When Kickstarter got into its stride many local developers saw it as the perfect way to get funding from all the way here in deepest darkest Africa and while it got off to a rocky start it did for a while look like their dreams would all come true.
So far there have been 8 attempts to kickstart a game on Kickstarter from South Africa. Admittedly, it’s a tricky prospect, as the base of operations needs to be within the UK or US. But let’s see how they went.
In chronological order.
Heart’s Hollow – Unsuccessful
Heart’s Hollow appears to have been our first attempt and they only set themselves a modest target of $12 000 for their dating simulator. It appeared to start well with a total of $3 109 raised from 77 backers but it never managed to kick on and ran out of time in the end.
Rhino Rumble – Cancelled
Cancelled on the 7th of November 2012 this top-down mobile game was an attempt to raise the issue of Rhino Poaching in Africa in a fun manner with a big message. They were asking for $95 000 in backing and after receiving a mere $180 from 8 backers they admitted defeat and shut it down
Muti – Cancelled
Muti was billed as a first-person horror experience set in South Africa with the main character, Zola, working for the newly formed Occult Crime Unit.
The game sounded awesome but they developers, Celestial Games, wanted a lot of money from people – asking for £158 000, however the artwork didn’t look great, and it was no real surprise when they only raised £613 from 20 backers before cancelling the project on the 19th of April 2013.
Ancient Terrible Things – SUCCESS
After 3 failures things turned around in a big way. Pleasant Company Games posted on Kickstarter looking for $10 000 and smashed that goal raising a total of $27 615 by the 18th of July 2013
But there’s a catch. Tthis wasn’t a video game – but rather a board game. However it did manage to go on and be released to some solid reviews so we’re still claiming it.
Stasis – SUCCESS
Stasis was the country’s major arrival on the Kickstarter scene with this top down, point and click adventure, setting itself a very high target of $100 000.
However that didn’t put anyone off with the kickstarter raising a solid $132 523 before the end of the campaign on the 7th of December 2013. It’s now 15 months later and while the game isn’t yet out the communication from the team behind it, The Brotherhood Games, has been solid and the game is expected to be released soon.
The best part is that according to people in the know:
“game is looking f*cking aces”
Here’s hoping they pull it off
Titan Run – Unsuccessful
Titan Run was the next local attempt and they set themselves a very high goal of £115 000 and stumbled to a pledge amount of £890 before running out of time. The game was billed as a racing game where you took control of massive airships to battle against opponents and try cross the finishing line first.
What made this one stand out for me was their first stretch goal was to add Oculus Rift support to their game. Now that’s aiming high.
Tom Sparks and the Quakes of Ruin – Unsuccessful
Not one to take the advice of keeping your videogame name short and memorable the guys at Tasty Poison Games headed to kickstarter to ask for $50 000 to make a 3D Diesel-punk action-adventure game. Despite having found solid success with their mobile game, Pocket RPG, they weren’t able to raise enough funds here capping out at $2 219.
Where to from here?
As of right now there are two more South African games waiting to be kickstarted, both have 20 days to go and both are looking like they are going to be missing their targets.
First up is the local industry darling,
Cadence
Cadence is being billed as a musical playground of beautiful pictures. The game looks beautiful, is apparently a ton of fun to play and is well developed. It’s won all sorts of accolades
And yet I have no interest in playing in. I can’t see the entertainment and being told by everyone that I need to play the demo to understand isn’t doing it for me. If you can’t sell your game in a short paragraph how are you expecting to raise £25 000.
And that is the problem, I think. The developers, Made with Monster Love, sit now with only £4 371 (15%) of the game being funded.
Albert and Otto
The other local game waiting to be kickstarted is Albert and Otto, a game that I personally find very appealing and one that I have backed. It’s a 2D physics platformer that requires the player to control both Albert and his magical bunny, Otto, to solve puzzles.
The game has already been Greenlit on Steam but that doesn’t seem to have helped it too much as it has only raised $775 of its target of $15 000 (5%)
So in the end we have had 8 attempts at funding games via Kickstarter and if I”m correct and both the currently active ones fail to meet their target it will mean a success rate of 3/8 or 38% which isn’t a very pretty number.
People have complained that it’s harder to get kickstarted locally than in America or Europe but I don’t really buy that. I just feel our local gaming industry is still too niche and they aren’t looking at what the mass market of gamers really want to play. They need to reach outside of their community more and take in the feedback that many are willing to give.
Out of the 8 games above I’d most like to see Stasis and Albert & Otto make it into the world. How about you?
