Crowdfunding Analysis Time – Shantae Half-Genie Hero

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is our latest episode of CAT, and one of the harder ones to write. That’s not because HGH’s Kickstarter campaign was particularly bad, or particularly brilliant either. There’s just not much to say about the campaign, good or bad. I only chose it because I wanted the increased views from a popular campaign thought it deserved talking about.

You can hear the specifics in the video, as I don’t even have much to write about it either.

Well, that’s not entirely true. The dominating discussion around Half-Genie Hero likely won’t be Half-Genie Hero at all, rather The Pirate’s Curse. As explained in the video, Shantae is a franchise, not a one off. The previous game in the series – Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse – was announced a year before the Kickstarter for Half-Genie Hero, and was released a year after its success. An HD remake of the second game in the franchise was also released that year. The question of whether or not this Kickstarter was even necessary hangs over the campaign like a fart in an elevator. No one wants to talk about it, but everyone’s thinking about it one way or another.

How does a company (developer WayForward in this case) spend 20 years making licensed videogames – which despite their putrid reputation in gaming circles actually are lucrative – and still struggle to release games? How does a company release eight such games in one year and not have enough money to release a single game? Why does a company need to launch a Kickstarter campaign for a game in which they’re releasing two games in the very franchise they’re Kickstarting?

Perhaps I was too kind on developer WayForward in this episode. Perhaps I was too kind to the AAA games publishers. Either way, I attempted to answer these questions in this episode of Crowdfunding Analysis Time Yes We’re Still Working On a New Title, Thank You.

How about CATYWSWOANTTY?