It's actually a great concept, sad thing it's only in US.

But what happens if the game isn't finished? "I wan't my money back!"

well, from what i understand, the person who created the project is actually legally liable to deliver anything promised as a reward, so if they promise a copy of the game as one of the rewards, they pretty much have to finish it or you can sue them. of course, i doubt it'd come to that.

more practically, of course there's a risk, just like buying anything, but i'm sure no developer would just keep the money and run or something; they'd lose too much from that (such as any respect in the community for ever after).

Beautiful. Its interesting to see the ratios between amount asked and amoung pledged. I like Paul's strategy of setting a moderate goal, that's the kind of ratio you want.

This is pretty encouraging. I would love to see a model like this really take off- it seems like it has a lot of potential. Congratulations to everyone who's getting much needed funding this way.

This looks great. It would seem all they need to do is fix what you listed, tagging, accepting paypal & working outside the US. I mean, most payment systems have the last two already.

Player-funded game development: the future is now people!

I think this is all very exciting and I'm planning to launch a project on it soon.

I think our game is going up there to get the money we need to start our studio :). Nice site.

@ Paul Eres

Your understanding is wrong. If the "buyer" is made aware that a finished product may not be produced, and that they are merely funding the development, then the legal liability is waived by the buyer. It's basic contract law.

You can sue the developer whether or not they ultimately produce the final product. However, it is exceedingly unlikely that you would win either way, given that you would have been made aware of the potential outcome before "purchasing".

true, but i was mainly talking about the 'rewards' section, not the 'fund the project' part of it

For every one good, honest, reliable, industrious indie developer, there are a hundred lazy, "all talk no substance" poser out there.

Awesome article, Paul. Kickstarter has been a tremendous help to our team. Beyond the money aspect to Kickstarter, I think a project's fulfilled goal motivates people to work harder on their projects. Kind of a way to test a concept. I really didn't think that there would be enough people interested in High Strangeness to raise the amount that we did. I guess it means that there is actually a demand for what we're doing.