Another CrowdFunded game bit the dust this week. Nexus 2 while having an interest premise fell short of the needed funds and the staff at Most wanted Ent. are now forced to reorganize and rethink their approach to getting Nexus 2 made. After this and Shakers recent kickstarter failure I can't help but wonder if kickstarter is reaching the point of diminishing returns for the indie game genre. I think the answer is actually not that far off from the rest of the industry. Kickstarting games is now a business, however instead of presenting your game to publishers you're now at the mercy of gamers with spare change. Surprisingly gamers are not that hard a sell compared to big publishers. Gamers don't need to make a profit. If the game gets made at all it's a solid investment for them. So why are these games starting to fail? Doublefine Adventure, Wasteland 2 and Shadow Run Returns crushed it Kickstarter as well as several other small projects like Paper Sorcerer and Faster than Light. Well when selling any non or not yet tangible product it's all in the pitch and flesh pressing. Frankly I'd never even heard of Nexus 2 until it failed. You just can't put a product on the table and walk away. You have to run it like it is a Campaign. You have to convince people that their money should be spent on you. If two guys walk into a bar and one asked politely for a beer and the other juggles flaming chainsaws who do you think is gonna get that free beer?
Tim, Brian and Jordan walked in like your best friends you hadn't seen in years. They made sunshine on many rainy days. how could you not buy them a beer? They didn't even need to ask. They told great stories and sold you on a night to remember. After that they were at every bar making every night a party(expos) until you couldn't help but miss them the minute they were out of the room. These were industry veterans with resumes a mile long and plans all laid out in their kickstarters. You knew what you were getting and when.
Even the small projects are getting pushed through just fine, but the difference is knowing when you're on unsteady ground. FTL and Paper sorcerer were funded because A. They had a game in hand, an unfinished one, but a game to show none the less, B. They didn't shoot for the moon. Small budgets with clear definition on where the money would go and C. They pressed the flesh, conversing with any media outlet and bystander who would listen.
I was really sad to see the Armada Online Kickstarter fail miserably. I gave them $30 bones without question because I'm a massive fan, but then I watched the video and read the details. It was almost like they phoned it in. Like they didn't even care. There was almost no clarity on why they needed funding for a game that was already functional(I've played it, it's good.) It bothered me enough that I emailed them and politely (trust me I hold these guys in awe.) made suggestions that might help them get funded. I was ignored. I also noticed they didn't seem to be talking to the funders or media outlets. Well of course it failed. No surprise there.
Why did Shaker fail? Well for a number of reasons.
1. A million dollars minimum for game without a name or so much as concept art? Really?
2. Old School RPG? Whats that? Well they really don't tell you. "Not modern" is all they say.
3. So what's it like? Who knows. They don't even give you a vague definition until around the 3rd update.
The list goes on...
Ultimately they started putting together an idea for a fairly interesting scifi game though oddly all the concept art looked like standard D&D stuff. Despite their claim to fame Wizardy being in my top 10 of all time I didn't end up helping fund the project because I didn't really know if this was even going to be like Wizardry. and admittedly by the time they got moving on it I, like many others, had lost the frenzy that a campaign has to hold you in all the way to the end (Sorry I'm a stupid consumer.) I funded PS because it "was" wizardry and because I knew it would get funded. I was buying a game I wanted.
The truth is I didn't follow Nexus 2 because I didn't even notice it. Didn't hit my radar and if it did it wasn't memorable enough to stay there. It looks good, already published by a successful team, the Kickstarter is well presented, it's pricey but not too pricey. So why did I see it? I don't know, but that's something I think Most Wanted Ent should seriously ask themselves in their next campaign.
The more I think about it I don't think it's a fading fad. I think its problem of organization and goals.
Oo theres a shadowgate kickstarter!
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