With so many indie games finding success through Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms, is this becoming the preferred path over traditional publishers? What are the pros and cons you've observed? Have you backed any game projects that surprised you (either positively or negatively)? For any developers in the community, what's your take on going straight to your audience versus seeking publisher support?

I've only backed one video game on Kickstarter and it was a disaster. I know not every game ends up like the one I backed, but now I'm a bit weary of backing projects. Kickstarter is a good place for indie developers to get extra funds for their games, as long as that's what they plan on using the money for. I backed the game Mighty No. 9, which was made by Comcept and Keiji Inafune was part of the project. It was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Mega Man but the company ended up using too much money on concepts for an animated series which never seen the light of day and because of that the project kept getting pushed back and many people never got the versions of the game they backed the project for.

I haven't backed any game developer on Kickstarter but I have backed a couple of innovative ideas. Getting financing is becoming very difficult these days, however, crowdfunding platform like Kickstarter makes every thing easy. I think crowd funding will grow bigger and bigger.