Kickstarter regrets

I didn't back much but a few i do regret in the end.

ROAM backed digital edition 40 dollars in 2013:

A top down survival game and from the tests they showed it was shaping up to be a nice game and since 2014 no new message or anything.
People who backed it are still wondering what happened since nothing happened since then.

Planetary Annihilation 90 dollar backed digital edition :

I should have known better from these developers...the game was more disappointment than i thought it would. Yeah they still made it but the whole thing around it was just awful.


Mighty No 9.

Off course this one despite i got the lowest tier i never bothered to even get my key or install it and i think i never will.


I didn't back to much some of them are shaping up nicely so far, but i was always cautious with this and good thing i stopped backing since the Euro became less value meaning the dollar was cheaper for a lot Europeans. I've haven't back a game since 2013 and i don't mind really.

Star Citizen, they went full overboard because of the mmo aspect whereas i am only interested in the single player campaign. Sq42 will be 2019/2020 and then again it s just a " first episode", not even the full thing. i am irrelevant in the funding order, feeding off whales. I should have not pitched in, they didn t need ne, the focus was never a wingcommander follow up :(

At least you have the satisfaction of the game you backed being made even if it's a trainwreck.

The System Shock remake will never happen. What a waste that was.

I think I have backed around 10 Kickstarters and only one I regret is Mighty No. 9 for obvious reasons.

Star Citizen Game is so bloated and its only getting worse

Mansion Lord: This was just a complete scam. By far the worst of all these.
Echoes of Eternea: I was tricked by the pretty artwork. The developer disappeared in 2014.
Project Phoenix: Less of a scam, on paper, but the result is still nearly the same so far.
The Universim: It is in active development, I'll give them that, but progress has been slow.
Shroud of the Avatar: The game came out, at least. Not terrible yet still not really worth it.

I am not bitter though, since this is less than 10% failure rate and the money spent on these particular games wasn't much (only basic pledges). Over 50 backed projects and every single one of my higher pledges have worked out.

I kickstarted 2 things.

Mighty No 9
Crazy Justice

Crazy Justice seemed pretty cool but the Devs are giving no information on a possible release. It was supposed to release in June.

sabrina said:

Certainly both, but primarily backers. It can be hard for developers to sell backers on a game that won't come out for four, five or six years. Even the universally lauded Shovel Knight, which had much of its primary content completed at the beginning of its campaign, still hasn't fulfilled all of the stretch goals they agreed to do. Nor has Hollow Knight, for that matter. So you either stagger your release like they did, or you end up making people wait a ton of years before it's done.

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This is mainly because the Shovel Knight team is massively over-delivering on what was promised. The key stretch goals were for 3 additional playable boss characters. And instead of just making the boss characters playable, they redesigned the core game for one of them and made a completely new game for the second one.

On a podcast (before the second additional campaign was made), they said that they spent more than $1 million on the Plague of Shadows campaign. I can't see the Specter of Torment campaign costing less. That is absolute madness.

Republiq.

Took them like four years to send me a fraction of the physical goodies I paid for. Game wasn't good either.

Teeth said:

This is mainly because the Shovel Knight team is massively over-delivering on what was promised. The key stretch goals were for 3 additional playable boss characters. And instead of just making the boss characters playable, they redesigned the core game for one of them and made a completely new game for the second one.

On a podcast (before the second additional campaign was made), they said that they spent more than $1 million on the Plague of Shadows campaign. I can't see the Specter of Torment campaign costing less. That is absolute madness.

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I'm well aware, and I laud them for doing so. I was just trying to point out that even in well-received games their timetable can blow well past what anyone was expecting.

I'm very meh about Torment and Yooka Laylee.

Star Citizen. I only want the SP stuff.. and that's apparently never coming out :(

sabrina said:

I'm well aware, and I laud them for doing so. I was just trying to point out that even in well-received games their timetable can blow well past what anyone was expecting.

