Caltrops - Wall Street Kid - And people keep giving the game money

by skip 07/22/2012, 2:51pm PDT

Our kickstarter earned $36,967 after asking for $20,000 so that was incredible.

To begin with, we didn't get all of that. We lost about $2,000 to no-shows, just people that pledged and the funds did not transfer.

That got us down to $35k, and kickstarter and Amazon Payments take their portions, which got us down to right around $32,000.

Now, right off the top you had $10,000 for prize fulfillment. That includes printing the posters, the shirts and shipping everything (thanks Australia). If we had to do it again, we would have probably had the price point a bit higher for the t-shirts and posters, as those turned to be a very large expense. We also would have included the cost of a 3rd party fulfillment house - we just aren't equipped or skilled in that area, and it was (still is) something that we struggle with.

For all their bitching about they spent on rewards, that's not completely unreasonable. They spent about a third on rewards. Doublefine and the Banner Saga both spent about 20% on rewards.

When these guys get called out on their missed deadlines, bad management, and the fact that they've changed the game from turn-based to RTS they become hostile to the suggestion that they don't know what they're doing.

Shitheads wrote:

Clearly we aren't going to look for approval for gameplay changes, like converting from a tactical turn based game into a real time one - cause the bottom line is it's our game and it was more fun to have the chaos. We don't have to defend ourselves cause in the end people can just decide the game sucks, tell their friends it sucks and review it and tell the world that it sucks. We don't think this will be anywhere near the case, but that option is available to anyone that plays the game.

I'm sure they will. And Jesus, whether it's a good game or not is besides the point. If a customer preorders Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and gets Sid Meier's Gettysburg! instead they're going to be pissed.

Shitheads wrote:

We also did not "blow through" our money. We posted an entire article outlining how careful we tried to be with our money. We put TONS of thought into every dime. If hiring CPA's, getting a business together, making sure we are legal in regards to copyrighted content and getting equipment for playtesting is reckless - then we are guilty as charged. Reading a bit between the lines, I think your real disagreement is that you wouldn't have spent the money the way that we did. You are welcome to your opinion, and we are confident we would probably have some thoughts for your budgets as well. However, as we have said, we spent our money wisely and with lots of forethought. There are things we would do differently, but unfortunately our time machine kickstarter did not get funded. But we digress.

You're not convincing anyone that spending $3000 on PAX was a good idea.

Shitheads wrote:

As for release dates - yep, we've missed a bunch. Again, reading between the lines, it feels as if you are implying we have been misleading or irresponsible with our time - again, an assertion we strongly disagree with. Ask Valve, Blizzard, Nintendo or just about any other great developer about missed dates. As the immortal Shigeru Miyamoto said "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever." These are words we live by. Our model for operation is Valve - we love everything they do, the way they treat the community and, to your point, the way they don't really talk about when anything is coming out until its just about ready to go. See: Team Fortress. We, of course, do not have that luxury, as we are a "publicly funded" company and feel that would should share as much of the development process as possible. I can assure you, our next title will be developed in much more secrecy.

Where nobody can criticize their management. Valve still has released other games while HL3 is pending. The only thing these guys have done is start another kickstarter.