Category Archives: Kickstarter

Kickstarting Some Games: Lagoon, Tiny Epic Kingdom, Scoville and more!

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I haven’t done one of these posts in quite some time as I am trying to reduce the amount of projects that I back on Kickstarter. I’ve slowed down somewhat, but I am not that particularly successful as I’m still backing quite a few projects. One of the aspects that help me with this is the shipping cost to Canada, which through no fault of the people creating Kickstarters, is becoming outrageous. A lot of the time, while I might want to help out and back a project, the cost of shipping is so high that I end up waiting for the project to successfully fund, hoping to be able to buy it from a local retailer once it comes out.

This bring out a dilemma: do you back it, giving the creators money directly and maybe getting some exclusives at the same time or do you wait for it to come out, maybe check out the early reviews and pay less from an online retailer? For me, it’s always a question of just who is putting out the game in the first place. If it’s a larger company or someone who I’m pretty sure will actually put out the project, I’ll wait and pay less. If it’s something that looks really neat or a project from a first timer, I’ll back it a lot of the time, simply to help out. Let’s check out the latest batch of projects that I’ve backed.

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Kickstarting some games: Fantasy Frontier, Shadows over the Empire and Burning Suns

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Ah, the lure of Kickstarter, the very idea of saying: “I do think that’s a good idea and I want to believe. Here, have some money and here’s hoping that you can deliver something that’s close to your vision!” or, to be more blunt “Aurg! Cool! Need now!”

Kickstarter

There’s always that little line, isn’t there? When you see something that looks really good, that they people who are making it are so excited that it’s contagious and you just want it now. And then, when all said and done, you get to wait. A long time. Hoping that you don’t lose that excitement. Or lose your money that you’ve invested. Or even worse, that the game will not live up to your expectations. I think that’s the worse, really.

I backed three games in the last two weeks on Kickstarter. One of them, the one I’m the most curious about not being released, or at least planned to be released, until a year from now. Another one should be out in the Spring and the last one should be out in a month or so. Is it the complexity or simply a publisher that’s using Kickstarter as a marketing engine? Dunno, and frankly, don’t really care. I just want these games…

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Kickstarting some games: Captains of Industry/City Hall and Golem Arcana

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Another week, another few games backed on Kickstarter. There’s always a certain thrill about backing a project: you can see the glint of something promising there and, when you combine that raw idea with some of the stretch goal, you can see how its creators really feel about the game. Now, there are people who will say that Kickstarter has changed, that the projects on there are not like they used to be. Presentations are slicker, projects are closer to completion. Sure, but somehow, I don’t have a problem with that. It makes me more confident in a project than something that seems to have been thrown together at the last minute. If you put care in your KS campaign, you make me feel like you’ve put care in the game itself, which can only be a good thing.

There are two kinds of projects on Kickstarter: those that are made by people who believe that their projects are done and that nothing more can be added to them. Those tend to have very few, if any, stretch goals and not a whole lot of attention on how their games are sold: no rules preview, no gameplay videos, etc. And then there are those who’s creators really believe in them and want to make sure a lot of people get them and that are ready to expand on their visions. These are the very best and these are the type I backed this week.

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Kickstarting some games: Infamy

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Oh Kickstarter, with your siren song of seductive games coming our way slowly. Whether you offer us some computer games, board games, card games or role-playing games, you always have a way to get money out of our pockets with promises of games that are even better than the last ones we got not too long ago.

Of course, any sensitive gamer will look at just who designed the game and who is producing it before backing a project, but sometimes, just sometimes the promise is too good to pass up.  

Luckily for me, the projects I backed this last week are from established companies and one of them even comes from a well-accomplished designer.

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Kickstarting some games: Red Aegis and Belle of the Ball

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I backed two new games on Kickstarter this week, one RPG and one card game. Those of you who know me know that I enjoy backing projects on KS, although I do have some method to my madness. I love games and I love helping publishers bringing new games to market, but only those which might not have made it otherwise, and this is usually due to them being too different or taking some risks. On the other hand, I sometimes back stuff simply because I think it’ll be neat or I just want to make sure that I’ll get a copy. So, what did I back this week?

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