Adventures in Funding

Unless you had your head under a rock for the past week, you might have noticed that Double Fine made a little stir in the gaming community by using Kickstarter to fund a brand new point and click adventure game. They needed $400,000. They raised it in about eight hours. They then hit a million dollars in under 24 hours, and broke Kickstarter records. Four days from when they started, and they are currently sitting at $1.6 million, four times the initial amount. By the time their Kickstarter page closes in a months time, I wouldn't be surprised if they hit $2 million. Basically, Double Fine did something amazing.

A lot of people were commenting about how this might affect the industry. Some suggested that it might be the end of publishers. Others came back stating that the Kickstarter approach only really works for studios with an established studio such as Double Fine, which is true. But I think what is important about what DF have done is more the idea behind it.


When I first thought about it, I was worried that DF might not actually be able to turn a profit on their new game. Even the basic donation of 15 dollars nets you a free copy of the game. If everyone interested in the game already has a copy, the game isn't going to sell to anyone. Then I realised, at this stage, DF already have made a profit. The money they've raised is their profit. At this stage, making the game is just a formality. The game has essentially been funded and sold. They've cut out publishers and retailers. And that is the important factor.

Imagine games that have been demanded by fans for years that the publishers have been unwilling to make due to fear of not recouping costs. Asking fans to buy the game in advance through a Kickstarter style campaign would actually work perfectly. If not all the money is raised, then no money is taken and the game isn't developed. But if enough money is raised, then everyone who donated gets a free copy of the game and the game is made. Square might finally make a new Chrono game. Mother might be translated into English and released in the West. Chris Avellone is making noises about crowd-funding a new Obsidian top-down RPG game.

Essentially, it's buying a game before it's even been developed, which is a scary prospect at first. However, I genuinely believe that this could be one of the single most important developments in the games industry in a long time. As Ian Hardingham says, I'm so excited to involved in it.

In non-Double Fine related news, I wrote a review for Jazz: Trump's Journey, which is a really enjoyable puzzle platformer on iOS. Also, I'm writing for darkzero now. So that's cool.

Also, I'm probably not going to be posting in a while. Uni work combined with crap going on in my real world life has led me into a bit of slump recently so I'm not really in the right headset for writing about stuff. I'll probably do some reviews/articles for darkzero and Newb Review, but for the time being, I'm sticking the blog on a bit of a hiatus. Feel free to chat to me on Twitter though.

Right enough of that depressing life shit. I will see you all when I see you. Happy gaming. And also, give more money to Double Fine.