The nicest man in gaming appeals to the fans - and is repaid several times over
Two days ago, video game industry veteran Tim Schafer started a campaign on Kickstarter, hoping to raise $400,000 to fund a brand new point-and-click adventure game. In eight hours, the total had been reached. At the time of writing, just two days later, Double Fine Studios have been pledged almost $1.5 million by 37,000 backers, and the total just keeps on climbing.
For the uninitiated, Kickstarter is a portal where budding inventors, artists and other assorted entrepreneurs can appeal for funds, making their case on the project's page while requesting a funding amount and a date by which the limit must be reached. Kickstarter can be used to fund theoretically anything, from comic book veterans looking to break into children's literature to films about sexuality and disability. Some bids are more successful than others, but Schafer's has set a new record for the site.
As Kotaku's Luke Plunkett explains, Double Fine's success is pretty understandable. Although Call of Duty and its ilk continue to smash worldwide sales records, the success of Schafer's Kickstarter bid shows that there is a core of increasingly disenfranchised gamers who feel that gaming is moving away from its roots, losing its diversity and creativity as it goes.
In isolation, it's unlikely that Double Fine Adventure signals a sea-change in the way that media is funded; this is only one game, after all, and Schafer is already a much-loved industry figure. His venture into the uncertain waters of cheap, download-only games was a very public one, and the critical success of titles such as Costume Quest and Stacking mean that his position as a modestly-funded indie developer has never been far from the public consciousness.
Nonetheless, the success of this bid is one that indie artists of all flavours should take note of; funding for Double Fine Adventure is not the only Kickstarter project to wildly exceed its goal, with webcomic The Order of the Stick raking in an astonishing $600,000 for paper reprints. These are not just successes for Kickstarter, but for the old adage of putting your money where your mouth is.
See the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter page here.
Two days ago, video game industry veteran Tim Schafer started a campaign on Kickstarter, hoping to raise $400,000 to fund a brand new point-and-click adventure game. In eight hours, the total had been reached. At the time of writing, just two days later, Double Fine Studios have been pledged almost $1.5 million by 37,000 backers, and the total just keeps on climbing.
For the uninitiated, Kickstarter is a portal where budding inventors, artists and other assorted entrepreneurs can appeal for funds, making their case on the project's page while requesting a funding amount and a date by which the limit must be reached. Kickstarter can be used to fund theoretically anything, from comic book veterans looking to break into children's literature to films about sexuality and disability. Some bids are more successful than others, but Schafer's has set a new record for the site.
As Kotaku's Luke Plunkett explains, Double Fine's success is pretty understandable. Although Call of Duty and its ilk continue to smash worldwide sales records, the success of Schafer's Kickstarter bid shows that there is a core of increasingly disenfranchised gamers who feel that gaming is moving away from its roots, losing its diversity and creativity as it goes.
In isolation, it's unlikely that Double Fine Adventure signals a sea-change in the way that media is funded; this is only one game, after all, and Schafer is already a much-loved industry figure. His venture into the uncertain waters of cheap, download-only games was a very public one, and the critical success of titles such as Costume Quest and Stacking mean that his position as a modestly-funded indie developer has never been far from the public consciousness.
Nonetheless, the success of this bid is one that indie artists of all flavours should take note of; funding for Double Fine Adventure is not the only Kickstarter project to wildly exceed its goal, with webcomic The Order of the Stick raking in an astonishing $600,000 for paper reprints. These are not just successes for Kickstarter, but for the old adage of putting your money where your mouth is.
See the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter page here.
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