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[Nix]

It's not too silly. As far as the western world goes, the US has a decidedly business-oriented culture, and the Asian internet is pretty well separated from the western one.

[TeeGee]

What about Europe? I would think we share the same internet and similar mentality. And we can for sure pledge our money to projects, so why not accept it?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I still regret not getting in on the SD Kickstarter.  I literally found out about it something like two days after it ended.

i may do another, considering we've sort of run out of funds since the last one. really the only one working on the game anymore is me (although i do work on it every day)

and i definitely understand the frustration of funding a game and then not getting it until years later. i just sort of expected the rest of the team to continue to work on the game rather than to abandon it (to be fair, the musician and the tile artist finished most (but not all) of their work -- i'd say around 90%. it's just the others)

[Nix]

But you also asked for much less many than most game developers do, and you have a better track record than many of them.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

that is true, which is part of why we were able to meet the goal in 2 days; my impression is that for every kickstarter project that reaches their goal, 10 or more don't, and usually the ones that don't asked for some huge amount like 10k

[team_q]

I might be misremembering, but I think 40% are successful.




Ninja edit:

here's some old stats! Looks to be about 44% usually.
http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/shortening-the-maximum-project-length

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

that's higher than i thought, but it seems to be for all kickstarter projects combined, not just games in particular; i have the feeling that games get funded less often than other types of projects on there

[larsiusprime]

I think Kickstarter leaves all project pages open, so if someone wanted to we could crunch the numbers ourselves. I wonder if there is a way to access the data in a less labor-intensive way than just opening up all the pages one by one.

I'd be super interested in what the numbers are for just game projects - if no one else does it, I might crunch those stats myself some weekend.

[team_q]

I figure the numbers are somewhere, but I couldn't find an exact breakdown per section. It's interesting that Kickstarter wasn't really for games until last year, from a number of donators perspective.

[EdgeOfProphecy]

I think Kickstarter leaves all project pages open, so if someone wanted to we could crunch the numbers ourselves. I wonder if there is a way to access the data in a less labor-intensive way than just opening up all the pages one by one.

I'd be super interested in what the numbers are for just game projects - if no one else does it, I might crunch those stats myself some weekend.

They talked about those very numbers at GDC during the Kickstarter panel.  I was there and took notes on it all.  Is it ok for me to talk about them? I could dig up my notes, but I don't want the Kickstarter police hauling me away in the night.

[Nix]

I am a citizen of the USA with a social security number! If anyone not in the States wants to do a Kickstarter, I am now offering to act as your tax liaison for 10% of the final funding. LTM if interested.

[Blademasterbobo]

i'll do it for 9.5%

[randomshade]

At GDC during the Kickstarter panel, the successful funding of video game projects was said to be around 25% -- much lower than the normal rate of around 45%. There were some other numbers mentioned, but I cannot remember them off of the top of my head.

@EdgeOfProphecy: I don't see why you couldn't talk about your notes. I say throw 'em out there.

Edit: The 25% number is out there in the wild, at least.
http://indiegames.com/2012/03/gdc_2012_how_to_get_funding_on.html

[EdgeOfProphecy]

At GDC during the Kickstarter panel, the successful funding of video game projects was said to be around 25% -- much lower than the normal rate of around 45%. There were some other numbers mentioned, but I cannot remember them off of the top of my head.

@EdgeOfProphecy: I don't see why you couldn't talk about your notes. I say throw 'em out there.

Edit: The 25% number is out there in the wild, at least.
http://indiegames.com/2012/03/gdc_2012_how_to_get_funding_on.html

I'll dig 'em up tomorrow maybe.  You are totally correct with that number, though.

Interesting note, board games fall within the site average for successful funding.

Also an interesting note, I seem to remember they said that video games (even excluding Double Fine), tend to exceed their funding requests by a wider margin than other projects.  Hopefully I wrote down the exact percentage somewhere, but I remember it being non-insignificant.

So less get funded, but the ones that do tend to get quite a bit of money.

That said, the amount of money being generated is still pretty low compared to the full cost of making a game, which is why I consider it part funding rather than a full solution in most cases.

[larsiusprime]

Interesting. My guess is the overall success rate might be lower because it's harder to make physical rewards for Video Games, and they're harder in general to pull off than say, a board game, because so many different skills are involved.

[EdgeOfProphecy]

Interesting. My guess is the overall success rate might be lower because it's harder to make physical rewards for Video Games, and they're harder in general to pull off than say, a board game, because so many different skills are involved.

I think in the talk they theorized it's partly because it's harder for the audience to grasp such an intangible concept as a video game.  You see a mockup of a boardgame, you understand exactly what you're going to get.  Someone says "I want to make a strategy game set in WWI era Western Europe", and it's harder to understand what that will actually be at the end of the day.

Bearing that in mind, they said that the most successful Kickstarters had really good trailers and demos of their games before they attempted the Kickstarter.

[Blademasterbobo]

I think it's just because most of the people are unheard of, and they usually only have concept art. I'm not giving money to some dork who has "a great idea" and concept art, because that game... is probably never coming out, regardless of how much money they get.

[Nix]

Do you guys know about Indie Fund? There's probably more opportunities for game VC like that. Kickstarter is hard because all people have to go on is a video, images, and a description and that's pretty risky given how few games make it to completion. VC firms can meet with developers one on one and guage much better what sort of people they are working with. Don't be pissy about Kickstarter not working for you. It's a miracle that it works for anyone, really. There are other avenues that are much friendlier to unknowns.

[Blademasterbobo]

good luck getting funded with that

[Morroque]

After reading this, I am somehow reminded of a specific term from my old media studies books. The ever-elusive "bureaucratic affinity" might play an element in this mess.

Just a hunch though. I can't form the full hypothesis just yet.