Well, I checked out K'nossos and gave the demo a try (something which is usually a scale-tipper for me) and found it unconvincing :( It is a bit sad, since I'd argue offering a demo is always better than not having one, but if potential backers happen to not like it... I'm certainly glad I don't have to make decisions like that, that's for sure.

I'm kind of in the same boat there. More than $15 for an unknown developer it seriously increases the risks I'm usually willing to take.
Which was always, in my opinion, the real reason for the demise of kickstarter. With a few notable exceptions -including the Double Fine Adventure that put kickstarter viability out there-, it was mostly about a few people putting serious money to fund the projects they loved. It was never a sustainable operation. I back many projects -mainly adventure games-, but always at low level, because that's how the system should work. With more backers putting less money.

They allegedly didn't give up on it yet, so there's still hope.

Honestly, point 1 is probably the only one that stands out to me as the real factor for their quick success. I wonder if the project was featured in some german magazine or something. Visibily is usually the main issue for kickstarters and indie projects.
And yes, it's a good campaing, but there have been other good ones too, with a lot less success. That's why I compared it to Harold Halibut, another german game with a good campaing with a very similar style. Other outstanding campains like the one for Gibbous -with a demo- or The Journey Down -with two already released chapters- didn't even scratched the amount of money Truberbrook is getting. Which is why I'm pleasantly surprised with it.

They cancelled the campaing because it was going to fail. With the amount they were asking for, you better get more than 50% in the first 2-3 days or your pretty much done. And it was a King Arts game, a company with many succesful adventure games released already, and many crowdfundings delivered on a timely manner.

I've backed a lot more failed campaigns that those listed. Those were just the last ones. And I disagree, good campaigns fail all the time. Sometimes it's just about timing and luck; not being shadowed by more succesful campaings or releases is an important thing, although in the case of adventure games, I actually think it's better to overlap with some other campaings, as they feed on each other.

At the end of the day, adventure game kickstarters always had lots of comments of regular adventure backers. And all those people are not there anymore. An adventure like Trüberbrook, a couple of years ago would be overflowed with silly comments. That's an indicative as any other to the state of kickstarter right now.

Fun fact, "the Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti" was an unsuccesful kickstarter I backed. It happened to be showcased in the last E3 by Microsoft with a certain success, with basically the same kickstarter trailer. In fact, I don't remember any media outlet pointing out it was a kickstarter. Visibility is everything. Games like Trüberbrook or Harold Halibut would be poured with money and IGN praise if they were signed by Sony.

Everything helps, but a lot of campaings have praise by famous developers. A mention and link in one of Thimbleweed Park updates would mean a lot more to the campaing, I think. Although now that that game is out, I guess people don't really read the updates anymore, and it wouln't be as effective.

Well, that's unfortunate. I personally think it's counter-productive for kickstarters to offer a demo most of the time, as it's usually also a rough alpha that won't meet the standards of what the backers think any project should end up being. But I'm always glad they do so, as it's pro consumer.
I myself didn't try the demo. I back most of the drm-free point&click adventures that look professional, and in the case of these guys, well, I like that they're going for a certain "The Dig" feel and that they have a peculiar visual style.
What was it that you didn't like about it? It was technical or more about the story/puzzles. In any case, games based on story and puzzles are probably the most subjective games there are to evaluate. Just like any other movie or show.

You mean "Adventure game revival movement", or whatever heck they used to call themselves?

Damn those people were annoying. Spamming the comment section with hundreds of messages, I think someone called Riggo or something even did that on purpose (???) to help the projects (seriously, WTF!?!?) to succeed. I think I couple of times almost chose not to back a project when I saw that circus going on in the comment section. They really drowned all serious questions that people had.

I might even go as far as saying they contributed to this so called "Kickstarter fatigue", although admittedly, they also managed to gather some money.

In any case, I don't think they genuinely loved adventure games, it was just some ego boosting or some flash mob thing. Otherwise, why did they (and those thousands of useless comments) disappear without a trace?

Fortunately campaigns like Trüberbrook also show that 1) there are still serious backers out there, and 2) you don't need those adventure game revival dudes to succeed.

Ambition: A Minuet in Power

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joymanufacturingco/ambition-a-minuet-in-power

Seduce lovers, snub enemies, and survive the French revolution in a new, roguelike game for PC and Mac.

From the description:

Ah, sorry, I didn't notice someone had replied to me ;)
Well, as for my personal gripes, there were a couple of sort of technical nitpicks (they chose a font that's quite hard to read even on my fairly big screen, a narrator who talks just a tad too fast and often the text would skip forward of its own account, not "wait for a click", which for me as a non-native speaker unfortunately meant I missed half of the stuff that was being conveyed), but I ultimately found the art-style to not be quite to my liking (things ended up looking a bit cluttered, in my humble and very biased opinion).
But as you said, at least some of this might be sort of "birthing pains" that will look and feel totally different in a more finished and polished product. I'm quite happy they managed to reach their funding anyway, so I might check out the game a bit later down the road.
I personally always try to check out the demo if it is available, at the risk of it being not really representative of the final product. I figure kickstarter is a bit of a gamble in any case, so it's nice to get a bit of a look at what's already there and hope it'll only get better in the future ;) I remember one case where the demo was so bad I really think the devs did themselves a disservice by including it (in the end the project didn't even get close to being funded). So, yeah, it might have been good for consumers in the way that many saved themselves a chunk of money... for the devs, probably not so much. As I said, really not a decision I would want to make...

