As someone who made a small indie game on Kickstarter with a single sku, the idea of a just funded or nearly funded list would have been huge. The campaign was buried on page four almost the whole campaign. We managed to raise 10k, produce 250 games in the US, and fulfilled within five months, but it was extremely hard to get any attention when the platform felt like an echo chamber for the most popular games.

The problem with indie new games is trusting that it’s legit

Recently I canceled my pledge for Odalin from Dragori, the game looks great but a couple things I could not take this time. 1. Shipping price to Mexico 2. Fishy tricks about SG and add ons 3. Estimated delivery time 4. FOMO feeling (Fear of missing out) 5. Delays (more than the usually) 6. The initial "all in pledge" by the end turned into "Super all in pack" that increased the full inmersion pledge from $299 to $399 USD. I might be stupid but I would hope about a crowfunding campaign that they show us a full finished product and say to the backers, hey! this is what we offers ¿Do you want it? we need money to send it to the factory, so in about 6 months it should be arriving at your place. Instead of "it will take us a year to devolope and mass produce, if you are lucky in about 18 months it should be in your hands".

The main problem is that all parts of this (Gamefound, Kickstarter, Backerkit) all want their part of the money and need to put their trust in the most funding one - getting more people for one that is already popular is always easier than getting more people for one that is barely funded. I would LOVE to see an Indie-Corner or Tag or similar to highlight games that are less popular. However, I think it is also a consumer decision - consumers including us all are also doing this and jump on the more popular ones, ignoring the indie titles. Just much more risk for these. And for that, crowdfunding platforms need to evolve a bit, similar to stable pledge, there needs to be a guaranteed outcome. However that would also defeat the main purpose of crowdfunding to kickstart indie projects which MIGHT not make it...

I appreciate this topic King. All great points you made. It seems the featured section and the more promoted games are the bigger/ more popular ones. I especially agree with having an upfront section on “almost funded” games

I won’t even sift through Kickstarter anymore because half the boardgame category is 3D printed stuff. 3D printed stuff should have its own subcategory!

Highlighting indie games sounds like a great idea. I think basing it off funding % is moot if campaigns dont start using realistic funding goals.

You make a very good point Michael. Our game Pandora Celeste is precisely one of those indies you are talking about. We only have 900+ followers on Gamefound, but they are so passionate about our game that they funded it in 32 hours. Despite that, it feels like as a small indie you are constantly pushing uphill against a tide of big name games that steal all the limelight. Just getting anyone who has a following of more than a couple of hundred to pay any attention to your game is a massive achievement and undertaking. Kudos to people like Adam Singer, who reach out to indies like us and give us some space to shine, but for every Adam Singer there are 5 or 10 other big content producers who won't even get out of bed for more money than a small indie's ad budget can afford. So you have to box clever to get exposure, and rely on your core strength - which is that you have a good game, and anyone who plays it recognises that and gets enthused by it. We don't need it any more, but a Top 10 Almost Funded would have been invaluable to us a couple of days ago.

Sounds like a great idea for a new video series, where you promote "almost funded" campaigns to get more attention to this issue. If you are the media for crowdfunding you have the voice to get some of these lesser known projects that are worthwhile into the public eye.

Mythic and lazy squire games totally killed crowd funding for me sadly

You're touching on a great point here. I believe starting own project right now is so overwhelming, more so now than it was before. People watch big names and often autoback stuff without even considering what's on the plate. On the other hand a project by someone new has to be flawless... or it's not funding. I agree, it would be great if the platforms showed those to people. We should definitelly highlight "ALMOST FUNDED" instead of"FUNDED IN 30 SECONDS".

kickstarter and gamefound get revenue based on a percentage of funds gained. we know that and that's why the things displayed and focused on are the way they are. the more money a campaign gains, the more money Kickstarter and Gamefound get. why would they want to do something different. I would rather have something that lets me tailor what I want to see in addition to what they do.

I guess Gamefound would appreciate the suggestion if you and some other reviewers would provide the input to show the top 10 indi games, because you and other reviewers are the truly experts on this. Mainly you, if you ask me, but you may share the burden of choosing what games to show with others.

