Doublefine Adventure

This might have been mentioned in the Psychonauts thread, but it deserves it's own.

The game studio Double Fine wants to fund a new point-and-click adventure game entirely using Kickstarter, and a making of documentary that will be published in parts as its being developed.

For the unfamiliar, the way this works is they've set a goal amount to be reached within a certain date. People who pledge above certain amounts are allowed to get certain rewards (so it's not a donation unless you want it to be). The game itself and the documentary are $15, and it goes up to things like a special thanks in the credits and the art staff making you a portrait, ending in crazy stuff that's not even available on kickstarter itself like dinner with the staff (including Tim Schafer) and one of the ridiculously rare, unopened special packed Day Of The Tentacle Schafer has hanging around.

edited 9th Feb '12 12:26:03 AM by thatother1dude

Yikes he's up to $300,000/$400,000 already. And $100,000 of that came in 2 hours judging by his twitter.

Tim Schaefer and Ron Gilbert again on an oldschool P&C adventure? :O

EDIT: Target achieved in 8 hours. Shieeeeet.

edited 9th Feb '12 2:49:41 AM by ShadowScythe

Hardly a day has gone past and this is already the 4th most backed project in Kickstarter history O.O

Because we all have a dream. And that dream involves playing another Doublefine game.

If I were Schaefer, at this point I'd just create a page saying "Psychonauts 2! Requires 10 million dollars total pledge." and either get the money or melt Kickstarters' servers. Either would be great.

edited 9th Feb '12 7:36:37 AM by Psyclone

Has officially now smashed the record for being the fastest-funded project in the history of Kickstarter with a current total of $726,449 raised by 17,959 backers in less than 24 hours.

Well, shit.

edit: On-Topic ahoy - Opinion: Did Double Fine just kill the publisher? (Edge)

edited 9th Feb '12 10:41:35 AM by LE0Night

Wow.

Imagine if this was done with less restrictions then Kickstarter (Has to be a US-based Credit Card, no Debit or Foreign.)

...what? You can pledge with foreign credit cards. I do so myself.

...however, you cannot START a project if you do not have a US based bank account. For those in that category, Indie Go Go is probably their best bet.

Hmm, I must have misremembered. I thought I read that you have to sign up to some Amazon service that requires a US credit Card....retracted. Probably confused donating and starting, like you say.

edited 9th Feb '12 1:59:55 PM by occono

You can use your Amazon account for pledges (that's what I did), but you don't have to.

...Well, I only have a Debit Card so I still can't I assume. Though it is Visa-branded.

How Kickstarter Will Change the World (The Escapist)

It's raising some eyebrows, this, anyone think this is a business-model that could ever actually spread?

Well, it's certainly spread enough that the majority of indie developers are using it.

...and he just reached 1 million dollars. In 22 hours.

...damn.

edited 9th Feb '12 3:47:34 PM by Psyclone

So how long will it be till some scumbag con-man ruins Kickstarter by using it to get money just for writing a great pitch? (I.E. promising a brilliant game when they don't even intend to make it.)

I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.

They have methods to prevent this

edited 9th Feb '12 4:06:37 PM by stevebat

How does any of that stop you from lying?

The need for a SSN to sign up. That kind of attaches you to some liability.

I also think they have legal rights to take the money back from you, or just not give it to you at all, correct?

Now that I've come to think of it, the words "Doublefine Adventure" can't help but make me think of Tim Schafer cosplaying as Eggman and shouting "GET A LOAD OF THIS" as he crashes the Egg Viper into EA headquarters.

My mind is weird.

It has spread already. And while it really won't make publishers obsolete, it does provide a very good alternate option.

The way I see it, a setup like that would really only work if the developer already had an established cult audience like Tim Schafer.

Unless you had some really neat demos and prototypes to show off your work you wouldn't be able to do what Tim did and say "we are planning a game from genre X donate money and we'll make it".

Still...this is really great and I hope this allows more developers to do projects they really want instead of just bending over for the publisher's every whim.

Maybe we can get other, old genres to come back thanks to this.

edited 9th Feb '12 6:35:11 PM by ShadowScythe

For an unknown this kind of funding is still out of reach (it freaking should be), but there's plenty of projects that only expect a couple thousand or even just a couple hundred dollars of funding.

Demos and concept pitching are, compared to development cost, utterly miniscule. Anyone with time and an amount of disposable income less than the cost of an average vacation could make them if they really cared.

edited 9th Feb '12 6:46:08 PM by thatother1dude

I thought this was to raise money for a Psychonauts sequel, and disappointed to find out its not. And I don't get why he doesn't just go to Telltale.