Hey, everyone! A new month means a new Kickstarter review article from yours truly! Give it a look and let me know what you think!

Greetings!

We are developing an action game about the invasion of aliens, there was a release on Kickstarter. How do you like the idea?
“When they arrived” – it’s an action packed game with a first person view where the main character is an ordinary hunter, former military which encounter an alien invasion on Earth. He needs to survive from encounters with aliens and other creatures, build various defensive constructions, find ways of feeding himself through hard times, explore a diverse world, swarming with creatures ready to "Wipe you off the face of the Earth"....

MORE ABOUT "WHEN THEY ARRIVED"

"When they arrived" - First person game with a storyline and a big open world. The main character Alan White is a former military man who was at war in Iraq, who received a lot of experience in the army, but after many injuries he decided to resign.

Many years have passed – Alan had his own business and was in to hunting. Once he decides to take his faithful friend, Doberman named Junior, to go hunting and stay at his deceased grandfather in the village called Brightwood where once was a sect called "Witnesses of the Second Coming". In the evenings, Alan listened to the radio and once heard an announcement about strange objects moving towards the Earth. After the third news release it turned out that it was alien’s spaceships. Later on, they began to report that the enemy had attacked, the cities were being destroyed and thousands of people died. Alan decided that he did not have any reason to return home, and it is better to stay here and consolidate, find weapons and provisions to survive. Perhaps he will even manage to save the Earth…

What would you do in his place? But, perhaps, sometime in the future, theoretically, an invasion of aliens (if they exist) could occur.

What will they look like? For what purpose they are invading? - We will try to answer these and other questions in the game ''WHEN THEY ARRIVED''.

WHAT IS READY OR PLANNED :

You are completely free in action and a huge world to research ;
Build, blow up and defend from enemies;
Mine ores, use it to create various useful objects ;
Hunt wild boars and deer, as they can become an excellent sources of food, but beware of bears and wolves ;
Construct various structures, including traps ;
Look for provisions, drive on an old ATV among a bunch of enemies ;
Study the legend of the 'Witnesses of the second coming ', perhaps there you will find some answers;
Increase your combat skills and not only (for this there is a especial panel of cards);
Survive by fighting with an enemy unknown to you, try to have an influence on the invasion and much more...

Hey I just saw that Riddle of the Sphinx: Awakening (Riddle of the Sphinx remake) Kickstarter is now saying they'll offer the game DRM free.

Check it out. They've only got 9 days left.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jefftobler/riddle-of-the-sphinx-awakening-discover-lost-tombs/description

I always read your Kickstarter reviews with interest, although I feel we don't quite enjoy the same things ;)
Sadly, it looks like Du Lac & Fey isn't going to make it. That one does look pretty cool - although their "not really drm-free" stance didn't do much to entice me. Not sure whether this hurt them in the end, but I suppose it didn't help either...

I appreciate that you, in spite of differences in our gaming preferences, take the time to read my articles each month. My fellow contributors and many of the indie devs I feature regularly have nice things to say, but it's very rare to get feedback from anyone not connected in some way to the article. Out of curiosity, do you check out the links in the opening paragraph? I change the "copyright-infringing remake" and "people just looking for a handout" links every month. I always wonder if anyone ever notices.

It hurt them at least as much as me not backing the project, which I might have done had that been a clearly DRM-free project. I'm sure there have been others who have felt the same way.

Then again, I never completely understood the point of that game, so their presentation didn't impress me otherwise either. Strangely formed sentences to describe the project "We are a character driven experience..." are more confusing than convincing.

Will you release your game DRM free? You write 'as digital download', but you don't say anything about DRM.

I've got to admit, I did not notice you changed the links there - truth be told, since the opening paragraph always looks kind of samey I just skim it to get right to the meat of things. That's kind of sad, seeing that you make a bit of an extra effort to implement those "eastereggs". Well, now I know ;)
As for the choice of games, I always figured you were trying to go for a somewhat wider approach ("something for everyone") rather than, say, going with five RPGs etc. Which I think is probably a good way to do it. There's usually one or two games there that I find appealing (while the rest is often a straightforward "not interested"). So, I think it's a nice way to shine a bit of a spotlight on some projects esp. the "not yet funded, but there's hope" ones :)

I used to try to change up the opening paragraph by changing out the games that I mention there, but there haven't really been any high profile KS campaigns over the last six months or so. Still, I am happy that you'll be keeping watch for my silly "Kickscammers" from now on.

Yes! That is definitely what my goal is for every installment. There are games I have covered that I have no interest in personally playing, but I know enough to see that many other gamers like things I don't. This month, for example, I was originally planning to include Truberbrook. However, when I saw it had already hit more than twice its goal by the time I was putting the article together, it didn't make sense to feature it. While I would love for my monthly wrap-ups to consistently feature 5/5 funded projects, I refuse to "stack the deck" by purposely covering a campaign that is doing really well and/or ignoring an interesting project just because it's doing poorly.

Thanks again for your feedback! I appreciate you taking the time. ^_^

Wow. There was not a single eye-catching Kickstarter campaign ending this month! In light of this shocking realization, I took this as an opportunity to do a 2017 Year in Review instead. Hopefully, we'll return to our regularly scheduled articles in February. Please share your thoughts on the biggest successes and/or disappointments from this past year!