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Mighty Number 9 and the Ethics of Kickstarter on July 18Th, 2011

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Mighty Number 9 and the Ethics of Kickstarter on July 18Th, 2011 Spring 2016 | ADES 5515 Logan McLaughlin The Legend Never Dies, or Gets a Full Release: Mighty Number 9 and the Ethics of Kickstarter On July 18th, 2011 Capcom disappointed many fans of their iconic Mega Man series by announcing the cancellation of the most recent installment in the series: Mega Man Legends 3. Legends 3 had been in development for less than a year and was apparently close to having a finished Alpha build, an early playable version of the game. More importantly, lead producer Keiji Inafune had approved an interesting design process by opening a multi-national development forum to solicit ideas from carefully selected fans. I was among those on the developer forums who took part in surveys and design sessions for various mechanics and design implementations. When the game was cancelled I, like many others, had to accept that the Mega Man series was officially dead. Hope came in 2013 in the form of a Kickstarter for a new game developed independently from Capcom by Inafune himself under the banner of his new company Comcept LLC. What was promised to fans was a re-imagining of the classic 2D side scrolling Mega Man games so many had known and loved over the years. The title of this game was Mighty Number 9. The game reached its $900,000 USD target in two days, and by the end of the month-long Kickstarter campaign had raised a total of $3,845,170 USD. After the campaign, the game had a period of extended PayPal donations ultimately ending with a grand total of $4,046,579 USD raised. The development process involved a similar model to Legends 3, involving numerous fan polls on various design implementations, character designs and such as the poll seen in Figure 1 on the design of the character Call, the sidekick to the protagonist Beck (following the pun in the names of the Mega Man characters Rock and Roll). The development team sported an all-star cast including original members of the Mega Man team who had left Capcom (Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter). However, the team was small, inexperienced, and worked independently. This is where the messy nature of Mighty No. 9’s development really begins. As of now, the game has yet to be released and has been delayed, ironically, nine times. For the purposes of this critique, I will be examining the development and funding process of Mighty No. 9, the lack of transparency, and the business models of crowdfunding. Furthermore, I will examine in greater detail issues of the crowdfunding business model and “buyer beware” mentality rampant in the gaming world right now. 1 Spring 2016 | ADES 5515 Logan McLaughlin Figure 1 The poll sent to Kickstarter backers to decide on the design of the character Call Kickstarting a Name Mighty No. 9 is not the first game, nor the last, to employ the basic crowdfunding model of the project lead being a developer or designer of a beloved game series. Other notable games funded by this model include Brian Fargo’s Wasteland 2 a sequel to the adventure game Wasteland on Commodore 64, which was met with some critical success, but largely underwhelmed consumers; the as yet Unreleased Shenmue 2 which made its funding goal twice over in less than 24 hours; and Psychonauts 2 designed by Tim Schafer, acclaimed developer of Day of the Tentacle and many Lucas Arts games, which also made its funding goal in less than a week. All of these projects have one thing in common, they are sequels to games of a different era by directors or producers of some relative fame. They all employed similar tactics in their campaigns riding on a misconstrued notion that the modern gaming industry would not fund these games, but that they knew it was what the fans wanted. Kickstarter requires all campaigns to provide a short video introducing a campaign and its goals. The pitch for Mighty No. 9 opens with Keiji Inafune referencing his 23 years of experience at Capcom and explaining that when he departed Capcom he founded his own company to make “the games he wanted to make” (Kickstarter 2011). And the social capital of a man who had worked on so many Mega 2 Spring 2016 | ADES 5515 Logan McLaughlin Man games gave fans a rallying point. By revving up a metaphorical “hype train,” a term used in gaming to refer to the effect of hyping up a game and selling people on an ideal rather than a physical existing product, and having Inafune at the helm Mighty No. 9 gained massive support from fans. The Art of the Pitch: Building a Hype Train The Kickstarter page for Mighty No. 9 is high fidelity, it has numerous fully fleshed out