Before FTL: Faster Than Light became a hit title on Steam, the game's development was funded through Kickstarter. Over it's month-long campaign, the game garnered $200,000—2,000 percent more than the goal its developers intended to get for the game.
Speaking to Polygon's Emily Gera, FTL's lead developer Justin Wa described his concern that public expectation for the game would've been increased significantly due to the amount of money the campaign acquired.
"Unlike some projects that could simply hire more people, we did not have the option to increase our scope greatly since we also committed ourselves to a deadline only a few months away. We tried to walk the thin line between using the extra funds to increase the quality of the final product while trying not to delay the release too long," said Wa. "In the end I think we were reasonably successful."
When asked whether he would pursue Kickstarter in the future, Justin Wa replied that he does not plan to use the platform again due to the restrictions he'd have to work with in any future project on the site.
"I feel like I would not be able to work as freely or with such agility as we were with FTL," he said. "We prefer to work from within a cave until we have something we feel is worth showing. I'm not sure how some developers are able to publicly show their progress at every stage of development; it just adds a whole new layer of stress."
Wa went on to explain his skepticism with Kickstarter's ability to fund large scale projects, and expressed that it works best for small projects like FTL.
Be sure to read the rest of the article, which approaches other Kickstarter successes and failures.
