Broken Age Catch-All

$1.5 million -- the budget for Full Throttle.

Malor wrote:

$1.5 million -- the budget for Full Throttle.

...in 1995 (?) US dollars. In 2012 US pesos that's more like 2,250,000.00

Yeah, but modern development tools and computers are much better and much faster. It's probably pretty comparable.

Scratched wrote:

There was a follow up post to that list, and a comment on that follow up - In the rest of the entertainment industry, they don't "forget" about people who worked on something with ongoing sales, because those people were paid for their work and are settled with the producer. Nowhere else in entertainment would it be expected that a stage artist, a make up artist, a recording technician, etc, would get ongoing payment from work they were involved in.

Don't get me wrong, it would make me happy in a "singing songs around the campfire" kind of way if everyone shared, but if people want that then they need it in their contract, and there's probably trade-offs for that too (coming soon: "My game-dev husband's salary sucks and we're not getting royalties because his game bombed")

AUs_TBirD wrote:

Basically, the development team was paid to produce a product and there might have been some incentives added to the contract, but I'd be surprised if there were any contract out there that stipulated "in perpetuity." The only way to ensure that is to ensure that you, as a developer, are also the rights holder - which is really tough to do if you have to get capital from an outside source.

Looking at it another way, it would sort of be like an architectural firm designing a shopping mall for a client, and then the design firm (and construction company, statical engineering office, etc) would receive a percentage of the sales taking place in the mall until it ceases to be. A sweet deal for the design firm, but not likely to happen in this universe unless the firm is also the property owner who leases out the various retail units - and that's going to be in exchange for rent, not sales percentages.

That's why I'm saying that if I buy an old game and I want to support the creators and not the company that bought the rights from another company who bought the rights from another company, I'll go and give the actual creators money. Tim Schafer once said that buying a t-shirt from their store gave them more support than buying any of their old games. Kickstarter is another really simple way to give money directly to (some of) the people who were the creative people who made that stuff and I'm happy to have the opportunity to give straight to them.

In an ideal world, things like Kickstarter can remove a lot of the risk from the process of producing these products / entertainment and the need for publishers who's main role is to shoulder that risk in return for a cut (or entire return) of profits from sales is reduced or eliminated. I think the result is a better situation for everyone except possibly the publishers and the manufacturers. No longer will an author need to sell thousands of books before their book is publishable. A musician can invest a few thousand themselves to get decent equipment and sell online and game companies, small and medium sized, can produce games with a similar freedom. In many of those situations, it's a lot less copies of things in the landfill.

Money is still coming in. Even when I refresh at times, it keeps going up. Not as steep as in the first few days...but still.
The amount at this time is:
47,935
BACKERS
$1,680,627
PLEDGED OF $400,000 GOAL

For those who were speculating on the cost of DoubleFine's 3 XBLA games relative to how much money they've raked in here, Tim Schafer himself tweeted the approximate cost -- much lower than most expected. About $2 mil. So, they're almost there.

Jeff-66 wrote:
MaxShrek wrote:

Point and click game? Umm.. no thanks.

Thanks for posting.

Ok, maybe you're right. Maybe I don't have a right to have an opinion.

I don't think he denies that right, just that it adds nothing to the discussion. I don't go popping into, say the Arkham City thread, just to announce that I have no interest.

MaxShrek wrote:
Jeff-66 wrote:
MaxShrek wrote:

Point and click game? Umm.. no thanks.

Thanks for posting.

Ok, maybe you're right. Maybe I don't have a right to have an opinion.

Total derail but it's really annoying when someone says "You shouldn't do that" and the response simply defends the right to do it. No one's taking away rights, they're just promoting civility and manners.

I have to admit that I expected a dropoff in donation rates after the first 24-48 hours, but it's come to a near standstill over the weekend, calling my final estimate of 5-6 million into serious doubt. Then again, let's see if things pick up again when people are bored at work starting today and willing to check news stories and make donations.

The campaign is being noticed in the mainstream media. There was even a moderately-informed piece on CNN about this. Check out this tweet that Tim reposted!

jimmyfallon jimmy fallon
by TimOfLegend
Congrats @timoflegend on the successful Kickstarter campaign! The more it gets funded, the more cool stuff gets made.

You can have an opinion, but saying JUST that you don't like the idea, with no other info, doesn't really add anything. You can do the exact same thing by not posting. There's only about 50K backers out of all those millions of gamers, so we already know that most people don't give a f***.

It just broke $1,700,000.

calling my final estimate of 5-6 million into serious doubt.

For what it's worth, I thought it would keep going for longer, too. Wasn't really expecting the sharp dropoff.

Malor wrote:

There's only about 50K backers out of all those millions of gamers, so we already know that most people don't give a f***. :-)

I still think you're underestimating the amount of people who aren't willing to pay for something that hasn't been made yet. Backers in this are essentially venture capitalists on a very small scale. It's not something most people are willing to partake in.

It's not really VC, it's more like an alumni donation or patronage. All we get is a game, he gets all the profit.

And I'm really just fine with that. I hope he makes a mint.

Malor wrote:

You can have an opinion, but saying JUST that you don't like the idea, with no other info, doesn't really add anything. You can do the exact same thing by not posting. There's only about 50K backers out of all those millions of gamers, so we already know that most people don't give a f***.

It just broke $1,700,000.

calling my final estimate of 5-6 million into serious doubt.

For what it's worth, I thought it would keep going for longer, too. Wasn't really expecting the sharp dropoff.

Started in the middle of a pay period. Might pick up again around the 16th when folks (like me) get their next check. I've got to wait to donate, but I'm doing it on payday.

Malor wrote:

It's not really VC, it's more like an alumni donation or patronage. All we get is a game, he gets all the profit.

