Double Fine Adventure

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Ok, getting a full game for $15 makes sense then. In my mind, if someone is creating something for profit then you should get something in return if you give them money.

And this case is nothing like charity. Charities do not operate for profit, and they help people. Double Fine makes video games. It's more like handing $5 to Starbucks and not getting a latte in return. I'm curious if anyone will do a social experiment and basically ask for donations for a new car, with the return being a photo of the person in the new car if they donate over $5 and the offer reaches its threshold.

I don't think you'd be able to do that on kickstarter, at least. Pretty sure Kickstarter has to approve projects before they are listed, and some like "buy me a car" wouldn't get approved.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Ok, getting a full game for $15 makes sense then. In my mind, if someone is creating something for profit then you should get something in return if you give them money.

And this case is nothing like charity. Charities do not operate for profit, and they help people. Double Fine makes video games. It's more like handing $5 to Starbucks and not getting a latte in return. I'm curious if anyone will do a social experiment and basically ask for donations for a new car, with the return being a photo of the person in the new car if they donate over $5 and the offer reaches its threshold.

I can't believe you guys have never heard of kickstarter before. Jesus.

How kickstarter works:

People come up with projects or ideas such as:

Youtube band wants to make an album but needs 20,000 to do the studio stuff and print the initial run of cds.

So they submit the project to kickstarter if it gets approved they then have to come up with a series of rewards for donations and set a goal amount.

So if the goal amount is 20000 they then have to set a time limit of how long it will take to get the money. Say 2 months.

If by the end of the 2 months they have enough people pledged to donate 20,000 or more then the donations all go through. Even if they only asked for 20k if the donations go above that say to even 60k they still get all the money.

If by the end of the time period they were only donated say... 19.5k then they get nothing, the money doesn't get taken out of people's bank accounts or anything.

So hopefully now you understand Kickstarter a little better.

Also Vampyr was right, they don't let people post things like "Buy me a new car"

[Professor S]

In that case, I think they need to find a better word than donations. When I donate something, I'm not expecting anything in return, but investment doesn't work either. Contribution?

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by TheSlyMoogle

I can't believe you guys have never heard of kickstarter before. Jesus.

How kickstarter works:

People come up with projects or ideas such as:

Youtube band wants to make an album but needs 20,000 to do the studio stuff and print the initial run of cds.

So they submit the project to kickstarter if it gets approved they then have to come up with a series of rewards for donations and set a goal amount.

So if the goal amount is 20000 they then have to set a time limit of how long it will take to get the money. Say 2 months.

If by the end of the 2 months they have enough people pledged to donate 20,000 or more then the donations all go through. Even if they only asked for 20k if the donations go above that say to even 60k they still get all the money.

If by the end of the time period they were only donated say... 19.5k then they get nothing, the money doesn't get taken out of people's bank accounts or anything.

So hopefully now you understand Kickstarter a little better.

Also Vampyr was right, they don't let people post things like "Buy me a new car"

I think this is the OTHER benefit of this Double Fine stuff is it brings action to KickStarter on a major level.

Yeah, its been used for quite some time, but this is the first time to my knowledge is has really gotten major coverage in any field.

[The Germanator]

Originally Posted by Professor S

In that case, I think they need to find a better word than donations. When I donate something, I'm not expecting anything in return, but investment doesn't work either. Contribution?

Well, technically the word Kickstarter uses is "backing the project." You can choose the amount you want to "back" a project. Honestly, the idea is pretty self-explanatory, I don't think the wording matters that much.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Yeah kickstarter uses the word backers. They ask you to help fund the project.

Also earl, kickstarter got a ton of coverage on cnn a while back when julia nunes used it to fund her latest album.

[Fox 6]

Hit 2 million.

[Jason1]

Is that enough for a sequel to Grim Fandango?

[Acebot44]

Just as an update, Doublefine ended up raising more than 3mil. I pledged.

Also, Wasteland 2 had 380k when I checked yesterday, and, 24 hours later, already reached their goal of 900k.


I can't wait to see what effects this new funding model will have on game development.