How handy is having / starting a kickstarter?

Hey there!

so as the title says.. how handy is having a kickstarter, should it be something that all new comers to making games go to.. or would be to much work and easily overwhelm you?

I say this, because I have started coding the back bone scripts for movement, shooting etc for the last week or so and this question has been sitting in the back of my mind, that if I should start one up or not.

in my mind starting a kick starter would be handy.. because I am going to have to search out for a artist and or a someone that can make 3D models, and having some cash to give them for there work right away would help.

I just want to hear other peoples opinions on this, if you have tried kickstarter or not.

thank you!

C.J.

 

If you want to try it you can, it's your choice. Personally I don't think you'll succeed with it. Most don't. It kind of helps to at least have a game in progress.

 

I'd say that's something more for highly-experienced game makers. Anyone new to making games shouldn't go anywhere near it.
It's extremely unlikely your game will actually get supported. And if by some freak accident it does, you'll probably fail to meet the goals/deadlines/whatever, assuming it gets completed at all, and be in huge trouble.

 

I completely agree that kickstarter is better off for experienced game makers, but why would anyone be in huge trouble if they don't meet their goals or deadlines?

 

If you successfully get funded to make a game, and it doesn't get made (or fails to meet promises, or takes forever), people won't be happy. I don't know exactly how Kickstarter handles that, but I can imagine some amount of suing or fines.

 

Kickstarter themselves do not handle it. If someone wishes to take them to court, they have to do it themselves or with the other backers.

 

This is what Kickstarter says in their FAQ:

"When a project is successfully funded, the creator is responsible for completing the project and fulfilling each reward. Their fundamental obligation to backers is to finish all the work that was promised. Once a creator has done so, they’ve fulfilled their obligation to their backers. At the same time, backers must understand that Kickstarter is not a store. When you back a project, you’re helping to create something new — not ordering something that already exists. There’s a chance something could happen that prevents the creator from being able to finish the project as promised. If a creator is absolutely unable to complete the project and fulfill rewards, they must make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to a satisfying conclusion for their backers in a reasonable timeframe."

I get that people will be unhappy and all but I doubt lawsuits get thrown around. If that was the case we would have had a few by now.

Anyways, my feeling on this is if you want to have a career in gaming and don't have the experience for it, leave Kickstarter alone for now and start small, if things go well and you find a team to work on, perhaps you can revisit the idea in a year or two from now and by then it will be a suitable idea.

 

You certainly can, but it would really be waste of time. You won't get backed. If you are a "newcomer" it is unlikely you will even get a single supporter. Experienced developers have failed to complete their games, people with nearly complete games at the outset have failed. If you have a handful of basic scripts, no experience in building a game and and are asking people to give you money, do you honestly think they would? Would you back a project like that? Everyone has ideas and desires to make a game, but most lack the ability to actually do it, and people who are willing to back, know that.

Prove yourself first. Build a game to show you have the ability. Put in the effort first, don't worry about doing a kickstarter, it will only suck up time you could be building/learning. If you really intend to make a career out of making games, don't risk your reputation with your first project.

 

I have worked on 3 KickStarters. None of them flew but at least I got paid while working on one of them and that was a good one but the idiots blew it. They had 24K pledges in less that two days and sent out an email blast. Folks bitched and KS pulled it. I have two requests currently to lead KickStarter projects and will not do so unless I get some compensation. During the KS party the CEO of Titan informed me that the game industry mafia will put a monkey wrench in the works..guess he was partially right..we do not know where the complaints came from. From bitches is my guess