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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.
The globe stops spinning in RPG Earthlock for PC, next-gen
Snowcastle Games recently achieved its funding goals on Kickstarter for Earthlock: Festival of Magic, the developer's turn-based RPG for PC, Mac, Linux, Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One. As the first of three chapters planned for the JRPG-inspired saga, Snowcastle earned $178,193 on the funding platform and will continue to accept donations for the game on its website to achieve its numerous stretch goals. The game is set on the planet Umbra, which "mysteriously stopped spinning ages ago." Players guide a scavenger known as Amon as he tracks down a warlock's army, stopping regularly at Amon's home Plumpet Island to farm for magical items used during battles. The turn-based battles also feature a pairing system in which attackers are directly matched with healing specialists known as protectors. Previously known only as Festival of Magic, the game turned up on Kickstarter in November before Snowcastle canceled the campaign in December. It was also shown off by Nintendo in a Wii U montage video in August. Snowcastle is planning to launch the game in Q1 2015 on PC, Mac and Linux with console launches planned for the following quarter. [Image: Snowcastle Games]
