In the past 12 months there has been no greater industry-altering force than Kickstarter. From the landmark success of Double Fine's adventure game, to Republique, Wasteland, and Leisure Suit Larry, crowdfunding has emerged as a legitimate way to fund a gaming project.
From there, if a project is backed, a panel is selected from amongst the pool of backers to keep tabs on the project and report back to the community. Projects that receive a higher than 70% approval rating from their backers will be awarded a special seal of approval as a signal to future players that their first batch of customers were satisfied.
The first product that will be released on the service, Magrunner, is even implementing a system whereby it will not be released until the backers approve. About six months into the project they'll release a demo along with a survey. If they receive a rating under 4.0 (out of 5) the game will go back into development until the backers approve.
It will be interesting to see if a service designed around video gaming will be able to usurp the all-consuming brand power of Kickstarter. We look forward to seeing how GamesPlanet does with this venture, because its goals are noble and could help improve the long-term viability of crowdsourcing.
