It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
avatar
nijuu: Which basically means Indiegogo (and obviously the project initiater)makes money regardless whether the project succeeds or fails. And the donator is left out of pocket.
Not something i want to donate to i think. Way to go :/.
Indiegogo does have a more unreliable vibe to me. There also seem to be more troll projects. YMMV, and if a good, reliable developer decides to use Indiegogo, I'd still support them.
not sure if these have been mentioned yet. they look ok...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/celsiusgs/drifter-a-space-trading-game

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/attackmountain/legend-of-the-time-star-a-retro-action-rpg
avatar
nijuu: Which basically means Indiegogo (and obviously the project initiater)makes money regardless whether the project succeeds or fails. And the donator is left out of pocket.
Not something i want to donate to i think. Way to go :/.
avatar
lowyhong: Indiegogo does have a more unreliable vibe to me. There also seem to be more troll projects. YMMV, and if a good, reliable developer decides to use Indiegogo, I'd still support them.
I did back one thing on Indiegogo where he had basically met his goal, but a few people didn't pay form the KS campaign and so he had nothing. (X-Stylus crayon if you're curious) and that turned out just fine. But, he had basically already determined that the market was there and that there were enough people to fund it. I think that was an all or nothing one though.

But, yeah, it depends a great deal on who's handling things.
Added Drifter because it looks good, and after looking through Legend of the Time Star, I don't see why it shouldn't be on the list, so I've added that too.
avatar
JudasIscariot: Donor the horror story has been cancelled.
What a pity. It looks good.
Post edited May 05, 2012 by lowyhong
avatar
Starmaker: The most important difference is that on Indiegogo MONEY GETS TAKEN IMMEDIATELY. I can't allcaps this enough. This is the reason for their internationality: Kickstarter's pledge mechanism is based on Amazon Payments' subscription system, and Amazon Payments is US-only. Paypal is more "international", but it takes your money right away.

Then, if the project was set to "fixed funding" and the funding fails, you get your money back, MINUS THE FEES.
Is this true for credit card payments? It doesn't look like it from the information on the Indiegogo site. My understanding was that the credit card is only charged at the end of the campaign.
avatar
htown1980: not sure if these have been mentioned yet. they look ok...

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/attackmountain/legend-of-the-time-star-a-retro-action-rpg
I mentioned this one a while ago but I think maybe Iowyhong missed it.

It looks really good, if only they could get some game play footage up I bet they'd be running away with it.
Post edited May 05, 2012 by Dizzard
République just caught my attention. How come this project isn't discussed in the press? Especially the aspect of direct interaction with the protagonist is very interesting. It also seems to offer a very dense atmosphere. Technically it's on a high level. So why the disinterest? As I see it, they should have supported PC/Mac from the outset.
avatar
ET3D: Is this true for credit card payments? It doesn't look like it from the information on the Indiegogo site. My understanding was that the credit card is only charged at the end of the campaign.
Yes.
http://support.indiegogo.com/entries/20494567-how-to-contribute-to-a-campaign
To contribute to a campaign, look for the big Contribute Now button on the right hand side of any active campaign page. Clicking on this button will bring you to the Contribution Check Out page. Please note that your credit card or PayPal account will be charged immediately, as soon as you complete your contribution check out process, not at the end of the campaign.

To clarify:
They take your money right away and keep it.
If the campaign is fixed funding and it fails, Indiegogo returns your money, minus two-way processing fees. Neither Indiegogo nor the CO get anything.
If the campaign is flexible funding and it fails, Indiegogo gives money to the CO, minus processing fees, minus Indiegogo's cut of 9%.
If the campaign succeeds, Indiegogo gives money to the CO, minus processing fees, minus Indiegogo's cut of 4%.
(In rare cases, the collected money isn't enough to pay for its own wiretransfer, in which case it's refunded to the contributors, minus two-way processing.)
If you want to make more than one contribution (pick two separate levels, pick one level two times), you can just do that.
If you want to increase your contribution, you should deal with the CO directly and ask if it's possible for you to make a second contribution and make the sum count toward a higher level. There's no "increase your pledge" button.
If you want a refund because you changed your mind (and the campaign isn't over so your money is still at Indiegogo), they will NOT refund it. You need to ask the CO nicely.
If you want a refund because your card was accidentally charged twice (directly, no Paypal), they will consider refunding the extra amount (contact support).
If you want a refund because your Paypal was charged twice (standalone, or credit card via Paypal), Indiegogo will NOT refund it - again, ask the CO nicely.

