Rick Priestley’s Kickstarter Cancelled

Beyond the Gates of Antares Kickstarter fails

Beyond the Gates of Antares… is over (for now)

Rick Priestley’s ‘Beyond the Gates of Antares’ Kickstarter has been the most ambitious miniatures gaming Kickstarter yet. It has also been, as I tried to argue, severely flawed. After a good start, it has been a crawl for most of its running time. Now, with more than two weeks left on the clock (and about 2/3 of the hoped-for goal of £ 300.000,- still missing), the project was cancelled.

After much consideration we have decided to withdraw our project from Kickstarter.

We’d like to thank you all for believing in us and backing us, GoA will still become a reality but through different means.

We will take the next month to reassess our plans, during this time you will still see us on the forums and we will continue to post updates to our website. Once we have a plan set we will let you all know what it is so that we can continue to build GoA together.

There are a lot of positives to take from this journey and we certainly don’t think of this as a failure, more a change in plans with actual direct feedback from the market, which should help us greatly in the future. One of the best things we’ve done is you guys. We managed to develop a thriving community in a very short time, which is bursting with ideas and support for the project and for that we thank you and we will continue to want and need your help in the future.

There are too many people to thank, but we’d like to take the opportunity to give special thanks to these guys (in no order!): Melcavuk, Krazus, Prototheca, Endtransmission, Karl Pedder, Gylan Hunter, Michael Musson, John Wigley, Des Hanley, Karol Rudyk, Bruno Lavallee, Angelika Rasmus, Andy Gibson (brandnewbadidea), Golem Painting Studios, James Sherriff, Tim Prow, Kev White, Wojtek Fils, Bob Naismith, Andrew Chesney, Paul Sawyer

We’ll talk to you all very soon

Thank you!

Rick, Rik, John and Co

Some parting Pictures

Over the last few days, Gates of Antares has been hemorrhaging backers and pledges, and not gaining them. This observation might well have played a part in the decision to not have the campaign continue for the full running time, to the end of February.

Beyond the Gates of Antares on Kicktraq

Hansa Nairoba, painted by Golem Painting Studio, was the “face” of the Kickstarter and – unfortunately – one of the very few miniatures shown.

Gates of Antares Hansa Nairoba

Hansa Nairoba – Fully Painted

Though the Kickstarter campaign was deeply flawed, the very fact that it did raise over 100.000,- quid (despite the scarce visuals) on the trust and faith of gamers across the world in Rick Priestley and his team proves that there is interest in this vision.

I hope they stick with it, as they say they will in their final update. I sure would love to have the Gates of Antares rulebook to page through at some point (along with a Hansa-miniature).

What are your thoughts?

What do you think would be the best strategy from here on out to make ‘Beyond the Gates of Antares’ a reality?

Z.

Zweischneid

Zweischneid

I am Zweischneid. Wargame Addict. Hopeless painter and founder of Pins of War. I hope you enjoyed this article. Don't forget to share your favourite miniature pictures and wargaming videos at www.pinsofwar.net.
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  • Andy

    I see why the backers slowed to a crawl, but what was the reason it started to actually lose them?

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      Probably as many different reasons as there are backers. To be fair, most Kickstarter loose backers over their running time. They are usually only outnumbered by the number of new backers that get on board.

      The most likely reason would be people “re-allocating” their gaming budget to other things, possibly other Kickstarters or other new releases.

      While it is true that Kickstarter doesn’t bill you until the campaign ends, I think it is still mentally “money parked there, not here” to people as they make decisions on what to buy or not to buy.

  • sonsoftaurus

    Well, you called it. I originally thought they might squeak by if they started showing some more info/minis, but they didn’t and they didn’t.

    • http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid

      Well. So thought I.

      My “It Will Fail” post was meant to be more as a “wake-up and get to work” kinda post, done in a provocative form that would get people’s attention.

      I never hoped it would be accurate.

      Given how much money they did (!) get with what they showed, I still think this could’ve gone very well with a more decisive turn-around some time in January.