$7k left with 7 hrs remaining? And i was thinking it might not make that amt few days ago... I am so happy!
It's weird how it seems like the announcement of voice actors is what really sent the project into funding overdrive. I'd be curious to see an alternate reality where they'd have made that announcement while sticking to their guns about the iOS exclusivity. Although, I suppose you could argue that voice talent potentially wouldn't have come onboard for just an iOS game. Either way, it's cool they're getting funded, hopefully more people realize now that TouchArcade coverage isn't the linchpin to a successful Kickstarter. (Although, it took years for developers to realize a TouchArcade review wasn't a magic bullet for a successful iPhone game.)
Penny Arcade was also plugging it, and their mentions correlate with the bump they had around 04/25. Probably once everything got combined and people thought it actually had a chance, then pledges started coming in - Kickstarter is a very emotional thing, with people trying to back winners and wanting to feel they helped make something happen.
Yep. Toucharcade is the place to come for a great iOS forum, and maybe for a few reviews. If you want iOS news, you'll have to find other sources. I really admire Camouflaj's perseverance. Every time it looked like there was no way they'd reach their funding goal, they pulled another trick out of their hat and the pledges started flowing again. I think the lesson for other projects is to have some tricks and media outlets lined up beforehand, then you won't have to scramble so much to make it happen.
This is why I do not envy the Republique team at all. The deep emotional attachment that some people feel to the Kickstarters they back borders on unhealthy, and for a few people, far exceeds that. That's not going to be pretty over the next year (or more) of development, as I've already seen people posting comments alluding to the fact that they're not going to be happy if their money goes towards iOS development. That's likely only going to intensify. After this is all said and done, I'll be really interested in two things- 1. Is the design by committee social pressure of having 10,000+ people with financial interests in the game worth the trade-off of keeping the lion's share of the creative control that could potentially be lost when you only have a publisher as the only other entity with a financial interest? 2. How the whole cost breakdown of this actual Kickstarter goes. The Star Command guys first opened everyone's eyes to the fact that Kickstarter swag is actually pretty expensive to produce and ship. It'll be interesting to see what the most "profitable" reward tier is for Republique. That's only really true if the only iOS news you're interested in is the tsunami of daily Kickstarter emails we get.
Just a week ago it had barely passed its halfway mark in terms of funding. I didn't back it then because I just assumed that it wouldn't make it and so backing it would be pointless. It's only been the last 2 days that it's started to look like it might be possible. I bet there were a lot of people like that.
Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Camoflaj live stream celebrating their success. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/republique
I was actually thinking that myself. For the final tier - flying the backer out to their headquarters - the air fare from some parts of the world could get pretty costly, not to mention dinner and all of the other swag! One would hope that they've factored all of the swag-production costs properly into their budget. But I'd imagine that the digital-only rewards tiers would be the obviously be the simplest and thus probably the most cost-effective to fulfil.
Personally, I hate the whole idea of physical swag for Kickstarter projects, with the possible exception of boxed collectors' editions (though I have no use for those). That's all good money that could have gone into game development. But I understand why they do it. I just think it's a waste.
congrats to the team on making funding. my personal interest in the game is merely that it might exist at some point. it'll be interesting to see how the game evolves as development continues. when you're talking about a console or pc game, you have a general idea of where the hardware will be a year or two down the line...but with ios, it seems like games of this caliber are limited to only the latest hardware. that means even 4th gen ios gamers could easily get the shaft. and that, in turn, means that a lot of backers who can't afford to always have the latest devices could get the shaft. with all the tech said to be going into this game, i'm also curious to see how big the game ends up being in the end. the reason for my quote is that it seems like the final pitch goes completely against everything previously said. that's kind of messed up.
Will be a fascinating case study, and I think a first for a high profile, high budget iOS game. As Eli noted, there will be development challenges and considerable community management effort needed as a result of crowd funding. Its a living beast now, under the microscope and plenty of organic ugliness is probable. To me, that is actually a beautiful thing. A funding model like this, and the abilities to both create or directly support a project like this did not exist just a couple years ago. More importantly, with the creation of this game, iOS gaming may be taking another step forward on the path of conquering a staid industry. Large publishers will be watching with great interest because few of them have had the balls to do what this small team proposes to do. IF they do well, perhaps the Activisions and EAs will up their game sooner rather than later...and their prices, too. Judging by their award tiers, and the fact that early KS supporters effectively pre-order these things for cheaper than expected retail price, Republique will debut around $15, maybe more...I believe that is Chaos Rings territory? (wonder how much the CR games cost to develop? Looking at the sequels, apparently it worked out for Square-Enix). Props to the team at Camouflaj for doing everything they could to see their preferred plan to fruition. I really hope the game will turn out great and that I can look forward to TouchArcade's typically 'net-leading coverage and analysis from here on out.
As for what would be the most profitable reward tier, I don't think the teams that do kickstart assume they will be making sizeable profits through the pledges but rather through the new consumers that actually purchase the title when it is released. Obviously, a team would not want to setup reward tiers that lose them money but their real profits will be coming through the $10-$25 given from release day by those that have not pledged. At that point it will be the teams responsibility to try and sell the game to these new consumers but then that's no different a scenario to any other team regardless of the means of their funding. Also, I think people are overestimating how much influence pledgers could have to a kickstart project. In any case, it's hardly going to be worse than what already happens with the funding model we have now where if a publisher doesn't outright dismiss the project because it isn't of the top 5 game styles, they can see to it all sorts being added because that's what CoD does or they will pull the entire project on any whim (see the recent Eurogamer article on the demise of Free Radical). Any problems that can face devs using kickstarter already faces devs with the publisher model. It's odd how kickstarter is being picked apart on this front when it already exists in this industry only now there is an additional model for projects to be funded. A good thing when it is being shown that the middle section of the development industry (not the $10m+ budget devs or the $100k+ devs) are being squeezed like hell under the current publisher / retail model. We will have to wait and see if Kickstarter can become a large viable route for that middle or if something else does that for them but the reality is the industry is suffering by relying so much just on the current model. Other entertainment industries have managed to expand on how a project can be funded, so it's odd that the newer (what is meant to be) more adaptable games industry has yet to properly expand in the same way.
