Skimming through successful KickStarter projects, just skimming, I've noticed that pretty much all of the successful projects have TONS of stuff on their pages. Charts, renders, concepts, lists, posters, videos, more charts, more concepts, more renders, photos, etc., etc.. They just keep pumping those things out like clockwork.

Compared to them, VO's is practically bare. A couple renders, a couple screenshots, the journal videos, one chart, and some headers.

Looking back, considering the trouble that Guild has in getting enough time and resources to just make the game, and that one of the reasons they needed the money from the project was to be able to make more and better media in the first place, was it perhaps a Catch-22 to do something as media-heavy and time consuming as a KickStarter project?

What the fuck is this thread even supposed to be about?

He's verbosely wondering whether VO lacked the funds to run a successful fundraiser.

Simple: Was the Vendetta Online KickStarter doomed from the start by the very lack of time and resources it was intended to alleviate?

KickStarters are very time consuming and media-heavy things. Did the devs lack of time and ability to put out that media, which the KickStarter was intended to alleviate, contribute to the failure of said KickStarter?

A brief look at myriad successful KickStarter projects (projects that at least reached their minimum goals) shows that a great many of them are chock-full of everything from concepts to videos to charts to scribbles on napkins.

Vendetta's? Not so much.

Considering the devs have repeatedly stated that they don't have the time to do much related to the game itself, which includes running and updating a KickStarter, one has to wonder if that contributed to the failure of the KickStarter.

"Yes", I guess?

The most popular and successful Kickstarters usually have teams of people. I couldn't risk pulling everyone off of the iPad to do the Kickstarter, so I did everything myself (Curt did a few last-minute graphics for me, while I was juggling videos).

The best bet on that kind of thing is to spend months in "pre-production" for a Kickstarter, to have tons of graphics and content available in advance.. and not just for the main page, but content to push out in updates and so on. I did what I could with making the videos and voiceovers and trailer and stuff, but.. yeah, time/resource limits.

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That said, I do not think our lack of graphics is what "doomed" the Kickstarter. There are a lot of other factors, like the 60% reduction in probability of success (at $100k or higher) if your Kickstarter is not "staff picked" and featured by Kickstarter themselves (and we were not). Chances are, most of those "successful" KSs in your examples were picked. Perhaps our lack of graphics caused us to not be picked? I have no idea. A lot of other things are picked that have few graphics.

But, more graphics would sure have been nice. Especially shiny, flashy concept art that I just.. did not have, at all.

But, I don't really have the energy or headspace for responding to another big discussion of "why the kickstarter failed", which has previously devolved into 50 points of "WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THIS BETTER".

In my opinion there were a lot of factors that didn't work out for us. Some we could have helped/improved, some we could not have anticipated. It was a "learning experience".

At some point I'll write a big post on off-topic or something about it. I've obviously spent a lot of time ruminating about it, and I have a lot of data to back up my thinking as far as what didn't go well, but.. not time to share it right now.

I'm very busy trying to plan for GDC, get the iPad version ready, and 50 other things.

The failure was kickstarters as much as Incarnates - The whole point of kickstarter is that its supposed to help funding new arts projects, not arts projects that have a team of bloody marketing dudes to pump out a new video every week with fancy graphics and big empty promises.

In either case, it was good exposure and it forms part of the VO online profile of media which is actually a good thing, the more stuff you have online about your product the better.

GS should revisit crowdfunding locally, with no time limits and in smaller blocks

This seems like it would have been a perfect PCC project. The PCC could have pulled together media. Created concept art...or really just become Inc's bitches to help him get things done. GS can ask the player base for help in fund raising just like it asked for funds and PCC contributions.....

Seeking where to place blame is neither conducive nor appropriate, not to mention disheartening for designers. We can gotthrough and pick things clean but it will achieve nothing and much as the devs would like to respond to this manner of thread they are busy still pushing forward despite the financial limitations.