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Another thing to consider is Kickstarter has a mandatory requirement to have an estimate delivery date for the project. With most projects not even heavily into development or even pre-production when Developers are asking for pledge money, at that point they could not possibly predict every single particular element of this games development from artwork to level design to music and so forth.

If Kickstarter didn't demand a date. I'd say most projects would just say "TBD". I think it's fair that backers want a estimated time table of when they expect to receive the goods for backing the project. This is a reasonable expectation, but game development is anything but predictable.

In fact almost every single video game related Kickstarter never reaches it's targeted date because it's a unknown factor of what may or may not happen.

Auditorium Duet. The campaign launched in 2012, and the game was officially cancelled in January 2017. Their was regular updates for the first few years, but after that the updates just stopped completely. In fact, the last update prior to the game's cancellation was a year prior. Fans would contact them on twitter, email, kickstarter, asking for updates but they were all just ignored (myself included).

I think Cipher Prime are capable of making good games, but after being strung along for several years with barely any communication, I will never buy any of their games again.

homestuck hivebent mspaintadventures whatever it was called. It's a shame the devs took all the money to make something else and left Hussie high and dry

ROAM
Moon Rift
The Stomping Land
Shroud of the Avatar

There are still a couple more where the game seems like it is still in development at least so hopefully I don't have to add more games to this list. I haven't backed a game since Bloodstained and it will be my last one.

Here my list:

LIONESS -> Interesting art... the guy disappeared after getting the money...

Project Phoenix -> Well... another project in forever hold...

Shenmue 3 -> Backed but not really interested in the game, never played the series... maybe I will buy the remaster to understand why i did it

Onorable mention:

Legend of Iya -> The project was expected years ago, but the guy had some problems... despite this, he is not giving up and slowly going on the project. That's super rare, and I believe he will give us the game in the future!

I regret nothing because even if I gave a heap of money to a game that turned out to be a sack of smashed cunts I at least have a funny anecdote to poke fun at myself about on the internet and maybe bring a smile to someone else.


Or I gave Inafune $393 so now I cannot even afford regret.

Mighty No. 9
(obviously)

Project Phoenix
numerous delays, wasn't actually developed by anyone, essentially a scam and now handed over to some new developers (which aren't any better)

Star Mazer
some legal stuff, developers who didn't do shit and a new team which took over a few months ago
at least they now get some monthly updates right and it looks like it's actually going somewhere

Drift Stage
was supposed to come out december 2015... is still in development somehow?

Lacuna Passage
can't remember what went wrong here. I think someone is still working on something?

Star Command
the kickstarter says it should have been out by 2012... hahaha...

So almost anything I backed. There were some good ones like Pillars of Eternity, Double Fine Adventure or Shadowrun Returns.
But mostly? Just money thrown out the window.

OmegaDL50 said:

Another thing to consider is Kickstarter has a mandatory requirement to have an estimate delivery date for the project. With most projects not even heavily into development or even pre-production when Developers are asking for pledge money, at that point they could not possibly predict every single particular element of this games development from artwork to level design to music and so forth.

If Kickstarter didn't demand a date. I'd say most projects would just say "TBD". I think it's fair that backers want a estimated time table of when they expect to receive the goods for backing the project. This is a reasonable expectation, but game development is anything but predictable.

In fact almost every single video game related Kickstarter never reaches it's targeted date because it's a unknown factor of what may or may not happen.

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Right. A common joke when I was in comp sci classes in uni was to take your longest estimate, and then double it.

It's threads like this that make me glad I never ran a KS campaign for my game. The unrealistic expectations people have would be murder on my psyche, as evidenced especially by some of my friends who ran campaigns.

Kyoufu said:

Mighty No. 9 the thread.

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.

Mighty No. 9 I guess, but I wouldn't really say I regret it. More so that I'm just disappointed that it didn't turn out because I really wanted it to be a good game.

