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General discussion (archive)The absurdity of some kickstarter (like Carmageddon´s) rewards(27 posts)(27 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 28, 2012
For example Stainless and their kickstarter rewards are way too generous; for a 150 $ pledge you get one boxed DVD with the game (with printed manual) , four digital copies of the game for Steam / DRM-FREE (GOG maybe), one copy of GOG Carmageddon´s Max pack version which includes (Carmageddon+Splat Pack), T-Shirt, 2 Max Damage´s Eagle car Miniatures (old one and new one), early Beta access for ALL steam Copies, access to all developement subforums at carmageddon.com (well this seems unexpensive), Carmageddon Card game and four Carmageddon postards. Edit: The also include a poster.
But the most amazing thing is that they don´t specify any cost for international shipping(!!!!!!!).

I think... Will they have enough money left to develop the game? .
Post edited May 28, 2012 by tejozaszaszas
Posted May 28, 2012
They have been doing business for a long time so you would excpect them to know what they are doing. You are right though, that sounds like a lot still.
Didn't one of the early KS successes complain that they ended up wasting way too much of the money on the rewards?
Posted May 28, 2012
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kalmis666: They have been doing business for a long time so you would excpect them to know what they are doing. You are right though, that sounds like a lot still.
Didn't one of the early KS successes complain that they ended up wasting way too much of the money on the rewards?
If they're that business-savvy, they don't have to scrounge up money from Kickstarter. ;)

And yeah, I read that somewhere that one dev grossly underestimated the cost of producing physical goodies.
Posted May 28, 2012
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kalmis666: They have been doing business for a long time so you would excpect them to know what they are doing. You are right though, that sounds like a lot still.
Didn't one of the early KS successes complain that they ended up wasting way too much of the money on the rewards?
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Catshade: If they're that business-savvy, they don't have to scrounge up money from Kickstarter. ;)

And yeah, I read that somewhere that one dev grossly underestimated the cost of producing physical goodies.
Not necessarily for a games like Carmageddon, Wasteland2, Shadowrun or LSL, especially LSL, it can be hard to get a publisher to finance the thing. And if you have the savvy it can actually be cheaper to do so as you pay KS one time and then provide whatever rewards you've promised after that you have the money pretty much free and clear. You can focus on using it to fulfill the promises you made in the campaign.

But yes, I'm sure some of the newer developers do over promise, I prefer to stick with known names for a reason, but developers without a solid business plan can fall into that trap.
Posted May 28, 2012
... AND A PONY
Posted May 28, 2012
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michaelleung: ... AND A PONY
This made me remember this excellent song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AI9uOSOLak&feature=related
Posted May 28, 2012
That 150 dollar reward includes
-stuff that's regularly seen on collector's editions which cost 50-100 dollars... there might be even more here but then again it's a 150 dollar tier, not 100
-digital this and that: Steam copies, beta access, forum access...that doesn't cost them anything

Only thing I'm pondering, is that if they're giving a lot of free copies with the different tiers, will they have any regular customers left if anyone can give a free copy to their friend and their neighbor. But well, I guess they know what they're doing. They've been in the business a long time.
Anyway, I found that news article about that KS project where the dev severely underestimated some of the costs. It's in Finnish but I'll do my best and translate:
-The game was called Star Command by War Balloon games: it's a mobile game
-Goal was 20k, they got 37k
-2k was lost because of some failed transactions (=people didn't have the pledge money after all)
-Amazon Payments and KS took their share, which left the devs with 32k
-The T-shirts and posters + shipping cost 10k
-6k went to the musician who did the game soundtrack (6k...wtf.)
-Legal stuff, the company foundation costs (I really don't know what these are...), 4k
-Poster designer took 2k (again, wtf.)
-Purchase of enough iPads to develop the game: 1k
-PAX East presentation, 3k

which means they had 6k (minus tax) left for the game development. The devs have since taken bank loans though, so that they can finish the game.
Post edited May 28, 2012 by DProject
Posted May 28, 2012
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DProject: That 150 dollar reward includes
-stuff that's regularly seen on collector's editions which cost 50-100 dollars... there might be even more here but then again it's a 150 dollar tier, not 100
-digital this and that: Steam copies, beta access, forum access...that doesn't cost them anything