And I'm really just fine with that. I hope he makes a mint.

You're right, VC is a bad comparison. My point stands, though. A lot of people around here refuse to preorder games on principle, this is just a more transparent form of that.

bighoppa wrote:

Started in the middle of a pay period. Might pick up again around the 16th when folks (like me) get their next check. I've got to wait to donate, but I'm doing it on payday.

Unless I'm mistaken you won't be charged until the KS campaign ends, so plan for that rather than the day you actually hit the donate button.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Malor wrote:

There's only about 50K backers out of all those millions of gamers, so we already know that most people don't give a f***. :-)

I still think you're underestimating the amount of people who aren't willing to pay for something that hasn't been made yet. Backers in this are essentially venture capitalists on a very small scale. It's not something most people are willing to partake in.

I think we're also significantly overestimating the number of people aware of this or willing to trust something unfamiliar like kickstarter. Gamers reading news stories about games or actively participating on forums such as this are still a minority, I suspect.

Yeah, they'll actually run the charges on Tuesday, March 13, at 8PM. Since this is the largest Kickstarter ever, it wouldn't surprise me if they're a little slow about getting all the charges through their systems.

Man, for that one day, to their CC clearinghouse, they're gonna look like freaking Amazon.

edit: they're using Amazon Payments, actually, so I guess they really WILL look like Amazon!

AUs_TBirD wrote:

Gamers reading news stories about games or actively participating on forums such as this are still a minority, I suspect.

Yes, a hundred times yes. It's awfully weird that the best selling franchise of the last ten years (CoD) gets at most five GWJ members posting in the game threads, no?

AUs_TBirD wrote:

I think we're also significantly overestimating the number of people aware of this or willing to trust something unfamiliar like kickstarter. Gamers reading news stories about games or actively participating on forums such as this are still a minority, I suspect.

I don't think it's just that, there's also the viral component of it too. The story broke and ran around the internet within 24 hours. Once that 15 minutes of fame was up donations dropped off. Even Penny-Arcade mentioning it twice really hasn't improved much.

It's also possible people are just closing the tab and not bothering to put money in since they don't want to pre-order and they already see the project is funded.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Yes, a hundred times yes. It's awfully weird that the best selling franchise of the last ten years (CoD) gets at most five GWJ members posting in the game threads, no?

I think most gamers who post on general purpose gaming boards aren't part of the hardcore CoD club.

On my question about TF2 promotional items, I got the reply:

Double Fine and 2 Player Productions
Monday Feb 13, 6:31pm BOT
That would be rad! We'll see what we can do!

Lets what comes of it

I am happy for Schaefer and Gilbert, yet something doesn't feel as right as everyone makes it out to be. Call me jaded, but I predict a gamer entitlement s#!+storm when people realize a) they "blindly" gave money for something that turned out differently from what they imagined and b) the game goes on sale within the first 6 months, dropping below the $15 that is the current lowest pledge level.

I'm not an adventure game fan, but I'm very interested in the documentary. Have they said if that will only be available to people that contribute the $30 minimum, or will it be standalone later?

Luggage wrote:

I am happy for Schaefer and Gilbert, yet something doesn't feel as right as everyone makes it out to be. Call me jaded, but I predict a gamer entitlement s#!+storm when people realize a) they "blindly" gave money for something that turned out differently from what they imagined and b) the game goes on sale within the first 6 months, dropping below the $15 that is the current lowest pledge level.

Yes, expectations management is going to be a pain for them.

As has been mentioned before in the thread, even a hint of community participation usually leads to bad things, from "Homer's car" to "The stats said everyone plays it as a shooter" to "why didn't you listen to my feedback to make it gritty and grim-dark?"

Dyni wrote:

I'm not an adventure game fan, but I'm very interested in the documentary. Have they said if that will only be available to people that contribute the $30 minimum, or will it be standalone later?

Pretty sure it's a free monthly stand-alone deal, with the $30+ contributors receiving HD copies of the documentary at some point.

Pledge $15 or more

The finished game in all of its awesome glory on Steam, exclusive access to the PC Beta on Steam, access to the video series, and access the private discussion community.

Scratched wrote:
Luggage wrote:

I am happy for Schaefer and Gilbert, yet something doesn't feel as right as everyone makes it out to be. Call me jaded, but I predict a gamer entitlement s#!+storm when people realize a) they "blindly" gave money for something that turned out differently from what they imagined and b) the game goes on sale within the first 6 months, dropping below the $15 that is the current lowest pledge level.

Yes, expectations management is going to be a pain for them.

As has been mentioned before in the thread, even a hint of community participation usually leads to bad things, from "Homer's car" to "The stats said everyone plays it as a shooter" to "why didn't you listen to my feedback to make it gritty and grim-dark?"

I actually think it won't be as bad as you're expecting. They're pretty up front about what you're getting-the documentary and a copy of the point and click adventure game(and yes, that's what they're making).

Doublefine doesn't have something like THE GAMERS BILL OF RIGHTS(coughStardockcough) to fail at(coughElementalcough). All they need to deliver is what they've been delivering for the last few years-a decent, funny game.

My guess is that Double Fine will do something clever to lampshade the whole process in the intro of the game, it'll be an issue for some people for about a week, and then no one will notice because they'll be too busy enjoying themselves.

Yeah, I think it's gonna be fine. Remember, most of the people chipping in here are OLD. Like, late 30s, mid 40s. I'm sure that most of us know to get the f*** out of the way and let Schafer work.

Agreed. I don't think this group (the backers or GWJ) has much in common with folks who, if polled, would want the game to be a shooter with hooters.

polypusher wrote:

Agreed. I don't think this group (the backers or GWJ) has much in common with folks who, if polled, would want the game to be a shooter with hooters.

Ohhh...

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