Double Fine Adventure -- Woa!

Tim Schafer Announces an (as yet untitled) point-and-click adventure. The adventure game fans respond with enthusiasm!


Sometime in the dusky morning hours of February 9, 2012, Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions announced that they were raising money on Kickstarter for a new adventure game in the classic style. You can read the announcement here on the Double Fine website.

Anyone who has ever said that "adventure games are dead" should officially eat their words.

As of this moment, the game has already raised $742,234 from adventure gamers.

I could (of course) be overstating the implications, but there's a chance the world has just changed.

The information about this new game was first brought to our attention here. You can read more about the game, including an update from Tim Schafer here.

That's amazing and such great news! THanks Becky!
I wish them much success.

Ana

Amazed in this thread as well :-)

Kathiehal (from last thread) - I don't recall hearing anything about Cognition, meaning it was obviously not published as well as in this case. And I meant what I said, Jane Jensen's games mean a lot more to me. I'm not super informed, but I do hang out in forums and make sure I hear about the hottest news.
With this one, I got one friend of mine posting this in FB yesterday, then today morning two more friends posted an article about it (and they're no adventure fans!), we actually have an article about this in one of the most popular newspapers in Israel (I live in Berlin but I keep myself updated)... so marketing is, as Jane has also probably learnt, super important. And probably a very big reason, why this thing worked.

It is a shame however that this can only function if you already have a big name in the industry. New developers don't really have the chance to gather money like this.



LOL, just noticed that. Could be, could be!

Tomer, I posted regarding Cognition here.

Ana

Tomer -- that's great that non-adventure-gamers are posting about this. From what you've said, it sounds like it's generating excitement within the gaming community in general.

Browneyedtiger, I'm sure it was published, but I personally am not here every day and sometimes even for periods.
Besides, I don't bother reading every bit of news unless it somehow attracts me. I definitely intend to read more of Cognition now, but the point is, that article and video were somehow so approachable, that even without being a fan of Ron gilbert I was seduced And the fact is, it arrived to such huge scales. Sure, they guys' a legend, but not more than Jane Jensen is. So the reason MUST be marketing, don't you agree?

The video Carla posted a link to is a shriek! It's honestly more entertaining than some games I've played. "These days it seems like adventure games are almost a bit of a lost art form, exist in our dreams, our memories, in Germany...."
It must be a total hoot to work with Tim Schafer.

Gil.

They're almost up to $948,000!

Tomer--well, feel free to jump over to our site and read all about it now! www.cognitiongame.com

But yes, as I said, we didn't get the same kind of coverage. I mean, this Double Fine project was up on Kotaku, Gamasutra, Joystiq, etc, almost immediately. These guys absolutely executed a very well-planned PR strategy to make this happen! And once enough momentum was going, this thing has just plain become unstoppable. I have no doubt they'll break $1 million by the end of the day. It's on fire!

So, yes, they've got marketing--and money to spend on marketing, which we did not. End of the day, though, we're very proud of the $34K we raised, and we're still the 8th...er, guess I should make that 9th most successful video game project on Kickstarter! That sure ain't nothing.

Kathie, so it's still in production? Does one get to "buy" the game through the donations or are they real donations? :-) (if the answer is "no" - there's a huge difference already!).

So you're still collecting donations, I understand?
The game does look promising. Graphics seem a bit old fashioned, but the atmosphere and plot. That's my thing.

(sorry, a little off topic)

btw, they just hit a million :-)

Tomer--Yes. I'll send a PM with details.

Also, OMG 1 MILLION!! That is frakking amazing!

If they keep on going like this, they may just disappear to live the good life in some tropical paradise. The response Double Fine is getting is totally amazing.

Gil.

Lol, that's what I was thinking.

I guess they really do deserve it... but I also would be happy if the community were that generous with less popular but potentially brilliant developers...

No doubt about it - it's so exciting now, everyone wants to share his part in it...

Yay, I'm so happy, I "donated for cognition which sounds promising and for this Ron Gilbert thing... things to look forward to! :-)

If they do they will be taking $15 of mine with them.

BobH,

You're not going to believe this but I read that as $15 million right at first. Lol! Whoa indeed!

I just watched a terrific video that honestly explains why I was willing to invest my pence in a Double Fine game sight unseen. Ron Gilbert's keynote speech at PAX 2009 The last two segments particularly are an impassioned argument for video games as art. Gilbert and Schafer are brilliant at what they do, I trust them, and even if this falls flat, I'm willing to let them create and take chances on my dime. (A dime being just about what I had to throw in the pot.)

Gil.

A new interview with Tim Schafer now that Double Fine has $1.6 million and counting.

"Schafer: That’s been really flattering and touching. It’s been really emotional for the whole team, I think, because we’ve had a roller coaster ride in the last couple of years. Just last month we had a project cancelled, and it was really hard on us, and we were like “Are we going to have to lay people off?” But instead, we decided to keep everyone together, and having that at a time when we’ve been struggling, to have this huge outpouring of love from the community and the fans and other developers...it’s just been something that reminded everyone at the company that what they’re doing is noticed by people and matters to people."

Gil.

I think they will be asking for raises now.

I dunno, they may still be celebrating not being laid off.

Gil.