When I contribute to a Kickstarter I am conscious of the fact that I am taking a chance and that I may never see the product that was originally envisioned. Also I've never cared at all about any additional backer rewards. I'm in it just for the games— and preferably in digital format.

Torment and to a much lesser degree PoE has put me off kickstarting any game

hooooooooooooooo boy

apparently I also backed megatokyo vn game. est date 2014, people in the forums 2018 april asking where it is

To those familiar with American politics, last Fall I donated $5 to Doug Jones's campaign. He was a pro-choice Democrat running in a special election for the U.S. Senate in ruby red Republican Alabama. And in a stunning upset, he won.

When Mighty No. 9 had its Kickstarter all those years ago, I put $5 towards it. Today I felt that that measly $5 was wasted.

To recap: $5 was better spent on a pro-choice Democrat in Ala-fucking-bama than on Mighty No. 9.

Project phoenix, mostly because I fell for a scam. I have had a few other KS misfires (mighty no9, unsung story) but this is the worst.

Road Redemption

Game was funded largely thanks to Wii U backers after they added it was a reward tier when it looked like it was struggling. Kickstarter page said it was due 2014, we went years without them acknowledging the Wii U version, Nintendo had even showed it in a Direct, then got a random update saying they were working on a XB1/PS4 version, which wasn't on the original KS. After a lot of upset people messaged their KS page, they finally responded with the usual we love Nintendo we'll see what NX is when it comes out.

Game still isn't out on anything other than Steam, got an option to change to a Switch version back in November last year, which I did, once again heard nothing since

My Kickstarter is a world of regrets.

Star Citizen, I got myself a refund tho so can't complain too much.

Kingdom Come Deliverance, by the time it came out I no longer had a PC I could play it on and they wouldn't let me change my platform. To be fair, I was late in asking to change.

Castle Story, a game that I play every 6 months to see how it's going and it feels like nothing has changed and it's an impenetrable mess.

Planetary Annihilation, say no more.

TAKEDOWN, wanted to be Rainbow Six, was not.


But here's the good ones!

Rimworld and The Long Dark I would back again in a heartbeat. Sir, You Are Being Hunted was also a good bet.

Only backed Star Citizen back then and I am regretting it big time.

The actual plan has nothing to do with what they wanted to do and now they are stuck in feature creep hell and trying to fix the mess they made. I still don't expect the game to ship something that resembles a game until the second half of 2019.

And no, what is on PTU or something else is faaaar away from playable or something like that. But hey - I knew the risk.

I'm not even mad at Unsung Story since I only put 15€ in it and that another company picked up the game and is now working on it and giving out regular updates.

sectionse7en said:

My Kickstarter is a world of regrets.

Star Citizen, I got myself a refund tho so can't complain too much.

Kingdom Come Deliverance, by the time it came out I no longer had a PC I could play it on and they wouldn't let me change my platform. To be fair, I was late in asking to change.

Castle Story, a game that I play every 6 months to see how it's going and it feels like nothing has changed and it's an impenetrable mess.

Planetary Annihilation, say no more.

TAKEDOWN, wanted to be Rainbow Six, was not.


But here's the good ones!

Rimworld and The Long Dark I would back again in a heartbeat. Sir, You Are Being Hunted was also a good bet.

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This one hurt soooo bad, I really wanted a new tactical shooter. It's fucking terrible.

Regrets

• Dream: although the campaign failed, backers funded the game by other means... and the game was neither good nor finished.
• Carmageddon Reincarnation: I'm sorry Nobby, but this game was garbage. The physics engine is atrocious (and I have no problems with the original game).
• Sealark: I'm almost tempted to call this a scam. Game is cancelled.
• Galactic Princess: was supposed to be delivered by December 2015
• Broken Age: sadly, I really disliked it.
• Two guys Spaceventure: was supposed to be delivered by February 2013. Reading their updates pisses me off and I lost all interest in their game.

But I'm very happy with: A Hat in Time, Yooka Layle, Divinity Original Sin 2.

