Am I the death of Kickstarters (aka Thon Kickstarter)

[Love_the_Lash]

So I have a question for you all my fellow lead adventurers of the sci fi persuasion - am I the death of Kickstarters? I ask as at the moment I'm backing Thon http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/178087494/thon/?ref=kicktraq which has gone $50k to $45k over the sat 3 days or so and then before that there was Rogue Trooper which of course finished shy of the £20k it had at one point. I can't quite get my head around weather I have a terrible taste in projects or whether there's more than meets the eye, after all Thon looks good, great concept art, interesting world and cool minis.

Thoughts anyone?

[Lysander]

"Thong"?  Man, I am all for it!!!



Sorry, missed the "g".  What a difference that makes.  I wish "Thon" well too.  Still.........I might be willing to shell out an extra buck or two for the "g".

[Love_the_Lash]

I fear Lysander that you are out of luck as I'm no aware of Brother Vinni providing sculpts for the game (which would have guaranteed thongs)

[Elbows]

No, I think some other Kickstarter projects may be the death of kickstarter projects.  I know a lot of the folks who got the Sedition kickstarter stuff have stated they'll be waiting to see finished quality before backing other similar products etc.  So, I think some companies have over-promised and under-delivered etc.

[Love_the_Lash]

You probably have a point there, of all the kickstarter projects I've backed sedition wars left me feeling the most irate, Mike's sculpts deserved a much better medium than the soft plastic we got in the end.

[rwwin]

Scurv makes a lot of good points that probably have validity, but I think it also has to do with audience.  Many kickstarters are chasing after the same niche audience that only have so many dollars to spread around.  I think with bigger projects like Warzone and Zombicide rolling, there are gamers pulling their limited money from smaller efforts like Thon.

Related to Scurv's point on the greens, I find the overuse of CAD renders to be a big turn off.  Renders are fine for stretch goals you never thought you'd get to, but if they are the core of your pledge, I tend to pass it by.

[Thargor]

I'm pretty certain that most of us only have so much money to spend;  so many companies flooding the market at once on KS means that some are going to lose out.  I simply can't afford to back everything that I would like to and expect that others are in the same position.

[Deadspace1]

I'm actually pretty late in getting into the whole Kickstarter side of things. I only recently looked at the Zombicide season 2 KS and god do you get a lot for your money! But I totally agree with Scurv, The issue with loads of models is that it looks really good to start with but how many of us would actually paint all the stuff when it arrives? If you guys are anything like me you're already pretty close to disappearing under a mountain of lead and plastic! Still, the allure of all those zombies is very, very tempting....

[Love_the_Lash]

I certainly haven't even started on my sedition wars stuff yet but that's more due to me having been terribly disappointed by the quality.

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

I have a kick starter up at the moment, 3 days left:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/179741323/nuclear-renaissance-the-tome-of-tridlins

I delibaerately went for a low total and have given discounts on products as rewards, plus obviously the book. The discount is really shaving my proffit margin down to the bare minimum I can afford (I still need to cover my work and expenses!).

However, I will end up with a load of the books printed that I essentially have not paid for, so there is my profit. I could not have afforded to get them printed if I had not done a kick starter.

I think thats the way of it. Basically, put up a pitch. If people like it and trust you as a producer they will back it. Then its a matter of hitting your deadlines. If it all goes as planned then great! If not, then you lose face and its going to be hard to do another KS in the future.

Mine has been successful. I was able to get to the point where I could restock the core rules as well, which was great.

I have some ideas for a set of soldiers and I will be doing a KS for them. Im not sure if they will sell, and I dont want to commit to sculpting a whole range if no-one wants to buy them. KS lets me test the water before comitting, which is great!

[Kitsune]

I'm pretty certain that most of us only have so much money to spend;  so many companies flooding the market at once on KS means that some are going to lose out.  I simply can't afford to back everything that I would like to and expect that others are in the same position.

This is a very good point. I only tend to pledge up to my monthly gaming budget and if a more preferable project comes along, I'll drop one and jump into the other.

[Ruther]

Interessting to hear from the other side. Kickstarter is still a very good way for smaller companys to get something new (something which would never be made else) on the track while keeping the risk low. Condaming it because bigger companys take advantage as well is just plain silly. Afterall noone is forced to pledge  .

[Jonas]

Personally I don't like backing those larger projects from the bigger projects. Stuff like the Reaper Bones kickstarter was of course tempting because of the amount of goodies, but I completely agree on the point, that most would never be painted and there was so much I would never find use for.

I have backed on 3 projects so far. First one was Wiffwhaff's not zoats which was taken down again.

Then I backed the Ramshackle Nuclear Reinassance project, I already know and love the game, I have been wanting to get the printed rulebook for some time, so this was a cheap and great way to get the old and new rule book. Also I 100% trust Curtis to get this done.

Finally I have backed the Comfy Chair Spinespur kickstarter. Again I already know the rules and I have been waiting for the final miniatures to be done, so hopefully this kickstarter will make sure Spinespur will not die out too soon again.

[Love_the_Lash]

Well that sucked - Thon got pulled. Heres crossing fingers for a better revised launch...

[tnjrp]

They suffered a bad case of "pledge, then withdraw" so perhaps it was prudent to kill the KS before it withered away.

Hopefully they'll figure a way to put the game itself to market someday all the same. I wouldn't mind getting some of those droids they previewed.