Indeed, bank fees (set by VISA as far as I know ) are a mix of fixed and variable rates : 1 € + 2,7% of the converted amount.

You're purposely using the same converted amount (EUR) in your examples, with different tiers.
Here's some other examples with today's rates :
$20 tier => €15,64 + €1 + €0,42 = €17,06 withdrawn from my account
£20 tier => €24,97 + €1 + €0,67 = €26,64 withdrawn from my account

Almost €10 more, that's not negligible. My main concern is about accounting.

Hello, folks. This is Richard S. Hetley from Arcana Agency. I've been looking around for discussion on this or related projects, and ET3D showed me this thread. I'm glad to see people are interested! Also:

Yes, us. We're trying really, really hard to get pledges, as we are on the final leg and can get our gamebooks out the door almost as soon as we get funded.

Thanks for checking out our work, and best of luck to all these Kickstarter projects!

Pounds are more expensive than dollars/euros, but normally the UK KSs are trying to create tiers which pound value converted to dollar is similar in content to tiers in dollars. When I backed a KS, I normally look first for the $30 tier (or nearest like $25), this in pounds is almost 19 pounds. In the 3 UK KSs I backed, the tiers between 15-20 pounds have rewards similars to the $25-30 in the other KSs I backed, then the dollar value is more or less the same.

Distance - A Next Generation Arcade Racer
This is an awesome looking arcade racer. From the creators of Nitronic Rush
Its been confirmed that you'll be able to get a 100% DRM free copy

Its 50% funded and really needs your help!
Back it right Now!

Of course! Why shouldn't I? Your calculation is just crazy. If kickstarter comes to Russia, will you stop pledging at the US site because 20 roubles (60c) is so much less than $20?

I already did my part a few weeks back. I hope they reach their goal, Nitronic Rush was awesome.

A new round of updates:

Ars Magica #5 - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackchickenstudios/ars-magica-video-game/posts/342928, about the Schism War

The Silver Token #6 - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2028044240/the-silver-token/posts/342698, new stretch goal

Arcana Agency: The Thief of Memories #3 - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1615043334/arcana-agency-the-thief-of-memories-a-full-color-g/posts/342623, character sheet and background of the second detective

Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption #9 - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1878147873/hero-u-rogue-to-redemption/posts/342509, about role-playing in adventures, RPGs and tabletop

That"s not crazy, that's mathematical.
If Kickstarter should come to Russia not only would I prefer to pledge 20 RUB instead of 20 USD, but I would pledge higher. Because the creator would get more money in his project currency from my pledge.

Don't get me wrong, your examples and gandalf.nho post are absolutely logical but this retro-engineering sounds support-less to me :
Let's pretend I'm equally interested by 2 projects, why should I back a UK project for 12.52 GBP when I can back a US one for 20 USD ( or eventually a RUS project for 632.53 RUB ) for the same EUR amount ?
<span class="bold">Divine Space</span> is struggling to reach $100,000 and <span class="bold">Maia</span> to £100.000
My pledge on Divine Space makes it closer to its goal than on Maia, so Divine Space have more chance to be successfully funded.
To support Maia better, I should select a higher tier ( i.e. pledge more) but I wouldn't because of my "crazy" calculation.

Finally updated the list. Phew. Pretty sure I didn't leave anything out, so if anything didn't make it to the list, it's because I don't think it's worth taking note of ^^
Also added Elite Dangerous

About USD to Euros, I prefer pledging using/pledging dollars its much cheaper usually.

http://www.indiegogo.com/sots-thepit?a=1594316 A Futuristic Rogue-like Dungeon Crawler. Reminds me of a SNES game.

I'm really not seeing the SNES thing. Looks like pretty average indie flash fare, I'd say.

Kerberos, eh? Hmm, as much as I liked Sword of the Stars (The first one. I'm still wary about picking up Lords of Winter), I think I've worn out my interest in dungeon crawlers like this. Rather odd, considering roguelikes like Nethack, Angband, DoomRL, and ADOM, and dungeon crawlers like Shiren, Torneko, and Azure Dreams rank among my favorite games. Spelunky was an absolutely amazing blend of dungeon crawler and platformer.

