Lazer Tag? Sign Me Up!

I had never even thought to look at Kickstarter until this week when I looked at crowd funding. I had first heard about the idea in April 2013, when the Veronica Mars movie was funded through the crowd funding program. I remember it was such a big deal because it meant that the fans had funded this project and believed in it so much.

The fact that over one billion dollars has been pledged, and half of that in the past year, proves how this is becoming more and more of a plausible way to fund projects. I think this is an incredible process and one that I want to be more a part of, especially if there is a project that I believe in and want to be a part of. One of the cool things about the way this kind of funding works, is that it is no risk! If you choose to back a project that you believe in, but it doesn’t come up with the funding in the time allotted, you never get charged. I think that makes a little easier knowing that if the project won’t be worked on, at least I am not losing money for no reason.

I looked this week to see if there are any projects that I am interested in, and yes there is!!!! To give you a little back story, for my husband’s 38th birthday this year we had an outdoor lazer tag party set up in our backyard and our neighbors and had 10 adults ranging from the age of 24-40 playing an insanely intense game of lazer tag. On the right is me after playing 3 rounds of the game. I was horrible, and lost the whole time; but it was so much fun! We try to do fun parties and of all the parties we have done, lazer tag was the biggest hit! So what does that mean for me this week? It means when I came across the project for Skirmos: the Open Source Lazer Tag game. I am not only interested, I am convincing my friends and family to become backers as well!

I am so excited to get in on the ground floor of this project! At this point the question is how much do I want to and how much can we afford to pledge? I definitely want to make sure I pledge enough to get one of the first version guns. What I find interesting about the Kickstarter funding method is that for the various pledge amounts, you can get various gifts. For instance for a $20 pledge you can get a special poster that will only be available to backers, but for $65 you get the poster and a t-shirt signed by the developers. I mean, it isn’t just about what you get, but about the fact that you are backing something you believe in and are able to help support a dream.

I kept looking and the gifts just kept getting better! For $99 you are able to get your own first version gun, and the gifts just get better! For $199 you can get 2 of the guns, and for $390 you can get four guns! I think we are going to go with that option so that we can play with friends. If I had unlimited funds I think I would definitely take part in pledging $4,999. For that you get 4 of the first version systems, a special card from the founders, access to the launching party as a VIP in order to meet the team, be able to directly have input with the engineers, and have an exclusive dinner with the founders. I definitely would want to be a part of that if I could since then I would really be able to see the dream come to life, meet the dreamers and enjoy the product! However, for now I will be settling for just 4 of the awesome guns! I hope that they get the funding they need! If you want to learn more about this project, check it out here.