Then there are all sorts of projects which fall in-between these two groups.

Wow, it seems I actually backed more projects than the average person here. Let's see

GCW Zero - 2013
Portable game console with Linux. That project had a lot of problems and delays but shockingly, eventually I got the thing (and sold it shortly after without doing much with it. That experience teached me to never ever back a hardware kickstarter again though.

Deathfire - Ruins of Nethermore
Classic RPG in the vein of Realms of Arkania (Das Schwarze Auge in German) by one of the original devs. Sadly the project didn't get funded, so I got my money back.

Underworld Ascendand - 2016
Spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld, by some of the original devs. Still in development, seems to be on track.

The Bards Tale IV - 2017
By some of the original devs. Still in development, seems to be on track.

Bloodstained - 2017
Looks good.

Stoneshard - 2018
Rouge-like turnbased RPG with influences from Diablo and other Dark Fantasy games. Just started but there was already a free demo and it looks solid so far.
I made a thread about this game here, but no one cared.

So to summarize: Only GCW I slightly regret but it wasn't a complete failure.

Shenmue 3, I succumbed to hype, ive never even played shenmue.

Atleast I can sell my copy when it releases though.

I regretted backing Carmageddon: Reincarnation, especially when it eventually left Early Access in a poor state. But giving backers a free copy of Carmageddon: Max Damage, which released in a much better state, reversed the regret I was feeling. Not that I'm complaining - it's as authentic a remake/re-imagining of the original game as I could hope for and precisely what I pledged the money for - but I guess it took bringing it to the consoles to fix up the performance issues!

Most of mine are still pending but of the ones that have been released, I was happiest with Pillars of Eternity and the SNES visual compendium. Torment, Yooka-Layle, the Veronica Mars movie and Dreamfall Chapters were all disappointments.

Pending include The Bard's Tale IV, Bloodstained and Underworld Ascendant. Regrettably, the most recent preview articles of the latter have been absolutely scathing .:(

I backed Mighty No 9 to the tune of 120 notes, never received any backer rewards at all, not even a digital code. So that's a big regret.

Not that many, if I look at all of those I backed.

Broken Age - A great success, and I got the closest thing to an old LucasArts Point&Click adventure I've had since.....LucasArts.The project, the doc, and the actual game is a highlight in the genre for me.
Massive Chalice - A great turnbased strategy game. Would have liked to have played it more, but I still have put 30h+ into it.
Wasteland 2 - Wasn't perhaps all that, but it was part of the start of CRPG renaissance, so it was good to have contributed to it.
Thimbleweed Park - Didn't care for how the story turned out, but it was pretty good otherwise.
Psychonauts 2 - Looks impressive so far.
Moebius - It didn't turn out well, but I don't actually regret backing it.
Broken Sword 5 - Decent enough. A 7/10 game for me.
Wings: Remastered - They completed it, but I can't say that I played it that much.

The main regret is backing Godus. It's one thing that a project fails. You win some, you loose some, and you have to take a chance sometimes. But Godus was them taking money for one thing, doing another, and handling the fallout from it by hiding and stop communicating.

EnlightenedMint said:

Only thing I ever kickstarted was Diabotical, an arena FPS being made by 2GD and other quake pros.

I don't really regret it, but damn, I'm disappointed I haven't even been able to play the game after 2 years.

I still have a sliver of hope though.

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Games development takes time x)
This doesn't look too bad. I'll have an eye on it.

L Corleone said:

Shenmue 3, I succumbed to hype, ive never even played shenmue.

Atleast I can sell my copy when it releases though.

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Wait, what is wrong with Shenmue 3?

Mighty No 9...
Seems like I should've backed Bloodstained instead.

If Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill takes any longer, it's gonna end up on this list. That's the only thing I've ever kick-started so not great record so far.

They promised an update this week, so let's see what happens. No idea why it's taking so long, just email me a ROM and be done with it.

