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This article was just posted by Polygon, and I think it's worth sharing. Some big names behind Kickstarter and enthusiast projects talk about hype, and its role in game development.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2016/6/9/11799986/yu-suzuki-tim-schafer-hype-in-game-development

Suzuki tells Polygon he’s been thinking about how to make Shenmue 3 for 10 years. "Shenmue 3 was always with me," he says. Returning to Ryo and the Shenmue universe hasn’t been difficult, he says, because he hasn’t left.

Asked about the anxieties that come with working on such a sought-after sequel, though, Suzuki gives two answers: first a negative, then a positive. The more the expectations or worries stack up, the more they disturb his "creative heart," he says. "That is the biggest negative part of such a pressure," he says. And to Suzuki, creativity is the most important factor in game development.

But, alternatively, he sees the pressure to deliver as an opportunity given to him by fans of his work. "I feel like this is destiny," Suzuki continues. He explains he is pleased with the opportunity to challenge himself with Shenmue 3.

"I am worried about [fans expecting more than I can give]," he continues, but he says that doesn’t matter. "After the success [of the Kickstarter campaign], we have a commitment to deliver this game."

"If you have time to worry, you have time to work," he says.

Dennis Wedin and Jonatan Söderström, founders of Dennaton Games, do their best to mute the voices in their ears.

"We don't really want to pander to our fans that much," Söderström tells Polygon. "We want to make the games we want to play more than we want to make the games people want to play."

(...)

"I don’t think there’s anything you can do when the hype is too big; it just means that some people are going to be disappointed in your game," Söderström says. Despite trying not to let hype affect them, they acknowledge that they may have announced Hotline Miami 2 too soon, leaving people in the dark and allowing them to build preconceived notions of what their game would be.

"I think maybe for us, teasing the game so early [built] the hype for too long," Wedin says. The game was originally planned as DLC but quickly grew into a full-fledged sequel. The added scope came with an uphill battle. "The biggest pressure was that it turned out [to be] a lot bigger and a lot more work," Wedin says, "It was [a lot of pressure] because we’re just two people and everything was just so much to handle." That uphill battle was also a slippery slope.

Schafer is sitting in his office located in San Francisco, Calif., joined by Greg Rice, Double Fine’s vice president of business.

"I think it’s a challenge for lot of people," Rice adds. "I think you see it a lot, not necessarily in our games, but in the industry and even in other industries, like film, where hype and anticipation can kind of ruin the reviews of a game or the reception just because people aren’t prepared for what it really is." Rice brings up No Man’s Sky, a game boasting the ability to travel to 18 quintillion planets and how its developer, Hello Games, has to compete with what people think its game is prior to its release.

Schafer, though, comes to the defense of hype.

He recalls his experience seeing "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," buying his ticket, buzzing with excitement and wondering how the film could ever live up to fans’ expectations. And, as he tells it, that’s kind of the point.

"Sometimes you want it to be an event — you want the game you’re playing to be an event ... the hype is like the foreshadowing for the entertainment," Schafer says.

"In some ways there’s a little bit of an unwinnable battle there," Schafer says, explaining a person’s nostalgia for a game or genre is contingent on the memories of their experiences — and it’s not something that can necessarily be recreated, at least not accurately.

"It’s not like you can go back in time and listen to your favorite band’s first album again the same way," Schafer says. "You can never have that exact same experience because you’re not that same person anymore."

There’s also a certain weight that comes along with simply having a big name, like Tim Schafer, associated with a game. While the name attracts attention, it also brings baggage associated with it. "You can never get free of what people think that means, good and bad," he says. "There’s a reason a lot of people, like me, fantasize about, like, ‘oh, what if I could just have an alter ego, a secret identity and release games under that?’"

More at the link, but I think their thoughts are all very interesting.