
The year in Kickstarter 2013 - RossM
http://www.kickstarter.com/year/2013
======
lukeqsee
Kudos to Kickstarter for a great year and great overview!

I think this demonstrates the power of telling a story (vs just giving the
numbers). This review evoked a positive emotional response where most
companies' "Year in Review" posts evoke a staid statistical response.

~~~
kevando
Well said. I rarely make it all the way through slide shows like this, let
alone reach the end wanting more.

~~~
cookingrobot
Rarely does a company enable so many interesting cultural events. They had a
lot of great stuff to show off.

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Paul_S
I really like kickstarter but let's balance out all this awesome news with a
quick reminder that there are plenty of vanity projects and outright
curiosities on kickstarter - like that rich businesswoman collecting money to
buy her daughter a laptop. Though I can see it must be really hard for them to
decide where to draw the line - even if only because of the sheer number of
projects.

I don't blame them for crappy projects, they have genuinely changed the world
and I hope they keep doing this into 2014 and further.

~~~
schenecstasy
referenced link?

~~~
camus2
check this :

[http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/computer-camp-
kickstarte...](http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/computer-camp-kickstarter)

~~~
schenecstasy
thanks

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mathattack
I have to admit that I was surprised at the dollars per person: $480 million/3
million people = $160 per person. Perhaps that because each person pledges to
multiple campaigns? It seems like only 80K backed more than 10 projects
though. The dollar values per pledge that I've seen are much lower than $160
per person. Perhaps a couple outliers pull up the mean well past my personal
observations, if not the median?

I found the slideshow of successful projects to be very inspiring.

~~~
FireBeyond
There's also a (minority to be sure) group of projects that get close to their
goal and pitch in money to make it happen - for example, your goal is
$200,000, and you're at $190,000 with 24 hours left.

Now, if you don't get $10,000 in backers in the next 24 hours, you get
nothing.

If you can, then you'll get the $200,000.

Do you let that happen organically? Or do you do a last ditch pledge to a
friend or family to charge $10K to their credit card, with the promise you'll
give it back as soon as your funding clears, and attempt to make do with
$190,000, rather than see that plan come so close, only to fade away?

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MattGrommes
I backed 11 projects in 2013 (and one that didn't end up funding) and hope I
find at least that many things to support this year. I've really enjoyed being
part of these groups' journeys and getting boxes of random goodies throughout
the year is really fun. I wouldn't have thought it a couple of years ago when
I started on there but it's been one of my favorite success stories in the
recent web era.

~~~
pstack
I've backed the better part of 1,000 crowd-funded projects in the last couple
of years and it has been a very mixed experience.

I've stuck primarily to video game content and, of those, many are extremely
late. Many have simply stopped responding to or updating backers despite great
delays.

Some have simply said "sorry, even though we asked for $5k and raised $40k,
this is too hard and we quit". There have been more than one of those. There
have been some that tried, but majorly screwed up. Like the guys who were
making a game, but the engineers wrote it in Google's GO. Then the engineers
left and they couldn't find anyone who knew how to make games in GO.

Some have been delivered and are either quite broken and/or just completely
awful (Takedown: Red Sabre from industry veterans that received a metacritic
score of 20/100 comes to mind).

There have been a few that have been quite good and many remaining to be
completed that look like they could be great.

However, I think I am largely done with the crowd-funding experiment and will
only be dropping a few bucks here and there for things I truly must see
created by people with a reputation. I'm tired of the finished products that
are total let downs and, more, I'm tired of the people who just say "oh well,
sorry" and don't even finish making the thing they were paid (usually far more
than they were asking for) to do.

Sure, they are obligated by terms of service to fulfill or refund all rewards
for pledges (which means you are obligated to provide your game, if your game
was one of the pledge rewards). But in reality, what is anyone going to do to
enforce it? Kickstarter sure doesn't give a fuck (hell, they don't even adhere
to their own policies, letting people double-dip by running additional crowd-
funding sessions for already expired-and-unfulfilled previously funded
projects and so on...

As much as I delight in the idea of crowd-funding, I think we are headed for a
major landslide. Primarily, due to a total lack of enforcement (or vetting) by
the crowd-funding platforms. When your entire model is based on trust and
reliability and you do little or nothing to protect it, then . . . well, you
have nothing.

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forgottenpaswrd
Well, Ouya was a disaster, they should probably not include it in third place.
I did not backed them, I can predict how projects will go very soon, probably
because of my professional experience.

I backed some very interesting problems not mentioned that I am very happy
with(more than 100 projects backed so far!!). Why? Just because they raised
more money.

Kickstarter needs to include some feedback from customers, so they know which
ones went better overall, not just how they started.

