(Originally posted Nov 27, 2024)

I have backed 631 crowdfunding projects over the past 13 years (in all categories, but primarily tabletop games). Of these, 45 of them have not fulfilled in a timely manner, for a total of approximately $980 in unfulfilled projects. Of these, a couple I have marked as "still hopeful," meaning the creator hasn't updated in a bit, but they have some goodwill from the community (but tide might be turning).

The ones I have marked as "not going to happen" or similar (one is literally marked "shitpost") are down to 22 projects, with only two being >$80, for a total loss of $591 (I might have just misplaced one $30 project, though.) Most of the dice-only projects I've backed have failed-- the exceptions being the FATE dice from Evil Hat, and the Wild Earth cyberpunk dice (which are currently sitting on my desk, about 12" from my keyboard). I also backed the Pixels dice, but that hasn't fulfilled yet, and I am waiting patiently. I backed for Fudge dice from them, so I know it will be a long while, yet (the Fudge dice are last to be fulfilled; they had the fewest orders for them.)

I will absolutely not be tallying the total I've spent on crowdfunded projects, because I really do not want to know.

I back a LOT of projects by POC as my way of supporting them (I'd have to do an analysis of all my projects to figure out what percentage, but it's pretty high, considering I'm a white lady). Of my projects that I've given up on, only the one I probably misplaced is from a POC.

Several of the "not going to happen" projects are from disabled creators. This isn't surprising; disabled folks operate on a thinner margin of energy and resources than non-disabled folks, and it's very easy for even one small health issue to derail a project. A good thing for "the industry" to discuss and maybe try to tackle might be how to build a support network for disabled creators (and not just of other disabled creators) to help them get their project over the finish line-- and then how to get those creators to actually ask for that help.

On the platforms:
My favorite for crowdfunding is still Kickstarter. It's easy to get updates and to go back and see the updates later. There's a lot of transparency, there. Backerkit is second place, largely because the funding side and the fulfillment sides aren't integrated-- there is no link on the campaign pledge page to the survey/fulfillment page. I have more successfully fulfilled pledges on Backerkit, but it came in late to the crowdfunding platform game, so it learned a lot of lessons from Kickstarter's success.

My favorite for fulfillment is Backerkit. It's easy to understand for me, and it does a decent job of being transparent about communication. I am not a big fan of the fact that, once a project is "closed," you can no longer access anything-- I think they removed that feature, but I still have old projects that closed and the digital files are no longer available.

My least favorite is IndieGoGo. Project closed and you want to know what you pledged at? Go find it in your email, because you can't find it on the project page. Because of this, I just don't back anything on IGG that I really want to receive-- if I back, it's a supporting level for a few bucks.

As a creator, I use Kickstarter almost exclusively because I like the experience as a backer, and it's been good for me, although I think it's a bit saturated, and I really hate what the former head of the gaming category did to it. I haven't tried out Backerkit yet, though I might for a future project.

#crowdfunding #kickstarter #backerkit #indiegogo #games