TheDarkKnight774
Member
Yess!!! It's over $700K. Glad to see this.
Yes. It's proof that true indie titles can hit it big on Kickstarter and it provides a model for others to follow. Until now I think FTL held the record at around 200k, or maybe that atrocious Takedown thing passed it a bit. This sum is just unprecedented.The interesting thing here, I think, is that this isn't really being made by a huge name; sure, they're developers with a pedigree, but they're not exactly 'celebrities', for want of a better word.
And yet, despite that, they were still able to manage to get around three quarters of a million dollars through kickstarter. Is this the most successful gaming kickstarter without a big name or franchise behind it?
The interesting thing here, I think, is that this isn't really being made by a huge name; sure, they're developers with a pedigree, but they're not exactly 'celebrities', for want of a better word.
And yet, despite that, they were still able to manage to get around three quarters of a million dollars through kickstarter. Is this the most successful gaming kickstarter without a big name or franchise behind it?
I'm curious to see what Tim Shacfer does with his several million dollars, that has got to be one hell of an adventure game.
This project is a nice success for Kickstarter, it's the first one I'm funding that I found through Kickstarter itself and not through GAF or some famous developer being involved.
Edit: Of course it was already successfully funded when I jumped on board and the GAF thread existed, I just hadn't heard of it yet.
Shit, saw only 7 minutes left and had to donate real quick. 25 for me.
723,751
Nice!
The total actually changed a few times after the funding was completed.If that's right, someone *literally* got in at the last second.
If that's right, someone *literally* got in at the last second.
A lot of people seemed to get in right at the last second. $723,886 now. I'm guessing quite a few of them were halfway through the process so it let them finish as it was closing.
I'm happy they did it. Or should i say, we did it.
Crap!! I forgot to contribute.. I thought I already had. Is there any way I can get them to take my money?
Crap!! I forgot to contribute.. I thought I already had. Is there any way I can get them to take my money?
It really helps that they came across as earnest and brought with them footage of the early game and showcased its artstyle. That video really sold it, just like all of the super-successful KS projects, along with constant updates that reflect the backers' concerns and wishes.
Glad this one turned out so successful and I hope the three chapters turn out awesome.
Do they pay rent? From the window, it doesn't look like they are on an abandoned lot.
Torn by indecision over my crest.Just got home from the Kickstarter closing event at the Pour House in Austin. About 75 people showed up to the chagrin of the waitresses...we told them about 20-30 people would show up. oops!
I think Alex took some video so we'll be sharing it when we can!
Next week we'll be works on getting forums up on the site to give this amazing community a place to call home.
Hope everyone's haveing a great weekend.
-Arnie
If the game delivers, it could be legendary, the sort of thing people talk about decades from now. Think about it. The graphics will never be dated.
edit: Damn they've been working in a goat shack. For real.
Torn by indecision over my crest.
Speaking of which, the FAQ says this:
"We'll be talking more about the template before the campaign ends so you can see if it's something you can commit to!"
Any idea if and where they expanded more on the template crest arrangement?
The wallpaper is out for backers, looks great.
http://youtu.be/nEaY4JYooJkHP_Wuvcraft said:http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoic/the-banner-saga/posts
Breakdown of costs. Thought you mike like to post it, since you are the OP and all, and I can't doublepost.
Stoic said:The quick answer is that so far things are going according to plan and we've budgeted correctly!
The longer answer is this breakdown:
- Of $730k, 10% immediately comes out for amazon, kickstarter and failed payments. We actually had a shockingly low number of these failed payments, but this alone leaves us with roughly $650k.
- Actual prizes cost us about $22k to produce. $22,000 certainly is a lot for posters, tshirts and some fancy art, but this was not a surprise to us since we had gotten estimates and set prices based on that.
- Shipping costs are a bit troublesome, especially since we have a fair number of international backers. We estimated that shipping would cost roughly an amount equal to the prizes themselves. When comparing our prices to other kickstarter campaigns we felt that we couldn't ask for more than the standard international shipping rate- between $10 and $20. This helps but does not cover the cost. Now any time I see a campaign asking for an extra $10 for international shipping I just assume they have no idea what they're talking about. That said, it's not like this will cut into our budget by a significant amount with the kind of volume we're pushing. Between prizes and shipping that's another 18% of our total funds.
- Once we've dealt with all that business we've got about $600k to work with. I want to re-emphasize that this came as a surprise to none of us!
- As for development, contractor salaries take the lions share. We've now contracted (not hired) two programmers, a sound design team, a dedicated composer, a QA specialist, a writer, an interface artist, a community manager and an entire animation production house working for us to produce more content than we ever dreamed at higher quality. That, my friends, is currently where a good 50% of our total funding goes.
- We've got the mundane business expenses like a (rather miniscule) office lease, software like adobe products, dropbox and fmod, computer upgrades, and hardware coming out to about 5% of our budget.
- We're anticipating the relatively small operation costs of maintaining our own server-side data on amazon's cloud so people can download the game from us and play online without Steam.
- Lastly, we've put aside the remaining funding as our safety net which will be re-evaluated as we go. You never know when things are going to go unexpectedly wrong.
- We're still not taking personal salaries. We'll be living off our savings until our game starts making income.
To summarize: so far, so good.