This last year has seen the explosion onto the gaming scene of Kickstarter, for anyone who doesn’t know its way to raise capitol to fund your project outside of the traditional sources. The site has been home to some hugely successful projects which in the current economic climate may never have seen the light of day. A number of companies have gotten on board fully with the idea of the community funding there next project, names like Mantic, Wyrd and cool mini or not are just a few of the companies involved. Kickstarter has been around for only 3 years but in that time the projects that have been funded are incredible. 
Zombiecide was a major hit on kickstarter with funding hitting in excess of $780,000 in a short period of time, this was cool mini’s first project but it would not be the last in total they have run 4 funded projects and there 5th Rivet Wars is in the process of funding. In total they have raised almost $3 million for new products with the kickstarter system.
Mantic Games has also been hugely successful with the two campaigns that they have ran, Kings of War raised over $350k and Dreadball an impressive $728k within again a short period of time. The capitol raised by these projects will allow the continued expansion of the ranges for both these games.
This ability for companies to gain funding for there new game is tremendous, with the lack of investment available from the banks. There is however a down side to the success that I can see, well I think it’s a downside but then again it could also be a positive I am not totally sure yet. Back in the day there was Games Workshop and the Historical Minature games around they were the only kids in the park (mainstream anyway) Then we say the emergence of Privateer Press and more recently the likes of Spartan Games and Dust Studios. There are at present a large number of wargames manufacturers out there, too many to name to be honest. Each of these companies makes at least two games sometimes many more. Despite our aspirations wargamers are a small part of the world demographic there are only so many of us. With the flood of new games systems out there and those planned for the future are we going to reach saturation point? At the moment I play around 8 or 9 games and there are a lot coming out that I really want to try, the question is do I abandon an old favorite or do I simply continue to buy more games. Even now its hard to get a game of Dust Warfare as out of the regulars at Edinburgh Games Hub and Edinburgh League of Gamers only a few play and they also find it hard to make time for it. We are starting to have too many games and not enough time to play them in, this is a negative as we may well see that the more traditional companies begin to reduce production in the face of the saturation of the market place. Or on the other hand we could hit the point where the kickstarters get funded and then no one plays them. I suppose it all comes down to how many games do we really need? There are only so many games that the average gamer can play in the same year, when we consider that for many they get perhaps an evening a week to play then systems will have to fight for there attention, for example at the moment I am in Dust tale of Gamers, WHFB Tale of Gamers, Firestorm Armada fleet building and my continued fun with Hordes. Now I have 2 days a week to game, I just do not have the time.
Kickstarter has allowed many projects to gain funding but will the wargames that are born there have legs and survive? Thoughts?
