Thanks for the great work maintaining the list, lowyhong.

Stupid question, but what happens to donations for all these games that don't make it?

I ask mostly out of professional interest, as I currently run a crowdfunding site and am in the middle of designing a second one. We usually give back the money if a project is not successfull, is this the case here as well?

Np!

Kickstarter will charge your card at the end of the run, only if the project was successful. Thus if the project fails, no charging on your card (though it is possible to check that the card can be charged when you first pledge).
Indiegogo depends on the project plan, it can either charge at the end of a successful project, or charge when you pledge, and give the money regardless of success or not.

For Kickstarter, if projects aren't successful, the backers won't be charged. For Indiegogo, there are 2 options: Fixed Funding and Flexible Funding. Fixed Funding works like Kickstarter; Flexible Funding is such that backers will be charged immediately once their credit cards are processed.

Nothing happens. If the project doesn't meet the funding goal, no one gets charged. The money doesn't get transferred until after a successful Kickstarter ends.

EDIT: Woah, I got double ninja'd...

Thanks. That was helpful.

IndieGoGOo charges you when you pledge, and the project keeps the money whether it is successful or not, as far as I understand. It helped Kenshi, even though it was unsuccessful

We were actually considering adding a checkbox for allowing the project to keep the money even if it wasn't successful, but the boss said no as it would apparently give a bad impression to backers. I don't really understand why that would be so, though.

You must add "Legend of Dungeon".

Gorgeous game which is a lot of fun.

Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robotloveskitty/legend-of-dungeon

Web demo: http://robotloveskitty.com/LoD/Demo.html

The point of fundraising is to get enough money to have the game made instead of not made (or otherwise affect the development in a meaningful way).

Suppose a game asks for $100k. Even assuming good faith on the part of the project creator, if the project is currently sitting at $0, I have absolutely no incentive to donate to it UNLESS it's just taking preorders (as Grimoire does, and even then Clive is dumbwrong for giving IndieGoGo a 9% cut).

In 2009, successful kickstarter projects asked for sums like $100 and $200, and no, I didn't leave out zeroes. It was understood that those were basically epic-long-term, sky-high-risk preorders, the game was being made anyway, and the money collected did *not* accelerate development much. But to attract big money, you need to promise to deliver a game of a particular quality within a reasonable timeframe. You are assumed to have set the minimum goal to satisfy these criteria.

If a project asks for $100k to release Tehpwnzor McAwesome the game* by Dec 2013 and collects only $1k, it has no business keeping that $1k unless the donors were actually willing to wait well into the next century.

*I'm working on it. No project, though.

It leaves it more open for fraud, half-baked projects, unrealistic projects and so on. Kickstarter is a little safer for the backers, and it also highlights the importance of making sure you have good feasible pitch and project, if you don't you want get any funds. Both approaches has pros and cons.

I also don't like the method of charging and refunding. It suffers from exchange rate issues, the feeling that people might be using my money to gain interest, a potentially harder time changing the support level, and probably other issues.

IndieGoGo always charge immediately, but in the case of Fixed Funding projects, the money is refunded in case of failure (I backed Starforge, which is Fixed and was charged in the same moment), I guess is a limitation of PayPal

These projects are in their last week and are needing help to get funded:
Shadowgate, needs $13.5K with 3 days to go (for adventure fans, specially old versions of Shadowgate)
Maia, needs £38.8K with 5 days to go (for Dungeon Keeper/Theme Hospital fans)
Spud's Quest, needs £2.650 with 7 days to go (for puzzle/platform and Dizzy fans)
Sui Generis, needs £75k with 7 days to go (for RPG fans)



And some new projects:
Tiny Barbarian DX, a 2D platform
Predestination - A turn-based space 4X strategy game
Forsaken Fortress, a pos-apocalyptic RPG mixed with base building/defense