Why Kickstarter?

Uber has always tried to stay as independent as possible, avoiding publisher involvement where we could. In 2012 when the industry was witnessing the first $1+ million Kickstarter campaigns. We decided it was our turn to take that plunge shortly after Double Fine Adventure, which kicked off the crowdfunding craze. We believed that Kickstarter gave us the creative freedom to pitch a game and have complete control over it. In retrospect that was a bit naive. We learned plenty about taking money in such a public way, both positive and negative.

The original plan was to ask for $900,000 to get the game started. We could ship something with that kind of funding, if we had to. For perception reasons, we avoided setting the goal at a million dollars. Fans might not back the project if the goal seemed unattainable. The magical barrier of six zeros was something we hoped we would cross later in the pledge drive, if we funded at all. It was a scary and stressful time. Our previous title, Super MNC, was a critical success but was not bringing in enough revenue to continue running the studio. The future of the company was at stake and we were betting on an new funding model no one had yet truly figured out.

We believed that the best way to fund a Kickstarter is having nostalgia, a high quality pitch, and a good team behind it. Naming the game with the word “Annihilation” was key to the nostalgia factor. We spent approximately two months building the pitch video, writing the copy, and setting up the web site. Every detail crafted to entice fans to help us fund this game.

The Planetary Annihilation Kickstarter video. This video was worth $2,229,344!