Between games like Dungeons of Dredmor, Binding of Isaac, Desktop Dungeons, FTL, and the deplorable Hack, Slash, Loot, I have precious little interest in what people are doing with the genre these days.


You know what I'd really like? Fort Zombie 2. I just recently picked up the first game when it was on sale. It got some bad reviews, and deserved a lot of that hate, but I'd be lying if I said it hasn't had me coming back for more and wanting to play more games like it. To call it poorly optimized would be a gross understatement. I have to play on a friend's computer, and even then there are some issues.

There are some serious balancing and ai issues, and searching is really not fun. I love the dice-roll and separate camera/crosshair systems, quite a lot in fact, though most people seem to hate it. It's stupid when you can't accurately shoot a zombie in the head even when it's stunned on the ground, but I actually rather enjoy that. It makes every accurate shot that much more rewarding.

Point is, Fort Zombie had, at least I think it had, a lot of good ideas and good intentions, but I don't think this was the best they could do. With just a little more time and talent, I think it could've easily resulted in giving me as many sleepless nights as Mount & Blade had. All that wasted potential, a real shame. The patching was admirable, but it was fundamentally broken right down to the engine. It's really fun, though, and a good proof of concept. Not really a good game, unfortunately, but so damn close.

I'd much rather fund a Fort Zombie 2 than a Sword of the Stars themed dungeon crawler. Either way, I wouldn't blame anyone for being reluctant to fund Kerberos. All the same, I think I'd easily throw away $10 without a second thought for a chance at a Fort Zombie sequel. Particularly with a good number of funders breathing down their necks, I'd easily expect it to be at least as good as the original.

O.o who cares what the currency is? Currency is a unit of value. Of course, the fact that labor is cheap in Russia (no matter how cheap or expensive a basic unit of currency is) and a hypothetical Russian project might be able to do more with your money is another question - that does make a difference. But it's not on the scale of 1.5 orders of magnitude. Furthermore, 1 dollar is roughly 80 yen. Is your money 80 times more valuable to a Japanese game designer?

No reason. You need to make a decision based on some other consideration and choose one project to pledge for (assuming they all provide a tier you're actually interested in for an equivalent pledge amount).

That is completely irrational. And I don't mean "stupid" or "wrong", it's just words that don't lead to a logically valid result. To support anything better, you should pledge more. big projects are big because they hope to draw in more people and make something awesome for all of them, due to how the economies of scale work for digital goods. It does NOT mean that a cheaper game is automatically better, or that you are ethically obliged to pledge the same amount for the same tier for a cheaper game.

"I am equally interested in either game" means exactly that: you have to flip a coin. Relaxing that statement to "I am vaguely interested in either game" is a strong argument for the more expensive project (assuming equal cost of human-hour), because you will be getting more value for your money. A game that's being made on a budget of $20k, $20 per copy, is an inferior product compared to a game that's being made on a budget of $2M, $20 per copy. The latter case gives you 100 times more man-hours of development for your money. Would you given $20 for something I slapped together in a day on a budget of $20? Hell no. And from then on, there's no breakpoint. If you give the (honest) devs of Game X more money, that game becomes better.

Of course, in real life, other factors kick in, like the desire to take less risks with the money.
And this is why the rubric of "how many % of a goal my pledge makes" makes no damn sense. Because if the two of us are drawing three different conclusions covering the whole decision space, that rubric is not a valid basis for a rational decision. Rather, you might think smaller projects are inherently more ethical from a Kantian standpoint, or you might subscribe to the diminishing marginal utility idea, or you might be a big-publisher-hating hipster like myself. Or whatever. But not pure %. That doesn't work.

(On another note, I think the tiers in Maia are insanely overpriced, but that's a separate issue from it being a British project.)

Pier Solar HD
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/573261866/pier-solar-hd-an-rpg-for-xbox360-pc-mac-linux-and

Official website
http://www.piersolar.com/

Pier Solar is the biggest 16-bit RPG ever and it's coming to you in high definition for Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Linux & Sega Dreamcast!

Grimoire had an update. Best crowdfunding video so far?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPrOsNehxsM

I would say yes. Definitely yes.

I agree with him, it's a cry for help.

The main problem is, the introduction was way better than what he showed of the game.