Last Updated: March 5, 2015
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 13:12
Ok. Fine. Is kick starter the correct platform to get funding to make a video game?
Investors with profit share. Put your ability where your mouth is. I agree, that is far more difficult to do.
Show me you can make money, with some sort of percentage on sales promised to backers. Capital investment. I know how expensive it is to develop new products, new IP. It is very difficult , with no real guarantee of a return.
Why should I back a game developer on Kickstarter? I would never, ever consider it. Set up an investment site, where my $100 dollars gives me 0.001 % of all sales, paid quarterly. Manage it properly, strict rules, stricter enforcement. Steam? And there must be a CAP. When goal is reached, stop taking money.
Oh, and my little pony must be real and pigs fly.
Hammersteyn
March 5, 2015 at 13:16
Star Citizen. $2,134,374 pledged of $500,000 goal. Not sure that’s a good thing.
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 13:18
Was in my mind as I typed the garbage proposal I made. Garbage because I would still not fully trust it.
Kensei Seraph
March 5, 2015 at 13:22
Unholy sister of the first sun of the furtherest trinary system in this galaxy!!!
(Assuming such a solar system actually exists)
Sageville
March 5, 2015 at 13:28
I’ll check in Elite Dangerous…
Kensei Seraph
March 5, 2015 at 13:20
So… you back a game and demand a portion of the profits… but only once the game has proven it is capable of making a profit…
You and how many thousands will then be taking a portion of the profits that has the potential to vastly exceed the amount you put in and if 100’000 people decide to put in the same amount as you for the same portion of the profits then the devs will receive 0% of the profit for themselves…
http://24.media.tumblr.com/1922407a9c951652034fac57f0d15670/tumblr_mfb3kjMRN81qepij6o4_250.gif
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 13:41
“only once the game has proven it is capable of making a profi” Not the game, the people making the game have to have a business brain and sense. Else, where does the money go, how do I know it will be spent to maximum effect?
“d if 100’000 people decide to put in the same amount as you for the same portion of the profits then the devs will receive 0% of the profit for themselves…”
Why? How does that work? That is not a business deal. All must profit. Dev profit must be a set percentage, not available to investors.
RustedFaith
March 5, 2015 at 15:30
ROFL you are joking right? So you thinking dumping what $120 you can get rich of someone that has the ability to do it.
African Style!
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 15:38
Sort of like the model for the “free” Unreal Tournament engine
But I do not like giving people money like this, without knowing more of the teams, the success and so forth.. Sorry if I offend people. It seems to rub me up the wrong way.
And yes, in partial tongue in cheek. See bit about My Little pony.
All this is so pie in the sky, it is hardly worth discussing, really. I cannot for the life of see how it can work on an internet stage.
RustedFaith
March 5, 2015 at 15:46
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/
Check it out, enough people wanted to play and have this game and trust the skills, honesty and vision of the developer that they donated over $74 million and still counting.
He didnt want to answer to Publishers dictating the direction of the game and the players wanted another flight sim from Chris Roberts. They have community shows weekly, the CEO answers 10 forum post every week about features. They had a 9 hour session with players so that players can pitch ideas and features that they want in the game in a convention centre and admission was free.
If you dont bullshitand have the fvision and skills people will toss money at you all the time. It went so far that players asked them to put a subscription model in because they want more ways to help fund the game and development. The developers refused and said to compromise they will released a magazine monthly with some goodies for people to subscribe and donate more.
This is what a project looks like when its done for the passion of making games rather than getting rich.
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 15:52
I reply to both here:
I do play stocks and I get the difference. I fully understand that it is like a donation. I am stating my preference that it not be like that, because I think we might get better products, not just a few shining examples, like Wasteland 2.
It is all good.
I love the passion in that project, I really do. I love the interaction and the vision and am eagerly awaiting the game. It may even force me to buy a fairly decent desktop, with a little bridge over my wifes dead body.
Also note that I work in product dev and I see all the time the difficulties in achieving these goals. Passion is, in my opinion, not enough. Business development people, marketing, product engineering team, project leaders, tea makers, analysts and so forth are all needed, with the right exp and a good team ethic.
Perhaps I am jaded?
Kensei Seraph
March 5, 2015 at 16:05
I may have been thinking with the wrong side of my torso.
I agree that the people behind it should have business sense, but how can you know if the small indie team working on their first ever team has business sense?
It’s not like they have a track record you can look at, besides, EA has proven to have amazing business sense and just look at how well they are perceived.
If they did implement something like the model you describe it would probably have a cap on the return you receive.
