Email: The disturbing kickstarter trend

Not sure that you noticed this, but since you never made any mention
of it, I guess not.

It all started when Tim Schafer started a project for a point and
click game on Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a crowd-sourced fundraising
site where projects can be proposed and funded by the public. Check it
out.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66710809/double-fine-adventure

Needless to say, Schafer got 3 mil for his game without even having to
start development. When other game developers got wind of this, they
all ran to the money tree.

Soon Brian Fargo starts one:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

Then Replay Games starts one:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/leisuresuitlarry/make-leisure-suit-larry-come-again

Then Stoic starts one:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/the-banner-saga

And now even Yogscast wants their own game:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/winterkewlgames/yogventures

These are just five examples out of countless projects out there.

It’s very similar to what Valve once proposed:
https://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2009/07/20/valve-give-us-money-before-we-even-start-development/
But now it’s becoming quite a trend by dozens and dozens of game devs.

Seeing their track record, I see why they would have to resort to selling themselves instead of selling their game.

You know the developers who should be given a shot like this? It would be Paul Reiche III (who worked on Archon) and Fred Ford who made Mail Order Monsters. Their masterpiece, Star Control 2, had a horrible publisher who wouldn’t fund their game at the end and was so confused by the awards the game got that it placed a sticker called ‘Best Sports Game’ on the box. Despite that, there was so much demand and commotion for a sequel that Accolade went ahead and gave it to Legend to make (not the original makers). Ever since then, due to the escalating cost of game development, Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford have been stuck in a sort of development hell where they make only licensed kids games. They want to make the sequel, even got back the rights to the intellectual property, but their current publisher (Activision?) won’t let them.

Instead of giving money to game developers to make more vanity projects, give it to those who are actually trapped inside corporate shells where money is the issue they can’t break free.

Above: The *only* space / RPG / Arcade / Adventure game ever truly made. Now it is 20 years old and the game has aged amazingly well… much better than the Wing Commander games that came out at the same time.

And should a true sequel be made to Star Control 2, gamers, we shall be the Yehat who see the Shofixiti return from oblivion. “OUR CHILDREN ARE BACK” as we celebrate with stuffed grubs and realize the return of great gaming from oblivion, like the Yehats, will spark our own gaming revolution.