So you've heard me spouting about how cool I think Kickstarters are, and I do I really love the idea of Kickstarters, and the fact you get to help finance someone's dream. But there's that little bit of 'risk' involved in funding. You are usually paying for development of a product. It is not a pre-order. If you're looking for a pre-order with lots of cool stuff, then pre-order.
There are definitely horror stories out there, a particular dwarven role-playing game comes to mind, where gross mismanagement of funds stopped development before it was finished. It has since been re-crowdfunded by a third party to finish production. As was recently shown to me, there were issues with the fulfillment so lots of people have been affected by not having their full order (mostly the buttons, because as I understand it the games have been shipped.). My own personal Kickstarter that I'm way overdue on is the FAR WEST kickstarter, but Gareth Skarka is still working on it, and it's getting closer. Even the FATE CARE KS is taking longer than I expected to finish....but it is also progressing.
I have my own part to play in a Kickstarter, with the Interface Zero 2.0 KS I was brought on as a writer for the project, with the June deadline looming for the core book, there's still a daunting amount of work to be done on the game, I did my Equipment section, and now I'm working on the Golem rules some more. I wasn't brought on at the beginning of the project, but projects change. It's not a pre-order, it's funding for development.
What to watch out for with a Kickstarter.
1. Are they a company which has put out products in the past?
2. Is this their first Kickstarter, and do they have reasonable sounding goals, and stretch goals?
3. Is the product already developed? Does it just need art and funds for publishing?
If you answered yes to all those questions, then you're "probably" OK...but it's not a guarantee...read and accept the risks.
Have fun!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment