I visited the Kickstarter website and the first thing I noticed was the variety of creative sectors that they offer help towards. As you can see Kickstarter covers many different creative practices from comics to theatre. I was surprised at the variety it offers because I've only ever seen and heard of Kickstarter through upcoming games.
Now more about what Kickstarter actually offers.
On their website there is a "7 things to know about Kickstarter" which nicely explains their services.
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1. Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects.
We’re a home for everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of projects, big and small, that are brought to life through the direct support of people like you. Since our launch in 2009, 6.2 million people have pledged $1 billion, funding 62,000 creative projects. Thousands of creative projects are raising funds on Kickstarter right now.
2. Each project is independently created.
The filmmakers, musicians, artists, and designers you see on Kickstarter have complete control over and responsibility for their projects. Kickstarter is a platform and a resource; we’re not involved in the development of the projects themselves. Anyone can launch a project on Kickstarter as long as it meets our guidelines.
3. Together, creators and backers make projects happen.
Project creators set a funding goal and deadline. If people like a project, they can pledge money to make it happen. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing — projects must reach their funding goals to receive any money. All-or-nothing funding might seem scary, but it’s amazingly effective in creating momentum and rallying people around an idea. To date, an impressive 44% of projects have reached their funding goals.
4. Creators keep 100% ownership of their work.
Backers are supporting projects to help them come to life, not to profit financially. Instead, project creators offer rewards to thank backers for their support. Backers of an effort to make a book or film, for example, often get a copy of the finished work. A bigger pledge to a film project might get you into the premiere — or a private screening for you and your friends. One artist raised funds to create a wall installation, then gave pieces of it to her backers when the exhibit ended.
5. Creative works were funded this way for centuries.
Mozart, Beethoven, Whitman, Twain, and other artists funded works in similar ways — not just with help from large patrons, but by soliciting money from smaller patrons, often called subscribers. In return for their support, these subscribers might have received an early copy or special edition of the work. Kickstarter is an extension of this model, turbocharged by the web.
6. Backing a project is more than just giving someone money.
It’s supporting their dream to create something that they want to see exist in the world. People rally around their friends’ projects, fans support people they admire, and others simply come to Kickstarter to be inspired by new ideas. Some projects take longer than anticipated, but creators who are transparent about issues and delays usually find their backers to be understanding.
7. Our mission is to help bring creative projects to life.
We’re an independent company of 82 people based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. We spend our time making Kickstarter a little bit better every day, answering questions from backers and creators, and finding new projects to share. If a project is successfully funded, we apply a 5% fee to the funds collected.
We believe that creative projects make for a better world, and we’re thrilled to help support new ones. Building a community of backers around an idea is an amazing way to make something new.
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So, from this you can see that method in which Kickstarter helps creatives with their projects. By pitching an idea, a cost and a deadline to reach that amount of money which upon success will hep fund the project.
Now from what I've seen in for games projects, they always seem to succeed their goal in terms of money. Whether this is because games are becoming increasingly popular or because the ideas were golden I'm quite interested in perhaps trying this out some day. I have all the necessary knowledge of modelling and the Unity game engine but there isn't to say I couldn't learn something else as I'm quite interested in the RPG Maker stuff and also making games for mobile platforms like phones and ipads.
I have confidence that if I ever did start a project that it would go far because I have a lot of faith in my ideas. Throughout my college years I always demonstrate great ideas but struggle to bring it to life in a creative manner. I think because of this I would probably collaborate with people in order to bring my vision to life. I've lots of previous experience of working in a team and I make for a very good team member.
I'm really intrigued about starting a project now. The process seems fairly easy it's just more about planning and organisation in terms of the idea and the team as it needs to be spot in because Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing funding scheme so it would require a lot of time and planning to properly flesh out an idea for a game and to work out the necessary programs and tools needed to make it happen.
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