Kickstarter status

I have backed a total of 76 Kickstarter projects since January 2012. (19 per year. Yes, that may be a bit excessive.)

• 1 is ongoing
• 44 have delivered my reward
• 10 are underdue
• 16 are overdue
• 1 was cancelled but restarted (was then successful and is included in the underdue count above)
• 1 was unsuccessful but tried again (was then successful and is included in the delivered count above)
• 1 was unsuccessful but the product is now available anyway (and I have one)
• 2 were unsuccessful

Among the overdue ones are some that have delivered some (but not all) of the reward. There are many that do appear to be making progress. There are only a few that I have completely given up hope for.

Not counting the ongoing, underdue, cancelled, and unsuccessful: That’s 44 delivered out of 60 (73%).

Let’s break down the overdues...

• 1 month
• 1 month
• 3 months
• 4 months
• 4 months
• 4 months
• 5 months
• 6 months
• 1 year
• 1 year & 8 months
• 2 years
• 2 years & 2 months
• 2 years & 2 months
• 2 years & 10 months
• 3 years
• 3 years & 4 months

I haven’t kept track of when the ones that delivered did, so I’m not sure how late to write them off. (I mentally write them all off as soon as I pledge anyway.) Of the 2 year or more ones, there’s a couple that show good signs of life and which I expect to—eventually—deliver.

When the prototype is too good

In general, a prototype isn’t nearly as nice as a finished product. That may end up not being the case for Rocket Dice. The prototypes shown in the Kickstarter promotions were 3D printed, which produces a much more consistent product than most dice manufacturing processes. Which Game Salute seems only now to be discovering.

There are more consistent dice manufacturing methods. They’re used for Casino dice and precision Backgammon dice. Those come only in six-siders and lack the fanciful shape of the Rocket Dice. They are also very expensive. Gamescience makes precision polyhedral dice, but they’re also more expensive than other polyhedrals. Especially when inked, because they have to be inked by hand. Game Salute says they are committed to deliver the “best dice possible”, but that’s likely to be a lot more expensive than they bargained for.

One thing in Rocket Dice’s favor is that the spur from the molding process could be located in a less obtrusive place than on Gamescience dice.

It will to be interesting to see what happens.

The future of gaming

The Omni is a very interesting device. It appears to be an elegant solution.

They should distance themselves from this kind of hyperbolé rather than quoting it, though:

Ladies and gentlemen, you're looking at the future of gaming

Video games have not had an uphill battle against their lack of VR technology. Rather, such technologies have had little success in the market. It isn’t just because “they aren’t there yet”. It is because people enjoy playing games without the VR experience. Such gaming will continue no matter how good the VR technology gets. The VR technology will be used for some games but not a majority of games.

Even among the types of games that work well for VR technology, there’s the convenience hurdle. Pulling all this gear out of where you store it and getting it set up and calibrated adds overhead that tradition controller and screens don’t have.

While prices will certainly continue to fall and the experience will continue to get better, I wonder if this stuff will ever provide an experience that really justifies the cost. But I’m hoping the Omni does have a bright future. I’d love to try that setup with Minecraft. The non-gaming applications are very interesting and may equal or exceed its gaming applications.

Kickstarter projects should be simpler

At this point, having add-ons as part of your Kickstarter makes me less likely to back it. And the more complicated things are, the more this counts against you. Why?

First, there’s simply that I have to make some attempt to understand things even to decide to choose a simple option.

The more complex things are, the longer it is going to take you to fulfill my reward. Even if I personally choose a simple option.

The more complex things are, the more likely you are to make mistakes.