Kickstarter: Indie devs thriving despite ‘wobbly year’

Kickstarter remains optimistic about its strength as a platform for games creators, in the face of falling figures for the beginning of 2016.

Research firm Ico Partners revealed in early July that the total amount of money pledged to video game projects in the first half of this year had more than halved compared to 2015, plummeting to $8.2 million from a bumper $20 million last year.

Despite this, the company’s head of games Luke Crane told Develop sister site MCV that it was the absence of major blockbuster campaigns that had led to the drop, adding that mid-tier projects have actually grown in stature year-on-year. Among the recent high-profile games to take to the platform is Nightdive Studios’ remake of System Shock (pictured).

“I’m hopeful,” he enthused. “I know Ico published those numbers that everyone freaked out about, but there are lots of great games funded on the platform. And we’re now at this point where lots of fantastic Kickstarter-funded games are being picked up by publishers.”

“The numbers are kind of wobbly this year. But there is one bright thread through it all – the amount of money raised by projects with funding goals between $50,000 and $250,000 is up. That’s the small indie teams that haven’t got a huge support network, who are coming to Kickstarter looking to get their first game off the ground and to do it themselves without a publisher.”