Hairsplitters may say it's comparing apples and Charles Darnay, but draw your own conclusions from these two recent high-profile crowd-funding efforts for gay projects. One was local, physical, retail, books; the other, a global digital online game.
BGSQD, the emerging NYC queer bookstore temporarily housed at the Strange Loop Gallery (open today until 4:00pm!) and hoping to establish its own permanent space, sought $15,000 on Lucky Ant. The effort ended last week, at less than 32% of its goal, or $4,795. Because the project failed, its supporters will not be charged for their pledges and the store receives no money.
Coming Out on Top, a sweet video game in which you are a college boy who comes out and must navigate any number of sticky situations, "could be called a dating sim, a visual novel, or an interactive story," according to its creator. (Although the faces here are white, the game has characters who are Asian, black, or Latino. And although the demo is PG-13, the actual game has enough erotic situations to make it 18+) With 27 days still to go on Kickstarter, it has already achieved 433% of its original goal, or $21,120. So far, the game has attracted 893 supporters, including 534 people who gave $10 each and one donor who gave $1,500+.