Kickstarters

There's angel investing which is what Kickstarter started off as: a way for a startup to secure funds to get a project off the ground.
And then there's what Kickstarter has become: a platform for larger, established companies to sell direct with minimal risk (you've already paid) and higher profits (less middlemen in distribution). Companies like CMON shouldn't need the platform when they can sell $10M+ of a new product.

Doesn't stop me from backing things but it does give me pause.

Kickstarter is just a pre-order place now that specializes in bloated, unreviewed games that couldn't fit on a game stores shelf. High shipping costs really make most of it nonsense for the average consumer. Who really has the room for that stuff not to mention who has the game group that really wants to play that one huge costly game over and over. It can happen and in the past there are games that were worth it. I was an original Gloomhaven backer, Kingdom Death was another good example. Those are the exceptions though and passing by everything to make sure the game is good saves money overall.

The Vasel truth is that if it's a really good game it'll have a second edition, so feel no need to buy it right away. The time waiting (years probably) is a nice crucible to weigh the purchase decision in. Most of us have plenty to do/ play in the meantime.

Yeah I’ve only backed one in the past couple years, X-Men Dice Throne, because I know exactly what I will be getting. I also have plenty of board games now, and even a few I haven’t opened. I see no reason to keep buying shit when I don’t have the time for stuff I already own. The shipping costs and overall costs have gone way up in the past few years so it’s fine by me to pass on stuff.

I know a guy who has probably an hundred unopened games, and he continues to kickstart, it’s wild.

I will say that board games are usually a relatively safe bet to actually get something, even if it's buggy, late, or a you get hit up multiple times for shipping increases (fuck you Mythic Games and your fucking Ponzi scheme). I think PC games are more prone to be complete vaporware due to there being so much more risk in the development cycle.

Seananigans said:

I plan to use Kickstarter (or something similar) to help my solo game dev journey with my Shining Force clone game I'm creating. Because I suck at art and music, so I'm likely going to need some capital to hire people to help me with that.

IMO that's what Kickstarter should be used for, and I've used it in similar cases a couple dozen times before, rarely with any regrets at all.

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Have you tried not being so poor?