What about "Nobody wants non-Blizzard Real Time Strategy Games"? And the Kickstarting of
Planetary Annihilation? Oh wait, turns out as soon
Human Resources showed up, the Internet went, "hmmm... maybe we really don't." Especially once they discovered how much Uber really needed to make it, unlike in many Kickstarters where the full costs of development are obscured. Take
Bloodstained for example. Igarashi originally asked for $500,000. But in truth, that's only the smallest part of what he'd need.
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/243131/Q ... tained.php
Koji Igarashi wrote:
All I can say right now is that after over a year of talking with just about every publisher out there, I was able to secure funding for about 90 percent of the game with the condition that I prove the market still wants an Igavania game. Kickstarter proved to be a great solution, as it would (hopefully) show that people still want an Igavania game while simultaneously providing funds for the core game.
That being said, I'm hoping to clear a few stretch goals so I can add some new features and modes that I've always wanted to do but was never able to in the past. Hopefully, the fact that I've been able to gather most of the investment myself will put to rest any fears that backers may have about this title not being released.
With these impressions in mind, a gamer sees the Kickstarter for
Human Resources asking for $1.4 million, and he immediately turns his nose up at it. He becomes unshakable in his belief that such a project is wrong and that it ought to die for its arrogance. (In this particular case, it didn't help matters that the project was being savagely attacked from within by unhappy
PA players / backers) And I consider it one of the greatest of Kickstarter tragedies that the project failed. And it was soon followed by layoffs. What an unfortunate fate, and from such a progressive studio that really was pushing the genre forward, and not simply inducing nostalgia for the sake of staying in business.
And besides all that, Uber was missing one of the most crucial components of a Kickstarter campaign -- rebellion. It wasn't clear what
Human Resources was rebelling against, if anything, and so the sword of rebellion fell back hard upon their own heads when it was picked up by the disgruntled
PA community.
