Kickstarter - Campaigns of Interest (Check 1st Post 1st)

valiki7375

valiki7375

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This "first" post will have current KS campaigns that are currently live and I am following or backed. Obviously this is all very subjective since I started this forum, but feel free to mention others that might be of interest. Obviously I am sticking towards video/ board games, but always open to suggestions.

Also another good site to check for Board Games is Gamefound

Live (backed):

Food Truck Race: A Simultaneous-play Cooking Game (8 days left 561%)

Live (watching)

Gamers: Ghosts in the Machine (27 days left 144%)

Hawthorn (15 days left 128%)

Rolus: In the Outskirts (10 days left 133%)

I have backed the following projects

Wonder Blocks: Smart Nature Observatory (last update, 05/20*25, campaign ended)
Hidalgo ( last update 04/26/25 Campaign funded)
Monsterpatch ( last update 05/05/25 MoN designer, surprise coming??)
Elusive 2 (last update 04/11/25 campaign ended, next steps)
A Place For All My Books (last update 05/19/25 games delayed a week)
Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium (last update 05/19/25 complete surveys, bookmarks showcased)
Boss Fight Books Season 7 (last update 4/27/25 book #4 to print)
Playstation 2 Anthology (last update 04/15/25, surevys out, printing begins in May)

Received All items: SCP Foundation Artbooks Paperback/
 
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My guess for today is $775,000. Looks like I might have to back it just to get access to the digital archive since there are no plans to sell access outside this campaign.. hmm..
 
n64ra said:
Thinking of doing the $50 tier + $10 digital archive add-on
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Revanex said:
My guess for today is $775,000. Looks like I might have to back it just to get access to the digital archive since there are no plans to sell access outside this campaign.. hmm..
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Eh... as much as I want the digital archive... it's digital. There's no guarantee how long it'll be up before some/all of the issues are removed/edited/censored because we can't have anything nice anymore. Not to mention it still costs money to host stuff so I can't imagine it'll be exclusive forever... eventually they'll have to either open it up to more people for funding or kill it.

The bigger the funding pool gets, the more hesitant I am to fund the project. When they originally started the campaign, I'm sure they were fully capable of/planned for some of the lower goals, but as it's bigger/they keep adding stuff, I'd wager a lot of those goals were pipedreams that they didn't really plan for/think through. Not to mention, they were hoping for $35k and got showered with 700k+... they'll feel flush with cash and likely end up splurging a lot before they realize thing X and Y and Z are all going to cost more than anticipated two years ago when the project started.
 
I don't want to wade through Ebay to hopefully find this at a later date. Geeks-Line did a Playstation 1 Anthology that I have only seen once on Ebay (and yes I backed the PS2 Anthology a few months ago).

In the grand scheme it is only $75 and whenever it arrives I will have forgotten about that 75 and will be a nice surprise lol
 
Revanex said:
My guess for today is $775,000. Looks like I might have to back it just to get access to the digital archive since there are no plans to sell access outside this campaign.. hmm..
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How could they lock out people from a digital archive and why would they? Couldn't they start a Patreon account (I mentioned this in their comments section) to keep the archive "going"? I don't even care about the digital archive
 
Revanex said:
My guess for today is $775,000. Looks like I might have to back it just to get access to the digital archive since there are no plans to sell access outside this campaign.. hmm..
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I actually just watched the "trailer" for the kickstarter campaign and it says "access to the digital archive before anyone else"

Would be my guess that eventually the archive will be there for everyone at some point?
 
Yea, I'd figure out a way to download / export the digital archive to save locally.

Edit: "access to the digital archive before anyone else" - interesting. Maybe they'll stick it on Internet Archive?
 
Most of these archives end up having subscriptions and if the book hits retail it will probably come with like one year of access or something like that. Honestly if I could just do $10 for the digital I'd probably be content but $25 for the digital makes me feel like I should do the physical too but now that I've actually entered my pledge I'm starting to rethink how much I really want it.
 
