So a couple of weeks ago I got an email from a friend of mine who's got ties to Penny Arcade to check out a just-released kickstarter campaign. Exploding Kittens I immediately backed the NSFW pack when it had around 400 backers, and it has since blown. the. fuck. up. Now it's about 140k backers and has raised over $5 million... well over its $10k goal. FOCUS: Backed any crowd-sourced/funded projects on Kickstarter, Indigogo, or other similar sites? How'd it go? Would you do it again? Tell us your stories. ALT-FOCUS: What project would you like to crowd-fund?
ALT-FOCUS: I want to have a film crew stalk Sack in real life just to see how fucked up he really is.
I've backed two RPGs and a video game. The RPGs were digital content only and the first took about a week to supply all of the materials, the second took about a year but they were upfront about it and I had the primary product after a few weeks. The video game is Shadowrun:HK and that team successfully kickstarted Shadowrun Returns and an expansion so I'm not to worried about them meeting their goals. As for the Exploding Kittens game I think it will have high production values but it will be about as bland as most of the crap the Oatmeal produces.
Ive not donated to any kick starters as of yet. Once Geordi LaForge started crying about his Reading Rainbow reboot I figured he had enough money. Closes thing for me I guess was a slacktivism role in the Surge Movement, the successful Facebook campaign to get Surge Soda back on the market. I did pimp it out quite a bit. It's only available on Amazon but I still got a case. Booyah. Alt Focus: Clutch's book.
I've backed a couple of kickstarters for old school games I loved. Carmaggedon and Total Annihilation. Carma is in public beta now and looks pretty snappy while the Planetary Annihilation isn't to bad but it was more a case of this was awesome as a kid and the glow didn't continue into adulthood.
Alt Focus: ToyToy's book. Also BlueDog's drinking and cooking book, "Cajun Cooking (that'll make you fall off a porch!)".
I backed Exploding Kittens in it's first day as well, also for the NSFW pack. I backed the Veronica Mars Movie, because that show was awesome. Movie turned out pretty well, I'd say. And i backed a product that I'm surprised hasn't gotten more buzz at things like CES and E3. The Avegant Glyph. It's portable VR that is far less bulky than say, Oculus Rift (Roughly the size and appearance of Beats by Dre headphones), and is supposed to have better quality than that as well (2 million micro mirrors projecting onto your cornea rather than tiny high res screens in the headset. I can't fucking wait til they ship.
Alt. Focus: Sign me up to crowdfund the DildoMaker I love doing veggies on the grill. I can't wait to invite my in-laws over and serve my father-in-law a plate of beautiful, perfectly-seasoned and anatomically correct dicks.
I wish I had the cash to back the Glyph, I went to high school with one of the guys who is heading that company, I am also surprised it hasn't gotten more attention. I have backed some smaller projects and have always received the award, now they are very rarely on time but I have only gotten stiffed on one project, a phone case with an integrated wallet. The Beer Tusk is something I wish I would have came up with in college, it's the perfect tool for shotgunning beer.
I backed my daughter's razoo fundraiser to get her musical to really happen. I know I'm biased, but it is really good and the musicians/actors are tremendous! http://www.razoo.com/story/Seawife-Prod ... code=share
Since it only has 8 days left. I'm going to post this here. Shadowrun Hong Kong I backed it at the $15 level. I own both previous Shadowrun games from them. They play like interactive story books.
I have founded Star Citizen, but not on the kickstarter, i missed out on that, but i have funded it through their website, they have broke the 72mill raised mark now. I also funded Total Annihilation because I used to play the shit out of that game as a kid, game is kind of meh.