Victory!
Congratulations to filmmaker and animator Bill Plympton for successfully funding his new feature film, Cheatin’.
Always a gentleman, Plympton is celebrating in part by showing some love for a currently funding project, Rocks In My Pockets by animator Signe Baumane.
…aaaaanddddd we’re done.
A thoughtful NPR story on Kickstarter, filmmaking, and Sundance from today’s Morning Edition.
Occupy the farm.
On April 22, 2012, more than 200 urban farmers and community activists marched onto 10 acres of fallow farmland owned by the University of California and began to plant.
Throughout the growing season, these activists tended to their crops while engaging in an increasingly contentious dispute with the school over the fate of the land. A veteran filmmaker, Todd Darling, was there to document the entire process, and Occupy the Farm is the result.
With just three days left to fund the production, the documentary is $3,500 short of its goal — but the gap is closing.
Where does the money go?
Creator Freddie Wong knows that question is on many backers’ minds, so he and the team behind Video Game High School broke down every penny spent producing Season 1 in this incredible infographic.
Total cost: $636,010.71, which Wong sets as his new goal for the production of Season 2.
Games on the Borderlands Episode 4.
My WeD&D campaign came to a close this past Wednesday. After a year of weekly sessions, my band of professional dungeon bashers decided to lay their swords and spears to rest. They had twice saved Princess Argenta and her tiny kingdom of Haven from the forces of Chaos.
Satisfied with their glorious victory and replete with gold and treasure, the crew decided they want to try Paranoia. …So we might be playing D&D again soon!
While we’re talking about games, here are some RPG projects for you to check out. I’m trying to find a classification system that fits. So the Level 1 games are just starting out or need funding. Level 2 projects have some backers and funding. Level 3 projects are roaring on past their funding goals!
Level 1 Projects
Endless Blue: A True Oceanic Setting!
Level 2 Projects
The Castles and Crusades Codex Celtarum
Kingdom: a space exploration RPG
Level 3 Projects
The Grand Temple of Jing Megadungeon
The annotated edition of Sorcerer!
Wild finish.
Here’s to you, Kickstarter Hero.
When a great project is in dire need of new pledges to reach that all-or-nothing goal, backers will often rally the troops to cross the finish line on time.
Two great projects are racing against the clock today, with light on the horizon:
Urban Air is an art project and ecological experiment designed to replace empty LA billboards with living bamboo forests. With just 10 hours left and more than 1,400 backers already on board, the project is less than $5,000 away from its goal.
Retro Game Crunch is based on a crazy premise: What if a small team of designers created a new game every month in collaboration with their fans? For six months straight, that’s exactly what the Crunch plans to do — and more than 1,300 backers are contributing to the process. But with just over a day left to go, the project still needs more than $8,000.
There is hope! This week witnessed two particularly inspiring examples of buzzer-beating success.
Sportsfriends, a collective of four experimental game designers, rocketed from 61% to 101% funded in just four days, bringing on nearly 2,000 new backers and raising roughly $60,000 with an outpouring of support from the indie games community. Twitter activity led the charge, accounting for 25% of all pledged dollars.
Happy Baby, a new film written and directed by Stephen Elliott of The Rumpus, made a similar climb, moving from 61% to 104% funded in four days while adding 302 backers and almost $36,000. Many backers increased their pledges, while others just couldn’t resist the prospect of a smooch from Elliott himself.
Keep on with the force, don’t stop. Don’t stop ‘til you get enough!
Taking it to the streets.
Filmmaker Dylan Stern just successfully funded his short film, Simon, on Kickstarter. The first $10,000 seemed to come pretty smoothly, but he knew he couldn’t rest on his laurels — especially when he was still $500 short with just 24 hours to go.
So Stern took to the streets of LA to race for the final funds — and his hard (and wet) work paid off.
