'The Goon' - Kickstarter growing pains in other media

[OrangyTang]

So this isn't directly related to games but I thought people might find this interesting:

Why 'The Goon' is a troubling Kickstarter project

And the follow up Tim Miller responds article.

In particular it seems like animation is going through the same stages as games have done (although possibly a couple of months behind). Little guys hitting it big, followed by big companies jumping on the bandwagon (for both good and bad reasons) and all kinds of fallout that that creates.

In some ways animation seems to have it harder than games - they don't really have the indie scene like pc gaming has, so pretty much all the distribution channels (film and tv) are controlled by big distributers and publishers.

[Xercies]

they don't really have the indie scene like pc gaming has, so pretty much all the distribution channels (film and tv) are controlled by big distributers and publishers.

Its pretty much the same for feature film and TV and one of the reasons i hope more indie people start to use Kickstarter to get themselves out there and beat the established system. I have concerns about this Goon thing as well, but I kind of understand the guys point of view in that they haven't really broken the rules.

[Koshiir]

Interesting article, thanks for posting it.

I think, it's comparable to a indie game company asking for money to pre-produce a game (and maybe a demo) after which they'll go to a publisher to acquire the real funding to finish the major rest of the game. The backers get rewards, but neither the demo nor the finished game.


I'm not quite sure where I stand on the issue myself, but generally I don't mind this. Let me compare it in a completely hypothetic situation:

Relic goes to Kickstarter and says "Guys, we need 500 000 Dollars to pre-produce Homeworld 3. We'll pre-produce it and then use the preproduced assets to get funding from a big publisher to develop Homeworld 3 completely. You get trinkets and T-Shirt and stuff, but unfortunately not the finished game".

My comparison falls a bit short since it would be easy to give the finished game to the backers via a steam code (which ensures that it doesn't get pirated) while it's not as easy to do so with a movie.


In my example I would still fund Homeworld 3 since I reaaaallly want it. I can understand why people have a problem with a funding model like this one, but they should remember that the website is called "Kickstarter", not "Funder". It's for "kickstarting" projects (which then continue on their own), not (exclusively) for completely funding projects.

[Voon]

It's a bit sad that most people won't pay to kickstart these kinds of projects. This one can turn out so good but the problem with it is that nobody knows The Goon much unless they're very much into comic books. I love Goon but damn, I can't shake off the feeling that this project won't see the light of day.

[NathanH]

Acceptable kickstarter use, for me. In some sense it's more wholesome than the "extremely early pre-purchase" model that video games use, even.