Crowdsource fundraising website Kickstarter can fall on either side of the boon-or-bust fence for would-be project creators. When notable gaming figure David Crane set out to make a spiritual sequel to his legacy-cementing classic Pitfall! title, he probably did not anticipate only raising less than four percent of his needed total. When Christopher Williamson wanted to produce a new game inspired by the classic M.U.L.E., little could he know that his page would end up only $28 short of its $50,000 goal.
As Kickstarter continues to grow and evolve, some creative types seem to be taking notice of these trends and signals. For example, take Terra Incognita, a “retro inspired RPG” set to be released on PC, then on XBox. Dan Steer, who can be found on Twitter @Captain_Eyeball, seems to have an ambitious undertaking on hand, yet with a modest fundraising goal: £500. Not only is that total intriguigingly low, but for a donation of as little as £1, donors will receive the full game, which is a gesture almost unheard of within Kickstarter pages.
In fact, at press time, with 21 days still left on the countdown for his Kickstarter page, Steer has already surpassed his fundraising goal by a clear margin. This now allows donors to contribute toward the game's “stretch goals”; that is, extra features that are now only possible because of all the additional, over-the-top funds.
Perhaps other, future game creators can learn from Steer's example for their own Kickstarter fundraisers. In the meantime, it looks like fans of old-school role-playing games such as the classic Final Fantasy series have a true gem to look forward to, thanks to the generosity of like-minded contributors.
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Eric Bailey blogs at NintendoLegend.com, where he is reviewing every American-released NES video game. He also serves as Editor-In-Chief of retro gaming features site 1MoreCastle.com, and can be followed on Twitter @Nintendo_Legend.
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