Games top Kickstarter successes in 2012

According to the statistics published on the Kickstarter website, 2.2 million contributors pledged $320 million on over 18,000 different projects in 2012. Video games won the biggest share in donations, receiving $83 million. Within the gaming realm, which encompasses all platforms including mobile, 561,000 backers contributed $83 million to 2,796 submitted projects, though only 911 managed to reach the set target of donations--around a 30 percent success rate.

One of the games garnering the most contributions was Tim Schafer's upcoming Double Fine adventure title, which managed to generate $3.3 million in donations--substantially more than the original $400,000 target. Other successes from 2012 include the remake of 1984's Elite, named Elite: Dangerous, which reached its ambitious $2 million goal.

Launched in 2009, the Kickstarter platform exists to fund independent creative projects via public donations. While the platform is used to finance ventures in various categories, including music, film, art, and theatre, last year's biggest category was games, attracting the largest amount in donations, and music, which had the most projects funded.