Kickstarter and the Loss of Incentive - Article
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 21 June 2015 / 7,358 Views
It’s 10’o’clock at night. I’m sat bored at my desk, thinking about what games I could play. On a whim I decide to check my Kickstarter account to see if any of the games I've backed over the last few years have actually released. I look through the list - something I haven’t done for a while - and find nothing waiting for me. The frustrating thing about all of this? Out of the 18 Kickstarters I’ve successfully backed, I’ve only ever received 5.
Don’t get me wrong, games are always being delayed. Art takes time, and isn’t a skill you can rush. I for one found this out when developing my own game - I had to push the release date back twice before successfully finishing the game. It happens. The crux of my argument here is that these Kickstarter projects are a sign of a bigger problem in the industry, in that a lack of incentive to finish certain games makes developers complacent, such that they can indefinitely delay release dates. I’m not saying that these developers aren’t working on their games - far from it - but that the lack of incentive breeds a lackadaisical attitude.
Take for example Lioness by Zak Ayles, a game I backed in 2013 and which was meant to have been released in August of that year. The last update its 2,255 backers received from the creator was 15 months ago, and even this lacked details on the game itself and what was happening with the invested funds. I’ve already lost hope of ever actually receiving this game. Zak has disappeared from the radar entirely, and so it’s easy to assume that by receiving his funding up-front he lost all interest in the hard work of actually developing the game.
Edmund McMillen from Team Meat said it best in his post-Indie Game: The Movie interview, when he was asked about the development of The Binding of Isaac came from. He said that working with a deadline in place always helped him with projects in the past (like Super Meat Boy), as the forced time restriction increased his productivity. He even went so far as to state that in some cases these deadlines need to be adhered to purely to survive and make ends meet - the money at the end of it all being essential in order to continue to live and provide for his family.
Many of us live like this, with our day jobs paying for each month's rent as it comes around. It's a motivating factor; one that keeps you working in jobs that you don't necessarily want to be in anymore just so that you can continue to get by. Imagine your employer paying you an entire year's salary up-front - where's the incentive to actually do the job (let alone a good job) when you’ve already got the end reward?
Restrictions breed creativity. That’s a fact. Businesses that need to find a cheaper way to make a better product innovate all the time, so why can’t games developers do the same when they announce a timeframe and cost? One of the most high profile examples of a developer going too far was Tim Schafer with Broken Age.
Here was a product promised for specific amount, with a specific design doc and everything, only for Tim Schafer to ultimately come out and say “I’ve designed too much game, so we need to split the game up in order to deliver the full product”. Yes, it was nice for backers to still get the whole game eventually, but to jeopardise a project's completion purely because he couldn’t stick to his own design guidelines was reckless and shouldn’t be condoned.
For all my moaning, is there really a solution to all of this? Not, it seems, outside of developers adhering to their promises, or consumers not being so quick to forgive developers who do this (or not even backing fledgling projects in the first place). But I do have two recommendations - firstly developers shouldn’t be so quick to jump onto Kickstarter and should explore other potential funding avenues first, and secondly gamers like myself who want to help fund interesting game projects need to be more wary; we are, unfortunately, part of the problem.
Do I believe I’ll receive the 13 projects I’m still waiting on? No, I no longer hold out much hope for a number of them, but perhaps someday in the future I’ll look at my backer list and find a new game waiting for me, albeit months if not years later than expected.
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My main problem with Kickstarter is that accountability is near non-existent. I only see the lack of it hurting future projects as times goes on. it's a shame really, as I'm all for ways of funding games outside of large publishers but this seems to be more of a cash grab for developers to do with as they please and less an inventment made by backers to see projects couldn't be done otherwise see the light of day. I hope this, at least, makes Kickstarter backers all the more cautious with their money and developers more will to follow through with their promises if only because situations like this can only be go on for so long.
I intend to launch a Kickstarter for my adventure game at the end of the year. But the main reason isn't the money! It is to spread the word, letting more people know about this game.
On a personal side, I have backed 4 games in total, 3 have been released since then (but hadn't time to play any yet!) and the last one is Shenmue 3...
So yeah, very happy with Kickstarter but I hope the bad projects won't give a bad image of it.
Kickstarter is fairly hit-or-miss ass far as I'm concerned. It seems like in most cases the final product either falls through, or the developer overpromises and underdelivers. There are few KS games I will support. I'll support Shenmue IIII partly because with Sony helping finance the project and giving YS Net some accountability, it will almost certainly see a release date. I bought LSL Reloaded for my iPad (didn't support the KS though). I hope Bloodstained makes it out as promised by Iga. But Tim Schaefer, the poster-boy for Kickstarter games, overpromised and underdelivered. At this point I'm convinced the only reason the Star Citizen KS exists is to see how much of a record for KS funding they can set, and if it ever does actually come out I think there's a good chance the game will turn out to be an expensive disappointment.
I don't think Sony is financing development of Shenmue 3, actually. The KS funds are all they have.
http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/16/8792627/shenmue-3-sony-funding-development Sony is helping with development, and I think they are also going to help market the game, which is also important since marketing these days is often more expensive than the game itself. So yes, there is more to Shenmue III than KS money.
I've been very fortunate with my Kickstart experiences. Granted, most of them were from known quantities, but even those I've put absolute faith into have delivered. Currently waiting for Amplitude & Adventures of Pip on PS4, then in the following years Edge of Eternity, Yooka Laylee, Bloodstained, and Shenmue 3. Fairly confident all will come through, with EoE being the biggest "risk."
Kickstarter is great. It has its problems (scammers), but overall I think it's worth it. It's pretty safe if you're careful, and if not, well, you took a risk which you knew to be a risk, so no problem.
I'm very wary of Kickstarter, Broken Age burned me too much. I wait for release on various retail platforms outside of Kickstarter after a game's finished. I know that could mean a game I want doesn't happen, but it's better than wasting money on something I may never see because the developer has lost incentive to complete it.
If a game is not ready it should not be released. Nothing is worse than a rushed game. However, Kickstarter projects need more transparency, progress controlling and professional project management to make sure that games are delivered in time and with high quality.
From what I've seen backers have gotten a lot more critical. "Buy me a computer" and "I have a dream" campaigns are now properly getting no attention. With no accountability on the part of creators, backers have gotten critical. Friends have backed projects and gotten nothing; their likelihood of backing again have gone down.
Yeah, more oversight from KS itself might help, but I prefer it the way it is. A "fix" would be asking the SEC to step in, and that would be far worse than what we have now. The whole point of KS is to be the wild west, because that's what it takes to be indie.
Add early access to the problem.
I have backed 1 music CD, 1 movies, 50+ games, i got the music CD & movie, and 22 games already, 19 of them was good like i wanted, 2 average, and 1 bad, so with bonus and low price + beta play, i have new on all game i have fund, you probably unlucky, atm i am really happy with kickstarter !
Thats why only fund games from devolopers which i know who have released big retail games in the past. They have their name at stake
I have never given money to any kickstarter project, and I never will.
