Financial Fridays! Failed Kickstarters and where the $ went.

In video game forums and comment sections, there’s a common theme. Customers, and sadly enough, even “developers,” haven’t a clue as to what game development costs. Some of this ignorance has been purposely perpetrated by developers as part of an ill conceived strategy. In a popular blog post featured on gamasutra.com, Dinofarm Games suggests that you should set your KS goal amount at half the bare minimum! This is antithetical to that sage and immortal business advice saying you should double the amount of your calculated costs. Ultimately, the Dinofarm formula pukes out numbers that are a quarter of what they should be. Smh.

The results of the Dinofarm formula are seen in the flotsam and jetsam of Kickstarter wrecks jamming up crowdfunding deal flow. By perpetuating low estimations, these wrecks make it impossible for duly diligent entrepreneurs to raise the funds they need. And if castaway backers are lucky to get anything, it’s a message in a bottle; a humble apology of the captain’s ineptitude followed by claims of where the money went:

The ability to plot financial data in a spreadsheet > the best of intentions. Tomorrow’s post will include links on how to quickly and properly estimate (not calculate) a game’s development costs.

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