I've backed a ton of games on Kickstarter but almost entirely Board Games. The only one I really regret was a game called Nightlight.

It's a board game with gorgeous art where you play as toys defending a child from nightmares and it's cute, it has a nice theme and it was an absolute goddamn bore to play and shipped in such an insanely low budget way.

Nightfall said:

Drift Stage
was supposed to come out december 2015... is still in development somehow?

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I feel like Drift Stage's actual biggest issue is how bad the Devs are at communicating. Like, they underestimate the time it'd take to make the game fine, whatever that happens and is easy to do. But we get updates once every few months where they go "woops, sorry we didn't update but here's a bunch of progress" and there hasn't been a new Tester build since 2016. I completely agree with their stance of wanting the game to be really good before they put it into Early Access because you only get one chance at a first impression but still they need to just get it out the door already.

They at least finally have a Steam Page so hopefully that means codes will be going out soon.

EDIT: WAIT WHAT, they DID send keys out, just silently via Humble Bundle. Go check your account, in the Keys section you should have a Drift Stage steam key. WHY DIDN'T THEY EMAIL THESE.

Bad Dudes 2 :P

Protome said:

I feel like Drift Stage's actual biggest issue is how bad the Devs are at communicating. Like, they underestimate the time it'd take to make the game fine, whatever that happens and is easy to do. But we get updates once every few months where they go "woops, sorry we didn't update but here's a bunch of progress" and there hasn't been a new Tester build since 2016. I completely agree with their stance of wanting the game to be really good before they put it into Early Access because you only get one chance at a first impression but still they need to just get it out the door already.

They at least finally have a Steam Page so hopefully that means codes will be going out soon.

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You're absolutely right. A lot of devs seem to underestimate communication. That's probably the biggest flaw for a lot of kickstarters.

Nightfall said:

You're absolutely right. A lot of devs seem to underestimate communication. That's probably the biggest flaw for a lot of kickstarters.

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Editted my post while you were replying, but go check your humble bundle account if you backed the Tester Tier of the game. I had a steam key sitting under the "Keys" tab that I never got an email or anything about.

Just another example of their terrible communication lol.

Protome said:

Editted my post while you were replying, but go check your humble bundle account if you backed the Tester Tier of the game. I had a steam key sitting under the "Keys" tab that I never got an email or anything about.

Just another example of their terrible communication lol.

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Oh cool, thanks. I'll go check then.

To be brutally honest Shroud of the Avatar, and that hurts me to say.

I love Ultima and Ultima Online especially meant a lot to me, still to this day some of my favorite gaming moments and experiences was with UO.

Shroud of the Avatar was just kind of....well it (to me) wasn't that fun of a game. The main thing I disliked, and this was even quite far back in development, is the whole combat system, tying it to some "deck" combat system. It saps all the fun of combat out imo, it's open to randomness and the skill as a player (I haven't played it in a long time so I don't know if they changed it) just felt lackluster. It just wasn't that fun or exciting to me and you spend a lot of time with combat, it should be something you enjoy to do.

The whole world design and overworld map, etc was a little disappointing too. Probably on me somewhat, I just really really wanted this to be like an Ultima Online 2 type of game world, just up to date and more refined, but it's not really like that.

I sincerely do hope that Richard Garriott and the team are able to make another (better) game after SOTA.

I regret not backing Hollow Knight. If Team Cherry uses Kickstarter again for their next project, I'll be there this time.

Virtux Omni VR treadmill - £400

This reached its goal faster than anything else in history apparently. It then took 3 years to deliver and just when we all thought we were about to receive them at the last minute said they hadn't factored in shipping costs and wouldn't be able to ship outside of US. Got a refund but a huge disappointment

Sixsense VR controllers £100 -

4 years ago I think and still waiting for these, get an update every half year about a new issue they've discovered with a plastic mound - meanwhile VR controller tech has soared forward so I'm certain even if they do arrive they'll be worthless.