My guess for today is $785,000.

valiki7375 said:
I actually just watched the "trailer" for the kickstarter campaign and it says "access to the digital archive before anyone else"

Would be my guess that eventually the archive will be there for everyone at some point?
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I'm basing it on the FAQ for the kickstarter:

Will the Digital Archive be available outside of this Kickstarter Campaign?

While it's possible that we will we sell access to the Digital Archive at a later date, we have no current plans to do so. We anticipate it will remain exclusive to our Kickstarter backers for at least six months, if not longer.

So they might open up access to it after 6 months or they might never. I wish I could just spend $10 for digital archive access but it looks like the lowest I would have to pledge is $25.

n64ra said:
Yea, I'd figure out a way to download / export the digital archive to save locally.

Edit: "access to the digital archive before anyone else" - interesting. Maybe they'll stick it on Internet Archive?
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In the comments, they said that you would be able to download the issues.
 
I get the idea of being on the fence. Currently, I moved up to the 150 level, but do I really need the pins or the extra poster? I like the idea of the lost issue, but pledging 75 and adding the lost issue is 105...but I doubled my pledge from 75 to 105... 18 hours to make a final decision 🙃
 
valiki7375 said:
I get the idea of being on the fence. Currently, I moved up to the 150 level, but do I really need the pins or the extra poster? I like the idea of the lost issue, but pledging 75 and adding the lost issue is 105...but I doubled my pledge from 75 to 105... 18 hours to make a final decision 🙃
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I was contemplating the same thing, but I wanted the larger book size. If the larger book was at a lower tier, like $75, I wouldn't done that and add-ons.
 
Maybe I missed it, but I don't see the book size specified in the add-on. Only 8.5x10 for $75 tier and 9x12 for the rest of the tiers above it. Is the add-on book size 8.5x10 or 9x12?
 
HaloGX said:
Maybe I missed it, but I don't see the book size specified in the add-on. Only 8.5x10 for $75 tier and 9x12 for the rest of the tiers above it. Is the add-on book size 8.5x10 or 9x12?
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We reached $40,000, so we're making The EGM Compendium even fancier by upgrading the book's size to 9 inches by 12 inches. That's over 23 square inches more book. In fact, it's exactly 24 square inches more.
 
valiki7375 said:
We reached $40,000, so we're making The EGM Compendium even fancier by upgrading the book's size to 9 inches by 12 inches. That's over 23 square inches more book. In fact, it's exactly 24 square inches more.
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Oh wow, nice! Thanks for finding that. Actually, I see that they put it under the FAQs too. Maybe I'll drop mine down to $75 with the lost issue. Otherwise that pin set is $40.
 
HaloGX said:
Oh wow, nice! Thanks for finding that. Actually, I see that they put it under the FAQs too. Maybe I'll drop mine down to $75 with the lost issue. Otherwise that pin set is $40.
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I decided to forgo the lost issue and drop to $75. The "lost" issue is a fun idea, but I already subscribe to Edge magazine and anyhting they do is
a) current
b) more depth than EGM, GamrPro, or Game Informer
c) $125 for the year (they have 3 issue subsciptions for $30)
d) on time
 
Well I just backed my first kickstarter. Went all in for the top tier. Let’s hope they fulfill as promised and it isn’t a scam. The nostalgia in this was too strong for me to pass up.
 
valiki7375 said:
5 days left and at $643,000

Definietly has slowed down and not really seeing any sort of "push"....course there are no more stretch goals to hit so will be interesting to see where this ends up.

My guess is $672,389

Let's make this a game....whoever gets closest to the actual amount I will buy one of the fanatical mystery bundles and gift to that person (will need your email)

It will be a tier win...There will be only one winner and it will be whoever is the closest...

Unless you decide to be some sort of jack-attack and bid someone by like "a dollar"....obviously I do not mean an actual dollar, it will be subjective

so guesses today 20 keys
Saturday 15 keys
Sunday 10 keys
Monday 10 keys
Tuesday 5 keys
Wednesday 5 keys

It closess Wed/Thursday midnight
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Last minute guess for me is $815,000.

