The Paleo Pines Players’ Choice Kickstarter campaign, launched by Italic Pig in early July, has both sparked excitement and raised eyebrows. Promising a community-driven expansion for the 2023 cozy dinosaur-farming sim Paleo Pines, the campaign smashed its $102,000 goal in just 48 hours, raising over $136,000 by July 8. Yet, skepticism persists.
Firstly, let’s take a look at some of the recent Steam reviews for Paleo Pines:
“It’s worth mentioning that the devs seem more interested in selling plushies and pushing their funding campaigns than actually providing updates. Development has clearly stalled out. I wouldn’t be bothered by this if not for the fact that the game does need work and it hasn’t gotten any for a long time.” – Fawkesian
“Multiple features, dinosaurs, and mechanics that were teased and discussed never made it to the final game because of the devs decision to cut the Swimming and Flying features. My issue with this method of adding new content/features is that they were previously PROMISED with their previous Kickstarter and development logs, but now the player base is expected to pay more money to even get them in the game at all.” – HollowSolaris
“They launched a Kickstarter for a paid expansion pack when the base game is demonstratably incomplete. […] Kickstarters, as a concept, are not bad, but making the optimization be something that comes about with the initial funding goal, meaning they’ve sat on their collective rears for multiple years for actual game betterment, strikes me as irresponsible. On top of that, a £30 pledge only gets a download key for the expansion, all the non-finite merch is £120, and adding a color morph to the to-be-introduced spinosaurus was a ridiculous £1000. – MandL27
Since its launch, Paleo Pines earned an 85% positive rating on Steam from 1,721 reviews. The Players’ Choice expansion aims to deliver fan-requested features, starting with the Spinosaurus, more dreamstones to befriend dinos, and game optimizations. Stretch goals include a new swamp biome with quests and collectibles, potentially adding significant content if funding hits £190,000 by the campaign’s end on July 31. Rewards range from £10 supporter packs with digital art to £1200 tiers letting backers design dino color schemes, or create their own plushies.
Italic Pig’s transparency about their struggles gives the campaign context. CEO Kevin Beimers revealed the studio approached over 50 publishers for funding a sequel or expansion but found no takers. “This Kickstarter isn’t just an option; it’s truly the only way for us to bypass these traditional funding hurdles,” Beimers said. The team’s honesty about almost canceling the project in 2024 due to money troubles, and then being saved by community support, has resonated with fans, but it’s also raised concerns for others.
The game’s “Mixed” recent Steam reviews (56% positive from 41 reviews) point to issues like bugs and limited content, which could make backers wary of funding more. The studio’s plea for funds after a successful launch might also feel off to those unaware of indie dev costs – marketing, patches, and expansion development can drain even profitable studios.
“While Paleo Pines has indeed been a wonderful success story in terms of its reception and reach, the unfortunate reality is that the financial benefits of that success have, so far, primarily gone to our publishers. Our merchandise sales, while appreciated, don’t generate substantial income due to high costs and thin margins. We have managed to get to this point primarily through the sales of our plushies, determined as we were to keep on trying to secure other forms of funding.” – Writes on Kickstarter page
However, the publisher of the game, Maximum Entertainment, hasn’t been very trustworthy lately. Their recent game, Pixelshire, still has very negative reviews, making this a situation worth looking into further.
