For now, Kickstarter is proving to be a validation tool for game developers for when they approach venture capitalists for a more sizable sum. Paul Trowe, the chief executive of Replay Games (featured on the couch, left), leveraged his Kickstarter page as a proof-point for their business model. “I took a printout out of the positive comments,” he said. “Boom! Here’s our market validation.”

As crowdfunding enters a gold rush era, the panelists discussed what could go wrong. The most poignant feedback was for gamers not to underestimate the amount of work and stress it takes to produce a successful game.

“Games projects have a tendency to underperform,” Schafer cautioned. He said the abundance of games on Kickstarter means it’s no longer a news event to have raised funds on the platform.

Another piece of advice echoed by the four panelists is not to ask for anything less than is required to produce a top-notch game, even if it exceeds half a million dollars.

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Not just video game developers, but video game console developers, too.

From Shadowrun to Clang, I am really excited about the projects on Kickstarter from professional game designers.

The most exciting thing is they're just getting started, really.