The Silicon Void Kickstarter ended and… welp! We ended up raising less than 4% of the goal, and awareness of the campaign didn’t extend much farther than my immediate circle of influence. This was a disappointing outcome, but far from unexpected.
There are a lot of ways to rationalize the campaign’s failure – Kickstarter is a rough platform for games these days, with lots of high profile failures (Unsung Story announced its collapse the same day we launched, lololol) and developers handicapping themselves and each other with unrealistically small targets – but in the end the simplest explanation is that this game is too specific to a particular taste to catch on in the way that a crowdfunding effort needs to.
While I would have much preferred to spend the next few years of my life working on this game full-time, it would be ludicrous to feel sorry for myself; it’s only because of my privileged position as a Silicon Valley engineer that I could quit a high-paying job and blow my savings on a personal project without fearing for my future.
From here Silicon Void becomes a hobby project once more, and although that means it’ll take much longer to complete, there are of course advantages to not working under a severe deadline. I think there are ways to make the core systems more fun and interesting that I wouldn’t have had the time to explore if a two-year production cycle had to start today. Keep an eye on this blog for future discussions of the changes that come out of that exploration!
A few people have asked whether I would start a Patreon for the game, but I don’t think it’s a good fit at all. The all-or-nothing nature of Kickstarter is best for everyone’s protection in a case like this. However, if you’re determined to show your support financially, I have enabled donations on the Silicon Void itch page with a suggested amount of $5, since the game is about 25% finished.
Thanks one more time to everyone who supported the Kickstarter or showed interest in the game – although the audience as it stands today is much smaller than it would need to be to make Silicon Void my job, I dearly appreciate those who have reached out to say that they loved the game and want to see more of it.
Silicon Void is mechanically and thematically about the necessity of change. This transition isn’t what I imagined but maybe it’s appropriate.
