[merged] Do you think the Kickstarter could have been better

[amaginon]

I am hugely excited for Project: Eternity. And i am a huge fan of Obsidian and this is not a knock at Obsidian and I am in no way saying the kickstarter is a failure. I just think they could have done more to build the excitement on their kickstarter.

 

I feel the stretch goals were vague afterthoughts and feel if they had put the same level of thought and detail of the 2.3 stretch goal into the earlier stretch-goals they might be further along in their crowd-sourcing. I also think it would have been a bit better to time the ending of the kickstarter for later in the week, (rather than a Tuesday), so they could build a bit more excitement for the end.(After all more funds means more can be added to the game.)

 

What improvements (if any) do others think might help the kickstarter project attract more backers?

[Superdeluxe]

KS is not over yet. I'll give you my opinion at the end

[Monte Carlo]

Monday Morning Quarter-Backing. Please lock.

[Piccolo]

Obsidian are already guaranteed a lot more funds than they needed to make this game a reality, so in that sense, it's already been a huge success.

 

I do agree though that a little more could've been done to keep the momentum and hype of the first couple of days going.

 

There's still quite a way to go anyway. I'm not very familiar with kickstarter, but I imagine there's often a slight surge of backers towards the end...

Edited October 1, 2012 by Piccolo

[Merin]

Obsidian is doing an above average job overall. And, for the most part, they are doing a great job.

 

They could have been more enthusiastic and optimistic going in. That's the only fault I'll give them.

 

Otherwise, after day one they really ran with it.

 

Would I have them do somethings differently? Sure. But I don't think they are doing anything poorly.

[Ieo]

Wait, when did the Kickstarter end?! WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?

 

WHERE IS MAH SWAG??

[Death Machine Miyagi]

Things can always be 'better.' But I'm pretty sure hitting 200% of their intended funding (which they certainly will quite soon) suggests they're doing just fine.

[ravenshrike]

It's pretty clear they undergauged both total interest and intensity of that interest. They also should have taken a good look at Inxile, Grim Dawn, Planetary Annihilation, and DFA's stretch goals and had more tacked down at the start of the KS. But really those are minor quibbles, things are going fine as they are, although they need to make more far reaching stretch goals for the final 5 days.

[anek]

Roughly 200% of the target amount reached in the first half of the kickstarter - sounds like a success to me.

 

And a lot can still happen in the second half - some of the other prominent kickstarters experienced a steep rise towards the end, especially if high stretch goals were introduced at that time.

[Hornet85]

The game stands on its own. I'm not sure if there's anything else it needs.

 

Throwing more goals just for the sake of it risk derailing the project.

[Gatt9]

I feel the lack of defined stretch goals is really hurting the kickstarter. I think they could have a lot more money. Stretch goals incentivize upgrading pledges, and new pledges at higher levels. At this point, we already know all of the stretch goals that are present will be hit, so why pledge more than the minimum?

 

Strong stretch goals also tend to cause wealthy people to kick in late in the run at high tiers. Dead State had people kick in 2 of the highest tiers in the last few minutes just to reach an extremely close stretch goal. Wasteland 2 overcame the mid-kickstart slump by announcing Avellone. Planetary Annihilation was consistent because of it's roadmap of compelling stretch goals.

 

IMO, Obsidian is limiting their own success right now. IMO, they should have goals mapped out to 3 million at least.

[Gurkog]

I bet if they announced a stretch goal for mod tools to be developed and released after the game is finished they would get a lot more pledges. The mod tools don't need to be present on launch day, just the fact that they will be made gives encouragement.

[Ieo]

I feel the lack of defined stretch goals is really hurting the kickstarter. I think they could have a lot more money. Stretch goals incentivize upgrading pledges, and new pledges at higher levels. At this point, we already know all of the stretch goals that are present will be hit, so why pledge more than the minimum?

 

Strong stretch goals also tend to cause wealthy people to kick in late in the run at high tiers. Dead State had people kick in 2 of the highest tiers in the last few minutes just to reach an extremely close stretch goal. Wasteland 2 overcame the mid-kickstart slump by announcing Avellone. Planetary Annihilation was consistent because of it's roadmap of compelling stretch goals.

 

IMO, Obsidian is limiting their own success right now. IMO, they should have goals mapped out to 3 million at least.

 

Because Obsidian is already successful. Your last bit makes no sense at all. Some people are misunderstanding the Kickstarter goal; "get as much money as possible no matter what" is not the purpose, nor is the juvenile "we need to beat X project and look at how much Y project made."

