(Limited) Kickstarter for Book III Worth Considering?...

[IJBall]

...See, many of these Kickstarters are put up by knowledgeable, proven game developers who will use the money as intended, to finish their dream project. But some (many?) Kickstarter projects don't have a proven development team behind them. Some of these people are going to get a big wad of cash, and without proper management, will likely squander that money before they can properly finish the project. Or, in a more sinister take, they never intended to produce said game and they just wanted the money.

I know...I am cynical. I hope that a few inevitable undelivered projects don't ruin the concept of Kickstarter. I may want to take advantage of the Kickstarter thing for our next game, so I hope it is still a viable option a year from now. We'll see.

I understand (and don't necessarily disagree) with Basilisk Games' reticence when it comes to using Kickstarter. And I generally agree that the Eschalon series hasn't needed a KS campaign of its own, and has been just fine without one.

But then sirdilznik's recent post on Divinity - Original Sin, and perusing their KS page got me to thinking...

There is one area in which BW has consistently had trouble with the Eschalon series, and this one area where a very limited Kickstarter campaign could possibly be of real use to BW and Basilisk Games - and that would be for non-English translations of Eschalon (specifically, Book III, at least to start...).

So, any thoughts?
Would a KS campaign specifically and narrowly tailored for just non-English translations of Eschalon: Book III (and possibly Book II?) be an idea that's worth considering by Basilisk Games?...

P.S. How much would be needed for this? I thought the number $10,000 per translation was mentioned before... But maybe I'm just making that number up.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Hmm, maybe. This might be worth pursuing after Book III is released- raising additional funds for paid translations.

There might also be a need for Kickstarter type pitch-in for improvements to the editing tools. We will release what we have after Book III (which are bare-minimalist, just-for-us tools) and then we are going to begin our next project. If people want these tools to be improved upon, or possibly expanded to enhance the ability to make fully customized RPGs, it's going to take funds to do so. Any profit we make from Book III will go into the next RPG, not towards enhancing the free editing tools.

[IJBall]

Hmm, maybe. This might be worth pursuing after Book III is released- raising additional funds for paid translations.

There might also be a need for Kickstarter type pitch-in for improvements to the editing tools. We will release what we have after Book III (which are bare-minimalist, just-for-us tools) and then we are going to begin our next project. If people want these tools to be improved upon, or possibly expanded to enhance the ability to make fully customized RPGs, it's going to take funds to do so. Any profit we make from Book III will go into the next RPG, not towards enhancing the free editing tools.

FWIW, I'm dirt poor right now (so I haven't kicked in to any recent KS campaigns, even the ones I'd love to support...), but I'd kick in for a KS campaign for either of these (non-English translations, or editing tools) - esp. for improved editing tools.

Just my $0.02...

[Kreador Freeaxe]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here. There are questions you need to ask yourself before you try to put such a Kickstarter together. First, if you know something will cost you $10,000, remember that means that you have to raise about $14,000 in the campaign to pay for it, because Kickstarter gets its part and you have to pay taxes on the money, as I understand it from friends who've run campaigns. In addition, as you say you want to use the profits for Book III to pay for the development of the next game, so what would you be offering as premiums to benefit the people who pledge to the campaign? You don't want to offer Book III, and the things that you are using it to create would be free to everyone once they were created, thus eliminating any drive to "preorder."

These questions are not necessarily insurmountable problems, but they are issues you'd need to look at before you put time and energy and possibly money into trying to develop a good Kickstarter campaign.

[SpottedShroom]

There might also be a need for Kickstarter type pitch-in for improvements to the editing tools. We will release what we have after Book III (which are bare-minimalist, just-for-us tools) and then we are going to begin our next project. If people want these tools to be improved upon, or possibly expanded to enhance the ability to make fully customized RPGs, it's going to take funds to do so. Any profit we make from Book III will go into the next RPG, not towards enhancing the free editing tools.

I don't suppose you'd consider making the source code for the tools available? Then interested members of the community could improve upon the tools rather than taking away from your time developing the next Big Thing.