pieces of concept art showcasing the game’s style and key designs for the main character, Beck (Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter). These concept images can be seen in Figure 2. The art and concepts depicted an art style obviously influenced by some of the scrapped designs from Legends 3. Figure 2 Concept art from the Kickstarter page allegedly showing in engine sequences The campaign promised a game with innovative mechanics building upon the original key mechanic of Mega Man, using the abilities of area bosses. Comcept planned on expanding this mechanic by allowing Beck to take on the abilities of certain basic enemies in the world as seen in Figure 2, a concept meant to be used in Legends 3. But this was not the only remnant of Legends 3 present in Mighty No. 9’s development. Inafune also promised to resurrect the design process of Legends in the form of official forums for Kickstarter backers. This not only renewed the hope of fans but garnered the campaign massive support. The stage was set for a successful campaign to deliver a spiritual successor to Capcom’s dead franchise. However, three years later, Mighty No. 9 is one of if not the flagship case in examining the state of Kickstarter in the gaming world. 3 Spring 2016 | ADES 5515 Logan McLaughlin 9 Delays and Two Demos Later Fast forward to now, on April 26th 2016 due to a listing on the Xbox store, Mighty No. 9 was confirmed to be delayed yet again, this time until December of this year. This is ironically the ninth delay in the game’s release and comes not as an official announcement but as an information leak. Prior to this the last official announcements from Inafune’s team were in January apologizing for yet another delay. Since then, all communication channels have been silent until May 2nd when an email went out saying the game would be released next month. Backers have heard very little about the final development process, having only received one widely distributed playable demo which no longer resembles the prototype. This demo, and presumably the final game, use the Unity development engine, a pre-built game engine independent developers can purchase as a foundation for their game. The demo also used unpolished 3D character models rather than the 2D style seen in the concept footage (Figure 3). The demo released in September of 2015 with only two completed levels out of a minimum of 12 the game would need to hold all the bosses proposed in the Kickstarter. Many of the features promised in the campaign and in many updates are not present. Overall the game seems subpar considering the demo is in a pre-built engine which should mean more of the focus could be devoted to mechanics and art direction. Figure 3 The Mighty Number 9 "Special Demo Version" released to Backers in September 2015 Where does this leave the fans who invested anywhere between $5- 10,000+ USD in this project three years ago? Considering that Kickstarter has very loose rules regarding what makes a project complete, and guarantees no refunds for backers through Kickstarter, not much can be done. In most cases of investing in other industries and using other platforms either the FTC or Consumer Protection Act grant some rights to investors to prevent fraud (FTC.gov). This 4 Spring 2016 | ADES 5515 Logan McLaughlin however is not the case for Kickstarter. Thus the discussion really drifts away from whether or not the campaign of Mighty No. 9 and its proposed deliverable was a legal action as it technically meets the Kickstarter terms of service. What can be discussed is the ethics of this tactic. Ethics in the Art of Hype Kickstarter as a concept comes down to similar methods as advertising. The consumer needs to be sold on an idea in order to fund it. In the case of Mighty No 9, this was accomplished by means of riding the cancellation of Legends 3 and utilizing members who had worked on Legends and other Mega Man games. This cultural capital mobilizes fans and also plays on their nostalgia for the original Mega Man and Mega Man X games by appealing to the sensibilities and design qualities of these classic side-scrollers, but what separated Mighty No. 9 in the eyes of fans was that based on those involved it was an official Mega Man game in spirit even if it was not one in name. Four million is a lot of money to make a game of this size. A game of similar type funded through Kickstarter, Yacht Club games’ Shovel Knight delivered an experience similar to a classic Mega Man title for only $700,000 USD and in less time (Shovel Knight Kickstarter). Which begs the question: where is this money going? In the case of most large development projects, companies are required to give a budget and account for where funds are allocated.
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