We often hear about Kickstarters that managed to successfully reach their goals, but there are plenty that never do. And while there are still a few days left, the prognosis for Kung Fu Superstar by Kinesthetic Games, a martial arts simulator that combines traditional controls and more modern motion controls, is not very good.
With a goal of £200,000, it has only managed to earn £40,625 thus far. There are many possible reasons, but according to the man behind the game, Kostas Zarifis, it's a "hatred" of motion control. In an interview with Eurogamer, Zarifis states:
"We all know what the majority of hardcore gamers think about motion control… We're not talking indifference, we're talking hatred. And for good reason. Since the advent of motion control they've been constantly treated with disappointments (Rise of Nightmares, Star Wars, Steel Battalion… the list goes on).
Unfortunately this is the climate we've been trying to pitch Kung-Fu Superstar in. And it doesn't matter that's exactly the landscape we are trying to change. People just don't care about that landscape any more."
Zarifis also admitted that the Kickstarter failed to notify potential backers that the game was not motion control only, that players could switch between the Kinect and a regular controller. Another mistake was simply targeting PC gamers:
"People pleaded with us to extend to XBLA/PSN but we can't do that without guarantees from platform holders or without increasing our funding ask and we can't promise what we can't deliver, we won't. So just PC it is…
So we inevitably carved ourselves a super niche market of people who were willing to hook a Kinect to their PC (many didn't even know that was possible)."
Several other reasons were cited as well, including how the doing a Kickstarter in the UK is a fairly complicated process. Many potential backers, in America, are not able to pledge support as a result:
"What actually happened was we had a whole load of Americans telling us they were trying to pledge but couldn't, people getting confused by conversion rates, people just couldn't be bothered re-entering their credit card details (something we hadn't realised you have to do on Kickstarter UK) and so on. If I could turn back time I'd definitely launch in the US despite the hassle that is."
In the end, his team is disbanding, and it seems that Zarifis has lost faith motion gaming as a whole:
"When motion control technologies were announced I think everyone's imagination was piqued. Even the most cynical among us. The realistic sword game, the immersive fighting game and that sense of longing, for something special, for something different took a big hit in the years to come.
I can't help but fear that our potentially failed Kickstarter will be what completely kills that notion. The flicker of desire for truly immersive, hardcore games with motion control elements burning out, worries me even more than our Kickstarter failing. I hope that if we fail, people will help us fail decently enough so that at least we can keep that flicker alive."
