Want your dream game, why not build it yourself? Enter Kickstarter!

Kick...what?

Kickstarter logo, with their
'Fund & Follow Creativity' motto

    Just to clear things. Kickstarter is what has been described as, crowd-funding website, which has been around since April 2009. So it is not really a new thing, therefore, why the hell did I chose to write about it, you may rightly ask. Well firstly, because, although Kickstarter had an impressive start, it was really during 2012 that it took off in a big way. And it was in 2012 it saw several landmark goal reached. 

   Most notable landmark, the 1st project to gather more than $1M pledged. And ten the flood gates opened. Just over a month passed and the adventure game Double Fine Adventure set a new record, a staggering $3.3M ! Till the time of writing this, the record holder is the Pebble: E-Paper Watch, with over $10M pledged.

How does it work?

 Although you can get all details you need at the Kickstarter website, the basics are pretty straightforward. First you need a project in mind ... obviously. This can be, almost anything. Abook, a record with your garage band, a revolutionary eco-friendly farm, some shiny hi-tech gadget, game or art project. Really, there are very few things you cannot do. So, you post your project, set a goal for $$ needed and hope you manage to gather it before a pre-set due date. 

  Obviously, there are much more than that going on, especially if you want to succeed. Just having your firends and family chip in is simply not enough. So, firstly, you need to put a fair amount of time to build an exciting and informative page on Kickstarter. But even that, on its own is not enough. You need to build awereness, reach out to as wide an audience as possible, through social media, relevant forums, blogs and so on.

   To lure prospective backers, Kickstarter has a system of rewards in place. To put it simply, depending on the amount of money pledged, a backer is elligible to specific rewards, provided of course the project funding is successful. 

So what does this has to do with gaming?

 If anyone, hasn't participated in, or followed, discussions in groups, forums,etc., about homebrew rules, game setting, campaigns and so on, is simply lying. Back in the days when I was still playing World of Warcraft, I can't remember the times I heard comments of the type "If only I could have the money, I would have made an awesome MMO!" Guess what. That is not the problem it used to be. If you got an awesome idea and/or you are a talented designers/developer, got a like minded group of people and build your Kickstarter project.

 And by the looks of it, there is a real trend going on. As you can see from the table below, out of the successful projects with the most funds pledged, a great deal are game related. Most of them easily exceeding their initials goals by quite a margin.



 So, are an avid game, looking out for new, exciting game that break from the current mould? Visit the Kickstarter  games section !
  Are a game designers, developer, artist with an interesting idea looking for ways to fund your project? Kickstarter might actually be the solution for you.

 My hope, is that through Kickstarter, in the foreseeable future, we will see games coming out that are truly innovative, without the restrictions imposed by publishing groups and CEOs, who usually want to stick the old and tried solutions
 Lastly, I wanted to share with you my favourite out of the game project in Kickstarter. A cooperative RPG, board card set in a nightmare-horror setting, called Kindgom Death: Monster. The quality of them minis is just staggering!

Ten largest successfully completed Kickstarter projects by total funds pledged 

(only closed fundings, up to Nov. 2012 are listed). Source: wikipedia

Rank	Total USD	Project name	Creator	Category	% funded	Backers	Closing date	Link
1	10,266,845	Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android	Pebble Technology	Design	10,266	68,928	2012-05-18	[1]
2	8,596,475	Ouya: A New Kind of Video Game Console	Ouya	Video Games	905	63,416	2012-08-09	[2]
3	3,986,929	Project Eternity	Obsidian Entertainment	Video Games	362	73,986	2012-10-16	[3]
4	3,429,236	Reaper Miniatures Bones: An Evolution Of Gaming Miniatures	Reaper Miniatures	Games	11,430	17,744	2012-08-25	[4]
5	3,336,371	Double Fine Adventure	Double Fine and 2 Player Productions	Video Games	834	87,142	2012-03-13	[5]
6	2,945,885	FORM 1: An affordable, professional 3D printer	Formlabs	Technology	2,945	2,068	2012-10-26	[6]
7	2,933,252	Wasteland 2	InXile Entertainment	Video Games	325	61,290	2012-04-17	[7]
8	$2,542,390 (£1,578,316)	Elite: Dangerous	Frontier Developments	Video Games	126	25,681	2013-01-04	[8]
9	2,485,506	Homestuck Adventure Game	MS Paint Adventures	Video Games	355	24,346	2012-10-04	[9]
10	2,437,430	Oculus Rift: Step Into the Game	Palmer Luckey	Technology	974	9,522	2012-09-01	[10]