The Kickstarter Blues

[s_d]

Yeah, that last one was a bit of a gutpunch for me.

See, I was a pretty avid Neverwinter Nights player, once upon a time.  This was because, as a Linux gamer, it was the best really good isometric ARPG available at the time, ported to Linux. For a number of reasons, Atari bungled the porting arrangement with Bioware (for example, the cutscenes were all Bink compressed, and with no Linux playback engine, Linux players had no cutscenes).

Enter Obsidian, with a new engine, no Linux porting capability, and insufficient internal porting expertise.  So, NWN2 had no Linux client.  It's immature and unfair, but it felt like Obisidian killed off portability.  So they took some blame.

Now, they start the KS with no Mac/Linux support, post an FAQ question stating that they're being looked into, and finally add the ridiculous $2.2M stretch goal for Linux.  Seriously?

This is, of course, ignoring the fact that said funds could, instead, bring 35 QFI-style, truly indie projects instead 

[Blackthorne]

Yeah.  Exactly.  That Obsidian campaign made it's 1.1 million goal in less than two days.  It's unreal.

Woo - and when you say 35 independent projects like QFI, it makes my tummy rumble.  Jeez.


Bt

[Lambonius]

I'd like to offer several choice four-letter words to those types of Kickstarter projects that don't actually NEED Kickstarter.  What it's doing is saturating the market--Kickstarter is fast becoming just another means of getting "publishing," except without any work on the part of the developers.  It's basically the welfare system of the gaming industry.  And just like the real welfare system, it's being abused by assholes who don't actually need it, at the expense of those who do.

[Monster]

After watching their video, I can sort of understand why they're coming to Kickstarter.  It may indeed be difficult for them to secure funding for the type of game that they want to make (which is ridiculous, considering their track record).  The video also shows, however, a very large group of people, and Obsidian is far from being an Indie development team.  I believe that they could make the game with a much smaller team at much less cost, at least trying to maintain some sense of being Indie.

I really hope that big projects like that don't begin to dominate, leaving true indie projects to suffer from a lack of interest or funding.

[rogerxy]

I totally agree with you, it's a frightening trend. But KS shows their real colors and proves that only $ counts

[Ilyich]

I'm very biased about the Obsidian kickstarter, since it was the first thing I wished for after I found out about the Double Fine Adventure. For me Chris Avellone + Tim Cain is even better than Tim Schafer + Ron Gilbert, and the original Fallouts, Planescape and Arcanum are my favourite games of all time.

So, from my fanboy position, I would like to argue that this is exactly the kind of project appropriate for kickstarter. It's too big for independent publishing, while the larger publishers wouldn't even go near it.
And yet it's the kind of project that many people were dreaming of for years(I sure have), and Obsidian has both the experience and talent to pull it off.

I don't think it ruins things for actual indie games either- if anything it brings lots of new people to their virtual playground (the results of DFA is a clear proof of that), we just now have a place for middle ground between niche and mainstream projects. And it's not like there are many developers as beloved as the former Black Isle team who also want to make serious old-school games.

[Blackthorne]

It's good to get a well thought out opinion from the other side like that.  You make some good points about bringing more people to the playground, so to speak.  I can only hope that this projects KS success can help other smaller projects.


Bt

[Pandamaniac]

I know that it can. Until PE went to kickstarter, I never even thought about contributing to a game before it was published. PE coaxed me into opening my wallet, and surfing the comments on PE's kickstarter page led me here, and ultimately to backing QFI.

[Monster]

Very good points.

It's just hard to believe that a team with the successful track record of Obsidian would need Kickstarter at all.  I would think that publishers would jump at the chance to work with them.  But like I said, I can kind of understand why they are looking for support.

But it is good to know that these projects are bringing people to Kickstarter to support other projects.  I only recently started looking over Kickstarter, and it was because of this game.  Already, there are a good handful of games I'd love to back.

If only I had the money to back them all!

[Blackthorne]

I know that it can. Until PE went to kickstarter, I never even thought about contributing to a game before it was published. PE coaxed me into opening my wallet, and surfing the comments on PE's kickstarter page led me here, and ultimately to backing QFI.

Well, hey!  That's pretty awesome.

I do agree - I wonder why Obsidian would have trouble getting normal publishing.  It's just a sign of how much the game industry is in serious trouble, I would say.


Bt

[DrSlash]

Agree. Obsidian Entertainment's games are awesome, but I don't understand why they've used Kickstarter instead of normal publisher.

Well, at least they won't have problems they had with Knights of the Old Republic II 

[Pandamaniac]

This is from an interview with the Obsidian CEO on Gamebanshee:

"Buck: What sort of style and play experience are you hoping to achieve with Project Eternity? What is it about the game's premise and engine (with two-dimensional painted backgrounds!) that wouldn't fit into a traditional developer/publisher arrangement?

Feargus: We absolutely want to bring back what was great about the Infinity Engine games. While we plan to improve some things based upon what we think fans of the older games expect now-a-days (like the interface), Project Eternity is going to play and feel like an Infinity Engine game.

When it comes to not fitting into the traditional developer/publisher arrangement, it is probably going to sound like we are giving publishers a really bad rap. In some ways that’s true, but in other ways – this kind of project is just not one that fits in the traditional model. The big publishers are built around making games that cost millions of dollars to make, millions of dollars to promote and market and millions more to build the units that get shipped to stores. Their organizations are built around that model. To make the same amount of revenue on games like Project Eternity, they would have to ship hundreds of games a year instead of ten or twenty. They are just not built that way. Plus, with Kickstarter, Steam and social media – we can fund, distribute and promote our games entirely ourselves. In a way, we just don’t need them for a game like Project Eternity. "

http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/109456-project-eternity-interview.html

[Lambonius]

Plus, with Kickstarter, Steam and social media – we can fund, distribute and promote our games entirely ourselves.

It sounds to me like they are planning on having a Kickstarter for every game they produce.  Is THAT an acceptable thing to do?  Seems like people would start to get irritated at the SAME group asking for money over and over, project after project.

[nidoking]

Honestly, if the money's there, then the model clearly works. If people do get irritated at funding multiple games by the same publisher, they'll have to talk with their wallets. As long as they can raise the money through crowdsourcing, what's stopping them? My question is how much any of these games will sell once they're made, considering that most people who want copies will already have paid for theirs via the Kickstarters. It might well be that that initial funding is all they'll ever earn for the games.

[Blackthorne]

Yeah - well, trying to Kickstart every game runs into problems, I'd think.  I mean, KS relies on a lot of people to pledge MORE than the game is worth, because they want to back the company and the project.   You can't always count on those kinds of outrageous bids everytime - people aren't going to be pledging more than they would pay for a game in the store every time.  I just don't think it's sustainable - I know our plan is not to have a Kickstarter every time we want to make a new game.  We're hoping that we can have some measure of success with QFI, enough to help us fund the next game.


Bt