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 16:24
Indeed, you make sense. But…. I cannot see how it works. Corporate greed wins and as RustedFaith so eloquently (no sarcasm) pointed out below, the point behind Kickstarter is not a capitalist one.
“but how can you know if the small indie team working on their first ever team has business sense?”. not sure. Unknowns will struggle. Imagine the following Sid Meier decides he wants to KickStart a new game. Boom.
And I love “I may have been thinking with the wrong side of my torso”
I did wonder about your post, you normally post stuff I agree with
Kensei Seraph
March 5, 2015 at 13:15
I can somewhat understand why it would be harder to get a Kickstarter going in South Africa than in America or Europe.
We don’t have the same level of media dispersal(?) locally compared to more developed countries.
Sageville
March 5, 2015 at 13:18
I backed stasis because I want to play that game and it is local.
If you punting a game kickstarter for a cause instead of a good game (See Rhino what-what) then that will always fail.
The key to kickstarter success is not “Developer enthusiasm” but rather finding something people really really want.
Hammersteyn
March 5, 2015 at 13:18
Stasis FTW. I’m not one for kickstarter but I would back a System Shock type game.
Sageville
March 5, 2015 at 13:19
This!
Matewis Jubilai
March 5, 2015 at 13:21
System Shock? Win!
Isometric? Win!
Isometric System Shock? “No I can’t come in this week, uhm, I accidentally reversed over my own legs.”
Hammersteyn
March 5, 2015 at 13:22
Bwahahaha
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:20
So lets start. Globally only 43% of Kickstarter projects succeed, so we’re just a bit below the global average (and if Cadence or Otto succedd then we are gonig to meet or go beyond that average).
I agree that it is no harder to kickstarted from here than it is in the US or UK, beyond the logistical fact that you need to get a US or UK bank account before you can even actually start your campaign.
“I just feel our local gaming industry is still too niche and they aren’t looking at what the mass market of gamers really want to play” What does this mas market really want to play, and more importantly do South African developers have a budget to make these games?
Hammersteyn
March 5, 2015 at 13:23
Hows about and isometric Syndicate type game? I think most would want to play that
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:25
You happy with pixel graphics/low poly graphics? Does it need multiplayer or will a single player campaign do?
Hammersteyn
March 5, 2015 at 13:26
Sp will do. Indie type graphics is perfect. Mp can be added if they overshoot their pledge target
Matewis Jubilai
March 5, 2015 at 13:28
How about indie type graphics, isometric, zombie survival and with multiplayer?
Spathi
March 5, 2015 at 13:28
UE is free!!
Co-op low poly will be fine 🙂
Geoffrey Tim
March 5, 2015 at 13:28
I love great low poly stuff – where the right shading gives a unique, almost Tim-burtonesque aesthetic. I’m not entirely a mass market sort a guy – but I just want to play great games.
Spathi
March 5, 2015 at 13:29
“Tim-burtonesque aesthetic” – I’m stealing that shit!
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:36
Cool, that’ll be at a minimum 3-4 million dollars 🙂 I’ll setup the campign
Gavin Mannion
March 5, 2015 at 13:24
“What does this mas market really want to play”
If I knew the answer I would develop it…. okay maybe not but that’s the idea.
Has the MGSA or any local developers done any market research though or do people simply make what they want and hope for the best?
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 13:26
I am not sure abou that last. Market research for a game is interesting. Hmm.
Tech demonstrator to gauge interest?
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:29
Bit of a toughie. MGSA hasn’t done any research into the consumer side yet, the best we have is the PWC report, but that doesn’t go into specifics.
MGSA advocates an open development model, where by people make minimal viable product protypes and see what sticks. Not all the developers in the market follow that model though. But our three biggest successes in terms of sales have:
1. Broforce
2. Viscera Cleanup Detail
3. Desktop Dungeons.
Cadence has kinda followed this route and has garnered enough international attention to warrant further development, and is doing well at GDC, so I’m sure post that and SxSW we’ll see it’s campaign picking up
Guild
March 5, 2015 at 13:30
Is Desktop Dungeon available yet?
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:31
has been for over a year
Guild
March 5, 2015 at 13:32
Damn didn’t know that. Heard about it and waited for an announcement on release. My fault as well for not checking the webpage though. Any idea on when the iPad version is available. Very keen for it.
Geoffrey Tim
March 5, 2015 at 13:34
We posted its release date, as well as reviewed it.
http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/desktop-dungeons-coming-7-november/
http://www.lazygamer.net/south-africa/desktop-dungeons-review-goat-any-last-requests/
Guild
March 5, 2015 at 13:34
Dunno how I missed it 🙁
Geoffrey Tim
March 5, 2015 at 13:31
Yes – available on Steam, and also playable in your browser. The Tablet versions aren’t available yet.
