Gaming Kickstarters that worked
- 8 years ago
Thinking of Kickstarter, there is one game that really stands out, and that is Double Fine Productions’s Broken Age.
This is a game that started in February 2012 as a modest, text focused, point-and-click adventure with a proposed budget of $400,000 to cover development and a documentary of the making. Jump forward one Kickstarter month, and a community of 87,000 backers had raised the game nearly three and a half million dollars. This not only drastically increased the scope of the game, but also secured Kickstarter as a viable funding method for videogames.
The game was not without controversy. The original timeline had it set to ship in 2012, however the expanded scope saw the project broken into two releases – the first released in 2014, the second in 2015. In some ways the company was lucky to have documentary element of the project t– because while they came under fire for slow production and starting other projects alongside Broken Age, the were at least transparent.
But, for all of these issues, the final game’s quality was never in question thanks to its beautiful hand drawn art, a fun world distorting story, lots of puzzles and a voice cast that included Elijah Wood, Jennifer Hale, Masasa Mojo, and Jack Black.
The lesson: your game can be three years late as long as it’s good.
Divinity Original Sin took a different approach to its Kickstarter. This classic, dungeon and dragons’ style, isometric RPG was almost finished when the company went to their audience for support with the goal of creating a more polished and varied experience.
The initial goals of the developer, Larian Studios, again required 400,000 – for which they were going to create a bigger, more reactive, and denser game world. But as the popularity of the project grew they added a new area, character personality traits, orchestral music, and deeper background to all of your party members.
Netting nearly 1 million dollars, Divinity Original Sin did a fantastic job delivering on its promise. While it released 7 months later than anticipated – moving from November 2013 to June 2014 – it was exactly what all fans of the genre wanted. Indeed it was so successful that it won numerous awards that year – including GameSpots game of the year. Hell, we even gave it a 9 out of 10.
Its popularity eventually resulted in the release of an enhanced edition that added move voice work, controller support, and new combat systems – a version that also made its way to console.
Not all games can wait until they are nearly done before looking for some funding of course – but none the less this was fantastic way for the company to ensure the company could deliver exactly the game their fans wanted.
Darkest Dungeon is the other kind of Kickstarter, the kind that starts with modest goals to make a small tight gameplay. Not that it didn’t smash its own expectations – more than quadrupling their original goal of 75,000 and totaling almost 315,000, but this was never enough for the team at Redhood Studios to expand their project to unmanageable levels.
Instead this turn-based RPG rogue like expanded naturally. This lead to additional features being developed to add more depth rather than spectacle. This included extra characters, enemies, locations, and event types.
These stacked on top of a solid combat system that relied on positioning and unit types to add depth, and psychological scars. Your warriors who could suffer all manner of ill effect from battling the demonic evils of the darkest dungeons, and these must be cared for up on their return to town – that’s right, sometimes you just need to have a drink to heal those wounds… just be careful your healer doesn’t become an alcoholic.
But even with this more modest expansion, there were issues hitting deadline. The original final release of January 2015 was missed by one whole year – that’s right it is only just officially out – though backers could still enjoy beta builds through Steams Early Access.
This is a game that started in February 2012 as a modest, text focused, point-and-click adventure with a proposed budget of $400,000 to cover development and a documentary of the making. Jump forward one Kickstarter month, and a community of 87,000 backers had raised the game nearly three and a half million dollars. This not only drastically increased the scope of the game, but also secured Kickstarter as a viable funding method for videogames.
The game was not without controversy. The original timeline had it set to ship in 2012, however the expanded scope saw the project broken into two releases – the first released in 2014, the second in 2015. In some ways the company was lucky to have documentary element of the project t– because while they came under fire for slow production and starting other projects alongside Broken Age, the were at least transparent.
But, for all of these issues, the final game’s quality was never in question thanks to its beautiful hand drawn art, a fun world distorting story, lots of puzzles and a voice cast that included Elijah Wood, Jennifer Hale, Masasa Mojo, and Jack Black.
The lesson: your game can be three years late as long as it’s good.
Divinity Original Sin took a different approach to its Kickstarter. This classic, dungeon and dragons’ style, isometric RPG was almost finished when the company went to their audience for support with the goal of creating a more polished and varied experience.
The initial goals of the developer, Larian Studios, again required 400,000 – for which they were going to create a bigger, more reactive, and denser game world. But as the popularity of the project grew they added a new area, character personality traits, orchestral music, and deeper background to all of your party members.
Netting nearly 1 million dollars, Divinity Original Sin did a fantastic job delivering on its promise. While it released 7 months later than anticipated – moving from November 2013 to June 2014 – it was exactly what all fans of the genre wanted. Indeed it was so successful that it won numerous awards that year – including GameSpots game of the year. Hell, we even gave it a 9 out of 10.
Its popularity eventually resulted in the release of an enhanced edition that added move voice work, controller support, and new combat systems – a version that also made its way to console.
Not all games can wait until they are nearly done before looking for some funding of course – but none the less this was fantastic way for the company to ensure the company could deliver exactly the game their fans wanted.
Darkest Dungeon is the other kind of Kickstarter, the kind that starts with modest goals to make a small tight gameplay. Not that it didn’t smash its own expectations – more than quadrupling their original goal of 75,000 and totaling almost 315,000, but this was never enough for the team at Redhood Studios to expand their project to unmanageable levels.
Instead this turn-based RPG rogue like expanded naturally. This lead to additional features being developed to add more depth rather than spectacle. This included extra characters, enemies, locations, and event types.
These stacked on top of a solid combat system that relied on positioning and unit types to add depth, and psychological scars. Your warriors who could suffer all manner of ill effect from battling the demonic evils of the darkest dungeons, and these must be cared for up on their return to town – that’s right, sometimes you just need to have a drink to heal those wounds… just be careful your healer doesn’t become an alcoholic.
But even with this more modest expansion, there were issues hitting deadline. The original final release of January 2015 was missed by one whole year – that’s right it is only just officially out – though backers could still enjoy beta builds through Steams Early Access.