Kickstarter 20 - Part 4 - Double Fine Adventure

Double Fine Adventure

Completed Funding on March 13, 2012 with $3,336,371 of $400,000

What did they offer:  Double Fine offered the world a new way to create a main stream title through crowd sourcing instead of going through publishers.  Backers could receive the game and larger backers could get the game boxed, art books, and a variety of other items.

When was the expected delivery date:  October 2012

What did VG30 pledge for: We made a basic pledge for just the game on this one at $15.

Status of Project:  Our first incomplete project, the game has been projected to be done by April 2013 but that has gone to the wayside as of their latest (December) update and now looks as they're trying to operate through September 2013, almost a full year after the expected delivery date.

What the creator is saying:  There hasn't been a Kickstarter update since December 21st, but from it we can tell that the game has gone past what they expected to do and didn't want to turn away from.  They became the poster child for Kickstarter successes and if they botch this it won't only be a massive blow to Double Fine, but Kickstarter as well.

What the community is saying:  This one is hard to judge because there's 87,000 backers, and many of them got swept up in the excitement of funding something so big.  The little bits that I can piece together from the comments reflect a silent, confused, and slightly irritated community.  Some people think that the game they were funding is The Cave which just appeared on Steam, but no, the game they're looking for is Red, which just goes to show you that they're not even paying attention to the (30 minute long) video updates.

What we're saying:  Clearly this exceeded their expectations and from that they wanted to create a game that was worthy of being thrown so much money at.  I don't know how to call this one just yet, I believe in the Double Fine team being able to pull this off, because if they can't do it the repercussions are something that Kickstarter and the gaming industry can't deal with.

Kickstarter 20 - Part 3 - Viva Java

Viva Java

Completed Funding on February 29, 2012 with $56,052 of $15,000

What did they offer:  Viva Java offered a Eurostyle board game that was tailored to a large gaming group (such as ours).  In addition to the game, backers could get a "Geek-Spansion" consisting of geeky coffee types like "Lord of the Beans", as well as additional wooden figures, bags, and a travel cup with the logo on it.  

When was the expected delivery date: August 2012

What did VG30 Pledge for:  We pledged for the game and the Geek-Spansion for $60

Status of Project:  All packages were shipped out by Mid-October, leaving about a month and a half delay.  

What the creator is saying:  They apologized for the delays, citing a normal production delay as well as being stuck in customs for about a week.  The delay took 3 weeks, which means shipping took longer than they expected.

What the community is saying:  The community was very understanding, and were ok with the delays, likely due to the regular updates provided by Dice Hate Me.

What we're saying:  We had a couple gripes with this, one in that one of the delays was because the brown and red beans looked too alike so they had to go back and re-do them.  That's fine, but they're still too close of the same color when looking at them in a bag.  Otherwise the component quality is great.  We also had a small issue with them underestimating the length of time their demos were running at Gencon, meaning that when we showed up we didn't actually have any time to play the game.  They did offer to refund, but they should know how long their game lasts a bit better than that.  The delay, the overbooking at Gencon, and the red/brown bean problem leave us with less than a 100% satisfactory transaction, but still one of the better ones.

Kickstarter 20 - Part 2 - Seven Sisters

Seven Sisters

Completed Funding on March 11, 2012 with $12,000 of $8,000 goal

What did they offer:  Wishing Tree games offered backers a copy of the game and upgraded it for Kickstarters with wooden pieces instead of cardboard.  Higher backers could receive portraits of the sisters and T-Shirts.

What did VG30 pledge for:  VG30 pledged $45 for a copy of the game with promo cards

Status of Project:  All items have been shipped out with no complaints on the comments for backers not receiving anything as of December 29th.  The goal for shipping out was July 2012, and we received ours in August at Gencon.  The promo cards didn't make the cut and a second shipment made it out in October.

What the creator is saying:  Unfortunately our shipment of promo cards was also many other people's shipment of the game and the t-shirts didn't make it until November.  They were very good about keeping everybody up to date up to their Gencon debut, but fell off the map shortly after that with updates coming once a month, which still isn't that bad.

What the community is saying:  This was a small Kickstarter, so there wasn't a lot of discontent here.  The general consensus is that it's a fun game, and people liked the extra wooden bits and such.

What we're saying:  The game is fun, but ours had a small problem with the cardboard insert.  It was pretty mangled when we opened it and after a little bit of fiddling found that whomever was folding the cardboard into the box actually ended up tearing up our insert.  I needed to get some scissors and cut up the insert to make it work properly.  Otherwise with only a month delay on the game and a few months on the promos, this one delivered pretty close to it's goals.

Kickstarter 20 - Part 1 - Order of the Stick Reprint

Order of the Stick Reprint Drive

Completed Funding on February 21, 2012 with $1,254,120 of $57,750 goal

What did they offer:  The OotS Reprint Drive offered backers a large assortment of items as shown by this chart given to people to help plan their backer packages:

What did VG30 Pledge for: VG30 pledged for the $25 Cast picture and all the bonus goodies that came from that tier, as well as additional payment for the OotS Game expansion and the Patch.  The expected delivery date was to be April 2012. 

Status of Project:  We've received all physical items, but almost none of the additional digital rewards, as evidenced by Rich's latest "Workometer".  Backers have yet to receive their "Patience" items which were expected by December, and we didn't receive our items until late August / early September.  At best, 3 months off of original projections.

What the creator is saying: The creator of the comic, Rich Burlew, had an extremely unfortunate accident in September in which he lost the ability to use his right hand for holding a pen, let alone drawing.  Because of this, many rewards were pushed back considerably.

What the community is saying:  Rich has an extremely supportive community that just want him to get better, to let his wounds heal, and get back to it when he's good and ready to.  

What we're saying:  We agree with the community on this one.  Rich has given us years of free entertainment and allowed us to share in his story.  We've got our physical items in hand, and are looking forward to the many MANY digital items that Rich has promised us.  Rich has since begun updating the comic again, which gives many of us hope for more in the near future.

The Kickstarter 20

Happy February gamers!  This month we're going to do something a little different.  For the past year VideoGamingAt30.com has been Kickstarting new tabletop and PC games (as well as one comic) over on Kickstarter.  Twenty of them to be exact.  And even as we begin to reach the one year anniversary of our campaign, I find that only a small fraction have been 100% fulfilled to myself, let alone in it's entirety to backers that went a little more above and beyond than what I did.

This month we're going to do a series of 20 (!) articles that share in the experiences that we, as well as other backers have had with these projects.  I stated in The 30's! that we have not had a 100% positive experience with any project yet, and this will be a good way to showcase what backers regularly go through while waiting for their rewards to arrive.  These articles aren't going to be very long, but they'll consist of at least these core items:

• A title and link to the original Kickstarter project
• What level we pledged for and any extras that cost more
• The total package that was offered to us for backing
• The status of the project in relation to items received
• What the creator is saying
• What the community is saying
• What we're saying

By the end of the month only a handful of project that we've backed (less than 20%) will still be within their originally proposed delivery dates, so it'll be an interesting project for sure.  We'll be kicking things off shortly with our first project, The Order of the Stick Reprint Drive.