 

"Get enough money to make a business proposal happen" is the purpose. Obsidian may actually feel that the current funding covers all their intended content and then some, so any subsequent bonuses must be weighed carefully to avoid introducing burdensome and unnecessary feature creep or painting themselves into a corner with a promise that may not work out in development.

 

A good example are mod tools. Obsidian is aware of the desire for such tools and would rather wait a year into development (U12) before committing to that or not; this has to do with a lot of behind-the-scenes balancing against content and funds and other variables the players simply do not know. Because the folks at Obsidian has way more game development experience than, well, everyone here, I must trust their judgment on that matter.

 

I have no doubt that Obsidian will advertise more stretch goals soon, but thinking that the Kickstarter's current state is somehow a failure is rather silly.

[Malau]

Actually, I'd expected them to put a much higher target.. although that would have been very risky as well. Not that I doubt the loyalty of the old time rpg-ers..

Edited October 1, 2012 by Malau

[adamsorkin]

Close to double their funding goal and nearly 50,000 supporters with 15 days left - looks pretty successful to me.

[Ink Blot]

so any subsequent bonuses must be weighed carefully to avoid introducing burdensome and unnecessary feature creep or painting themselves into a corner with a promise that may not work out in development.

 

I personally feel this is paramount. While I won't balk at Obsidian having to take more time than they first thought in order to finish the game in a polished fashion, I don't want Project Eternity to turn into an internet meme like Duke Nukem Forever.

 

The only thing I can say about the state of the kickstarter is that the most consistent thing I've seen posted on various forums is they didn't give enough detail about the game itself when the kickstarter first launched. I'm not sure I agree with that, mind you, but that's the criticism I've seen most often.

 

But to be honest, more and more stretch goals would make me worry rather than make me more excited. This game is currently slated for release in Q1 or Q2 of 2014. That's not a lot of time to fit in a bunch more features and content than currently planned, I think..

[Piccolo]

Actually, I'd expected them to put a much higher target.. although that would have been very risky as well. Not that I doubt the loyalty of the old time rpg-ers..

Indeed. Their target did seem a little on the conservative side to me.

 

I guess they could not have anticipated the great reaction they received though. And from media interviews, they seem pretty confident that 1.1m would have been enough to produce a great CRPG.

[Nakia]

Monday Morning Quarter-Backing. Please lock.

I agree. The initial funding was raised in less than 28 hours.

[PsychoBlonde]

Shouldn't this type of thing wait until after the Kickstarter is OVER?

[NateOwns]

I agree that the initial stretch goals weren't as well thought out as they could have been.

[rjshae]

The game stands on its own. I'm not sure if there's anything else it needs.

 

Throwing more goals just for the sake of it risk derailing the project.

 

Yes, and you don't want to throw in so many goals that you lock up your flexibility to make decisions further down in the design process. Sure it wasn't quite perfect, but so what? Kickstarter itself is still relatively new, so the best approaches are still being worked out.

[Grimlorn]

Hindsight is 20/20.

[septembervirgin]

More mugs, t-shirts, and swag could've been done with minor increase in pledges. Obsidian could've offered to digitally reproduce the purchased character(s) sitting in an abode or the tavern one buys or the item one makes, and send the digital reproduction as a high quality picture both to the computer of the pledger and the actual abode of the purchaser. Specially designed marshmallows and other treats might have been ideal, but they had no idea that so many people would be interested so quickly and that the interest would flag suddenly.

 

I seem to think that they could've lowered pledge amount for "creating ones own character or item" and had city districts created by high pledges for special cities designed specifically by pledgers -- and they could've used tile sets for those areas, making it easier to design and cheaper to design too. Otherwise, I think they did an okay job except they should've had more swag! And comic books. A certain level of pledge should permit them to hire a manga artist.

[Metabot]

*looks at kickstarter page* Oh that's right there's still 15 days to go, a little under half of the entire kickstarter.

[bronzepoem]

The stretch goals are too trivial, too mediocre. WL2 did a better job on stretch goals.

We really need some startling news.For example an amazing new world map, Alchemy system, Huge monsters battle system, Multiplayer added.......

 

If you guys could invite Leonard Boyarsky or some big guys from BIOWARE to join the project, I will glad to pay another 1000 dollar.

Edited October 1, 2012 by bronzepoem