It’s still live for a couple more hours.
 
I wanted to back this but I decided to pass ultimately. I loved EGM, it was a huge part of my childhood, but this book and a digital archive probably won't fill me with the same feelings I got as a kid. There's been plenty of unofficial archives and there's just something missing when you're looking at digital scans of physical magazines.
 
The kickstarter ended at 823,285

Technically the closest guess at 825,000 is Xenogears followed by Romeo at 815,000

both of you will receive 5 mystery keys from fanantical (via me)

Although in the spirit of guessing, I have also decided to award Revanex guess of 800,000 from last saturday so they will get 15 keys

All winners please message me your e-mails (then I can gift those to you),

Thanks for making this a lot of fun and having great conversations throughout! Kind of bummed it's closed now
 
Thanks! Yeah, I just happened to get up in the middle of the night. Pretty easy guess within a few hours :). If anyone guessed awhile ago, and was also close, they can have mine as well, otherwise I‘ll still send my e-mail. I ended up backing at $75 tier, looking forward to the book, my first kickstarter as well.
 
Xenogears said:
Thanks! Yeah, I just happened to get up in the middle of the night. Pretty easy guess within a few hours :). If anyone guessed awhile ago, and was also close, they can have mine as well, otherwise I‘ll still send my e-mail. I ended up backing at $75 tier, looking forward to the book, my first kickstarter as well.
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Please send away...despite your name. That is literally the only game that I got to the final boss and simply could not beat. Don't get me wrong, there are many games I have not completed, but to get to the final boss and just lose time and time again, only that game :LOL:
 
Xenogears got these games in the mystery bundle (in case you were thinking of buying a bundle on your own)

Nuclear Dawn​

PAGO FOREST: TOWER DEFENSE​

The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature​

Degrees of Separation​

You Suck at Parking® Complete Edition​

 
Well now the interesting over/under will be delivery date. Most of their answers were really vague but they have one response where they indicated that potential import tariffs wouldn't impact them any which could indicate they have a publishing arrangement in the United States for the books. Hard to say what challenges scaling up to over 9000 copies presents but presumably they have someone around who has experience with delivering hundreds of thousands of magazines every month so comparatively speaking that's pretty small. I'll still be surprised if I have the book in hand within a year but I suspect they'll feel obligated to at least have the initial version of the archive available by February which in many ways is what I'm most looking forward to. I'm inclined to believe they could have hit closer to a million if they had another decent stretch goal at the end, but they are staking claim to the "biggest non-fiction book Kickstarter in history" so I guess that's good enough.
 
I backed the PS2 Anthology that ended in Feb 2024. Their expected date was Dec 2024. The most recect update from them is now March 2025.

Not holding my breath...but the money is already spent so it'll be a nice bonus when that comes.

I don't think EGM was realistic with their release window of Feb 2025 (especially with all the extra stuff. Which if they sent anyhting as it was ready, they would get killed with shipping costs, but can you imagine the compaints if people that just backed the book got their stuff first? Course it wouldn't matter because not like there is a head of the complaints department :ROFLMAO: )
 
valiki7375 said:
Please send away...despite your name. That is literally the only game that I got to the final boss and simply could not beat. Don't get me wrong, there are many games I have not completed, but to get to the final boss and just lose time and time again, only that game :LOL:
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Yes, very difficult last boss. There is some secret way to make the Xenogears unit go into a super version of “hyper mode” or something. I can’t remember, it‘s not really a normal part of the game, but I used it for the last boss. Might have learned about it from EGM :). It’s not explained in game, and I remember it being difficult to pull off, but pretty neat once you do.
 
valiki7375 said:
The kickstarter ended at 823,285

Technically the closest guess at 825,000 is Xenogears followed by Romeo at 815,000

both of you will receive 5 mystery keys from fanantical (via me)

Although in the spirit of guessing, I have also decided to award Revanex guess of 800,000 from last saturday so they will get 15 keys

All winners please message me your e-mails (then I can gift those to you),

Thanks for making this a lot of fun and having great conversations throughout! Kind of bummed it's closed now
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Yesterday was quite fun... and costly!

