Star Command devs transparent about where Kickstarter funding went (Spoiler: prize shipments)
Star Command developer Warballoon, which funded its Kickstarter project in the BDF (before Double Fine) era, decided to share details on where its cash went. The company stressed this isn't it saying "oooops," but simply helping out future kickstarters to think more about their prizes and where their money will go.
The company's Kickstarter drive earned $36,967, with $2,000 taken right off the top for pledged funds that were never transferred. From that $35,000, Kickstarter and Amazon Payments' cuts brought the total down to $32,000. Another ten grand went to "prize fulfillment," which included creation and shipping (the real killer!) of bonuses.
With $22,000 left, the company spent $6K on music, $4K on lawyers, $2K on poster art and $4K on showing at PAX East, including iPads to demo the game on. This left Warballoon with $6,000 of taxable income... leaving it with $4,000, which "goes rather quickly as you can imagine."
The company notes that if it had to do things differently, it would have gone easy on the lawyers and the rewards, especially the shipping, which it said "is a) expensive b) a pain in the ass when you have tubes and c) time consuming. None of those things are productive."
"We don't resent having sent that stuff off - we think the posters and shirts are awesome and we are super proud of them and it seems like everyone loved them, so that's great. But they were a lot of work," they continue.
"All that said, though, its been great and the game would not be where it is if it wasn't for Kickstarter. We're extremely confident were going to hit our summer release date and that never would have happened without you guys. We have made a game we're really, really proud of and you guys should be too. We have always felt an obligation to make your investment worth it, and hopefully we don't disappoint."
