Should I do a Kickstarter?

[LucasMaxBros 8]

I've been developing a game for a while and after recently talking to someone,  they thought it would be a good idea if I did a kickstarter for it. I had considered it long ago, but my thoughts at the time were that I had everything I needed to make the game, so why bother asking people money for it?

 

But thinking harder on it and how developed the game is, with a kickstarter, if I got a decent amount of money I could do many more things with it. I could get some good quality voice acting, animated cut scenes, better looking animations and so forth. And thinking more into it, it seems people are more likely to pay attention to a game if it has a kickstarter due to the incentives and a growing community over it.

 

Of course there are negatives such as it could fail and I get nothing out of it, ultimately meaning the game is far from getting a release (depending on the goal of course). And at the time I had been developing the game, there were some media reports on kickstarter (referring to YogsCast  and the creator of Fez), which made me wonder if the whole kickstarter thing was starting to fall.

 

But I'm not the most knowledgeable person about kickstarter even if I read what it's about. I have a few questions from anyone who reads this Topic:

 

Have you ever backed a kickstarter or were part of one?

What is your stance on game developers using kickstarter?

Should I try a kickstarter for my game? 

[Starstream 182]

I think the most important things above anything else if you're considering getting a kickstarter is to be fully aware of EXACTLY how much money you'll be needing at the bare minimum, and knowing EXACTLY where all that money would be going. You say you want to add voice acting and professional animations/cutscenes? First figure out how much you are roughly willing to pay for those things, then go and look for people who specialize in them and ask them for their charging rates. And probably even before that, get yourself a list of everything you want to add in order of priority. It's important to remember of everything you do which things you find most important in terms of delivering your vision of the game as it should be experienced, so in case any of the features don't make it in, (which happens pretty often in game development), you can still present a quality product that you're satisfied charging money for from people.

 

And even after you make your goal, it is essential to remember that you are working with money from people who have put their faith in you for what you present them. Keep them updated on what's going on, show them a bit of the progress every so often. Knowing that the game is developing slowly , rapidly, or even just as quickly as planned is always better than not knowing anything at all. You mentioned you had already started developing, well, make as close to a playable product as you can, even if it's just a single level, before putting it up on kickstarter. You are not a big studio with a well known franchise/developer name behind you (at least, so I assume), people will want to know what they're investing into before giving money.

 

If you can, try to ask some professional game devs about the subject. I'm personally not anywhere near a professional, but I can imagine that if you can, you're probably best left seeing how much you can achieve without kickstarter. The pressure of developing for investors is a whole different beast compared to developing from your own time and money. But if nothing else, it's worth at least doing some deeper research into. Best would be if you could find someone who is well versed in finances to give you more advice.

[LucasMaxBros 8]

Thanks for the advice. The main things I'd like is an animated cut scene for the intro (and perhaps the ending) and a few voice acting parts where possible. Just from a guess, I'd say that be $1000 to $1500 (Including a few other things I'd like to add to the game, such as better animations and extra music/sound effects). I'll have to narrow it down and talk to some animators!