Double Fine decides to break some records (and also make a new point and click)

[Ingmar]

I continue to scratch my head. I had literally almost no problems at all with it. On the same machine I couldn't run Fallout 3 for more than an hour without a crash or graphical freakout.

[Rokal]

Every Obsidian game I have ever played was a buggy half-baked mess. I loved Fallout 3, but I didn't even bite on New Vegas for $5 during the last steam sale because of my past experiences with Obsidian. KOTOR 2, NWN2, and Alpha Protocol were all full of bugs, poor production values (voice acting, cinematics), or poor design choices (NWN2 camera/UI, Alpha Protocol shooting mechanics, etc.). This is the Obsidian legacy:

    Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2004)
    Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006)
    Alpha Protocol (2010)
    Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
    Dungeon Siege III (2011)

Doublefine games are at their best when they are allowed to tell a story and make you laugh without having (not always great) gameplay get in the way. It's no Psychonauts 2, but I'm confident they'll be able to make a really great game as a result of this kickstarter.

[Ingmar]

You're missing out badly with New Vegas.

[koro]

I continue to scratch my head. I had literally almost no problems at all with it.

This is pretty much what happened with me as well, and I got New Vegas maybe two weeks after it launched. Even now, 300 some odd hours later, I still haven't really run into major issues with it.

Hell, I haven't run into many technical problems with pretty much any Obsidian game, and I own 'em all aside from DS3.

[Severian]

Back to Kickstarter, Cliff "Cliffski" Harris of Positech has an opinion.

The kickstarter reality
Filed under: business cliffski 3:01 pm February 10, 2012

It’s great to see a game get made that could not be made because a publisher would not fund it, made real because actual real gamers, who are the whole reason for everything, stepped up and pledged the money. It’s great news.
 
But this is not *the* new publishing model, far from it. RPS noted that the developers ‘don’t have a publisher breathing down their necks’. Really? Maybe they have 10,000 publishers now, impatient, possibly wanting contradictory stuff (almost definitely…in fact), and not restrained by the politeness of scheduled milestone meetings behind closed doors. I hope it goes well, but it could get messy.
 
Plus the developer is boxed into a corner, they know exactly what they have to do with that money. This is not always a good thing. I ship maybe half the games I start. Gratuitous Tank Battles was not the game I intended to make. I intended to make a life-sim game, then abandoned it to make an RTS, then it morphed into GTB.
 
What if kickstarter had funded subversion? the game that introversion admit ‘didn’t work’ when they actually got half way through development. Would they have had to plough ahead, and ship a game they fundamentally knew was broken? Not a good position to be in.
 
Yeah I know… I’m mr doom and gloom

[Rokal]

You're missing out badly with New Vegas.

Funny, people said the same thing about NWN2 :p

[Ingmar]

Actually don't bother trying it, I'm pretty sure you'd be bound and determined to find it shitty at this point.

[Lantyssa]

It's not WoW, so of course he would.

[Rokal]

It's not WoW, so of course he would.

Well, New Vegas doesn't have playable pandas, so there is that. 

Actually don't bother trying it, I'm pretty sure you'd be bound and determined to find it shitty at this point.

Beyond my negative experiences with Obsidian games, my bigger problem is with NV is that it's just more Fallout 3. I already had my fill of that universe for the next 4-5 years between Fallout 3 and all of the DLC. So you're right that there isn't really any way I'd enjoy the game.

Obsidian is making the South Park RPG which is something I'm actually pretty interested in. That said, there is a monumental difference in fan good-will that Obsidian and Double Fine would generate. I'd be seriously surprised to see an Obsidian Kickstart project pull in anywhere near the numbers Double Fine has.

[Ingmar]

They just have to call it a Chris Avellone, Maker of Planescape: Torment Kickstart project instead.

[UnSub]

How much money would people kick in for any of these projects? US$2 - $3m? Because that isn't a lot in game development terms.

And then are they willing to wait more than a year, and possibly contribute more money if the studio spends the Kickstarter pledges but the game still isn't finished?

Now, you personally might be willing to kick in $10k and wait 5 years for the next Planescape: Torment, but you'd be in the minority.

[sickrubik]

The minority playing an awesome game.

[taolurker]

Message from Tim Schafer founder of Doublefine
Double Fine Adventure! // Update #1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFKwplDBmgg&feature=player_embedded

This guy is a the next great meme, ahem, I mean game developer.

[K9]

He seems lovely

[Yegolev]

Write script then read.

[koro]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-16-brian-fargo-using-kickstarter-for-wasteland-sequel

All aboard the bandwagon!