~~~
Kiro
Why a disaster?

~~~
joshuapants
The company is bleeding money (their sales ranking on Amazon, for example, is
typically right below a video cable compatible with the N64), has hardly
attracted any quality devs, and the product had many hardware issues(faulty
controllers, overheating). I believe there are still early kickstarter backers
that haven't received consoles despite the claims of the Ouya company.

Then we can consider their PR (see: "redtube," "GET SOME" in the context of
cancer, and their poorly thought out commercial that they quickly tried to
disavow). Then their customer service: nonexistent, you basically have to
complain publicly and badmouth them in order to get any response.

And really, we live in a world where everyone owns a computer and there is no
shortage of free quirky indie PC games (most or all of which will be of higher
quality than what you'll find on the Ouya store).

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ToastyMallows
FYI the Start button doesn't seem to be working for me with Adblock turned on.

~~~
pgrote
The chrome extension from getadblock.com? It worked for me on Windows 7 and
Chrome 31.0.1650.63 m. My Adblock version is 2.6.

~~~
joshschreuder
Probably an issue with Mixpanel being on a filter list you don't have. The
issue happened for me with the same version.

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Paul_S
How can they list ouya as a success story with a straight face is beyond me.

~~~
patmcc
You can buy one today. It went from concept/prototype to full production with
the help of kickstarter.

Whether it's any good or not is a separate problem.

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brickmort
"That was beautifully done. wow."

(Back. Back.... Back. BackBackBackBackBackBackBack...)

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runewell
Kickstarter is a fun risk. I've enjoyed the process of backing a few projects
myself, most of which went without a hitch.

If you don't have discretionary income to spend or expect perfection then
don't use this service. It is not a guaranteed success, most projects are
late, some finish poorly and on rare occasion fail to finish at all.

I love it because it funds many businesses that would have never grown
otherwise.

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thearn4
Great slideshow, it looks like 2013 was a great year for KS.

Oculus Rift and the Aerovelo Atlas are personal favorites among the ones
listed.

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RyanZAG
Websites that play video sound should have either a play button to start it,
or an option to turn it off before playing it.

~~~
theandrewbailey
Alternatively, it could be designed such that you would expect sound. Probably
quiet at first, rather than SUDDENLY NOISE. Surprised me, Kickstarter has been
a master of ambient video.

~~~
waxpancake
Super weird, I didn't get any sound in the slideshow at all, except when
playing the Veronica Mars trailer and Werner Herzog video, which required user
action to play. I went through the entire thing, not sure what I'm missing.
What browser/OS are you using?

~~~
theandrewbailey
Latest Firefox on Windows 7. Happens on the launch satellites into space
slide.

[http://www.kickstarter.com/year/2013#26-ardusat](http://www.kickstarter.com/year/2013#26-ardusat)

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post_break
I wonder why they didn't list Anita Sarkeesian in the list. Oh wait.

~~~
Grue3
They did list Goldieblox, who are now more known for pissing off Beastie Boys.

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ilovecookies
it didn't even mention double fine, wasteland, or torment... Old gamers gotta
love this.

~~~
egypturnash
None of those are finished yet I think? DFA has its backer release next week,
Torment seems to be a long ways away. Dunno about Wasteland as I didn't back
that one.

Everything on the list is in past tense; this happened, this got made, this
won awards. These are things that HAPPENED because of Kickstarter, not things
that are still on their way to happening.

~~~
ilovecookies
shadowrun returns got released, and wasteland got released as a early access
beta. At least they could have tried to profile the year a bit more, having
one gaming session, one innovation session etc.

kickstarter in more than that crappy ouya console.

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Shillbilly
Dear Kickstarter,

Please stop turning the process of starting a company into a charity.

Thanks, Me

