After viewing all the negativity on here, I'd actually recommend people that feel the same _should_ stay away from Kickstarter.
If the only value to you is getting the game itself, then wait for it to be finished and buy it through Steam or your store of choice.
Kickstarter is meant for people who find value in not just receiving the product, but in watching, and discussing it through its development and also allowing creative people they respect the opportunity to the do the work they'd like to do.
Most of the negativity in these comments seems to be from people that just "want the game". Well that isn't what you signed up for. If you feel burned by the first one, you would be well advised to stay away from future Kickstarters, from Double Fine, or from any other developer.
Yeah, if this is your thinking you should just stay away from Kickstarter. It’s not for you and that’s ok – but please, please don’t change the way Kickstarter is by your stuffy insistence that it has to be something it is not. Just, please stay away from it and let people have their fun.
Kickstarter has been used quite a lot by a whole bunch of artists to deliver comic books; if you look at money brought in, it's consistently ranged from being the #2-5 publisher of comics in the US.
While some of these comics were done on the "here's a pitch and my track record, pay me for a year's work in advance and I'll make this" model that the Double Fine adventure is being made on, the vast majority of them were not - most of them are about "here's some stuff I already drew, I need this much in preorders to make a print run economical." This goes all the way from little campaigns like the one I ran[1] up to huge ones like the $1250k one for the Order of the Stick reprints[2]. Kickstarter has helped make independent comics a lot easier to sell. It's also been a huge boon to board game makers, who work in a similar "make the thing, then seek money to publish it" model.
It is quite possible to run a successful Kickstarter based solely on delivering the product to the audience, with absolutely none of the glimpse into the creative process that Double Fine is providing.
That said: be aware of what you're getting into, be prepared for it to never happen.
I'm not sure how that contradicts what I said about DFA and other similar Kickstarters.
If you backed a Kickstarter that was pitched as solely a preorder for an already complete product, then you have every right to be upset if that Kickstarter doesn't deliver.
The original point though, was about kickstarters which are funding the development of products from scratch and allowing tracking and input from the funders.
"Kickstarter is meant for people who find value in not just receiving the product, but in watching, and discussing it through its development and also allowing creative people they respect the opportunity to the do the work they'd like to do."
You didn't constrain your comment to just "pre-buy this thing so I can pay rent while I develop it" campaigns. What you said certainly goes for those. But you were suggesting that ALL of Kickstarter is about that.
If the only value to you is getting the game itself, then wait for it to be finished and buy it through Steam or your store of choice.
Kickstarter is meant for people who find value in not just receiving the product, but in watching, and discussing it through its development and also allowing creative people they respect the opportunity to the do the work they'd like to do.
Most of the negativity in these comments seems to be from people that just "want the game". Well that isn't what you signed up for. If you feel burned by the first one, you would be well advised to stay away from future Kickstarters, from Double Fine, or from any other developer.