I did back yesterday, for the first time ever. Went all on with the editors leather edition, and also ordered a second book. Got to chat with Josh Harmon for a bit privately as well.


And thank you for the random contest. It's kind of you to do so. I figured the final guess had to be under though, if you overbid, you hear this:

 
I will say Josh Harmon was awesome with communicating things and replying to messages. Got a little excited when he said that he liked my idea of a "letters" section for the digital archive if I am being honest:LOL:
 
valiki7375 said:
I will say Josh Harmon was awesome with communicating things and replying to messages. Got a little excited when he said that he liked my idea of a "letters" section for the digital archive if I am being honest:LOL:
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It's was honestly weird to me how completely open and communicative he often was but also super vague and didn't really give actual answers about their process. Maybe it comes from years of working in the industry and thinking specific details shouldn't be shared, but there's a certain expectation of transparency with Kickstarter that he seems unaware of. I really hope things come together well on the project because he's gonna be surprised how cranky 9000 backers can quickly get when you don't have good explanations for things and those expectations aren't being met.
 
Romeo said:
I believe someone linked it earlier; the entire digital catalog is freely available in pdf form online already.
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The presumption about the project is that there will be much higher quality downloadable issues available and they will be fully indexed and searchable. The existing widely available bootleg pdf scans are generally mediocre at best and not easily accessible, not to mention technically piracy. Plus the fact is that the book itself is a new creation, whether digital or physical.
 
Well it's basically been a month since it ended and they've crossed a million dollars with late pledges. Hasn't been any official updates at all and I haven't gotten contacted about providing any info for my pledge, which includes having my name in the book and hopefully they don't plan to just use the information provided by the Kickstarter account. Like I said earlier I'm not expecting them to be able to deliver by February but at this point it seems likely the very first update we'll get will be telling us that everything is getting pushed back.
 
On November 14, 2024, the guy said in an update, "Now that the campaign is over, we won’t be hitting your inbox nearly as often".

More like, "Now that I have all your money, and you can't do a damn thing to get it back, and I can take literally as long as I want (or never) to deliver, I don't care as much about communicating with you. Please remember that 'Rewards aren’t guaranteed'."
 
HaloGX said:
They sent a Kickstarter update today and said a full one will be coming soon.
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Ironic, maybe they actually read this thread. I had almost made a post last week but it seemed a little premature and I thought crossing the one million milestone was pretty notable. Like I said before, I don't think they're doing anything suspect, just delusionally optimistic with their projections.
 
I still see them "advertising" on Facebook and taking late pledges...no way they make the Feb 2025 "deadline". I posted a comment on their KS page asking as much. Not nearly as respsonive as they were during the campaign.

I know, shocking.

They raised over 1 million dollars, might as well see how long people will be giving you money. At this point, with no additional rewards to attain, it literally is a source of income for them.

Also there was a comment that said they should bring back the magazine. Nostalgia is fine, but it was not all that deep of journalism when it was around. I could get through a magainze in a few days. Edge Magazine (currently subscribe) I haven't even got to the newest issue because still reading through the issue from 3 months back. Granted I have a lot less time to sit around and read, rather sit around and play games, but still.
 
If you're this impatient already, you should stay away from kickstarter. 99% of them that I've done (and I've done over 100) deliver later than the estimate given during the campaign. Even if they give you another date now, the reality is that it will be later than that still. Most of the books I've done deliver six months to a year after the campaign estimate, and that's what I'm expecting here too. My best advice would be to not worry about it, you'll get it eventually.
 
gpn said:
If you're this impatient already, you should stay away from kickstarter. 99% of them that I've done (and I've done over 100) deliver later than the estimate given during the campaign. Even if they give you another date now, the reality is that it will be later than that still. Most of the books I've done deliver six months to a year after the campaign estimate, and that's what I'm expecting here too. My best advice would be to not worry about it, you'll get it eventually.
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You must be the same one adding replies to my KS comment lol

It's not patience, just going by what they said and what they have continued to stand by.

