The way in which video games are funded has changed drastically over the last decade. No longer are indie developers reliant on big publishers, nor do they need to compromise their vision in order to gain access to the money that they need. Sites like Kickstarter allow small developers to sell their ideas directly to the public – and some have done so incredibly successfully.
For every crowdfunding success story though, there are just as many failures. These can come in the form of developers failing to meet their funding goals or, worse still, failing to deliver a finished product after having raised the money they asked for. It’s a risk that backers are seemingly prepared to take though, with these ten projects having brought in more than $40 million between them.
10 Homestuck Adventure Game – $2,485,506 From 24,346 Backers
Homestuck is an incredibly popular webcomic produced by American author and illustrator Andrew Hussie. It’s part of Hussie’s MS Paint Adventures series and contains more than 8,000 pages. Encouraged by its success, he took to Kickstarter in order to secure funding for a Homestuck video game. The project easily reached its $700,000 funding goal and production began soon after.
The game was eventually renamed to Hiveswap and broken up into two acts. After a short delay, Act 1 was released in September 2017 and was generally enjoyed by backers. At the time of writing, Hiveswap: Act 2 is scheduled for release some time this month although an exact date has not yet been given.
9 Wasteland 2 – $2,933,252 From 61,290 Backers
Wasteland 2 was developed by inXile entertainment and was the first of several successful Kickstarter projects for the team. They were able to secure $2 million more than their $900,000 funding goal, with over 60,000 people supporting the project.
After missing its original release date, the game went on sale in September 2014 and received a warm reception from critics and players. A Director’s Cut was released for Playstation 4 and Xbox a year later and a switch port followed in 2018. According to inXile’s founder, the company earned $12m from sales in the first two years. Some of this money was used to fund a sequel, which came out in August of 2020.
8 Ashes Of Creation – $3,271,809 From 19,576 Backers
Ashes of Creation is an upcoming game whose developer, Intrepid Studios, is promising will put the ‘massive’ back into MMORPG. The project raised more than four times its target thanks to the help of 19,576 backers. Although it might not be the most funded game on Kickstarter, the $167 average pledge is far higher than any of the more successful projects.
Having originally planned to launch the game in 2018, things haven’t exactly gone to plan for Intrepid. Although the Kickstarter hasn’t been updated for more than three years now, they have been quietly communicating with backers to keep them up to speed. An early access period has already taken place and dates for the first Alpha were recently revealed. By all accounts, the game is coming along nicely, albeit a little slowly.
7 Double Fine Adventure – $3,336,371 From 87,142 Backers
It could be argued that Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions were the ones responsible for popularizing the use of Kickstarter for funding video games. Their project, Double Fine Adventure, met its $400,000 funding goal within just eight hours of going live and went on to become the highest funded video game project on Kickstarter at the time.
The project led to the game, Broken Age, a point-and-click adventure that tells the story of two young teenagers looking to break the cycles in their lives. It received good reviews, but its real legacy is the impact that it had on the video game industry.
It showed indie developers that crowdfunding was a viable option when it came to securing funding and opened the floodgates for countless video game projects to make their way to Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites. It also placed Schafer in a position where he is able to regularly release games again, which can only be a good thing for the industry.
6 Mighty No. 9 – $3,845,170 From 67,226 Backers
Given the popularity of the Mega Man series in the 90’s, it’s somewhat astonishing that former series producer Keiji Inafune needed to take his idea of a new Mega Man style game to Kickstarter. As Capcom seemed to be in no hurry to produce Mega Man 11 though, Inafune felt that he had little choice. Although the project had no problem securing funding, it was plagued by poor communication, missed deadlines and inappropriate statements.
When Mighty No. 9 eventually released in 2016, it was a buggy mess with some Wii-U backers even claiming that it bricked their consoles. To make matters worse, Inafune is alleged to have told his translator that ‘It’s better than nothing’ when responding to criticism of the game. Perhaps understandably, this did not go down well with backers. Thankfully, Mega Man 11 came out a few years later.
5 Pillars Of Eternity – $3,986,929 From 73,986 Backers
The first Pillars of Eternity game is one of the platform’s great success stories. The game was inspired by many of the great turn of the century RPGs and was easily able to smash through its £1.1m funding goal. By the end of the campaign, it had raised just shy of $4m. This made it the highest funded video game Kickstarter project at the time.
The finished game exceeded expectations both in terms of its critical reception and its sales figures. A sequel followed, but in spite of it being well received by critics, Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire struggled to make the same impact as the original game when it came to sales.
4 Torment: Tides Of Numenera – $4,188,927 From 74,405 Backers
Torment: Tides of Numenera is the spiritual successor to the 90’s RPG Planescape: Torment. The project hit its $900,000 funding goal within around six hours of the campaign going live and went on to raise more than $4 million dollars. It was originally scheduled for a December 2014 release, but unfortunately, things didn’t go entirely to plan.
The game’s release date was pushed back to February 2017 which angered some of the backers. When it eventually released, it was well received by critics, but user scores were mixed. According to the CEO and founder of the developer inXile entertainment, sales of the game were ‘disappointing’.
3 Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes – $4,547,473 From 46,307 Backers
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a project by Junko Kawano and Yoshitaka Murayama, two of the original development behind the Suikoden series. It will serve as the spiritual successor to Suikoden and should be released in around two years time. If all goes to plan, it will arrive 16 years after Suikoden 5.
The Suikoden games were incredibly popular in Japan during the 90’s and had a fairly sizeable following in North America as well. It’s perhaps not surprising then that Japanese and Americans made up 58% of the project’s total backers. Given its success, Konami might be wishing they’d just released a new Suikoden game themselves like fans had been asking them to.
2 Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night – $5,545,911 From 64,867 Backers
Konami really don’t have the best track record when it comes to nurturing some of their older IPs. The last main line entry in the Castlevania series came in 2014 and the last good one, four years before that. As a result, when former series producer Koji Igarashi launched a campaign for a Metroidvania style game inspired by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castelvania fans jumped at the chance to back it.
After several delays and the cancellation of some of the promised ports, Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night eventually released in June of 2019. It was both a critical and commercial success, with over a million copies sold in its first year. The team also produced a retro style companion game called Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon which was given to backers who’d pledged a certain amount.
1 Shenmue 3 – $6,333,295 From 69,320 Backers
After being announced alongside Final Fantasy VII Remake at E3 2015, Shenmue 3‘s Kickstarter raised $2 million within 8 hours and 43 minutes of going live. This made it the fastest video game project to reach both the $1 million and $2 million thresholds. Its final total of $6,333,295 also makes it the most funded video game project ever to appear on Kickstarter.
Unfortunately, the final game was not nearly as successful. Following a poorly managed campaign, the game struggled to make much of an impact when it finally released. It received mixed reviews from critics and barely made a dent in the charts. Fans will be hoping that the recently announced Shenmue anime can get the series back on track, or, at the very least, answer some of its lingering questions.
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