Yesterday, we reported that game studio Double Fine had decided to offer up the future of their next big project to fans through a Kickstarter program. Intended to fund not only the game’s six-to-eight month development but also a documentary by 2 Player Productions the fan-funded project has already become a huge success.
Blowing away the projects meagre (by industry standards) $400,000 goal, in eight hours, fans have shown that they believe in Double Fine – as well as the exciting opportunity that’s been presented.
The project started when Double Fine founder Tim Schafer decided he wanted to develop an old-school point-and-click adventure game despite publishers stating that there was no market for the genre. Shafer’s gamble paid off – in a single day the studio had over 27,000 backers who have together contributed over one million dollars, two and a half times the goal. Apparently, at least among Double Fine fans, there is a market for point and click games. Not to mention, with the Kickstarter page remaining open until March 13th 2012, the market is sure to grow.
Thinking of contributing to the project? There are other reasons to offer-up some funding.
- Contributors of at least $15 will get a copy of the game, access to the beta test, connection to the Double Fine online community, as well as the ability to watch the accompanying documentary.
- $30 contributions will give backers all of the above as well as HD downloads of the documentary and a digital copy of the game’s soundtrack.
- The incentives grow from there and include such things as dinner with Tim Schafer as well as bowling with the crew from Double Fine.
As for the documentary, Double Fine and 2 Player Productions have stated that the film will be released in pieces on a monthly basis to all backers – and is planned to show everything that goes into making a game, good, bad, or otherwise. Instead of a rosy feel-good film, the developer and filmmakers want to present to the public what working in the games industry is actually like without sugar coating the interviews or glossing over the problems that crop up during development – even if things go horribly wrong.
Gamers out there who are interested in backing the project can do so on the official Kickstarter page and get in on the excitement. After all, even though the team has already met their goal, they’ve stated that any money over and above will be put towards more platform releases, increasing music and voice acting budgets, as well as translations into other languages. Then, when the game is released later this year, backers can download it through Steam or alternative sources depending on the platform of their choosing – and play through a game that they’ve been a part of developing.
The opportunity to help fund, get insight into development, and even get to offer some input along the way is extremely exciting for gamers.
Source: Kickstarter
Xbox One: Watch The Next-Gen Xbox Presentation Here! 
Electronic Arts Engineer Blasts the Wii U 
What You May Not Know About The ‘Xbox One’ [Updated] 
GR Giveaway: Win a Superhero-Sized Trip to San Diego This July! 
Loading ...
Well they better not disappoint then.
Shows how stupid and ignorant publishers are. “there is no market for point and click games” they say. Guess they put thier foots in thier mouths.
I’d say it’s more about the fact that it’s a Double Fine game that people are raising so much money for it. The point and click genre is fairly niche in most of the world, excluding genre mixes like Phoenix Write, so of course publishers wouldn’t back the idea. Economics, man, they were using them; too bad they didn’t realize that Double Fine had such a loyal fanbase.
Wright**
I’m not a fan of point and click adventures but I will play anything from Tim Schafer!