Colin Gilzean, producer on the recently-funded turn-based strategy title Battle Worlds: Kronos, has told IncGamers that the financially well-off have no business putting their games on Kickstarter or other crowd-funding platforms.
Gilzean’s comments come after a number of Kickstarter projects put up by wealthy developers (most recently Richard Garriott’s Shroud of the Avatar) have found crowd-funding success.
“Our opinion is that Kickstarter shouldn?’?t be viewed as an? “?indie-platform,?”? ?rather? ?a platform for developers,? ?no matter if small or big,? ?who require funding to create innovate games for fans,” he says “[But] if someone has the money,? ?he shouldn?’?t be doing a crowd-funding? ?campaign.? ?Period.”
Asked who bears responsibility for projects put up by already rich developers reaching their goals, Gilzean told IncGamers that backers and the media should share the blame.
“You shouldn?’?t back a project that does not deserve it. ?Why should you back if the developer does not have more to offer than a? “?vision?”? and some paper? ?sheets?? … back the good projects,? ?not just the big names?!” he says.
“Unfortunately the? “?big names?”? receive bigger coverage than no-names. If the media would independently scan the projects to figure out which? ?the good ones are,? ?no matter who is involved,? ?we would all be a huge step ahead? ?in these things.”
Battle Worlds: Kronos has reached its Kickstarter goal of $120,000 USD, after being turned down by a series of German publishers.
You can read more about the game, and the KING Art team’s views on crowd-funding, in next week’s full interview here on IncGamers.
