Reply To: Has tabletop Kickstarter passed its peak?

[redscopeParticipant 2718xp 2]

It is very difficult to say. Personally I felt a little burned by the Mythic Darkest Dungeon issues. Then we had the He-Man Archon Studio kickstarter only for them to launch another He-Man game straight to retail with the same characters before we are even close to getting our He-Man kickstarter. I am still pretty angry at the way both these kickstarters have gone lord knows when I will get them now. Infact all the major ones I have backed have had issues, they are always late not just weeks but months in some cases years. It is honestly not been a great experience other than simple models ones which are 2-3 months in scope hats of to crooked dice team as never had an issue with them.

I think at that  point I was ready to give up on kickstarters but I have recently backed the grail expansion and I am in two minds on the oathsworn reprint at this point. I have passed on a good few i would have done otherwise perhaps a year ago.

I am considering the value of them and if it is worth the stress and pain of backing a kickstarter. If games are coming to retail anyway is it worth the risk of backing the game why not just wait ? Do the additional goals really add value, do I really care about an additional model or a different pose of the same character that much to take the risk ?

In general terms that seem to be the case people are looking more at what they money buys rather than just throwing money at the game. Oathsworn for example has had rave reviews even tho it had a troubled first kickstarter just a re-print has raised over 2 million so money is clearly there.

I suppose we should talk about the opposite which is Warcrow ? I assume that is the consideration here I cannot be the only one to feel a shock at how little backing it has so far. 245,000 seems a lot but you cannot think that covers the game production let alone to turn a profit. I was expecting 500,000 at least if not close to 1 million Infinity Defiance got.

I think the difference between the two is people have the money if your product is compelling enough. If your product comes some some risks and doubts, if it does not really offer something quite unique, or the value does not feel like it is an amazing deal it is really going to struggle in a difficult market.

Companies are really going to have knock the product out of the park to get the sort of funding we have seen in the past.

I think the age of taking more risks with kickstarters, or people just throwing money at them is at an end. I think companies are going to focus a lot more on the products before launch. Do smaller kickstarters, with a lower buyin value and much shorter turn around times than we have seen.