Cheers. I'm glad someone read it.
I couldn't find your post to quote, but I tried. So this will have to do, but I disagree with many of your assertions. You're assuming the general public who help kickstart these games actually recognize not only the teams but the talent behind them. This is bogus. Most people have no idea who the people are that make their games or why they should care. Most can't even appreciate what they have to offer. All they really have to go off of is an idea.
Proving yourself from the bottom-up can help for the hardcore audience. For example let's say Naughty Dog or Epic tried to kickstart a couple of their projects. Wouldn't ever happen, but I'm sure they'd easily reach their goals regardless of the concept. They're a well known studio, and the label sells a lot. If someone who remembers Uncharted 2 happens upon Naughty Dog's page, they might be more willing to kickstart the project.
The problem comes in when you assume a team that has a certain reputation is the same team that is now kickstarting that specific project. Teams don't stay the same. People leave, quit, resign, whatever. There's all sorts of factors that can change the dynamic of a team. Often times with new projects comes new members. The teams are generally never the same.
For instance people will cheer when Persona 5 is announced, but what if the director nor writer of Persona 3/4 was on board. The vast majority of people wouldn't care. They'd probably have someone new at the helm. Just take Zwei as an example. Shinji Mikami is a God, yet he's only the executive producer for the game yet people are celebrating as if he was the director himself. No, some other guy is directing Zwei, a relatively new guy. Just like the director for Bayonetta (more to do with his affiliation than directing credentials, which were insanely good), yet we all know how that turned out (one of the best action games of all-time).
So yeah, a label helps, but don't kid yourself thinking that people care about the staff. It's a sad truth. But with more exposure comes more appreciation. In other words, give these guys a chance. They might be green, relatively speaking, but they deserve the chance to prove themselves, especially with such a great idea. I love how artistic the project sounds. I love their sources of inspiration and their focus. The philosophy is mostly align with my own, and I think that is enough to drop at least $10 on.
The ambition is half the fight, IMO. You might be one of the best teams ever and are well known for meeting your deadlines, excellence in engineering, and all sorts of other technicalities, but if you don't have a great idea. It's worthless. Take Gears of War for example, the game is really fun and brilliantly designed if you ignore everything that's being said throughout the game. The story was so bad. The dialogue even worse. It was one of the first games I considered muting my TV for--and turning off subtitles! I was so annoyed. How could a game be so terrible in terms of writing and execution? My enjoyment of the game dropped considerably, that's how much story, writing, and ideas can affect a game.
And you're going to find as this market expands for the same truth to hold as well for millions of other people. People who read books, watch movies, and/or listen to music have the same expectations. The idea or the ambition is just as important as the game mechanics. All of these aesthetics contribute to the overall enjoyment of said game/book/movie/tv show/song etc. Game mechanics mean nothing without a nicely laid out story/idea/group of characters. For some, I suppose the mechanics is everything, which would be why games like Gears of War sell so well, but keep in mind that there are others out there that completely disagree and have different expectations. So don't act like the problem lies in the philosophy. Most people will not notice or care, in fact, if people did know I'd bet the majority would love it.
No, I'm sure the problem has more to do with exposure, the typical iOS customer not being accustomed to such games or what they have to offer, etc. Anyways, I said my piece. I probably come across as a little crazy, but I'm an aspiring designer as well so game design philosophy is a pretty big deal to me.
/rant
Also worth noting, the campaign received over $7,000 in pledges over the last three days, I think... going off primarily estimations. But that seems to be a lot better than the week before. Maybe it's just me, but it looks like the project is getting a lot of traction now.
