I'm considering starting up a Kickstarter Campaign of my own...

Hi @squishypon3 - interesting idea, I'd love to play nice little RTS game on my Android phone (or indeed, any Android device). But Kickstarter is a tricky beast.

First of all, I would strongly recommend not launching a Kickstarter unless you have a working demo of some sort. Something actually playable, preferably. Even if it has the most basic of textures, models, assets, etc. I just flat out will not back a game on Kickstarter now unless I've seen a working engine. If a person, or a team of people, have put time and effort and probably money too, into making a game, purely for the hell of it, I will know that they are passionate about what they're doing, and of course capable (cos they've already done it). If it is jsomeone saying 'hey i've got this cool idea give me money and i might actually make something...'... screw that. Sorry, but not going to happen, unless you're an established studio blah blah blah.

There must be loads of failed projects on Kickstarter in this vein, especially videogames and films I would wager, because almost everyone has ideas, and some of those ideas are actually good, but seeing something into fruition is hard. Few can do it. Maybe you can, but you have to show us.

It sounds like you're a programmer already, and have tinkered with things... Have you got any previous games under your belt? Even small ones? You have to prove that you are capable in the pitch, and there's simply no substitute for a working game/engine/demo/something, to show to the masses.

Last game I backed on Kickstarter was Reflex (www.reflexfps.net). I backed it cos I loved Quake back in the day and the engine looked great, and they seemed like a good team with passion etc. The kickstarter failed, but hey, they had a decent engine and a playable alpha, so they kept on developing and launched on Steam Early Access.

So I guess my vote right now would be no... I want to see what you can actually do. Feel free to show me though! I'd totally back your Android TA-like RTS project if you show me an alpha engine/game.

Just wanted to jump back in on this and give you some advice as I have been working on a Kickstarter for the past few months.

They are a LOT of work. Having a solid product, backed by a solid marketing campaign requires a lot of work, and time. And all of that requires either multiple team members, or being well versed in the industry that you're trying to make a product about, marketing, branding, PR, web design, and the like. Games that just put up a Kickstarter won't succeed. It takes building a reputation, which takes a lot of time. (see the trend, time?)

The other thing to bring up is fees. The dollar amount you see at the top of the Kickstarter page won't be the end take home amount. Kickstarter gets a cut. You have to pay taxes. Depending on where you live, you have to setup the proper business entity so you can get those taxes. You have to pay for the production and shipping of any physical products (if you make any). And then the end distribution platform (in this case, Android, will also take a cut)

And all of this is on top of being able to actually deliver a good product. If your game falls short or has issues, any future work you do could be jeopardized (look at PA/HR).

Kickstarting a game is a lot of work. Granted, you're shooting for a much smaller budget, but you also have a much smaller audience (Android), and a much smaller subset of that (Android users who like RTS games). Kickstarting a game takes more than just knowing how to make a game and putting up some text on a KS page.

Hope that helps.

Feel free to message me if you have any additional questions about Kickstarting a game.

I got the exact same answer when I told my friends, who know a thing or two about engines, today. I know nothing about Unreal, never worked with or seen it. I'm not even sure if UE makes 2d (real 2d, not top-down or sideway 3d ) games.

In the end, it's good to have more free stuff for both. If one lowers prices, others will follow. And we, the consumers, enjoy it