Finally:
if you are unable to go ahead with your project or fulfill your perks for any reason, we suggest reaching out to your contributors directly to issue any refunds from the funds we disburse to you.

WTF? Indiegogo is greeeeeeeedy. This means if I outright tell Indiegogo that I'm dead, there will be NO REWARDS, please stop this trainwreck, they will still give me the money and take their cut. (Obviously, a better way to do it would be to refund the contributors in full on a first-contributed-first-refunded basis, including all processing fees, and leave me deal with the pay the few unrefunded contributors out of my own pocket.)
E.g. how it works (approximate figures):
The campaign is running, people contribute $10000, of which approx. 4% are the fees. This leaves $9600 on Indiegogo's accounts.
I say, "Sorry, I'm dead."
Indiegogo hides the page from third parties.
When the campaign ends, they take another $900, plus wiretransfer fees.
I get $8700. I need about $10417 to compensate people. Therefore, I'm $1717 in the red - the price of a cancelled project is 17% of the sum collected so far.

How it should be done on Indiegogo is they weren't so damn greedy:
The campaign is running, people contribute $10000, of which 4% are the fees. This leaves $9600 on Indiegogo's accounts.
I say, "Sorry, I'm dead."
Indiegogo hides the page from third parties.
They refund the contributions using the $9600 they have, starting from the first contributors, for a total of $9216 in refunded contributions.
They sic the unrefunded $784 on me, which means I need $817 to compensate people. That's 8% of contributions so far.

This encourages failures to STFU, take the money and skip town.

Kickstarter
A pledge means you authorize Amazon to charge X bucks at some point in the future. They won't take the money right away, they won't even *block* the money right away (like car rentals do).
You can cancel your pledge any time while the project is active. You do not need to contact anyone about it, it's just "manage your pledge - cancel your pledge - confirm". Three clicks. The pledge is cancelled right away.
You can increase or decrease your pledge right away.
You cannot claim multiple reward levels unless it's explicitly stated by the creator (see e.g. Artisan Dice: Simply use the "Manage My Pledge" button in upper portion of the right hand column, and add the corresponding amount for the dice you'd like to order.) or you contact the creator and arrange for it (Sector Xero was nice to give me a special option of two unassembled unpainted lamps).
No money changes hands unless the project is fully funded at the declared deadline.
Projects only: there should be rewards somehow connected to the project and an estimated delivery time on those rewards. Self-entrepreneurship is quite nebulous: "I will make a series of artworks for a third party; you can get pix / updates / lessons / unrelated stuff but none of the originals"; "I have made a movie and need money to get it to a festival; give me money and get the already finished movie" - it's certainly possible to sneak a Plz Pay My Bills, as long as something gets created, and the project is advertised as "something gets created and it's awesome".
Note that e.g. Jason Scott's Sabbatical (his first KS project) was an openly Fund My Life thing (the rules were different back then), and Andrew Plotkin's Hadean Lands was a thinly disguised Fund My Life (no estimated delivery, "The more donations, the more time I can spend working on the community projects and open-source work.").

Finally: price of total failure on kickstarter: $0, the project gets cancelled and the pledges are automatically cancelled too. Kickstarter writes off the wasted bandwidth and custserv man-hours as operating expenses.

Finally (this time for real): Kickstarter is vastly more popular for the reasons listed above. If you want to donate to non-project campaigns on Indiegogo, that's cool. But if there's an Indiegogo campaign that would make a valid Kickstarter project (stuff gets done, estimated delivery, US citizen), you should ask yourself and the CO why the hell they didn't choose Kickstarter. Because it smells suspicious.
avatar
jefequeso: Well, I'll put mine in here :P

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/940529766/nurf-nerfus-and-the-great-dungeon-shootout-3d

yeah, I realize that I spend a lot of time plugging my own stuff... :(
avatar
lowyhong: You're only 22? You look so young! (and I'm not saying this in a pedophilic way). Btw check OP for a surprise ;)
inorite? I look like a 16 year old.

