Be Excellent To Each Other

Isn't this already in another thread?

This is the thread for the game. The other thread is for ill-tempered ranting from people who've only just found out about Kickstarter

Internet hipster.

35,139 Backers
$1,290,044 pledged of $400,000 goal
32 days to go

Tim Schafer's studio Double Fine launched its new project on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter last night. The developer sought $400,000 for a PC point-and-click adventure, a genre in which Schafer and Ron Gilbert cut their teeth and won the hearts of a generation of fans. Those fans contributed in their thousands, and the total was reached in just eight hours - and funds are still pouring in. Given that the project's Kickstarter page made it clear that Double Fine's goal was to sidestep the problematic relationship between developer and publisher, and has raised almost half a million dollars in less than 12 hours, did Double Fine just kill the publisher?

Without Kickstarter, it would have taken months for Double Fine to get its project off the ground. Before any meetings, the studio would have to come up with plenty of concept art and a working prototype. It would have to justify its choice of genre, explain its cost structure, and hammer out a deal on advances and royalties. Milestones would have to be met, and the publisher could easily drag a game off its intended track, insisting on adding or changing features according to perceived gamer tastes. Were the game to succeed, there'd be a share of the profits in it for the developer, but the IP rights would likely rest with the publisher.

This last point is particularly pertinent to Double Fine's case: its website's FAQ advises that the reason it has never made sequels to the likes of Day Of The Tentacle and Grim Fandango is that it doesn't own the rights to its most famous, beloved games; the mooted Psychonauts sequel with Mojang is only possible because Double Fine got the rights back from Majesco last year. No wonder Schafer sought an escape route from the publishing model.
Funding fun

So Double Fine Adventure, as it's currently known, proves to independent developers that an alternative exists. But how viable is it? Double Fine, a much-loved indie studio, pitched a game in a much-loved, largely forgotten genre to its fans, many of whom only became fans of Schafer and Gilbert in the first place because of their seminal contributions to the genre itself. It's tough to think of another independent developer that could do the same and achieve such rapid success; RedLynx with Trials, perhaps, but that decision is out of the Finnish studio's hands following its acquisition by Ubisoft.

There are hundreds of videogame projects on Kickstarter at the moment, and most will reach their funding deadline before their target. A recognisable name isn't enough: in November Robomodo, developer of Tony Hawk misfires Ride and Shred, took to the crowdfunding site seeking $35,000 so that its mobile division, Robomite, could make a Kinect game. It raised $5,547 from just 75 backers. Nor is genre enough: a search reveals just two other point-and-click adventures on Kickstarter, one which raised just $355 of its $4,000 target, and another which comfortably passed the mere $150 its developer sought to fund an IGF submission.

Publishers will always be required, not just for retail games but digital releases as well. Last October Rudolf Kremers, lead designer of PC and PSN title Eufloria, said Microsoft's insistence on the inclusion of certain features, and using its own QA, meant that "the cost picture [is] so prohibitive that self-publishing would be impossible." There are already plenty of opportunities to self-publish - on PSN, Steam or the App Store - but all require a financial committment from the developer's own coffers before a line of code can be written. Publishers bear the burden of that risk, motivated by their bottom lines, and it's therefore unsurprising that they're risk-averse.

Far from sounding the death knell for publishing, then, Double Fine Adventure has instead brought a ringing endorsement of the unique relationship the videogame industry shares with consumers. At the time of writing over 12,000 fans have, in the space of 12 hours, helped fund a game in a long-forgotten genre without so much as a screenshot. Without prospect of reward beyond a monthly documentary by, and open dialogue with, its creators, invites to a private forum and a beta test, and a copy of the finished article. The videogame industry hasn't changed overnight, then, but it's shown that there's no such thing as a dead genre; and that, despite what publishers' focus groups tell them, there's still interest in, and money to be made from, the humble graphic adventure.

'Double Fine Adventure' game's pledge drive ends at £2 million

Double Fine Adventure, a fan-funded game to be developed by San Francisco-based Double Fine, finished its 30-day pledge drive with a record-breaking $3,335,265 (£2 million) in donations.

The developer turned to crowd-funding site Kickstarter to finance an all-new point-and-click adventure. It argued that traditional publishers baulked at the idea of backing a game in the financially-risky genre.

The project will be headed up by Tim Schafer (who made adventure games like Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango), with help from Ron Gilbert (creator of cult classic Monkey Island). Backers will also get an episodic making-of documentary from 2 Player Productions.

The team smashed its initial goal of $400,000 (£254,400) within eight hours. It passed $1 million (£636,100) within its first day (though missed out on being the first million-dollar Kickstarter project to an iPhone dock). At $3.3 million, it's the biggest project in Kickstarter's history and enticed 87,138 backers to hand over their cash.

With the extra money Double Fine will expand the scope and ambition of the point-and-click adventure, and will pull in more people to work on the game. The project has also been expanded to include English voice over; support for Mac, Linux, iOS and Android; and translations into French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

Double Fine Adventure (a tentative title, by the way -- exact details of the game's plot, theme and style have been kept secret) wasn't the first game to get funded through fans. Other Kickstarter success stories include riotous indie platformer No Time To Explain, sci-fi iPhone game Star Command and Sundance Film Festival-winner Indie Game: The Movie.

But Double Fine's unprecedented success has led to an up-swell of new projects. Cipher Prime's trying to get a sequel to Auditorium (but it's not looking hot) and game developer Brian Fargo wants to fund a sequel to 80s RPG Wasteland. He's asking for a lot -- $900,000 (£570,000) -- but his studio has already raised more than half of that, in less than 24 hours.

Elsewhere, physics-led puzzler Pixel Sand was flat-lining for almost a month on Kickstarter. That was, until Double Fine appeared and donations to Pixel Sand more than doubled. The game has now met its funding goal.

So is this the end of the traditional developer-publisher relationship? Project leader and Double Fine founder Tim Schafer doesn't think so, but he reckons it's an empowering way to deliver risky projects to a devoted fanbase.

In a live-streamed celebration on UStream he said, "I don't want to say this is the end of the whole games industry as we know it -- it's not, and it's not a replacement of all publishers. But it does mean that if you've ever been told your part a a niche market, you can make things happen."

He looks to have raised over 3 million, so if he needed 500,000 to do the game what happens to the other 2.5 million?

He looks to have raised over 3 million, so if he needed 500,000 to do the game what happens to the other 2.5 million?

???