Before Yooka-Laylee gets released I just want to discuss what bothered me the most

[Taleweaver]

Hmm...I get the concern and understand the grief. Whether it's correct or not is up for debate, though. Let's see...

from their perspective, I certainly see why they hand out early copies to reviewers. In this day and age, it's pretty much what you have to do as an indie to get the game noticed. In fact, I guess this goes pretty much without saying that this has to be done.
Obviously, the game has to be in a (very near) done state at that time or it'd only get negative reviews. And those reviews have to be online on or around release day to get noticed by the large majority of gamers.
From your perspective, you certainly have the right to know in advance whether you as a backer have the right to also play it early. They should've replied, or even better: had a policy on this when the kickstarter project went up. There's no excuse there. I'm also sure that they don't mean to treat their backers like "peasants". I don't work for them, but I'm sure that they would reply with something like "we're sorry you feel that way".
However, I can see reasons why they prioritize professional reviewers. They need to have the game out, and this is best done by people who are eloquent about it and understand what their audiences want and need to hear. Because backers can write reviews as well, and they are pretty much by definition not objective. From their perspective, I can certainly understand fear that their backers hate the result because of something trivial ("THE GAME SUCKS...because I didn't like the jumping sounds"). And that can really affect the direct sales of the result. I mean...I don't want to blame you, but you do feel mistreated for not playing the game early. Is it too far fetched that you'll end up not liking the game for something nobody else has a problem with?

 

[EmulateLife]

Has there been a well reviewed crowdfunded game? It seems to me all that I've seen do poorly. Yooka-Laylee is low 70% high 60% average reviews between PS4-Xbox One-PC which is like barely average. I'm wondering if the quality of these crowdfunded games are failing to live up to people's expections. A good example for me personally was Mighty No. 9 as I'm a big Mega Man fan but that game stinks.

Here's a list of crowdfunded games either available now or coming out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_crowdfunding_projects

I am excited about Shenmue 3 but I'm afraid it'll be disappointing.

Edit: Forgot about Shovel Knight it is great and was well reviewed. But I'm wondering if we would be able to see the same sort of quality in a larger 3D game that's just paid for by gamers. Of course review scores do not always reflect how good a game is.

 

[Taleweaver]

Has there been a well reviewed crowdfunded game?

Is that a rhetorical question? You already mentioned shovel knight, but superhot, darkest dungeon, hand of fate, hyper light drifter, shantae: half genie hero, sunless sea, divinity: original sin, risk of rain, race the sun, freedom planet and tabletop simulator are highly praised. Oh, and...how about a certain game called undertale?

(from the unreleased ones, I can bet blindly that at least factorio and parkitect will receive lots of praise)

 

[Silverthorn]

Has there been a well reviewed crowdfunded game? It seems to me all that I've seen do poorly. Yooka-Laylee is low 70% high 60% average reviews between PS4-Xbox One-PC which is like barely average. I'm wondering if the quality of these crowdfunded games are failing to live up to people's expections. A good example for me personally was Mighty No. 9 as I'm a big Mega Man fan but that game stinks.

Here's a list of crowdfunded games either available now or coming out

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_crowdfunding_projects

I am excited about Shenmue 3 but I'm afraid it'll be disappointing.

Edit: Forgot about Shovel Knight it is great and was well reviewed. But I'm wondering if we would be able to see the same sort of quality in a larger 3D game that's just paid for by gamers. Of course review scores do not always reflect how good a game is.

@Taleweaver 's list is pretty good, but he forgot Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity which are also worthy of note in my opinion

 

[EmulateLife]

I'm not really familar with those games except undertale but that's good that they're high quality.

I do think it's 50/50 on if a crowdfunded game will high quality vs poor quality, but you could probably say the same about games even made by big studios (i.e. Mass Effect Andromeda, countless others)

 

[BORTZ]

Ah Kickstarter.

So here is the thing to remember about kidkstarter. Kickstarter is only a place where groups of people want to go as ask us for money to create a project. Kickstarter has no dog in the fight once said project is funded or funding ends. Now, whether or not a finished product was a "Kickstarter" project has no bearing on the project itself, other that the creators got their money through crowdfunding. Make sure you keep the two concepts separate.

So lets get another thing out of the way. I have never backed a single project.

I have actually heard of this happening, but since I do not follow kickstarter projects very closely, I cannot remember which ones. I remember some sort of debacle where the game alpha/beta was launched on steam but not for backers. Or something like backers would have to pay twice if they wanted in on the beta. Its not as uncommon as you might think.

 

[Taleweaver]

I'm not really familar with those games except undertale but that's good that they're high quality.

I do think it's 50/50 on if a crowdfunded game will high quality vs poor quality, but you could probably say the same about games even made by big studios (i.e. Mass Effect Andromeda, countless others)

The thing is that crowdfunded games (and most indie projects) barely have the means for marketing, so traditional news sites often end up skipping them. Or worse: only handpick the ones that are already on people's minds (mighty 9 and yooka laylee are only picked because of their spiritual predecessor). That doesn't mean there aren't other reviewers out there who give them a fair chance.

And to be honest, I have absolutely no idea what the actual percentages are of it being good. I just scrolled through that list and looked up metacritic scores of the ones I happened to recognize and love. There are easily 9 out of 10 that I've never heard of (or didn't knew they were kickstarted), which is a shame because I do like to think I know indie titles.