And still act like it in some ways, too, so it evens out I guess :P.
avatar
Starmaker: Then, if the project was set to "fixed funding" and the funding fails, you get your money back, MINUS THE FEES.
According to the indiegogo site, the fee is 0% when you don't make a fixed goal, and the third party fees are not applied to refunds. Which would make what you are saying here completely false.
source: http://www.indiegogo.com/learn/pricing
Post edited May 05, 2012 by LordCinnamon
avatar
Dizzard: I mentioned this one a while ago but I think maybe Iowyhong missed it.

It looks really good, if only they could get some game play footage up I bet they'd be running away with it.
I actually dismissed it. I was in the middle of studying when I looked through that KS page, and I didn't think much of it. Now, having more free time on my hands, it does look to be quite a different league of game, even with Japanese game influences, so I've decided to add it to the list.
avatar
jefequeso: Well, I'll put mine in here :P

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/940529766/nurf-nerfus-and-the-great-dungeon-shootout-3d

yeah, I realize that I spend a lot of time plugging my own stuff... :(
avatar
lowyhong: You're only 22? You look so young! (and I'm not saying this in a pedophilic way). Btw check OP for a surprise ;)
Just checked OP. Thanks a bunch! That will help with things a lot!
I think there are several reasons why a particular game may or may not get crowd funding..

1) When it comes down to it, you really do have to market yourself to get people's attention. You can have a great project, but if nobody every hears about it, you won't get funded. More to the point, if you can't grab their attention long enough for them to see why they really do want to be funding your project, it isn't going to happen.

2) Even if you get attention, not everyone likes the same things. I'm sure that guy has a great idea for a new shape of ketchup bottle, but it doesn't excite me enough to invest in it.

3) Face it, sometimes your timing is just bad. If there are four or five different projects going on that are exciting, "donor fatigue" starts to become a factor. There have been several projects that didn't' quite make their target because they were promoting right when several other popular projects were taking everyone's money. Lots of people are like me and can't afford to shell out 50% of our monthly income all in one go.


-Khalaq
Post edited May 05, 2012 by Khalaq
avatar
Starmaker: Then, if the project was set to "fixed funding" and the funding fails, you get your money back, MINUS THE FEES.
avatar
LordCinnamon: According to the indiegogo site, the fee is 0% when you don't make a fixed goal, and the third party fees are not applied to refunds. Which would make what you are saying here completely false.
source: http://www.indiegogo.com/learn/pricing
Ah, now I see. Still, I am right in spirit anyway. See, they do not allow anything but Paypal for fixed funding. That's how they can refund all the money that went through Paypal to Indiegogo. But if you're international, you probably use a credit card with Paypal and pay the fee anyway - say you want a $100 perk, you pay approx. $103.5, and if the funding fails, they return you the full $100 they received. Oh, and depending on how international you are, your Paypal account might not accept returns at all. I know mine doesn't.

Where I actually was wrong is the timing of flexible funding disbursement. In flexible funding, they accept both Paypal and direct cards and send Paypal money to the CO right away with Indiegogo taking a 9% cut, then, if the funding succeeds, refunding the 5% difference and sending along the held money from direct card contributions.

Now watch how fishy their refund rules are:
Please note that we will not be able to refund your contribution if the amount has already been sent to the campaign owner. This means that we can only refund your contribution if it was made via direct credit card to a campaign that has not yet ended. If you would like a refund for a contribution made via PayPal or if you would like a refund after the campaign has already ended, you will need to contact the campaign owner directly.

"We cannot refund contributions that already went through, therefore we cannot refund any Paypal contributions at all" is bullshit, because fixed funding (Paypal-only) money is held. The restriction on refunds in sentence 2 is wider than its implied cause in sentence 1.
Honestly in regards with Indiegogo - the donor should have the power to donate initially, change level of donation and cancel it if they don't want it to go ahead (before the goal/deadline etc) with the minimum of fuss. Which is why i like way Kickstarter works (ive donated to a number of games & also changed level of donations and cancelled a few i thought didn't deserve it). Having the CO (indiegogo) decide if/when donors can get a refund is pretty lousy to be honest. **looks at more KS stuff**