I’m not going to write anything pretending that someone will be reading
about it for the first time here, but this Double Fine kickstarter thing
is pretty interesting for many, many reasons.

It’s a strange position Double Fine have put themselves in. While the video that accompanies the appeal is completely tongue in cheek, it is pretty much word for word what fans have been claiming for years; “if you made a game I’d buy it”. And while Kickstarter has undoubtedly proven that point in the most amazing way anyone would have ever imagined, more than likely it is a one time thing. I’m not saying that this won’t work again in future for Double Fine, but it will never work to this degree.

Many people are heralding Double Fine’s funding endeavors as a middle finger to publishers, that this is truly the beginning of some grand independent game development movement, that developers are going to be able to have free reign as to what they make – because the fans can fund it and there will be no need for publishers – but realistically it’s not going to make much difference to the industry. There have been plenty of fad publishing schemes over the years, Episodic Gaming says “hi”, and this is really just another example of one.

It’s a strange position they’ve put themselves into at this point, too. Several days in and they are already four times over their required budget of $400,000, but then what do you do with that money? Their FAQ states any extra money would be used to improve voiceover and music budgets or release the game to different platforms, as well as putting money back into the accompanying documentary, but that is going to be one hell of awesome documentary and/or audio quality. With the exception of amazing special effects and CGI in the documentary, music by John Williams and voice talent from massive celebrities, I struggle to see how they can possibly re-invest the entirety of their earnings into just one game.

To get more on topic of this section, I labeled a bunch of stuff in the room and wrote Look At descriptions for objects in the room, but it would be too much of a pain to screenshot them all so I guess you’ll have to take my word for it. Slow goings, I know, but progress is progress.