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Comment by FlyMoreRockets | Hacker News Reader

There are a number of cases where creators of popular works have been granted substantial sums to create subsequent works through crowdsourcing.

Edit for examples.

Cyan, creator of Myst and Riven, had two very successful Kickstarter to fund new works. First, they raised $1,321,306 to make Obduction, then $1,433,161 for Firmament.

Elite: Dangerous raised £1,578,316 for a modern remake.

Yes, it works for books, too: https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?category_id=18...

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Cyan had already made Myst and Riven. This is close to the opposite of what I was asking for.

So once again: you seriously think that J.K. Rowling, a completely unknown author with a manuscript repeatedly rejected by publishing houses, is going to be able to raise sufficient funding on Kickstarter for her first work?

And how much did those titles actually cost to make? I seriously doubt either game shipped without at least 4x the kickstarter funds.

They were only able to make up the rest because they knew copyright meant they'd get paid more when they shipped via sales where as without copyright it would just be copied.

Here's an article on Elite:Dangerous saying the actual budget was 8m

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-09-11-elite-dangerou...

> I seriously doubt either game shipped without at least 4x the kickstarter funds.

Yes, but AAA games and e.g. feature films are among the highest-cost works to make. They're very much an exception, not the rule.

I'm not sure what your point is. I thought the point that was trying to be made is that Kickstarter is a way to fund gamedev. But AFAIK there isn't a single example of the funds from Kickstarter being sufficient funding for a single game ever, AAA or indie.

(unless the game was being made for free as a hobby and the kickstarted was just for fun and not actually funding).

Crowdsourcing still relies on copyright usually, and does in the cases you mention. It's simply preording a game or a book. Without copyright there would be no need to preorder the game or book, you could simply wait until it is out and make a free copy of it.

Both Obduction and Firmament are for sale. They aren't free games.

There are plenty of freely-available works that are crowdfunded though. It's true however that the costs of making a game like Obduction and Firmament dwarf even those crowdfunding revenues. The same applies to high-budget feature films. A 100% crowdfunding approach strongly selects for lower production costs, which also means improved efficiency and a larger variety of works overall.

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