What is Kickstarter?

When we started talking about AQ3D raising funds on twitter and facebook, I was really surprised how many people had no idea what Kickstarter is. Let's fix that.

This is Kickstarter. Say hi.

Kickstarter is a website used for creative projects like movies, games and books to crowd-source their funding. The projects on Kickstarter.com have raised BILLIONS of dollars over the years. People find projects that they believe in and want to see happen and become backers by investing in the projects for rewards.

How Will AQ3D's Kickstarter Work?

It's pretty simple.

You pledge a certain amount of money toward the base funding goal.

There are different pledge levels starting at a few bucks and going all the way to the thousands. Each level comes with an increasingly awesome list of rewards.

If we hit our goal by the end of the campaign (Dec 31), we get the money (Kickstarter takes a 10% cut) and we use the funds to build the game into the amazing thing that we know it can be with all the amazing features that we have envisioned.

If we don't meet our base goal by the end of the campaign (Dec 31), nobody is charged anything and AQ3D becomes a much smaller and much slower project.

If we EXCEED our goal before the end of the campaign (Dec 31), then we start adding stretch goals for the project. More money for development means we get to start pulling items from our "dream" list and making them happen. The more we make, the more stretch goals get added.

There is NO risk to you guys. If our Kickstarter campaign fails to raise our target amount... nobody pays anything.

What Are The Rewards?

AQ3D_Guardian_Kickstarter

The Kickstarter page will have a complete list of rewards but some of MY favorites are

Guardian Class, with Kickstarter Exclusive Guardian Armor Variant and Founder Badge!
The power to transform into a Shadow Wolf and run at mount speed (Kickstarter Exclusive)!
Special Variant Armors for all three base classes, Warrior, Mage and Rogue (Kickstarter Exclusive)!
Alpha Pirate CLASS and variant armor set (Kickstarter Exclusive)!
See your name on the credits page of the game! (Kickstarter Exclusive)
Immortalize your character by becoming an in-game NPC with your own quest line!

Why Do You Need Funding?

Game development isn't cheap.

So far AQ3D hasn't asked for a dime from anyone so it has been 100% supported by money coming from AQW and our other games (though, mostly AQW). AQW has reached the point where it needs every dollar that comes in to finish the engine rewrites and to keep the game updates coming.

AQ3D has to find its own funding but it's not ready to release yet so we can't open the doors and start taking payments. AQ3D CANNOT add all the features and become the amazing game that we know it can be without funding.

Why Kickstarter?

Kickstarter has become a household name in the gaming world. If you watch gaming news sites, you will see new articles every day about exciting new projects going up. They have amazing reach.

By teaming with Kickstarter, we can:

Reach out to all of our current players.
Reach out to people who have fond memories of playing AE games and get them excited about how far we've come since those days.
Reach out to people who have never played an AE game but are impressed with what we're doing with AQ3D and want to be a part of making it happen!