Guild
March 5, 2015 at 13:35
Very keen on the Tablet version
Geoffrey Tim
March 5, 2015 at 13:30
I hope it does – because it’s a really interesting, unique concept. I think Gavin does touch on it though – it’s something that needs to be *played* to be understood – and for many “average joes” that’s a step too far.
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:34
I’m not denying that Cadence has a niche market, but it was never intended to have mass market appeal. I think Kickstarter is excellent for these sorts of projects, and shouldn’t be used for mass market games TBH.
Geoffrey Tim
March 5, 2015 at 13:36
I actually agree, I think that’s what the large publishers are for. If you’re making something that can appeal to a mass market, a publisher (even an indie focused one like Devolver) will pick it up (as is the case with Broforce).
I think, repeating myself a bit, that Cadence is an odd case – because you really do need to play it first before it makes sense. The internet is all about instant gratification, and if Joe public doesn’t that from watching the KS pitch video, they likely won’t bother.
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:39
Ja that’s why the Demo was important. I do think that Made with Monster Love could be punting the campaign a bit more, but they’re so busy doing the marketing thing in person at GDC I can see why they haven’t
Geoffrey Tim
March 5, 2015 at 13:42
Yeah agreed – the way they’re punting it at the moment it almost comes across as little more than a music creation tool with a trippy ui, that somehow has some sort of puzzle mechanic. Hopefully, the GDC push works.
Matewis Jubilai
March 5, 2015 at 13:37
Wow, didn’t realize Desktop Dungeons was local. Awesome, addictive and infuriating game!
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:50
In terms of the mass market, I also think pandering to consumer tastes isn’t in a smaller studios best interest, unless they have a massive marketing budget to differentiate themselves. The thing that can make our games competitive in the global market is to come up with unconventional or risky ideas. Minecraft was completely differnet, and only really succeeded because of it’s difference. Canabalt developed a whole new genre for mobile. This is the space that local devs are going to need to play in until we can get better funding through publishers/whatever to support “safer” main stream games (and the teams that go along with those games).
Sageville
March 5, 2015 at 13:26
One problem lies in treating a campaign as “South African”, why?
I’d understand if your goal is to kickstart a development house, but kickstarter is all about a single product, with digital sales the locality of the developer is unimportant.
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:35
We advise all our devs not to play the South Africa card for this reason. The only thing that being in South Africa is relevant is the logistical hurdles of development and funding
Geoffrey Tim
March 5, 2015 at 13:38
I agree on that too – all it does is pigeonhole. A great game is a great game – no matter where it’s from.
garg
March 5, 2015 at 13:21
What’s the baseline? Compared with tech startups or just any entrepreneurial startups, a failure rate of around 62% is much better than the failure rate of between 75% and 90% of most startups.
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:23
Baseline for Kickstarter success is only 43%
garg
March 5, 2015 at 13:25
So SA games perform about the same as most Kickstarter projects.
Norm
March 5, 2015 at 13:32
Rhino Rumble
:<<<<
Admiral Chief
March 5, 2015 at 13:40
Stasis FTW
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 13:52
Can someone who has backed a game or anything on Kickstarter please tell me why?
from what I can see, you give people money in the hope that they make something cool in future that you and your like minded mates can then buy from them? How do you know they are capable of getting a product out the door?
I can see doing it if the money pledged gets you a copy of the game. when released, and you pledge pretty much what you would have paid for the game on release, say $50.
Gavin Mannion
March 5, 2015 at 13:55
If Albert and Otto gets funded my pledge will give me a cool hoodie.. that’ why I helped fund it.
I always pledge at least the amount required to get a copy of the game.. other times I pledge more because they have cool perks or ego purposes.. get your name in a game etc
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:57
This never doubt the power of a persons Ego
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:58
There is a trap here though. A couple of projects have failed, even after making thier goals, cause they spent to much money giving people the rewards, and then there was little to nothing left to actually FUND the development
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 14:04
Been thinking a bit. sort of like I give money to the homeless guy on the street corner because I feel generous. This is, for me, sort of like that.
And you get a cool hoodie, some sort of material thing.
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 13:56
“How do you know they are capable of getting a product out the door?” This is possibly the biggest reason for Kickstarter success and failure. You can show categorically that famous devs who have produced games before (Double Fine etc) or have a massive following (See the Oatmeals Exploding Kittens) are almost guarenteed to be successful. If you are unknown then, it becomes a lot harder, which why it is imperative to have a playable demo.