Can you do a video each month like a top ten indies games

hear hear! i miss so many little campaigns that I might have loved, be nice to see whats close to funding, or Most recently funded

I agree with you, a top ten of not yet funded would be great! Often I participated in a campaign that was really indy, didn't have the opportunity to buy the best marketing and would greatly been helped by such top 10. Though seeing a top ten of other type like it is now, also help those that just started in this nice hobby. When I started to look at crowdfunded games 3 years ago, I did miss some amazng game mostly because a top 10 like that wasn't that easily available

If Gamefound highlights them and they don't deliver is Gamefound responsible?

Great video and I agree with you on the crowdfunding platforms doing more to champion indie projects, rather than just a continuous promotion of zillion $ campaigns. I wasn’t going to back any games this year, but have chosen to back a few indie projects like Deep Regrets, Corps of Discovery & Rocket Ranchers from small companies/people who have cool games and I’m willing to invest in them.

Red Joker proved to be a real disappointment. I suspect times being as they are, very little extra funds are floating around these days.

Love your videos! Curious if you know anything about the acquisition of Lucky Duck Games by Goliath? LD is behind on fulfilling The Dark Quarter thru KS by like a year and a half. So curious to know what tumult is going on behind the scenes!

So you're thinking of a catchup mechanism for indie crowdfunding 😊

For nemesis in particular, are we seeing it at the top of the lists because gamefound own the game? Awaken realms being able to push their games to the top of the advertising, seems like a big part of why they created gamefound?

I like your idea about the almost funded list, but I see one big concern. What happens when a company that is using poor business practices by having a lot of crowdfunding campaigns but not delivering, and people start to see this and don't back their next campaign. As this list would most likely be created by computer, would that company not end up on your list when they don't deserve the extra publicity?

I feel the problem is that we've been burned too many times by problems with companies. Usually higher fundings means more chances to just get your game, because lower fundings means taking a chance that they can just make the game. And you have Mythic Games that cant ship a game that got 6 millions in funding... One of my favorite games I got from crowdfunding is Arena : The contest. After years in crowdfunding if Arena was launched now I wouldnt have backed it just because its scary now to back unknown publishers... Crowdfunding is not what it used to be...

I could see how the almost funded games would be helpful. But I'd prefer a "pick of the day" or "7 picks of the week" type of categories. It couldn't be automated, though. And I suppose it could be misconstrued as favoritism or even paid for advertising. I would hope that it wouldn't be. But also, my pick for the day may not be your pick of the day. But more than either of those, I'd love to see a passion project category where the creator has put his/her/their hearts and souls into it. Maybe this last category is more of a blog type than a top 10 list. A place where the creator talks about WHY they want the project to succeed rather than the WHAT of what's in it. The WHAT is for the campaign page. The WHY sometimes never gets heard unless it's spread out over multiple updates or whatever. Or even the master plan of, if we fund this part of the game, we plan on continuing it's story or world with these future things.

Light and darkness - almost in almost there category. Produced locally in Europe. Example of campaign not getting attention.

So we'll said. Games can be hit or miss, but they are always someone's dream

totally agree. personally i happen to be more interested in smaller successful campaign. last big one was Grimcoven, but the boss battler part is just too weak to me to back it.

How do you feel about something like the Game Crafter? Is that almost more like the vibe Kickstarter used to have? Interested to hear your thoughts

I think it’s a good idea to try and show off indie games and almost funding, but I think that KS is better for indie games. I think it is also a marketing tool for GF to tell companies the more money/followers you get the more we show your game. I also feel like some indie games have to charge more in the product and in shipping than what a lot of people want to pay. The Wormwood game looks good, but for $60 and shipping I could get a dud of a game that I can’t sell.

What's up King! Are you backing DC Super Heroes United?

Some of these indies went really well Oathsworn Aoens trespass Aren the contest and then Tanaras Just to name a few

I only trust cmon and awaken realms they always delivered..

I'm tired of crowdfunding. and that's a good thing for my wallet.

Zombicide saved Crowdfunding