Mutant League Kickstarter

[Greg2600]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mendheim/mutant-football-league?ref=live

Yup, another classic game Kickstarter! Goodness. Now if you thought the General Chaos revamp was perhaps a little too niche, how about Mutant League? And in case you didn't notice, that's right, they want $750,000!!!! I mean, I've defended several of this KS before, but that is flat absurd!

[Kitsune Sniper]

Oh and get this, they didn't even plan on making a PC port at the start.

This is for tablets.

[MarioMania]

It seems like more KS keeps on popping up

[Gameguy]

Why are all these companies wanting kickstarter funds all at the same time? It's like if companies all decided to release their games before Christmas instead of spreading them out through the year, nobody will spend that much all at once.

This isn't even a real sequel, it's not Mutant League Football, it's "Mutant Football League". I'm guessing they don't own the rights to the name or series, even if they helped create it originally.

[TheRedEye]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mendheim/mutant-football-league?ref=live

Yup, another classic game Kickstarter! Goodness. Now if you thought the General Chaos revamp was perhaps a little too niche, how about Mutant League? And in case you didn't notice, that's right, they want $750,000!!!! I mean, I've defended several of this KS before, but that is flat absurd!

Guys, games are REALLY expensive to make, especially if you're paying a veteran team like this to make them. This is not an unreasonable amount of money, especially after you factor in Kickstarter's cut and the funds that will go toward prize fulfillment.

I know the amount sounds absurd, but I do this sort of thing for a living now, and I don't doubt that after Kickstarter fees and prize fulfillment, they're going to need every cent of what's left over to get this game made the way he wants it to be.

Not defending this game mind you, I have no stake in it at all. I'm just defending video game Kickstarters that actually have a reasonable budget. I'd rather see campaigns like this try and fail to give crowfunding a chance to bring a real meaty game to life than see undervalued games get funded and either find themselves in over their heads, canceled, or rushed to market.

[Greg2600]

I'm not doubting the money required to make the game, I know they cost a lot, particularly for licensing, marketing, distribution. I'm saying to ask that amount is really unrealistic, because you'll wind up with nothing. But I guess the flip side is that if you feel like if you don't get X amount you cannot proceed, it's understandable. But that goes back to what many complain about, that these groups are using Kickstarter to fund the game almost in its entirety.

[Bojay1997]

Guys, games are REALLY expensive to make, especially if you're paying a veteran team like this to make them. This is not an unreasonable amount of money, especially after you factor in Kickstarter's cut and the funds that will go toward prize fulfillment.

I know the amount sounds absurd, but I do this sort of thing for a living now, and I don't doubt that after Kickstarter fees and prize fulfillment, they're going to need every cent of what's left over to get this game made the way he wants it to be.

Not defending this game mind you, I have no stake in it at all. I'm just defending video game Kickstarters that actually have a reasonable budget. I'd rather see campaigns like this try and fail to give crowfunding a chance to bring a real meaty game to life than see undervalued games get funded and either find themselves in over their heads, canceled, or rushed to market.

While I agree with you that creating games with full time employees, overhead, licensing, etc...can be very expensive, I think that's perhaps the problem with how many of these projects are being designed on Kickstarter. People who were once part of the mainstream video game industry or want to be part of it are jumping on Kickstarter essentially wanting backers to pay for what is a fully commercial venture in exchange for all the risk and no guarantee of any reward, including at a minimum the product itself.

While it has clearly evolved, I don't think Kickstarter was ever intended to be a substitute for regular venture capital or loans or private equity or any of the other things that normal businesses turn to for financing their efforts. There is a reason the tax code and other laws provide incentives for wealthier people to back risky ventures. There is also a reason that there are strict limits on how you market and sell securities in the US. It frankly turns my stomach when I see some of the backer posts on various projects where people have run up massive credit card debt and made significant financial sacrifices to give $500 or $1000 or more to a project that may never be finished or one that might not be very good when it is. Yes, some of the blame has to go to those people for being irresponsible, but part of it also has to go on the project creators for promising everything and not really understanding how tricky even well funded commercial video game projects can be.

As much as I hate to say it, crowdfunding is really at its best when it's at its most basic, a talented person with a niche idea and other people liking it enough to support it financially in exchange for whatever that idea happens to produce. Having been part of a number of start-ups and small businesses over the years, I can say with certainty that you end up working for a very long time for little or no compensation and you beg, borrow and steal to have enough to just get your idea up and running with the ultimate reward being the possibility that the market will love it and you will reap significant financial rewards down the road. It seems like none of the current Kickstarter video game projects have that start-up mentality and instead want a full commercial rate for something that is a niche project that they aren't even going to focus all of their attention on.

I don't know what the ultimate solution is, but hopefully at least one of the major Kickstarter projects will underdeliver or fail outright and the healthy skepticism that people once had for risky ventures will return.

[kupomogli]

$15 minimum for an ios/tablet sports game. I don't see that many people out there interested in paying a price that high for a sports game, no matter how good it may or, more than likely, may not be that's not a large budget console release.

[Bojay1997]

$15 minimum for an ios/tablet sports game. I don't see that many people out there interested in paying a price that high for a sports game, no matter how good it may or, more than likely, may not be that's not a large budget console release.

Supposedly the tiers and formats are being updated and the focus will be on a PC version. Having said that, I just don't think this game looks like something I would want to play and definitely not anything I would back with a contribution.