Having been described as the 'most controversial game of all time' by some sections of the press, you might think the 15 year old Carmageddon's move on mobile wouldn't need any additional publicity.

Speaking during their Develop Brighton keynote, however, Stainless Games founders Patrick Buckland and Neil Barnden said deciding to fund the iOS and Android versions via Kickstarter proved to give the game the kind of promo boost you just can't buy.

Stop the headlines

"Kickstarter gave us fantastic publicity," said Buckland, with the venture having raised more than $625,000.

"I think we were on the front page of the BBC website for a while."

According to Barnden, however, any scandalous headlines in the press this time around will be something of a bonus rather than something the studio actively looks for when Carmageddon Reincarnation launches next spring.

"Provoking the press is not something we set out to do," he asserted.

"We're going to make the game we want to make, and if it whips up the Daily Mail then that's great."

Money matters

Of Kickstarter in general, Barnden suggested crowdfunding fatigue may set in at some point, but for now the main problem – if it can be described as such – is the pressure the model creates.

"We have 16,000 backers now, to who we have an obligation to deliver a game," he said, adding that the game will be available for free for its first 24 hours "as a thank you."

"It does put pressure on. But you'll still get great and surprising ideas from the community that we think 'yeah, we'll incorporate that'. The only downside is the amount of additional work it creates."

According to Barnden, however, Kickstarter will only really be tested when a successfully funded project fails to make it to market.

The Kickstarter kick

"At some point, a successful Kickstarter campaign will fail to launch," he concluded.

"There isn't going to be an 100 percent success rate forever. It will be very interesting to see what happens then."

According to Buckland, Kickstarter should be viewed as the start of a new funding model, rather than the be all and end all.

"I think what Kickstarter is the start of a new model," he concluded, "but that model is one that needs to evolve."