You could make a compelling argument that Godus damaged Kickstarter. Peter Molyneux’s intended comeback enjoyed one of the most high-profile game crowdfunding campaigns to date, and then released on Steam Early Access as a “boring” clickathon. Molyneux apologised, and 22cans went “back to the drawing board” for their March update – but a glance at our Godus Early Access review reveals a game radically unimproved. It’s hardly the sort of stuff to imbue backers with confidence for future projects.
Molyneux is making the opposite argument, however. He believes that Kickstarter damaged Godus.
“What I’ve learned is that doing Kickstarter and Steam Early Access, before you’ve got something which is defined and playable, is a hugely risky undertaking that can be very destructive to the final quality of the game,” Molyneux told TechRadar.
Given the chance, Molyneux wouldn’t have Kickstarted Godus at the beginning of development – instead waiting until 22cans were over halfway through and had a playable demo.
“What ended up happening with Godus is that people get a view of what the game is going to be like from what you’ve said here, and that view is quite often different from what the final game is,” he said.
During development, Godus gained a free-to-play mobile publisher in DeNA and pay-to-win gems that weren’t mentioned in the Kickstarter pitch – upsetting backers in the process.
“There’s this overwhelming urge to over-promise because it’s such a harsh rule: if you’re one penny short of your target then you don’t get it,” said Molyneux of his experience with Kickstarter.
“And of course in this instance the behaviour is incredibly destructive, which is, ‘Christ, we’ve only got 10 days to go and we’ve got to make £100,000, for fuck’s sake, let’s just say anything’. So I’m not sure I would do that again.”
Did any of you lot back Godus? Um, you feeling okay about it?