One interesting response in the reddit thread about this was someone saying "...now you can fund the shit that nobody still wants to play?", followed by "20.000 is nothing", when another poster pointed out that over 20.000 people were already backing this project.

This seems to be exactly the publisher's point of view. If you consider marketing, development costs, console licensing fees, ... paying everyone involved in the project and to make sure that there's still profit left over for everyone involved, then 20.000 people buying your game is not that much.

However, for me this kickstarter project is kind of the opposite of pirating, where the developer gets the money before the development process has even started and they don't need to worry if they will break even, since the original goal has already been reached anyway. Plus, as already mentioned several times, they cut out the middle-man with this approach, so that this could definitely open doors for new & interesting projects.

Even though 20.000 is not much for a publisher of a AAA title, I am pretty sure that the final amount will turn heads in the gaming industry and might spawn some new developer <-> customer relationships similar to this kickstarter funding.

Some analysis here:

1. The publisher in this case has a track record, so there is less risk involved.

2. $15 for an adventure game sounds "well priced"

3. There is a bit of risk reversal on the pledgers since the game might turn out to be awful. This is compared to buying a game after it has been reviewed.

4. However, the risk is only $15

5. There is much nostalgia, and even if $15 is wasted, it would have been a nice way to thank Tim for the good times in the past.

6. Presumably the game might cost a little bit more when it is released.

7. What happens if the publishers blow out their budget? It is a sizeable team.

What makes a project like this succeed so spectacularly on kickstarter? Is it because the video is so well done? Or because Tim Schafer is behind it? Or because a lot of people want to play an adventure game? Or the perfect storm of all of the above? Just trying to wrap my brain around it.

I'm actually quite shocked that game publishers aren't lining up to give Tim Schafer all the money he wants. But I don't really know what's going on in that industry.

They're currently $300k over their goal. Amazing.

Can we get a Kickstarter project going for an open-engine, updated graphics, Grim Fandango?

At this rate, this adventure game will also be ported to MS-DOS

There are actually more donation tiers, but they're not listed on that page because KS only goes up to $10,000. http://www.doublefine.com/news/comments/the_double_fine_adve...

It's really amazing he raised that much money so quickly, with so many in the higher tiers as well, especially since the higher tiers of funding are still a donation and do not provide any equity in the project. I suppose the original art wouldn't be worthless though!

This project may exceed the previous highest donation record on kickstarter, which that record was awarded yesterday to that iPhone dock. Kickstarter is really starting to make some money I see.

Sigh. PC game. I'm not sure how long it's been since I've even seen a PC. I suppose I could kick in some money and hope it works under Virtualbox.

And right after this adventure he should create a sequel to Brütal Legend!

On a tangent, is there anything as well designed and with as many features as Kickstarter but that can support projects from outside of the US?

Could this work for a project that ended up free for everyone? What would the rewards be?

  limited-edition t-shirts
  limited-edition action figures
  dinner with the devs
  cool gold-colored cd/dvd/usbkey/etc with the software
  your likeness as a minor character
  limited-edition plush toys

Wow, I've never even heard of kickstarter. This is a space I'll be looking at!

Please be Maniac Mansion III.

Funny headline allusion error. It was a nice surprise to see that they were 100% funded in just 8 hours. I guess Notch's push made a big difference.

Tim Schafer is a reinvent-the-wheel kind of guy, and most of the giant publishers prefer to polish their existing wheels. They run very risk-averse business models -- preferring to milk big, cash cow franchises for all they're worth before being dragged, kicking and screaming, into new IP. They'd much rather invest hundreds of millions into Sequel #235 of Big Franchise X than invest even a fraction of that budget across a spectrum of innovative, but less self-evidently commercial titles. It's not at all dissimilar to the way the big-studio movie business works.

Schafer is the kind of guy who wins awards and accolades, but doesn't move as many millions as, say, "Call of Duty 45: Modern Ware 38: Future Warfare." His stuff is wildly inventive, but it's quirky and plays to a (relatively) niche audience.

But I'd argue that Schafer and Kickstarter are a great pair, precisely because of that dynamic. He's got his fanbase. While that fanbase is smaller than the Big Studio Franchise customer base, it's much more devoted. And if he can work directly with his loyal fanbase, ideally even growing it in the process, then he can do well financially and operate with greater creative freedom.

Industry insiders correct me if I'm wrong, but Grim Fandango was pretty much the final nail in the coffin (no pun intended) of the pure adventure genre, because it had terrible sales. Simultaneously, it was a true masterpiece - one of the best in the genre. So it's not surprising that lots of people grew up loving adventure games and now have the disposable income and the nostalgia to fund a Kickstarter project, while at the same time making this a risky project for a game publisher.

I once spent an incredibly frustrating period trying to sell a game demo to a number of publishers, all of whom thought it looked and played great, but didn't have a slot for it because their slate was full of licenses and franchises.

Publishers are ever-increasingly risk-averse - particularly when modern console games cost as much as they do to produce (eg. >$50MM). Movie licenses and sequels tend to do well, so that's where bulk of the money goes.

More innovative/creative games, (and Double Fine's are definitely in this category), are often critical successes, but perform poorly in financial terms. (We could argue as to whether this is due to people simply not wanting those kind of games, or whether it's due to publishers not committing to really pushing them).

I'm really glad to see Tim trying something like this, and really, really hope it works out. I'd love to see another viable mechanism for indie game development.

I believe that its because his games typically don't sell as well as the publishers' other games. Psychonauts, for example, was a critically acclaimed game, but flopped commercially.

People like to chalk this up to the publishers being stupid or conservative, and there may be some elements of that. But I doubt a publisher would leave money on the table if it was as sure of a bet as the internet community makes it out to be.

For all the talk of folks crying out, "bring back adventure games". The simple fact is that many many times more people queue up to buy the latest Call of Duty than will ever buy any adventure game.

No different than the movie business. Publisher's want $100M hits, not $10M hits.