What KICKSTARTER(S) are you BACKING and WHY?

southernman wrote: GREAT live announcement stream from Awaken Realms - they really are the game design company to beat.

But how much longer can the "plastic crack" crowdfunding ethos continue? I know AR have gotten some amount of goodwill by breaking free from Kickstarter and creating GameFound, but letting the world know your company survives via a neverending drumbeat of crowdfunding seems both unsustainable and unwise. At what point is GameFound just "the other, other Kickstarter" and leads to all of the same pitfalls that we've increasingly seen with these companies who peddle in overproduced minis-laden FOMO extravaganzas?

Because this really looks like "We run our Spring campaign to raise funds to pay to produce our last Winter campaign, then we run our Summer campaign to fund the Spring campaign," etc. etc. etc.

p.s.
And now BackerKit is going to have its own crowdfunding arena (their pied piper luring away Cephalofair Games, Leder Games, Restoration Games, Greater than Games, and others). So we've got Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Gamefound, and the BackerKit crowdfunding beta.

As long as consumers are willing to take on the financial risk, companies will use that.

fightcitymayor wrote: ....
Because this really looks like "We run our Spring campaign to raise funds to pay to produce our last Winter campaign, then we run our Summer campaign to fund the Spring campaign," etc. etc. etc.
...
.

Except they don't. Try doing some research - their games pay for themselves, they plan and price their projects carefully so that backers are not put at risk and they were one of the few companies that ate all the increased shipping costs themselves (and that wasn't small cosidering they were shipping tens of thousands of pledges over those years), they were one of the first to offer their plastic minis as optional add-ons (you get a few, enough to play the game, in the core and those that love minis can then choose to buy more - I haven't yet and still have great games), they have started parallel companies to do cheaper/lighter games & digital games & (now) for high quality accessories, they even are registered for VAT in the main countries they sell to so can offer a price that includes all local taxes to help the customer.
They have not put a foot wrong yet and my only moan was they 'watered down' some of their complicated designs to make it marketable to more gamers.
Try not to let the hive-mind hatred/snobbery of crowdfunding companies tar every company with the same brush ... it's a bit like me judging all you yanks on a demographic that gets the most media coverage.

ubarose wrote:

southernman wrote: GREAT live announcement stream from Awaken Realms - they really are the game design company to beat…

I love your enthusiasm.

They have been putting out very interesting and innotive games over the last 5+ years that it is hard not to be:
This War of Mine
Lords of Hellas
Nemesis
Tainted Grail
Etherfields
ISS: Vanguard

And they're not the only Polish company putting our something different and good - Galakta and Into the Unkown (and Portal Games) among others - while other smaller central european companies also are coming out with interesting designs.

While I understand the crowd funding skepticism , I think its as of now a bit of a stretch to lump Awaken Realms in with the CMONs and Petersen Games of the world - there is no evidence of them using current pledges to pay off past campaigns.

The STALKER game has me intrigued to know more. I'm hoping for something where you play in in the book... quick setup.

Doubt that will happen, there are several tiles in one of the promo pictures.

hotseatgames wrote: The STALKER game has me intrigued to know more.

I’m a sucker for Exclusion Zone stuff, but I think I have to stick with Zona Alfa (miniatures skirmish game), and not just because I’ve already printed out 75+ miniatures for it…

IF I WERE A LICH, MAN.

Boxed set of three Jewish-themed storytelling games. Title is a G-d-tier pun, additionally included is the (also excellently-named) Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Mitzvah about a vampire infestation at a coming-of-age party.

Dunno the odds of realistically playing this; the Venn diagram of "nerd friends" and "Jew friends" has very little overlap for me. But good puns should be supported.

Mindclash is sunsetting their story-driven RPG title 'Transhumanity' because they're stretched thin by current projects. Bit of a bummer, as I would have liked to see a game of this sort at Mindclash's level of polish. (I mean, they also billed Voidfall as a 4x game, so part of me wanted to see the extent to which they'd go full Ameritrash with it.)

EDIT: I also noticed that the solo/coop release for Unmatched ("Unmatched Adventures") hits crowdfunding this month. The game is doing fine, isn't it? Why crowdfunding?

Virabhadra wrote: Why crowdfunding?

1. Money up front.
2. Gauge people's interest.
3. See #1

People often underestimate the importance of #2.

Found my new Warcry warband: 10 miniatures based on the art of Hieronymous Bosch.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/2004599158/...-tabletop-miniatures

I received my Bankruptcy/Liquidation notice from Holy Grail Games for the Rallyman KS. They gave phone and physical address info for the warehouse from which I could try to arrange shipping. They certainly aren't making it easy, and I don't want to think about how much it will cost to ship from Canada.

I wonder if the logistics company is prepared for the number of calls they're about to receive? Also, I wonder if anyone is coordinating local areas to combine shipping. Like, for all people in a certain city, it might be cheaper to ship them all to one location and have everyone split the cost.

Edit: Apparently, the warehouse got so bombarded that they're not taking any questions except from one designated contact. There's also a Discord server. Glad to see somebody is taking the lead.