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Crowdfund Bookie, April 2014: Wallets open once again
The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the month and produces pretty charts for you to look at. While not a return to crowdfunding's previous glory, April was a bounce-back month for video game Kickstarter projects, which raised $1,920,268 for 35 games, the most games put up in a month since December's 40. Nearly double the number of backers showed up to support these games compared to last month (50,525 versus 28,460) as well, so the funding space may be in renewed form. April bears other similarities to the month of December in crowdfunding: Both months saw a decreased amount of funding pledged beyond initial goals in addition to a decreased pledge per backer and boosted number of successful projects. This trend has generally held strong since December, and may shape our new understanding of the gaming section of Kickstarter. Whereas a popular funding month like September featured a generous average pledges per person amount of $54.35, April's backers offered just $38.01 each. That number shrinks further to $34.26 after removing three projects that sported average funding amounts of $175 or greater. April also saw eight separate projects receive over $100,000 in support, the most since October. Six of these projects featured initial reward tiers between $15 and $17 that granted backers a copy of their respective games. Aside from each project having gradually-increasing reward tiers that offered bonus in-game content as well as goods like soundtracks and art books, four of the projects also included tiers ranging from $20 to $40 that promised beta and alpha access to games. Providing this continues on with other successful projects, developers looking to add attractive and pricier buy-in levels for their Kickstarters may want to note: Players appear to be willing to pay to get their hands on a game sooner. Head past the break for the month's top five grossing projects as well as breakdowns by genre.
Prodigy blends tabletop and PC gaming, clears funding in 3 days
Fan of games like the Skylanders series and Disney Infinity, but hoping for something a bit less cartoony? Or maybe you just really need some new 60mm scale figures for your tabletop warchest? Prodigy from Hanakai Studio might be able to help you out. The game, which combines small-form figures with an electronic board and PC, was successfully funded on Kickstarter today, reaching its $100,000 goal in fewer than three days. Prodigy takes place in a darker world than similar games, and is squarely focused on turn-based squad battles. Players place the figure of their choice onto a grid-like surface, which registers the character and displays it onscreen. You attack by placing a card onto the surface, or combine cards for special attacks or abilities. A piercing attack, for example, is activated when a player lays down an Attack and Focus card. You can see the game in action by checking out the pitch video above, or checking out the Prodigy Kickstarter page. Hanakai has not announced any stretch goals for the funding campaign, but there are still plenty of higher reward tiers available. Got a spare $5,000 lying around? You can design your own character to be placed into the game. For $10,000, you can design the character, help conceptualize its figure, and meet the development team in Paris. Ah, Paris. The city of Sorcerer Kings. Prodigy is expected to finish development by the end of 2015. [Image: Hanakai Studio]
