David Crane is a gaming icon. He has designed some of the earliest and most influential videogames of all time. Pitfall!, Ghostbusters, and A Boy and His Blob are just some of the titles he has worked on. He was the co-founder of Activision, the biggest and most powerful videogame publisher in the world today. Like Larry Zbyszko, he’s a living legend. With his accomplishments and stature in mind, it’s kind of sad that there’s a high chance that his next project will go down as the first major videogame flop in the brief history of Kickstarter.
The video below is from the Kickstarter page of Crane’s upcoming project Jungle Adventure. On paper it seems like a fantastic idea — the originator of jungle adventure games making a new jungle adventure game with modern technology. With only five days left to go, Jungle Adventure isn’t anywhere close to reaching its funding goal. As of this writing, it has only $28,392 of $900,000 goal. Ouchie.
There’s an odd backlash towards this project. Some people within the Kickstart community think that Crane is asking for too much money. Some indie developers feel that someone with Crane’s experience should be pulling from other sources and that he’s ruining Kickstarter for indies. He isn’t helping his cause either. Some of the things he said in this Gamasutra article can be interpreted in a negative way. Kickstarter has a reputation as this shiny, happy place where the little guy can get money to make his dream project a reality. For various reasons, David Crane’s Jungle Adventure has brought out Kickstarter’s dark side.
Anyway, I wanted to get your take on the Jungle Adventure situation. Are you surprised that someone with Crane’s history is struggling on Kickstarter? Or is the project simply too vague and the price tag too high? Please leave a comment and let me know!
Maybe nobody likes the idea.
Indie devs really irk me in how they feel entitled to think kickstarter is their sole financing domain. I have yet to see a kickstarter that offers stock or percent ownership for the largest backers. That would beat the hell out of lunch or some of the other inane crap out there. I don’t dislike kick starter but it is starting to become a begging paradise.
Wait, wait, wait a minute… the money people donate to Kickstarter projects don’t get anything if the product succeeds?! I always thought kickstarter was more of a mini/micro venture capital thing, not a donation thing. That sucks. Why the hell would I ever give anybody my money to make a game or artwork or event or something and not get a return on it?
So then if I want to donate money for someone who may or may not make a game that may or may not sell (well), I would still have to actually go out and pay to play the game that I helped create?! Am I the only one who thinks this is a concept that would only work in Bizzaro land? Do people not have enough sh!t to consume that we need to now be paying people to come up with more sh!t to consume? Are there not enough games out there as it is?
Although, I guess there’s a reason why people beg for this money; maybe their concept isn’t all that great or they lack the talent/energy/skill to do it. Maybe that’s why VC or banks or other traditional funding sources don’t give them the cash. Sure, we may never be able to play that sweet indie game that only exists in someone’s head, but I guarantee you that for every one of those guys, there are five other sweet indie games will come to fruition via traditional funding sources if their ideas really are worth producing.
-M
People that pledge get different rewards depending on how much they contribute. It’s most definitely not a micro venture capital thing. It’s more like pre-ordering on faith.
Crane showed next to nothing in terms of vision and did not do a very good job of promoting the venture. Meh?
His argument, which I don’t think is very good, is that he was purposefully vague because he wants funders to influence the design. The promotion was really bad. That Gamasutra article linked in the body made me wince a few times. I thought of several PR people that are great at handling high-profile talent smacking him for some of the things he said.