Horror in my Kickstarter? It’s more Likely than you Think.
It was an unusually warm day for October when David came to me, bloody eyed and shivering from fever. His hands were cramped in a claw-like fashion, likely from writing one too many blog posts. “I can’t do it,” he admitted in that moment of weakness, “I can’t write another one. I need your help.”
So this is my guest post. I will need to remain anonymous as I’m about to blow the lid off on one of the most shocking secrets of the kickstarter community to date. Before you read any further, you’ll need to prepare yourself for a story of betrayal, fraud and, yes, even murder. Clutch your pearls.
Click below the line to read more about this scandal!
Font Poll: Round 2
This is the second font poll for The Wardenclyffe Horror
Wardenclyffe Spotlight: Mark Twain
I have received more than one request from our backers to discuss more about the main character’s of our story and some of the quirks and reasons that led to their inclusion in our graphic novel, so today I will do just that. Age being before beauty we will start this series off with Mr Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who was born in 1835, and better known by the moniker of Mark Twain.
Twain is not just the narrator of The Wardenclyffe Horror, he is also one of our brave and stalwart heroes, lending his strong arm and skills gleaned in the confederate army along with those from his gold mining out west to subduing evil.
What’s that? You didn’t know he enlisted in the confederacy or mined for gold? Well then, you best read on.
Great Heroes need Great Villans: The X-Men
I’ve mentioned in more than one post that I love the X-Men. Other people have other Marvel favorites, but for me no team better exemplifies Marvel than their team of not so lovable mutants. Sure they have their faults – they have a few characters that just won’t die, and a nasty tendency to bring back those few who do perish. The team also goes through cycles where it has so many x-people that it has to fission them off, and create whole new teams just to handle the over flow. But what is it about them that makes great? I would argue that the spandex, the mansion, and even the Blackbird have very little to do with it.
The characters and the plots are obviously the main things that make any story great, but Marvel has dozens of wonderful heroes. No – the reason that the X-Men stick out in my mind, is their villains. Spidey has a few good ones, and so do the avengers, but I think that the X-Men have the best villains, hands down. I could go on at length, but what say we just discuss the top three today?
Crowdfunding: Swag vs Equity
We do a lot of talking about the concept of crowdfunding on this site. Recently I posted my list of swag I am expecting for the coming year – assuming there are not many project delays or failures, it will like Christmas all year round at my place. Is that all crowd funding can do though? If that is the case, I have trouble seeing how it is a store, regardless of what Kickstarter says.
What if there were more ways to entice people to invest in your project, and give them the rewards they wanted in the process? It’s already happening – in Europe anyway; I give you Gambitious.
I’m a Backer: The Locksmith
Welcome to our regular Wednesday column, “I’m a Backer.” This week we switch gears from the gaming categories that have dominated this column since its inception, and take a look at category near and dear to my heart: Comic Books! You would think that since I am currently working on a comic book project of my own, I would have done a column on this subject before now; alas when it comes to comic books I am very picky, and had yet to find a story I really resonated with till I ran across this week’s project: The Locksmith, a noir/scifi detective story with metaphysical implications. When I say metaphysical, I’m talking about other worlds, doorways to beyond, and death. It’s hard to say for certain; the author does a good job of limiting exposure to the exact story.
Interested? Me too. (more…)
The Worst Part of Kickstarter
Those who read my posts regularly will hear me extol the virtues of crowdfunding and Kickstarter in particular at length. Though there are a lot of great things to talk about – I haven’t run out by any means – that’s not what today’s post is about. Today we are going to talk about the worst part of Kickstarter, and the dark side of crowdfunding. We’re going to discuss how the scourge of the internet follows us even to niche of creative brilliance.
I’m talking of course about spam. If you feel my pain – then read on. If you are too new to Kickstarter to see this – consider yourself warned.
Kicking in Forward
As many of you know, we have recently launched our own project, The Wardenclyffe Horror, on Kickstarter. It’s a Kicking it Forward project, and I thought the best way to explain what that is, and why our project embrace’s it is to tell you a little story about how I came to discover Kickstarter and Kicking it Forward.
I was introduced to Kickstarter in March. My friend Eric told me about this great thing called Wasteland 2. We often talked about how much fun some of the classics (Fallout 1 and 2, Arcanum, Torment, ect) were, but how I considered them to basically unplayable on modern computers. According to the description, it was everything I wanted from a certain kind of game: deep, open, interesting, and graphically modern. I had to check it out.
It took me two weeks to make my first Kickstarter pledge. Two weeks of lurking, reading the comments, and public updates. The idea of giving someone money as a group so they could make something too ambitious for the typical funding channels, seemed too good to be true. In the end I gave, and one of the reasons was Kicking it Forward.
What is Kicking it Forward? Well, I’m glad you asked…
Kickstarter and Cards: A Full House
The Kickstarter explosion in the past year has been a boon for would-be entrepreneurs, video game developers, tech startups, self-publishers, artists, small theater groups, and many others who otherwise would have had a difficult time raising money and awareness for their projects. It’s also a wonderful time for jerks like myself, the man responsible for the blog Kick What? For every project that is run effectively, there is another that is run without any awareness, resulting in unintentional humor or a clear attempt to grub dollars without a legitimate need or even a legitimate project; it really is enjoyable to make fun of these projects. But I also love the good projects, not only for the products they create, but also for the sense of participation that comes from supporting one – it’s almost like a drug, to be honest, one that sometimes affects my judgment. Which leads to this question: Is Kickstarter good for consumers?
Some people think of Kickstarter as a shopping mall (which it’s not; it’s an interesting take on venture capitalism) and fund without question. Others like me get stuck on the participation aspect, which might also raise expectations.
One of the most interesting ways to explore this question is through examining the playing cards projects on Kickstarter. (more…)
The Manse Macabre – Only Mostly Dead
On October 18th, Rick Dakan, of Mob Rules Games
announced that the The Manse Macabe was on the ropes: his programmers had quit, he was running low on cash, and his resources and options were dwindling. Last night, word started to get around that it had failed from a variety of news outlets (here and here for instance). As with most sensational news stories, quick to get out the door, they may have missed the bigger picture; it appears the fans and supporters are stepping up to give this game, currently in a feature complete alpha state, a new lease on life.
Now, on to the details.
Caffeineforge 