It’s quickly becoming accepted that for a game to really hit the big time on Kickstarter, it needs the involvement of people gamers can trust. Minimising risk, and all that.
So you’d have thought a project involving the co-founder of id Software (Tom Hall) and the designer of Wizardry 8 (Brenda Braithwaite, both above) would have been a safe bet, but nope. In a sign Kickstarter is never a safe bet, Shaker: An Old-School RPG has been pulled from the service after attracting under a quarter of its asking price.
The pair made the decision last week, posting a lengthy explanation that despite the backing of over 7000 people (who raised almost $US250,000), “our pitch just wasn’t strong enough to get the traction we felt it needed to thrive”.
A refreshingly honest take, but seemingly the right one. As I’ve pointed out, to really nail a Kickstarter pledge, people usually need to see something of a project, and while developer Lootdrop’s page had plenty of mention of its creator’s pedigree, there was almost nothing to see of the game itself aside from a handful of pieces of concept art that didn’t really show or explain much of anything.
Something they seem to have picked up on in sorting through feedback on the pitch, as they go on to write “we decided that it made more sense to kill it and come back with something stronger”, and to “expect something more soon.”
So this might not be the end of their game, just of its current, under-done Kickstarter pitch.
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! STAY TUNED….[Kickstarter]
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