The Serpent’s Curse
    • Cans Without Labels, a John Kricfalusi animated short featuring George Liquor's last appearance.
    • Barkley 2: Curse of Cuchulainn (Its delay is likely a Stealth Parody of the gaming industry.)
    • Mighty No. 9 (Marred with controversy that broke its fanbase in two. Delayed countless times, released in June 2016 to a mixed reception.)
    • Shenmue 3 (Also marred with controversy.)
    • Star Citizen (The most crowdfunded project ever)
    • Super Retro Squad (Spiritual Successor to Super Mario Bros Crossover
Kickstarter provides examples of the following tropes:
  • All or Nothing: If an "All or Nothing" project doesn't get the required funding, it gets nothing.
  • Follow the Leader: While Kickstarter had hosted hundreds of gaming projects before Tim Schafer, Double Fine Adventure caused several high profile developers to join in. It also paved the way for much more expensive projects: before DFA getting over 100k on Kickstarter was a bit of a stretch, now several projects have tried and succeeded getting money around and over the 500k range.
  • Sturgeon's Law: Most submissions are really bad and are typically not funded at all.
  1. ↑ stuff like founding businesses, charities, etc, are not allowed, but businesses can and do use Kickstarter to fund "limited edition" runs of creative works that they publish
  2. ↑ Bloody Disgusting article
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.