I wish you the best and you've got my $50 backing for what its worth.

It seems you do have a decent product, a talented team and a definite plan. However, this was not very clear or convincing when you launched your kickstarter. Your last post was a lot better at selling yourself.

I know your kickstarter mentioned a number of games you involved in but I just really noticed now. It was stuck at the end and didn't specify what involvement. Were you the programmer, the designer? Were you only involved partially or in the whole process of making the game?

You don't have to answer these questions here but I'd just like to encourage you to find out someway to better sell your vision and inspire confidence. Kickstarter is ultimately based on trust. If I give you money and you don't deliver, there is no legal avenue to get my money back (as far as I know) so we need to trust you.

I would love to see something like kickstarter, but aimed at getting investments rather than donations.

These guys and many of the others seem like nice enough people, but the business model is to get your future customers to eliminate any financial risks associated with going into business, without offering them the financial rewards associated with such risks.

If I'm being offered an option to invest more than $5000 into something, I should also be being offered a piece of the pie, not just a visit to the pie shop.

And for the record, I say that as someone who has invested a lot more than that in various business ventures. Some won and some lost, but none were ever considered donations, and nor should they have been.

I think we've had this discussion before somewhere here and you do make sense. But as someone with experience in investments, would you really invest into a game? I think you'd only invest in the ones that will definitely make money, and then we'd be right back at square 1. Developers making only popular games so that their investors get a good return. The premise of making a game for the sake of gaming disappears.

The kickstarters that work don't seem like a donation because they promise you a game and other nicknacks you might like. You end up just spening more money than they're worth in order to get a product you want, and may not have obtained any other way.

For me, at least, that's an adequate return on my investment.

If it had a sound business model, was being done by people with solid experience (as seems to be the case with this one), then yes, I'd love to invest in something interesting for a change. But that's my point, a solid business needs a solid business model, and solid long term financial backing.

I'd say these guys have more than enough relevant industry experience to get taken very seriously if they built a proper business case and presented it to investors as an actual investment rather than a charity.

Kickstarter would be more suitable for some young guys trying to raise a few thousand bucks to buy art for their first indie game, to get a first chance at a foot in the door. I don't see why it should be hijacked by long term industry professionals looking to make big bucks risk free.

Again, nothing against these guys specifically, they seem cool, and their game looks like something I'd buy (assuming it isn't first person), but I see the line between business and charity as being a bit like the separation of church and state. Given my location, there are more worthwhile causes when it comes to donations.

PMIK

Thank you for your faith in us :)

If one does the math, only a few thousand people can fund a game like this with a pledge like yours.

Stay tuned

As far as I understand it kickstarter projects are not allowed to to be treated as investments as it is a U.S. based company and they have a bunch of laws around soliciting multiple small investments. So anything you put into a project is considered a donation. Maybe someone who knows more about the restrictions in place can clarify better on this.

I'm not in the US so can't comment on whether such a law exists, but if they do, I'd be very surprised if they work in the context you're suggesting. Stock markets rely on soliciting investments large and small on an international scale. There are limits to how many people can own shares of a company relative to it's legal and registered structure, but that's kind of irrelevant.

Also, I'm not taking about doing it on such a mass scale. In the grand scheme of things, $300k isn't a massive amount of money, and it's something that could easily be gathered between just a handful of relatively small scale investors.

Hi guys

Please check out update 7

(plot and convo examples)

Zoltan

I asked my CPA if pledges to Kickstarter were donations or what; wondering of course if it was taxable income. His opinion was that since pledgers are given rewards, the pledge money would be considered taxable income for the sale of goods or service. It isn't an investment in the usual way that publishers, say, will back a game in return for a percentage ownership.

Wow you really have done a lot of work already! I didn't read the plot in detail (Don't want spoilers) but you've already put enormous amount of thought into it. Also, those dialogues are really cool. Reminds me of some of the great RPGs of old. You have to try and make this game happen.

If this kickstarter doesn't work maybe you should release the game in chapters (if there is any point in the game where it can be divided but still seem like a whole) so you can require less funds.

I have to go try your NWN modules now. Oh and I've increased my pledge to $100. Good luck! (Lets help him out Goggers)

Since you guys are doing a project heavy on plot and dialogue/humor

Have you guys played a game called Planescape Torment yet? That's the perfect example to draw off of.

Thank you very much, mate, we really appreciate your support.

Regarding the mods, please note the following:

TH 1 was released in 2004 and I wrote the convos myself as an ESL guy. The current version was proofread by a group of helpful NWN vault members and later by DrHoo herself, again. The writing is not award winnig, but fair enough.

As for TH2 (released in 2007 and won a gold medal in the same year), an American novelist Jim Grimsley helped me out and wrote at least 1 third of the game's convos. Also, the rest of the convos were proofread by DrHoo, so the entire project's writing is much better.

The kickstarter project's writing is consistently similar to those in the examples.

Hoping that we can get this together
Thanks again
Zoltan

PS: anybody who likes this game and decides to pledge, please leave a comment on the kickstarter page to help others make up their minds :)

There are quite a few legal requirements surrounding investment in the US, and it's to avoid the cost and legal hassle of dealing with those requirements that Kickstarter only works with donations, not investments. There's actually been legislation moving through congress right now to reduce these requirements and make crowdfunding easier.

Interesting. In many countries it's the exact opposite, and for very good reason. Businesses here are simply not allowed to solicit donations. The idea is to prevent fraudulent charities, as it's much easier to set up a registered company than an NGO or charity.

We have uploaded three more convo examples:

http://s1060.photobucket.com/albums/t451/ElidaVenn/

We are working on a GUI mock-up screen as well, the next update will feature that.

Anybody who enjoys true non-linearity, who likes complex RPG's in which your choices have consequences, and if you go back to the first area and there are new things to do, please support us in our great effort.

Thank you