It is generally a bad idea to include as a reward the actual game. You’re not doing presales on kickstart (or at least you shouldn’t) you’re looking for development funding. If you make all your sales during kickstarter you’re not going to be sustainable….
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 14:08
Lol. Yes, you must make a profit.
Mass Appeal.
What sort of controls are there to prevent me from making a great playable demo, getting to my $100 000 target and then vanishing?
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 14:13
none. and this has happened quite a lot. This ties into the recent public distrust of kickstarter campaigns
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 14:16
Hmm, I still think treating Kickstarter as a venture capital investment game is the future. Damn hard to manage and pull off though.
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 14:20
Sadly this is illegal in a lot of jurisdictions. Both equity-crowdsourcing and revenue-crowdfunding are either banned or heavily regulated in most jurisdiction. The biggest hurdles is that most regulations prevent foreign investment.
Kickstarter actually forbids this sort of thing on the platform.
Gavin Mannion
March 5, 2015 at 14:26
Oh wow.. didn’t know that.
Always thought the venture capital investing thing was the best idea and wondered why it wasn’t done
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 14:29
So the US recently put out a piece of legislation called JOBS which allows it. It’s quite heavy to comply with it (from SA at least). The UK has similar legislation, so it is *legal* just difficult
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 14:27
Eish. As Gavin said below, I knew there might be some legal issues, but this is sort of blocking it.
Not even hosting all in isle of man or something would solve this, such as was done a few years back to get around gambling laws in the US (hosted servers in West Indies and other places)
Brady miaau
March 5, 2015 at 14:29
OK: Why do you think KickStarter works?
I ask because you seem to know your way around this topic a bit.
nickhallsa
March 5, 2015 at 14:35
Depends on the product I suppose, but basically it has allowed us to go back to the origins of “company” law, without the heavy regulation. It allows the broader public to invest in projects that they’d like to see come to fruition.
Typically this is why kickstarter projects for creative endeavors or novel projects *tend* to be more successful (see the pebble watch, the plethora of boardgames, the cool-er box). People ultimately want to see innovation and cool shit get made. For small investments (like $5) it is little risk and if successful they can point to that thing and say “I helped make that”. Because it is global in that it can recieve pledges from across the world, it also allows niche development of products that typically wouldn’t have mass-market success. It allows a global community with a niche interest to get involved and see things they’d like to get made happen.
The narrative around what kickstarter is and how it should be used has been skewed though. Because of it’s deregulated nature it has also been taken advantage of, leading to distrust of untested people or products.
Bob Ice
March 5, 2015 at 14:08
fun things to do in raleigh ncGet off the couch and get some physical activity.
Megan Amy Hughes
March 5, 2015 at 14:46
One thing to take away from all of these cases is the importance of marketing and word of mouth. Stasis creators do a great job of detailing all the things that they did, including running competitions, to keep their KS on target in their post-mortem (http://www.stasisgame.com/kickstarter-postmortem/). Unfortunately, Cadence seems to be struggling under the weight of also managing GDC work (because it’s full on there too!) with PR for this campaign. Kickstarting is a fulltime job.
It is also worth noting that boardgames do tend to do better (or are more likely to be funded) on Kickstarter than video games because people see (incorrectly) more value in a physical object than a digital one. (You can argue with me on this point if you like, but then you might just be an outlier. This is just about how people assign value). Having a physical reward, like a hoodie, that’s very appealing (like Albert and Otto’s hoodie) is going to be helpful in getting more people to buy. It’s why collector’s editions sell well.
Anyway, it’s weird to say that the “gloss” is gone for local games on KS given that it hasn’t been perceived as this by the game developers. In fact, as a boardgame dev, I see kickstarter as a whole bunch of unnecessary hoops to jump through and that there’s a better route to go. In fact, I think if you ask the guys who made Ancient Terrible Things about the KS, they actually made a loss ultimately from the campaign. There were costs they hadn’t considered. It did gain them media coverage though and ultimately made other sales, I’m assuming, but it isn’t this silver bullet solution that it might appear to be from someone who’s not going in and reading all the fine print and figuring out all the numbers.
40 Insane Frogs
March 5, 2015 at 18:09
Meanwhile Brianna Wu managed to get patreon funding for her crappy chicken scratch endeavours (purely for being a phenomenal professional victim). Have to love how this world works…
Pity about Tom Sparks though, that really looked like it could have been something special. Muti (on the other hand) looks like someone taking a fat chance.