This is such terrific news! Can't wait to see what this game is all about. Tim Shafer created one of my favorite games of all time (Grim Fandango for those who don't know ), so I'm very much on board with this one!

Double Fine is going to offer the game DRM-free to backers who want it that way once it's ready! So saith Tim Schafer in this update on YouTube.

Do we have an icon for Yeehaa!?

Beta versions only on Steam, though, "for security reasons". Well, I can't blame them but it's a sad thing that you have to secure a game.



Gil.

Playing a game online via Steam is NOT a form of DRM?

It is to me, Becky. Double Fine is saying right now that backers can get the finished game DRM-free for PC, Mac & Linux, or via Steam for PC & Mac. I'm a techie noodle so I may be wrong but wouldn't that be one of the easiest promises to implement through some other site they cajoled into cooperating? I doubt Steam has anything to complain about since there are plenty of people who won't care if it's DRM-free or not. Strange but there it is.

I wish they'd go that route for Stacking. I'd love to play it.

Gil.

Okay, as soon as my work hours improve/I get that job I applied for, which should be soonish, I'm becoming a backer. Was going to anyway, but the DRM-free option seals the deal even more.

Best of luck on that job, venus! Maybe you'll be able to afford the level where your perk is going bowling with Tim Schafer.

As soon as I can squeeze another few bucks out of the kitty (I'll probably have to strangle it), I'm going to up my pledge a bit.

Gil.

Thanks, traveler! Ha, yes, that would be a great perk! Maybe Jane Jensen, too? It could be a party.

Noooo, don't strangle your kitty!

Dumb question: why is it so exciting to have a DRM-free game?
A friend of mine just explained it to me but I didn't really get the relevance of it in an adventure game...?

if it's been explained to you, Tomer, but you still don't see the relevance I doubt I can add anything that would change your mind

But I personally absolutely welcome a "DRM free" availability

Mad, it's not about changing my mind. I had no idea what it means, and he told me "well, for games like Heroes of might and magic for examples - they keep making sure you didn't rip the game", which sounded fair enough to me, and he said it is to prevent people from using online options when they didn't buy the game.

I don't understand how this is relevant for an adventure, that's all. That's why I asked it here.

Just out of curiosity, Tomer, why do you say you don't see the relevance of objecting to DRM for adventure games? Is there another type of game that you would object to buying if it came with strings attached?

Gil.

OK let's assume you are one of those people who NEVER replays an adventure game a few years later -- either because you have an incredible memory and can remember everything in a game you played 5+ years ago, or because you refuse to play games with graphics that look 5+ years old, or because for whatever reason you refuse to play "older" games or games you have played before. So you have no use for backing up a game to reinstall and replay a few years down the road without needing to "phone home" to some server that no longer exists to activate it.

Let's assume you've never had a virus -- nor had a hard drive fail while playing a game, or other computer problems that necessitated a new install on a different computer or a freshly formatted hard drive.

Let's assume you have a lightning fast internet connection that never stalls out during a download or produces a corrupt download, so you never use up your 3 allotted downloads.

Let's assume you've always received the emails that contain activation codes promptly and without having to email to request them several times.

Let's assume you've never had problems activating, or if you did, you heard back from support immediately and the problem was cleared up in less than a day.

Let's assume you never had a conflict between your game and something else on your system -- like an antivirus or anti-malware program that deleted your game exe or firewall that blocked your activation.

If all these are the case, and you've never had to deal with this sort of aggravation, then maybe "DRM-free" is nothing for you personally to be excited about. But for those who've had difficulties with DRM, or who object to it on principle, or who have the foresight to see the problems it could cause down the road, "DRM-free" is great news.

It's not just a matter of "owning" the games you buy and being able to replay them whenever you want on any system you want, even if it's a few years after you bought them. It's often a matter of being able to play them at all -- even once:

Check the problems with DRM and support that people have had with "Corrosion -- Cold Winter" in ***this thread*** and ***here***.

Someone from the company sent in some tech support suggestions -- but because of the restrictive DRM and limits on downloads and activations, the suggestions won't work.

Hopefully now you can see why some adventure gamers are excited when a game like this from a famous developer is released with no DRM.

I don't understand at all why everyone are so upset - what I meant to say is that I didn't understand the *meaning* of this - like I didn't understand what DRM implies for adventures - I do now! I never had such problems or had read of these problems before. I appreciate the explanation although I found all your comments rather aggressive - I simply had no idea what DRM stands for and didn't know its implications! That's why I wrote: "dumb question". I couldn't really get this information in Google so I asked the forum members.

I wasn't arguing anything or claiming anything, I don't know how one can understand it from either of my posts...

Oh well, I hope you're all calm now... I have nothing against it.

Tomer, not upset here. I don't get the big to do over DRM either. I do not like invasive software but most of these are just checking you purchased it legitimately and aren't sharing. I do not have a problem with that at all.

Ana

I am sorry, Tomer. I thought you knew that DRM stood for Digital Rights Management and all that implies. I do apologize.

Gil.

I'm sorry if you read my post as being "aggressive" because it was intended to be thorough, not aggressive. I'm not sure why you saw it as aggressive, but at least it seems to have answered your question.

Alrighty all :-)