5-18-15 Furfunding Highlights

Illustration from Floral Frolic on Kickstarter.

You know, I think the “charm” project is our version of the minimalist wallet.

I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s a recurring project idea on Kickstarter (besides endless versions of the Werewolf card game and crowdfunded salad), and that’s the wallet–usually “minimalist wallet,” which is a sort of up-scale version of holding all your cards together with a rubber band. Like Kickstarter said in their blog, “another day, another slim wallet.”

An unavoidable fact about Kickstarter, it’s very much a popularity contest, and most new artists aren’t going to be able to get the $6,000 or however much to launch their graphic novel. So while Kickstarter is theoretically a great place to trade talent for money without the middle man, in practice, your first project is likely to crash and burn–unless it’s a modest little mini-project. Stickers and charms fit that bill really well–only a few pages of new art needed, a budget as low as $300 to run a slick print job, and a bright and colorful project to capture an audience’s attention.

Then, you come back to them for the graphic novel or webcomic. It’s a nice way to build some momentum!

Right now I’m only looking at two charms–a batch of eevies from Ashbee Illustrations, and some cuddly little cosplay alpacas from Snow-Mishibari. Unfortunately, neither is going gangbusters right now. There’s no easy way to say why–it may be that the eevee card is (heh) played out right now, or that alpacas are just too strange for a fandom that never really gets outside the world of large carnivores. So these are both kind of proving me wrong at the moment. Remember, research before ramble next time. Got it.

 

For a “complete” list of furry/fur-friendly crowdfunding projects, check out the Project Page!

New Projects

Children’s Products

Flora Frolic: A Foxy Fairy Tale (Ends: 6/12/2015)
Two super-adorable foxes gather flowers in a rainbow watercolor meadow. Cute foxes and a number of interesting gimmes.
Nearly to goal! But I’m concerned about all the add-ons, it looks like scope creep. Art is amazing, more at the the artist’s FA page.

Clothing/Costume

Tiny Equine Stockings (Ends: 6/8/2015)
brightly colored and obviously not trademarked stockings in the colors and and markings of the Mane Seven (six + Derpy Hoove).

Comics/Graphic Novels

Gamer Girl & Vixen #1 & 2 (Ends: 6/15/2015)
Minimally furry, but great subject: a lesbian supervillain love story in comic form, and at least one weaponized koopa shell.

SpaceRamblers (Ends: 6/29/2015)
The SpaceRamblers project returns in its colorful manga space-opera glory, with a stronger business plan and a print version.

Stickers/Charms

Cospaca! Cute Alpaca Cosplay Charms (Ends: 6/15/2015)
A miniproject of extremely floofy alpacas in costumes, from artist Snow-Mishbari.

Video Games

Cats In Space Suits (Ends: 6/12/2015)
A silly little mobile puzzler, a bit Angry Birds, but with cats and planetary gravity wells.
Minimally furry, but ?the graphics are pretty cute.

Loco the Firefox (Ends: 7/2/2015)
Iphone platformer with a bouncing, spinning red panda springing through a world of high-definition barrels

…Causes

Shiba Prom (Ends: 7/12/2015): A virtual dance party for dogs and other small mammals to raise money for Shiba Inu rescue groups and puppy mill awareness campaigns.

…Just for fun

Harris Dies on Page 32 (Ends: 6/15/2015): A collection of tweets and shorts from the world of @AwfulFantasy

…Meh

2020 AD (Ends: 6/10/2015): An incoherant project with a LOT of tame and NSFW original and fan/commission art. The graphics are good, but the writing is just not publishable, and the business plan is unclear and not a very good value ($17 for a digital comic?)