Be Excellent To Each Other

Partially, yeah. But the issue has been clouded by the Humble Bundle chatter that I don't really think is relevant. I think there's a stark difference between people acting as "publisher" and people paying whatever they want for something that has already been "published".

I suppose, but it is a clever way to raise capital..

Lets see, if someone did donate $150,000, they'd get the game, all the extras, a signed poster, become a character in the game, have a day where they visit and tour Double Fine Studios, have lunch, dinner and bowling with Tim Schafer and the team, and get one of the original shrinkwrapped copies of Day of the Tentacle.

Some pretty unique stuff there, if you were a huge fan of Double Fine/Lucasarts, and were rich, you might want to go for it.

If you actually preferred to invest, I'm sure Double Fine would be open to that, its what Notch is doing with respect to Psychonauts 2.

I like my games really alpha. Like, the alphaerist available. If you were to play them you'd be blown away at how alpha they are. The lack of tutorials or handholding makes them better. I am best.

Is this game being developed by Stuart Campbell?

Certainly!

Although, what happens when they reach their target? They need, say $500,000. What happens to everything above and beyond that? Straight into their pockets? Hire more staff and make an even better game? Dump it in a war chest? Keep the current staff, make the game as intended and double all the wages?

It's a fantastic idea and an exciting drive forward into the future of games publishing, but surely there needs to be some ground rules or something?

Ask 'em.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure there's a way for you to get dinner with them...

You keep talking about games. You do realise Kickstarter isn't some brave new way to get games made, right? It was built for, and is largely used for, limited light manufacturing runs for companies that couldn't get seed captial for fabrication without it.

People aren't supposed to be seriously looking beyond the $50 mark in general, and if you look at the "funded by XXX people" listing you'll see this is borne out. The idea is: entrepreneur has an idea for a $50 gadget. He could take a bank loan, make stock, launch the product, but there's significant risk of it not selling. Instead he punts it out on Kickstarter for $40. If insufficient people pay up, the product wasn't going to sell anyway, and no-one pays anything. Kickstarter acts as micro-VC seed funding and market research in one. The difference is, the mico-VCs don't fe equity -- as that would be hopelessly unworkable. They get one or more instances of the product instead.

Every Kickstarter price point beyond that $40-for-one-thing is basically for people who rrreeaaalllyyy want this to take off. It's classic price sensitivity microeconomics. As long as its not misrepresented -- and it isn't -- I don't understand why anyone can have a problem with it.

They've said the following will be stuff they will do if they get more than enough funds:
Support for more languages, ie getting it professionally translated by more people.
Support for different platforms, they've specifically said iOS and Mac, but I suppose android and the consoles are possible too.

I don't think anybody in this thread represented Kickstarter as anything other than a website for crowd-sourcing money. Nor is anyone knocking the model - it's a fantastic idea. I've explained my problem already.

That's pretty cool I suppose. As I've maintained from the original post, I don't have any problem with the business model, I just don't like the particular way it has been applied in this case. But if people are insistent that the $150,000 donation options, etc, are a joke (although I still think they're irresponsible and potentially exploitative), then fine.

I don't think anyone misinterpretted the concept of the site or needed it explained; we all get it. We also know it's not illegal but that the aforementioned benefits of funding the game are of debatable value. The objection is around whether there's a moral imperitive to offer more than a few cheap kickbacks for a significant investment. Clearly WTB and I think there is, others don't, and others are a bit meh. In either case the site is a great idea and I look forward to seeing, amongst other things, this bizarro movie in the offing involving everyones favourite tat reviewer. I'll try to find the link.

Of course, kickstarter really gets into it's own when people start putting awesome and realistic projects like this on it.

I guess Jahonney's exams are finished

They're not! I'm procrastinating! I have a Wills & Administration of Estates exam tomorrow morning! However, I have just received an email about severe weather procedures from the college, and snow is coming again. Hope it's not called off...

Bloody students!

Here it is, not Kickstarter but identical concept, different genre. http://www.indiegogo.com/NerdQuest-movie

Edit: Wow, one person has donated $1000.

The bloke from Belle & Sebastian has used it to fund his film too.

Urgh.

Hey, Belle and Sebastian are INDIE. That automatically makes them good, don'tcherknow.

Okay, I think I'm more getting what the TLIs are saying. So it's sort of like that iPhone app which is a picture of a diamond and costs something silly like $5,000, right?

TLIs?

Three Letter Idiots?

Like TLAs, but accurater.

Top Line Iguanas

Tungsten Lamp Initiators.

Oh, I'm an idiot. I get it. What exactly is it I once did to afford such a level of contempt from the majority of people on here?

What you once did? LOL.

j/k

Chill fella. It's entertaining because you're WTB and he's EBG. That's not contempt, it's banter.

Together we're a WETBBG. Phwoar.

You blue yourself.

No contempt from me, even if you're wrong about this

I like it when Craster is the voice of reason!

Don't worry, i'm just contempting you from the basis of only this thread

You recommended I buy Sega Rally and Lost Planet.

And, the only thing you ever need to worry about is the opinion of someone you respect. Everything else is waffle.

aww BTW and BEG make a lovely couple

just teasing...

It's alright, it was more a silly rhetorical question than anything else. Dimrill, Sega Rally and Lost Planet are awesome.

*contempts more*

Lost Planet was awesome. I liked the flawed sequel too -now that had a story I liked. Something about pirates or a robot tumble dryer and a lizard perhaps. Having sex.

Ordered.

The entire thread bemuses me, the higher options are clearly a joke (really, just look at them)

Not to mention they aren't listed on Kickstarter itself. I'd say that's a fairly big clue.

I read the quote and thought "hahaha" because it read like a Daily Mash article, then read two pages of moaning and started to panic that I was losing my marbles and missing some important aspect, because surely this discussion couldn't be serious, could it? I mean, photo/undoctored photo... really?

Jesus wept.

Except that it's already been stated that Kickstarter's set-up only allows a $10,000 maximum pledge. What their page does have is a link to Double Fine which details the rewards >$10k and there's absolutely nothing to indicate they're not genuine.

Considering that people have already pledged the $10,000 amount, and some have even said "I would have paid more if Kickstarted had let me" I don't think they are a joke. Or if they are, they're a really good joke.