Do you remember Mercenary Kings? The Metal Slug inspired platform shooter was successfully funded in September 2012 after 3,880 backers donated over $116k. When it was eventually released in 2014 the game met with mostly positive reviews, with much of the praise piled on the cartoon-like pixel graphics and over the top destruction. Another happy ending!
Eh, almost.
Mercenary Kings’ developers at Tribute Games posted a backer update yesterday to announce the release of a new game. Curses N Chaos is a single screen brawler – think Super Smash Bros – with cartoon-like pixel graphics and over the top destruction that’s now available on a variety of platforms. It looks lovely.
Unfortunately the Kickstarter update reads like a press release announcing the games’ availability on Steam; which is where the problem comes in. Because the update is nothing more than a press release encouraging people to buy a non-crowdfunded game the whole thing comes across as a little tacky. Should backers get a free copy of the game, or even a discount? That’d be nice, but it’s totally unnecessary. However, backer Daniel sums up the issue nicely :
Sassy, sure, but he has a point. Just because you back a project doesn’t mean you should suddenly find yourself on a developer mailing list, especially if the updates are of negligible relevance to the audience. It’s easy enough to unsubscribe from a projects updates (Settings>Notifications>Projects You Back>Manage), but that’s beside the point. I enjoy following projects long after they’ve run their course, just in case something concerning the game is announced. Or, in the case of Mercenary Kings, to keep tabs on a broken campaign promise; as noted by Brian Watzig:
Ouch.
Tbh Mercenary Kings is a hell of an achievement at 100k, 100k, how are u supposed to make a 3 platform legit game at 100k? We got alot for the backing.
Unsubscribe, easy, der.
I check the kickstarter page. At the moment, there is 5 comment and 6 likes and one of the comment is neutral, almost positive. This project has 3880 backer, I don’t think that there is a story here, sorry.
I can respect that. For me it’s more of a sign of potential things to come. I should have explained it in the piece more, but I’m afraid that we’ll start seeing more devs using old Kickstarter campaigns as mailing lists for new projects. While it’s not a huge problem if you consider that backers could likely be fans of the developers new game, it could turn into much more.
But hey, maybe I’m just paranoid 🙂
What entitled little buttholes.
If people back a Kickstarter, than they’re getting attached to not just a project, but hopefully the dev as well – especially if they update regularly and include the community in stuff. And if you like what they do, they’re talent that you should follow. Them letting their supposed “super hardcore fans” in on their new releases is great not just for them to promote (something ALL indie studios need to do to survive), but good for the backers, as they’re clued into more stuff they like.
And then he’s got the nerve to act all “matter of factly”, like he speaks for everyone?
Little ****er should just ignore it if he’s so damn offended. It doesn’t hurt him to not be a jerk more than it would hurt them to not promote their titles. Stupid dick.