[Cadaverine]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-16-brian-fargo-using-kickstarter-for-wasteland-sequel

All aboard the bandwagon!

Mmm, Wasteland.  The second PC game I played after Bard's Tale I, and the beginning of the end of any hope of accomplishing anything worthwhile in high school.

[trias_e]

God I hope these games don't end up sucking.  Because I'm throwing all my disposable income at them.  (which isn't much but whatever shut up)

[Ingmar]

Feeling a lot more lukewarm about this one, I kinda feel like Wasteland already had its sequel(s).

[UnSub]

An interesting point that a lot of people missed was Schafer's indication that Psychonauts 2 would need a budget of US$13m to be possible. The focus of the story was "Notch says he'll fund it, then he says he's not sure", but that budget figure is very interesting when put next to the Kickstarter target.

And Psychonauts 2 is arguably still a niche title.

[sickrubik]

I don't know how it would be arguable. Mind you, a sequel would do a whole lot better than the first one did.

[Ingmar]

It doesn't especially surprise me that it would take a ton more money to make Psychonauts 2 vs. a point-and-click.

[Rasix]

Psychonauts 2 would be better as just a point-and-click, imo.

[Trippy]

Yes I hated the platforming and twitchy parts in Psychonauts. I got stuck on that level with the bull running around the loop and never finished.

[Severian]

The focus of the story was "Notch says he'll fund it, then he says he's not sure

Notch's new blog post on the topic: Hype!

[sickrubik]

Ah, go into the hiding. AKA, The Gabe Newell manuever.

Yes, no one talks about Half Life 3 at all.

[Ingmar]

I think they're still waiting for even HL 2 Episode 3 or whatever.

[sickrubik]

You and I said the same thing.

At this point, there's no reason to not just have it be HL3. Waiting this long and calling it HL2, Episode 3 would be stupid.

[murdoc]

Game and documentary funded. They managed to get $3,335,265 pledged through Kickstarter and another $110,000 in donations were made up of people contributing over the $10,000 Kickstarter maximum. Pretty impressive.

Now make a good game, dammit!

[koro]

https://twitter.com/#!/grumpygamer/status/180049762123390976

Best job application ever, except, hasn't he heard that adventure game are dead? http://rickrocket.de/df/

[Rokal]

On the topic of New Vegas/Obsidian:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/15/obsidian-missed-fallout-new-vegas-metacritic-bonus-by-one-point/

[K9]

Feeling a lot more lukewarm about this one, I kinda feel like Wasteland already had its sequel(s).

My feelings exactly.

[Fabricated]

Do we have a kickstarter thread? Ah well.

I threw some money to project to basically make a new-old Rainbow Six style shooter. If you're wondering what I mean by that, I mean a full on actual tactical, scenario based shooter. For real wanna-be SWAT/ATF/PMC nerds where you plan full-on routes/timed assault to take out stuff like bunkered up hostage situations, terrorist hideouts, etc etc with aspergers-level detail. I kinda had fond memories of the original Rainbow Six titles and SWAT series.

The team has some industry vets in it from Monolith, Bungie, etc.

http://kck.st/zHvzBF

[murdoc]

99% of the people giving money to Doublefine would have never been on Kickstarter to begin with if it weren't for this. If anything this is going to expose more Kickstarter projects to potential donors, not less.

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/blockbuster-effects

In the month before Double Fine, the Video Games category averaged 629 pledges per week. After Double Fine's launch, the Video Games category averaged 9,755 pledges per week, excluding pledges to Double Fine itself. The jump is similar in terms of dollars:

$1,776,372 was pledged to the Video Games category in Kickstarter's first two years. In the six weeks after Double Fine, $2,890,704 was pledged ($6,227,075 counting Double Fine).
Before Double Fine, one video game project had exceeded $100,000. Now, nine have.
Wasteland 2, a million-dollar game project that launched after Double Fine, has received nearly $400,000 in pledges from Double Fine's first-time backers.
Did only the Video Games category benefit? Of the 60,000 people whose first-ever pledge was to Double Fine, 13,715 of them (22%) have backed another project. Here's their activity after their Double Fine pledge:

Dollars Pledged: $877,171
Distinct Projects Backed: 1,266
To date, new Double Fine backers have pledged an additional $875,000 to 1,200 projects. Here are those pledges by category:

tl;dr: Doublefine backers have pledged a$875,000 to other projects, with 61,692 (71%) of them being first time backers.

[Xuri]

That should be the final nail in the coffin for the whole "evul moneygrabbing pro developers are killing kickstarter"-discussion, then.