I am still waiting for the PS2 Anthology by Geeks Line, but at least they are transparent and gave an update in October to wait a bit longer. Same with the Boss Fight Books KS.

Just be clear is all.
 
valiki7375 said:
You must be the same one adding replies to my KS comment lol

It's not patience, just going by what they said and what they have continued to stand by.

I am still waiting for the PS2 Anthology by Geeks Line, but at least they are transparent and gave an update in October to wait a bit longer. Same with the Boss Fight Books KS.

Just be clear is all.
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Nah, I haven't visited the campaign page since it ended. This isn't my first kickstarter book, so I know how it goes, and I imagine the replies you say you're getting are from others that know the routine too. The EGM book just got an update less than a week ago, so they aren't going radio-silent and I'm sure once they have more concrete information to share, they will.
 
gpn said:
Nah, I haven't visited the campaign page since it ended. This isn't my first kickstarter book, so I know how it goes, and I imagine the replies you say you're getting are from others that know the routine too. The EGM book just got an update less than a week ago, so they aren't going radio-silent and I'm sure once they have more concrete information to share, they will.
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The reason we keep bringing it up is that it was the one big red flag during the campaign that really seemed to feel like they didn't actually understand the reality of running a Kickstarter, which in 2024 is pretty much inexcusable and can lead to significant disasters in otherwise well intentioned campaigns. You can look at my posts from earlier and see that I backed with an expectation/hope of getting it in a year; but even up to the very last few days of the campaign they were still swearing the listed date of February 2025 will happen. And now that a month has passed absolutely nothing has happened to make it seem even remotely likely. We aren't asking for updates for a project due way in the future, the projected delivery date will have passed by in just over two months.

Either they know something they aren't telling us (which isn't really how Kickstarter is supposed to be used), or more likely, they badly misjudged how quickly they can get it finalized, printed, and shipped. And none of us wants a book full of typos or other mistakes because it was rushed to meet a deadline it shouldn't have had. I don't think they're "milking money," that's just silly, they should absolutely sell copies until they are locked for press (and beyond if they are making a bigger order). But the way this is being run has me feeling like it's 2012 again and that's not a good thing.
 
Or they could be a bit quiet because they're working on it. I get quiet with other people when I have a lot of work to do.

Bottom line is I think it's too early to be sounding alarm bells.
 
Here's the reply i got from Justin..more aligned with Iomaxgnome's thinking:

"
Hey, Dominic. I cannot promise you that it will 100% be by the end of February. But I'm also not sitting here writing this to you secretly knowing it definitely won't be February either.



We have people (not me directly) working with the printer to figure out what our due dates would be for production based on our current volume, which is like 10-20 times higher than our initial pre-launch expectation. I don't have those answers yet, but I promise you we're still working on everything as though we were on the original tight timeline. I'm interviewing like a madman over here, Mollie's putting in late nights making sure the Archive won't explode when we let folks in and adding new features, and we're both working on the rest of the book.



I'd like to think that I've been fairly transparent and communicative so far, and I intend to keep that up. I can promise you that if the ship date does slip at all, we'll explain why in detail. And I also can promise you it's not going to be any kind of major delay. We're not going to become one of those Kickstarters stringing you along for months and months and months.



Yes, the survey still hasn't gone out, and yes, it's much later than we planned on sending it out. We have the questions ready to go, but Kickstarter only lets you survey once, so my understanding is we'd need to turn off Late Pledges to do so. We're still getting hundreds of Late Pledges a week. I get the cynicism of thinking it's about the money (none of which, for the record, goes to me or Mollie directly), but I see comments every day from new backers who are excited about having a chance to get this book. For me it's about sharing a project I'm passionate about with more people. The KS page, since it's already set up and going, is the easiest way to do that now, without a lot of additional effort that would take away time from working on the book and Archive."
 
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