The point of fundraising is to get enough money to have the game made instead of not made (or otherwise affect the development in a meaningful way).

Suppose a game asks for $100k. Even assuming good faith on the part of the project creator, if the project is currently sitting at $0, I have absolutely no incentive to donate to it UNLESS it's just taking preorders (as Grimoire does, and even then Clive is dumbwrong for giving IndieGoGo a 9% cut).

In 2009, successful kickstarter projects asked for sums like $100 and $200, and no, I didn't leave out zeroes. It was understood that those were basically epic-long-term, sky-high-risk preorders, the game was being made anyway, and the money collected did *not* accelerate development much. But to attract big money, you need to promise to deliver a game of a particular quality within a reasonable timeframe. You are assumed to have set the minimum goal to satisfy these criteria.

If a project asks for $100k to release Tehpwnzor McAwesome the game* by Dec 2013 and collects only $1k, it has no business keeping that $1k unless the donors were actually willing to wait well into the next century.

*I'm working on it. No project, though.

It leaves it more open for fraud, half-baked projects, unrealistic projects and so on. Kickstarter is a little safer for the backers, and it also highlights the importance of making sure you have good feasible pitch and project, if you don't you want get any funds. Both approaches has pros and cons.

I also don't like the method of charging and refunding. It suffers from exchange rate issues, the feeling that people might be using my money to gain interest, a potentially harder time changing the support level, and probably other issues.

IndieGoGo always charge immediately, but in the case of Fixed Funding projects, the money is refunded in case of failure (I backed Starforge, which is Fixed and was charged in the same moment), I guess is a limitation of PayPal

These projects are in their last week and are needing help to get funded:
Shadowgate, needs $13.5K with 3 days to go (for adventure fans, specially old versions of Shadowgate)
Maia, needs £38.8K with 5 days to go (for Dungeon Keeper/Theme Hospital fans)
Spud's Quest, needs £2.650 with 7 days to go (for puzzle/platform and Dizzy fans)
Sui Generis, needs £75k with 7 days to go (for RPG fans)



And some new projects:
Tiny Barbarian DX, a 2D platform
Predestination - A turn-based space 4X strategy game
Forsaken Fortress, a pos-apocalyptic RPG mixed with base building/defense

Thanks for doing this, much better.

I think we can reunite some long lost relatives...

Look at the picture of the blonde in the middle of the list characters in Forsaken Fortress, then compare with the icon for Driftmoon (best seen on the Greenlight button)

Thanks for keeping an eye on the new KS projects coming onboard, and bringing them to our attention. Regarding these newer ones....Hope to see more info from the Predestination ppls in near future; like the ideas and what they propose, but the KS is kind of sketchy atm on solid material that's actually in the proposed game.

The Forsaken Fortress is looking pretty cool...like the "Mad Max" feel of it :)

Something totally not games-related but very much in the spirit of giving :)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/591893901/subway-moon-goes-munich-teen-original-jazz-project

From the text there:
---------------
The Institute for Collaborative Education is a small public alternative middle/high school in Manhattan that attracts families of all incomes from across the city. Its music department is run by professional jazz musician and poet, Roy Nathanson. Roy’s songwriting class has been invited to perform its original songs to the public in Munich, joining German teen-musicians there in a cross-cultural exchange. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime and, once there, the kids’ expenses will be paid. But they need your help getting there.
------------

I saw this weeks ago, but totally forgot about it till now... I just pledged some money (they alrady reached their goal, but more money helps) and I think it is just great for intercultural exchange... so they have three day to go... and it is christmas soon, so make some people happy ,)

http://icegoesmunich.wordpress.com/

Best

PaulDenton

P.S: And Just for good measure

(1) Y7SU
(2) -3QTY
(3) -Y9KA
(4) -BQ59

Ah it's refunded? Didn't know that, thanks for clarifying.
We should use this method to see how frequently people catch up on this thread :P

To be honest, I am really surprised to see that this codes are not taken the second they arrive :)

20 mins after your edit and I managed to grab this, must have gotten lucky. Thank you!

Cheers,

in fact it was up about 45 minutes total.. the edit had some other reason (posted the second link). So have fun with Primordia.

The art kind of reminds me of Beneath a steel sky, just need to wait for it to release now :).

Updated 'Links to discussions on specific Kickstarter projects' with links to threads on Project GODUS, Spud's Quest and Predestination.