Fund your own adventure game!

[Mr. Johnson]

All the info you need is here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/667 ... -adventure

TL;DR: (there's a video though)
Legendary adventure game developers Tim Shafer and Ron Gilbert are asking for your money to fund their next adventure game, and as an added bonus they'll be filming the whole thing so you can see how a game is made from start to finish, and there are bonuses for big funders so check the link!
As a massive Tim Shafer fanboy I'll definitely throw a part of what little cash I have at them (when I have it) and you should do the same damn it.

[Grimmie]

Sounds great, but 33 Days to raise over $350,000?
This is why Kickstarter projects always worry me.

[deject]

http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments ... e_is_here/
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/667 ... -adventure

Double Fine, the small studio run by Tim Schafer responsible for some of the most interesting* new games out there (Iron Brigade, Stacking, Costume Quest, Psychonauts, Happy Action Theater) are embarking on an experiment to create a new point & click adventure game, funded by fans of the old school adventure game. If you don't remember, Tim Schafer is the guy responsible for classics like Full Throttle and Grim Fandango, and was on the team that made Day of the Tentacle. It doesn't get more legit than this. If you remember the awesome old days of point & click adventure games, you should definitely check this out. You can pledge a tenner (if the conversion rates are accurate, it's $15) to secure a copy of the game, or double that for making of documentary and soundtrack.

[Joose]

Hells yeah, they have my axe...er, money.

Sounds great, but 33 Days to raise over $350,000?
This is why Kickstarter projects always worry me.

I don't understand, what's worrying you about it? 33 Days for $350000 sounds easily doable to me. Projects like this tend to have a surge of late donations, from the "WHY DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?" and "I've had to wait for payday" crowds.

EDIT: In the time it took me to post that, they went up over a thousand dollars

[Joose]

Oooo, deja vu.

And since my pledging, their total has gone up by $5k. Blimey.

[Joose]

OK, I don't think they are going to need the next 33 days. I don't think they are going to need the next 33 hours. I wouldn't be surprised if they make it in the next 33 minutes.

[Thompy]

The hell. When I first looked at it when MrJ made his post they were at about $110,000. Now $315,000?! I know Double Fine are an amazing company but adventure games are hardly the most popular on the market, so I'm really surprised, and even more so with the average donation more than $45.

I mean, great, but, how?! Guess I'm underestimating the fan base.

[Joose]

$333000 now.

I think part of it might be due to Notch throwing his support behind it on twitter the other day. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people are pledging just because he told them to. But fuck, as long as the game gets made, I really don't care where the money came from

[friznit]

I know this isn't technically an indie enterprise, but Notch & Steam have been a fantastic boost to the Indie gaming market. Notch for showing how it can be done with the 'cash for beta' pricing model and Steam for providing a cheap and easy method for them to market indie games to a wide audience.

[friznit]

Two freds! Must be good.

[Thompy]

'cash for beta' pricing model

I've not really paid attention to anything Kickstarter before, and something worries me slightly. Once your money is taken you can't get it back, unless I guess if the person is proven to have been fraudulent. If the project fails then tough luck. I don't expect it to but he does say a couple of times in the video something along the lines of "it might be a spectacular failure". So to your point, unlike a beta product, with this kind of Kickstarter project there may be no product at all to base your purchase on, it just comes down to trusting the people. Not quite sure how I feel about that in general, but in this case I trust Double Fine 99%.

[spoodie]

Two freds! Must be good.

I merged them and it felt good.

I was going to give $30 but judging by the current total they don't need much more money, so $15 will do. Point-n-click games are still being produced and I still play them.

[Mr. Johnson]

Oh shit, I can't believe that just happened.
Clearly they hit the mark because I and Deject posted about it.

[Joose]

I've not really paid attention to anything Kickstarter before, and something worries me slightly. Once your money is taken you can't get it back, unless I guess if the person is proven to have been fraudulent. If the project fails then tough luck. I don't expect it to but he does say a couple of times in the video something along the lines of "it might be a spectacular failure". So to your point, unlike a beta product, with this kind of Kickstarter project there may be no product at all to base your purchase on, it just comes down to trusting the people. Not quite sure how I feel about that in general, but in this case I trust Double Fine 99%.

I dont think this is what you mean, but just in case: Kickstarter projects dont take any of your money untill the total is met. In fact, im pretty sure thats not what you meant. Ignore me.

As for the beta thing: Games can go to beta and then fail horribly too, so its not quite that cut and dry. You're right, it does come down to trusting people, but I think thats part of the strength of Kickstarter projects, in that if you like the idea, but dont quite trust that they can pull it off, you could just pledge a couple of quid. Then, if it fails, you are only down a tiny amount of money, so it was worth a shot. If you really trust them, and really like the idea, you can plop as much money as you like down, and you offset all the people who are not quite as sure. Im sure there are projects in there that went totally pear shaped and all the money went away, but personally I think as long as there are *some* succesfull projects come out of it that wouldnt have otherwise happened, its all good.

Random aside: Ive often thought that if I were silly rich, I wouldnt go around buying myself 47 different cars or stupid shit like that, I would just sit on Kickstarter all day throwing money at things that I like the look of. That sounds a lot more fun to me.

[deject]

'cash for beta' pricing model

I've not really paid attention to anything Kickstarter before, and something worries me slightly. Once your money is taken you can't get it back, unless I guess if the person is proven to have been fraudulent. If the project fails then tough luck. I don't expect it to but he does say a couple of times in the video something along the lines of "it might be a spectacular failure". So to your point, unlike a beta product, with this kind of Kickstarter project there may be no product at all to base your purchase on, it just comes down to trusting the people. Not quite sure how I feel about that in general, but in this case I trust Double Fine 99%.

That's not true really. If they fail to deliver a project, we're all investors and as such have rights of our own. True there is no automatic mechanism to refund our money, but It's not like we have no recourse if things go belly up.

[deject]

Two freds! Must be good.

I was so excited I really didn't check to see if one existed already, lol.

[Grimmie]

*Eats words*

[deject]

I think the reason that people have claimed that adventure games are dead is the notion that games now all have to be massive, tens of millions of dollars or quid to make, big budget AAA titles. This has skewed the perception of every publisher in existence so much that they won't touch them anymore, which is really sad. Meanwhile, awesome people have banded together in just about 16-17 hours to raise well over $600,000 to fund the game they want. I for one welcome this new independent game development style. It will save gaming from eating itself up in the brogaming Modern Warfare arms race.

[Joose]

I for one welcome this new independent game development style.

[Dog Pants]

I don't know if I've missed something among all the ambient distractions of my home, but there doesn't seem to be any indication of what the game is over the genre. Of course Tim Schaefer's pedigree is enough of an indication it should be good, but surely a little overview of the idea above "it's a point-and-click adventure" is warranted?