There is an interesting roundtable discussion today on OpinionatedGamers.com. The question posed is, "Is Crowdsourcing (Kickstarter, etc.) good for the hobby?"
As a designer, there are several things to consider, and after much thought, I wrote the following as part of my contribution:
Is Kickstarter good for designers?
Yes and no. I have never signed a contract with a publisher who planned to do this, and so it is difficult for me to know what that would look like. Important stipulations would include:
1) A maximum amount of time (say, 1 year) from the date of the contract before the Kickstarter campaign ends, and a maximum amount of time to produce the game, if successfully backed.
2) The production minimum—and thus, the minimum royalties—should be clarified (current industry standards guarantee a minimum of $1,000 and 5% royalties on net earnings).
3) The designer receives his/her royalties within 30 days of the publisher receiving the Kickstarter funding
4) The rights to the game revert back to the designer immediately if the Kickstarter project fails, or if any of the other contract stipulations are not met within the time specified.
A contract that includes these points could be good for a designer, especially if the publisher has greater net earnings through Kickstarter (direct sales without needing a distributor), which would also mean a larger royalty. Unfortunately, my experience with most of the smaller, start-up publishers has not been a positive experience. I’ve contacted many as soon as I heard that they were looking for submissions, and most were unwilling to offer anything remotely resembling a standard industry contract. With Kickstarter lowering their risk, however, I would hope that they would be able to offer more to designers.
As for designers wishing to self-publish, Kickstarter has obvious benefits as well. I have heard countless stories of over-eager self-publishers left with a basement full of unsold games because they misjudged their game and/or the market (fortunately, that has not yet happened to my friend, Bernd). Kickstarter could be a good testing ground in order to avoid wasting money, materials, and space for those designers.
Personally, I have never been interested in self-publishing. Pitching to publishers is not an easy process, but I have found that, even when a prototype is rejected, the feedback from a publisher can be very beneficial to the game’s development. Two of my future game releases, for example, were improved by feedback from publishers who ultimately turned them down. I would not want to bypass this process, and would personally only use Kickstarter if I had already gone through those channels. Even then, I would need enough positive feedback from those publishers and others outside my normal circle of friends.
And I do think that there is still a substantial barrier to self-publishing through Kickstarter, and that will only increase the more people use it. Illustrations need to be commissioned for sample prototypes, promotional material needs to be made (including demonstration videos), and copies of the prototype need to be tested by influential groups within the game’s target audience.