Crowdfunding Site Gamekicker to Launch Next Week | MOUSE n JOYPAD

A new crowdfunding site specifically for small indie game developers called Gamekicker is set to launch on the 8th of March.

According to the “About Gamekicker” section on their website, the crowdfunding service was started as an alternative to current crowdfunding platforms:

“We started this platform because crowdfunding for video games has been far from perfect. We saw that we could greatly improve the way games are crowdfunded. With a platform that is specifically built for crowdfunding video games, a lot more can be achieved than with the existing platforms.”

They go onto say that larger crowdfunding platforms offer all types of projects, which attract all types of different crowds. Therefore, it may not attract the right type of crowd for video game projects:

“It’s very simple, crowdfunding video games needs gamers who are willing to back a game project.”

Another reason the site was started up was because they felt that AAA developers and publishers were taking advantage of the crowdfunding system in order to get an unfair advantage over indie projects, according to a press release:

“Crowdfunding is slowly turning into a pre-order system for AAA companies, and funding creative video game projects is being destroyed. At Gamekicker this exactly why we’ve created a new platform dedicated to indie games! We believe that crowdfunding is meant for creative projects from indie developers who have no other means of raising funds to create their games.”

The most recent example of a AAA company using a crowdfunding platform to their advantage is developer and publisher Harmonix starting 1.5 million dollar campaign on fig.co for the PC port of Rock Band 4. In fact, Gamekicker was planning on launching their site at around the same time the Rock Band 4 campaign was announced, so they ended up postponing their launch to 8th of March since they “did not want our indie game projects snowed under by this large corporate campaign.”

Games that have been successfully funded via crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter in the past have had mixed results. While some have been extremely successful, such as Undertale and Shovel Knight, others didn’t even make it off the ground. Just last month, development on the Kickstarter-funded indie title,Ant Simulator, was halted after two of the developer’s business partners allegedly spent the entire budget on restaurants, gambling, alcohol, and even strippers. This hopefully won’t be an issue for Gamekicker though, as backers will be kept in the loop throughout a game’s development cycle.