Elite on Kickstarter...

[merman]

Posted in another thread, but relevant here as it discusses Braben. Rab Florence on Molyneux and Kickstarter - They will kill it. Be in no doubt. These established industry veterans,... http://t.co/BuGhMqDe (NSFW due to bad language)

[melkig1967]

About why never Sony answer is simply "we never had any big contact/introduction in there" and I think at the time
Sony was interested in all other things, then again as I said before "if you are ever going to do something there
I think you need to do something a bit more high profile taking lot more development time".

That's because Sony was always the leader so they were bastards to work with and to get into. We worked with Sony but we had a crafty route in. At that time Microsoft were pushing for indie developers big time and making it (relatively) easier for them.

Now Microsoft are the big players so they are the ones being the arrogant bastards to developers and Sony are making it easier for indies. But the PSP is dead so there's no point!

As for Nintendo, years ago they were the boss and they were bastards. Now they also make it easier for small developers but the chances of selling anything on WiiWare is tiny so there's no point doing that either!

& yes the market is crowded so you do need a selling point to get anything sold and thankfully Llamasoft have that because of all the effort and continuing fan-base down the years. Ok it might not have brought the rewards of some lucky hits on the App Store as yet but at least you've still got the profile so that maybe (hopefully) one day soon that viral hit will happen and the menagerie can have gold name tags and you guys can stay in curry forever

[gilesgoat]

and you guys can stay in curry forever

.. and this makes me think to my favourite video of the moment











(*) yes it is true, "give it enough time and ANY thread at some point will be corrupted with ... "

[Darkflame]

I want Limit Theory to be real but my bullshit alarm is ringing hard on this one. If he makes it and achieves his vision I'll be first in line to buy it, but there's something about the presentation that's telling me to stay far away.
James

To me, it seems to be a lot of trouble to go to if you don't have a product. If the funding isn't covered in the time allowed, then they get nothing. If they get the money, then don't produce anything in a reasonable time, they get a lot of irate people chasing them down. Making yourself a big target doesn't seem the best way to con people.

The Limit Theory programmer already has an engine, and has given himself plenty of breathing space. I know there are never any guarantees, but you can't assume that everyone is pulling a fast one, and the total cost seems very reasonable.

I'll probably give it a few quid. It doesn't seem a lot of risk for a game I'd really like to play.

Agreed.
I dont think its a con but it does seem wayyyyyyyyyy optimistic, and thats with me being a big believer in procedural power. He needs a small demo to showcase what he has so far.

[Firefox]

I want Limit Theory to be real but my bullshit alarm is ringing hard on this one. If he makes it and achieves his vision I'll be first in line to buy it, but there's something about the presentation that's telling me to stay far away.

Well... the video does seem a little bit slick somehow, like the chap in it is really an actor.

Perhaps he's just really good at speaking to camera as well as all the technical stuff, though? Maybe he recorded dozens of Kickstarter videos until he got one that was good? Who knows?

I'm going to be following this one carefully, though. If it's not bullshit it looks very promising indeed.

[Jamesac]

I'm not trying to be overly cynical or call Limit Theory a scam, but a lot of the Kickstarter bothered me. The lofty promises, slick video, and excellent game description hit my "Too good to be true" button pretty hard. Something seems off about it, but I really hope it's legit because I want to play the thing being promised quite a bit.

While $50k is actually a pretty good take for a scam, this is also far too loud and public to work out well for anyone. I'd like a bit more detail before I can stop being cynical about it,though. And just to clear up a point- I'm the one who cautions against over-cynicism with Kickstarter.

James

[Little stoned kiwi]

Just keep in mind that you've wandered right out of skepticism and are now square in the middle of cynicism.

[Jamesac]

Wow, its almost like you're using my words against me. It's a good thing I'm so incredibly thick that I'm completely unaware of things I've said earlier so I can learn an important lesson about trust and hypocrisy.

James

[Little stoned kiwi]

There's no need to thank me, I'm glad I could help.

[Flojomojo]

Perhaps you're just jealous of the Limit Theory boy's youth, talent, and onscreen poise. I know I am.

[Istar]

Posted in another thread, but relevant here as it discusses Braben. Rab Florence on Molyneux and Kickstarter - They will kill it. Be in no doubt. These established industry veterans,... http://t.co/BuGhMqDe (NSFW due to bad language)

Seems like another sour-grapes rant to me, and ironically one of his key points is exactly why I'd back a Kickstarter - "Like my stuff? Pay for my next album/game/thing!". Yep, works for me.

Because if I like your stuff, I'd've bought it when you released it. If you released it. So this way, I pledge something to allow you to make the thing that I want, and you get to make it for me to have.

Plus "Molyneux/Braben et al will kill Kickstarter" is tosh anyway - Videogames is only one KS category.

[sack]

As long as you're not trying to shift a mapping application that's better than theirs...

printf("Fuck knows where we are.\n");
That's my contribution. What it loses in graphical beauty it makes up in honesty.


Back to Kickstarter though - I get the feeling the big, well-known people are just going to end up using it as a marketing ploy and drown out anyone who is small, has an interesting idea and needs funding to pursue it. Then again - without the odd big name here-and-there less people are going to be pulled into looking through kickstarter to begin with.

Not sure where I stand on this one - there's pros and cons either way

[adam]

more well known people are able to raise more money on there, that can be creators of well-known web comics as well as celebs though

i'd say theres room for allsorts on there, it is going to get more widely used, 40% of projects hit their goals at present, that might drop as time goes on.

[RedOktober]

I wonder if it would be useful to have an upper limit on KS projects. Maybe a limit of £100-£200k would keep the big factions out of it, if they knew they'd never be able to cover their costs.

There is definitely an argument that the big players should play with their big financing associates, and leave KS to the little boys. Asking £1-2M for a KS project doesn't really seem to be the reason KS exists.

[venusian]

OTOH, big projects will fund kickstarter so they're hardly going to limit them. £1M is £50K in the bank for the same outlay as a £500 project. Depends if they follow EBay's lead and try to turn into a B2C business.

Personally I think crowdfunding in the UK will get regulated out of recognition before it degrades naturally. All it's going to take is a couple of big failures.