Only thing I'm pondering, is that if they're giving a lot of free copies with the different tiers, will they have any regular customers left if anyone can give a free copy to their friend and their neighbor. But well, I guess they know what they're doing. They've been in the business a long time.
Anyway, I found that news article about that KS project where the dev severely underestimated some of the costs. It's in Finnish but I'll do my best and translate:
-The game was called Star Command by War Balloon games: it's a mobile game
-Goal was 20k, they got 37k
-2k was lost because of some failed transactions (=people didn't have the pledge money after all)
-Amazon Payments and KS took their share, which left the devs with 32k
-The T-shirts and posters + shipping cost 10k
-6k went to the musician who did the game soundtrack (6k...wtf.)
-Legal stuff, the company foundation costs (I really don't know what these are...), 4k
-Poster designer took 2k (again, wtf.)
-Purchase of enough iPads to develop the game: 1k
-PAX East presentation, 3k

which means they had 6k (minus tax) left for the game development. The devs have since taken bank loans though, so that they can finish the game.
They also give you two eagle models. And they also include shipping costs, that´s crazy.
Posted May 28, 2012
"I just wanted a new Carmageddon, but all I got was this lousy T-shirt"

I couldn't care less about miniature models of the cars, T-shirts etc., so I'll let others have the $150 deals.

I'm thinking whether this should be my first Kickstarter I enter. Getting Carmageddon 1 Max Pack "for free" sounds kinda nice, but maybe I should check whether the original runs fine in DOSBox without much trying. Someone mentioned DOSBox problems with the Splat Pack, but I believe it when I see it.

The good news is that my gf saw me playing Carmageddon 2 the first time yesterday (I think I have four more levels to go before the end), and she seemed totally cool with it. I was kinda fearing she would comment how sick it is, driving over people when they scream etc.

But no, she seemed genuinely interested in the game and felt it was fun, commenting all the time about my driving abilities etc. She's more into casual Bejeweled, Puzzle Bobble, Angry Birds and spot-the-difference kinda games on the Android tablet though.

I love her more and more each day. Most of my exes would have probably said "How immature", I guess that's why they are exes.
Posted May 28, 2012
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timppu: "I just wanted a new Carmageddon, but all I got was this lousy T-shirt"

I couldn't care less about miniature models of the cars, T-shirts etc., so I'll let others have the $150 deals.

I'm thinking whether this should be my first Kickstarter I enter. Getting Carmageddon 1 Max Pack "for free" sounds kinda nice, but maybe I should check whether the original runs fine in DOSBox without much trying. Someone mentioned DOSBox problems with the Splat Pack, but I believe it when I see it.

SNIP
The version here will support graphics acceleration, doing that in DOSBox is going to be a PITA and that assumes that you have the Splat pack as I think that's when they added that.

But if you don't care about 3DFX emulation, then it might not matter to you.
Posted May 28, 2012
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hedwards: The version here will support graphics acceleration, doing that in DOSBox is going to be a PITA and that assumes that you have the Splat pack as I think that's when they added that.
Ah, good point, since so far I have zero experience setting up 3Dfx support in DOSBox games. I should try that though, just for the sake of Fatal Racing/Whiplash 3Dfx and Archimedean Dynasty.
Posted May 28, 2012
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timppu: I'm thinking whether this should be my first Kickstarter I enter.
I've entered four: Wasteland 2, Larry Remake, Haunts: The Manse Macabre, and this one. I like to support interesting titles so that they don't get squashed by a greedy publisher, saying "noooo, you can't do this game, there are too many risks whether it will succeed". If the game doesn't get finished anyway, no big deal: it was only 5-15 dollars (well, 25 in Carmageddon's case); it's not the end of the world. And if it does get finished, I got it a lot cheaper than if I had bought it from a store.
Posted May 28, 2012
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michaelleung: ... AND A PONY
In!
Posted May 28, 2012
The rewards are incredibly confusing which seems to be a trend with Kickstarter games. You get a shirt at $50 and get a shirt at $150? Wah?
Post edited May 28, 2012 by Red_Avatar
Posted May 28, 2012
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Red_Avatar: The rewards are incredibly confusing which seems to be a trend with Kickstarter games. You get a shirt at $50 and get a shirt at $150? Wah?
No, most of the time, when you upgrade your pledge , you still have the rewards from the inferior levels.
Post edited May 28, 2012 by tejozaszaszas
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General discussion (archive)The absurdity of some kickstarter (like Carmageddon´s) rewards(27 posts)(27 posts)
(27 posts)