Instead of added pressure why not pursue an avenue like litestar eluded to... I require because of my job to keep a good grounding on major news foreign and domestic, I use a website that display the 10 major stories and yet on a Saturday it displays the week's biggest viral videos.

Viral videos are powerful advertising tools to which even major companies try to use... I am not suggesting guild do it, the thing about viral is that anyone could do one. Even if the video doesn't go viral it can potentially reach more members.

That and out can be fun to have a chuckle at each other's videos.

FYI: The PCC did help out. I reached out in the first couple of weeks to have them help me run down potential bloggers and journalists to contact, and help condense a list of people and contact addresses. They did a great job and came up with a bunch of information.

The PCC is a wonderful and talented group of people, many of whom are willing to give their time to help us out in any way that they can. They are not, however, a AAA game studio that is magically on-tap whenever I need it. As far as I know, we don't have any professional concept artists in the PCC, and anything less than high grade art would only be a liability to a Kickstarter, not an asset.

I would like to offer my first impression of your kickstarter page as someone who has briefly played your game and as an android gamer. I came across the kickstarter a few days after it started and it left me confused as to what you needed the money for: new content or funding for an iPod version? It seemed to me that while the kickstarter description was talking about expanding the universe and improving the visuals, these were stretch goals and the only thing that would happen if you met the target would be the development of an iPod version. I wanted to get more opinions before I contributed and my friends agreed it was a bit confusing so I left it. If the main goal was to make an iPod version it meant to me that the main audience you were appealing to was people who own an iPod and me being an android gamer would only benefit if u met the stretch goal. Perhaps I completely misunderstood the kickstarter but that would still mean it should have been clearer if you wanted my support. I revisited the page today and it seems a much clearer message was eventually put on there but personally I visit kickstarer pages once and then move on to another kickstarter so first impressions do count. I think it would be unfair to assume you wasn't successful because your kickstarter wasn't a staff pick or whatever, your message was initially confusing.

The iPad port was the first thing mentioned on the kickstarter campaign, but the other things were definitely discussed in both the video and the page. Was having the iPad port listed first perhaps problematic? maybe.

Perhaps we had even bigger problems with our communication if even after going to the effort of actually registering on our forum you still think it's an iPod port, rather than an iPad port.

lol

Lol my mistake, ipod/ipad, I should have got my facts right about that before posting, I apologise.

Having the port as the first thing in your list did make me think that was a priority despite and the other stuff which seemed (at first glance) secondary stretch goals.

I think it would be unfair to assume you wasn't successful because your kickstarter wasn't a staff pick or whatever, your message was initially confusing.

I'm not saying we weren't successful because we weren't a staff pick; I said there were a lot of other factors in play than "concept art", of which the staff pick was one, particularly when compared to the other six and seven-figure game-Kickstarters that everyone seems to use as a point of reference for us (obviously even a poorly-presented Kickstarter gains a huge boost from being featured on the front page).

I am aware of the fact that some people found the initial presentation confusing, I spent a lot of time on forums and comment-threads trying to un-confuse them, and did my best to re-organize it.

Like I said, there are a number of factors that probably hindered us. Some of them are publicly evident, some of them aren't.

And on a final note, as previously mentioned:

But, I don't really have the energy or headspace for responding to another big discussion of "why the kickstarter failed", which has previously devolved into 50 points of "WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THIS BETTER".

..I think I'll stop responding on this thread now.

Inc, just to give you a thumbs up: I think that the KS was good work, and it gave a lot of publicity and exposure even if it didn't make the dollar goal. Crowd mechanics are complex and I agree with you that there is little use in crying over this particular spilt milk until the moment comes that you want to try again on a different platform.

Keep up the good work!

In spite of how my opinions may look
I thought KS was a success regardless of the intended financial goal being hit or not.

Exposure was needed and that is what happened. I hope they do more of this all over the net.

Here is something interesting that reinforces a trending topic.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=live

VO would be cool on this device and likely already compatible since this appears to be android based console device

Inc already stated that they intend to support it.

On the bright side, the worst case scenario is that a few players decide to try out Vendetta.