Kickstarters that end up raising less than $1,000 don’t exactly have the best track record. Judging by our awesome, handy-dandy Kickstarter data, a significant number of those tend to disappear into the unknown a few months after getting funded. Despite that, there’s a game called Vex which recently managed to surprise me by breaking the mold.
Funded for a mere $400 earlier this year, Sam Stenner’s Vex was already in an almost finished state when it arrived on Kickstarter. Promising a simple arcade experience with puzzles involving deadly cubes, moving cylinders and plenty of coins to collect, the campaign’s main intent was to cover various licensing fees related to submitting the game on Steam Greenlight, Android and iOS. After the money was secured, it took roughly five months for Vex to get Greenlit and released on all of its targeted platforms.
A Kickstarter Case Study
While the game itself doesn’t offer anything groundbreaking in terms of its gameplay and visuals, I think it’s safe to say that such a straightforward crowdfunding path is rare these days, especially for a project with such small beginnings.
Although it’s certainly not the most popular game on Steam (currently it has 6 reviews), the success behind Vex could be used as a case study for Kickstarter’s potential when it comes to covering development costs at the end of a project’s life cycle. A lot of game developers seem to be stuck in a mindset which dictates that crowdfunding is only viable for projects early on in their development, but is that really the case?
Crowdfunding specifics aside, Vex is currently available for $3.39 on Steam. If dodging mean cubes, grumpy spikes and downright unpleasant lava pits is your thing, then it looks like you’re in for a treat.
