Current Events > Why do Kickstarter projects always go overboard on the stretch goals?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like it's good to offer more bang for people's buck and build hype, but additional stretch goals always fuck up a perfectly good Kickstarter. Like there's almost always a 2-3 year gap between the projected release date of a Kickstarted game and the eventual release date if the game added like 20 stretch goals - physical boxes, art books, additional game content, design-a-character contests etc. They have to pour more costs into fulfilling these new goals, and the game gets neglected as a result. And after all the stretch goals have been realised, there's rarely enough money to pour into the game itself, or at least to polish it to an acceptable level.

Mighty No. 9 - game fucking sucks, the art style changed a bunch before the game launched. The team had like 20 stretch goals, including the ever-present Inti-Creates retraux minigame.

Bloodstained - fell into a similar trap. Inti-Creates game came out first, the team has changed a bunch, the Kickstarter capitalised on stretch goals to secure more funding. We have David Hayter on board for some voicework, but the team has had to bring other game development studios into the fold to work on the game like 3 years after the project entered development.

Tons of board games, like the Kingdom of Loathing tabletop game, end up going under or under-delivering because they do too many booster pack or additional card stretch goals. They fund like 4 bonus decks, but then the original box design isn't able to house all the new cards, so they have to scrap the old boxes and pay for bigger ones... eventually, all the money is gone and they can't possibly meet demand, let alone get the game to all of the backers.

For a Kickstarter to be successful, I think they need to be more moderate with their stretch goals. Keep the number of stretch goals to like 5, and make sure that the outcomes of these goals can be added to the main product with relatively little fuss. Offering DLC and additional content/quests? Keep it reasonable, and don't be shy about extending the development time if need be. Or work on the main game and add the stretch goal content once the main game goes gold, or when the game is playable from beginning to end with a few missing aspects. Offering physical rewards? Again, focus on the main project before you secure the stretch content and aim for items that are affordable. Don't go for 10+ additional items like a physical box and cloth maps and stuff like that, because paying for all that is going to drain your coffers.

There are a lot of different aspects that can lead to a Kickstarter's failure, but I think that an underrated issue with the process is with developers who promise way too much additional content. While you're scrambling securing additional talent and paying for all of these bonuses, you're losing money to develop the main game with. This leads to development hell, and the lack of focus on the main project ends up killing it in the long run.

I wish that game Kickstarters would just be content with the funding that they get. You don't have to keep gilding the lily with additional crowd-pleasers, take the money that you have been blessed with and maybe offer some reasonable bonuses - but make sure you can focus all of the attention and funding on the main product instead of drowning yourself in additional fiddly crap.
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The amount they say they need is never actually enough. Generally, they need at least twice that amount. It's a marketing tactic to get people to feel like the investment is is a sure thing because the main goal is completed.
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bumping this shit
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Related question - how is Star Citizen coming along as we approach 2019?

Guide posted...

The amount they say they need is never actually enough. Generally, they need at least twice that amount. It's a marketing tactic to get people to feel like the investment is is a sure thing because the main goal is completed.

I'm not sure that's true. I think it's more likely that people just drastically underestimate how much money it's going to take to complete a project.
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