And this thread should continue to grow as the years go by to serve as a reminder that the person behind the game does matter. And while we can say "I can separate the artist from the work."... this remains true... but there has to be some *work* to make that claim.
Agreed. But this is why I'm against Kickstarters. First, produce the work. Second, ask people to buy it. That's the way capitalism works. If you want to reverse it then shit is going to get messy.
Conversely, do what I plan to do:
Finish the development and editing of the product
Then crowdfund just to pay for the art, printing, etc.
Every pledge of lets say $10-20 gets a fully indexed PDF plus the finished PDF (with art) upon a successful campaign.
Every pledge of $20-30 Gets in addition the softcover
Every pledge of $30-50 gets the PDFs plus the hardcover
The PDF without art is downloadable upon completing the pledge.
If worst comes to pass you got a playable game out of it, since the game is almost 100% done your risk as a baker is minimal, the time between finishing the campaign and the delivery gets reduced drastically.