You may be wondering why we decided to launch our own independent pre-order campaign, instead of launching on a more familiar site like IndieGogo or Kickstarter. Here’s why:
Untold Entertainment is a Canadian studio based in Toronto. Kickstarter is currently only available to US and UK companies. Some Canadians have successfully run Kickstarter campaigns with the help of American friends, but we don’t feel we’re really tight enough with anyone to do that.
Indiegogo IS available to Canadians, but the Indiegogo brand impression is not as strong as Kickstarter’s, and Indiegogo projects generally target far lower budgets than what we require.
The budget for Spellirium is elastic. That means that any amount of money raised will go towards improving the game. We don’t require a certain amount to build the game – Spellirium is already built!
As stated in the FAQ, the amount of money we receive will determine the amount of polish we’re able to apply to the game. Take this example of how different budget amounts might affect the quality of voiceover acting in the game:
$100 – Friends of Untold Entertainment record voice over for free on their laptops using a microphone purchased from Radio Shack in 1993.
$20000 – Voiceover is completed with a cast of non-union actors in a proper recording studio.
$100000 – An all-star line-up of D-level celebrities voices Spellirium, including Andy Dick as Todd and Mr. T as Lorms. Betty White guest stars as the Mystic.
Combined, Kickstarter and Amazon Payments take 10% of all funds raised in a KS campaign. An independent campaign like ours loses only 3-4% to a payment provider like PayPal. That means that more of your money goes towards improving Spellirium.
Kickstarter and sites like it are a gamble for both the creators and the backers. As a backer, you’re committing your money in the hopes that the project actually gets made (and not all of them do!) As a creator, you’re sinking at least a month into setting up your campaign, and another month into babysitting and promoting it. After a whole two months of effort, you might not clear that minimum amount, and you get nothing. Your time investment has gone down the tubes.
The Spellirium pre-order campaign takes all that risk out of the equation: as a backer, you get to play the Spellirium alpha immediately, without wondering if the game will ever get made. It’s already made. And as the creators, we receive your support immediately, to put towards improving the game.
Indiegogo offers an “all-or-nothing” structure like Kickstarter, as well as a “flexible” structure that enables the creator to collect money immediately, but they charge an astronomical 13% fee for the privilege. Our campaign enables game production to continue right away, without any huge money hemorrhages for us, or nervously hopeful finger-crossing for you.
Finally, Kickstarter and other campaign sites are for people with ideas, who need the financial backing to bring those ideas to fruition. We’ve spent five years getting past that point – we had the idea, we sought funding, we worked hard developing the game into a full product, and now we need your help to improve what we’ve got so that Spellirium doesn’t launch with rushed cutscenes or missing voiceover. In every sense of the (made-up) word, we’re kickending this project.
Return to the Spellrium Pre-Order Campaign Page