Tim Schafer Thought He'd Get Two Grand, Not $2 Million

[Canadish]

Ah, 2012, how good you've been to me.

Schafer gets 2 million, Activision admit fucking up CoD, Zynga Sued, Apple under investigation, Phantom Menace getting panned by the critics, Ubisoft screw up their servers, Mass Effect 3 panned before it's even out, Kotick and Newell in a slap fight.

I don't care if the Mayans were right. This has been a good year overall.

Apparently I missed the memo on Mass Effect sucking?

You...you haven't read the leaked scrip yet have you....oh...

You're in for a nasty suprise.

(About the scrip: Dialogue is brilliant. Very witty and funny. Better then ME1&2 I'd say. However, the main plot line is ridiculous. Choices are ignored from the previous games, characters reduced to brief cameos, rail road, copy paste ending from Deus Ex etc etc)

On topic: This is really cool to hear. Hope the big man can pull something awesome together with the cash. It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with now he's not constrained by a Publisher.

Also: $40,000 for a patch!? Holy Christ, that's just ridiculous. No wonder small developers are moving to mobile platforms.

 

[Rainboq]

*le snip* Kotick and Newell in a slap fight.

... I'm morbidly curious about this, I can haz linkyz?

OT: Intelligent, creative AND humble? My word, Tim really is a wonderful human being... I'm really looking forwards to this game now!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

*le snip* Kotick and Newell in a slap fight.

... I'm morbidly curious about this, I can haz linkyz?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115783-Blizzard-Throws-Down-With-Valve-Over-DOTA-Trademark

I may have exaggerated a little for comic effect; but you'd still pay to watch that, wouldn't you?

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Publishers aren't evil? I think there records speak for themselves. Sure they financially protect themselves, but they can't leave well enough alone. Ever.

 

[Rainboq]

*le snip* Kotick and Newell in a slap fight.

... I'm morbidly curious about this, I can haz linkyz?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115783-Blizzard-Throws-Down-With-Valve-Over-DOTA-Trademark

I may have exaggerated a little for comic effect; but you'd still pay to watch that, wouldn't you?

Oh, I think most people in the industry and the community would pay to see Kotick get torn to shreds by Gabe.

 

[Sight Unseen]

*le snip* Kotick and Newell in a slap fight.

... I'm morbidly curious about this, I can haz linkyz?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115783-Blizzard-Throws-Down-With-Valve-Over-DOTA-Trademark

I may have exaggerated a little for comic effect; but you'd still pay to watch that, wouldn't you?

Oh, I think most people in the industry and the community would pay to see Kotick get torn to shreds by Gabe.

Gabe would just sit on him.


OT: I donated $30 for this project, having only played one previous Shafer game before ( Brutal Legend.) I enjoyed it quite a bit ( though I'm glad he's taking the RTS bits out of his new game!) Also, I bought Psychonauts over the holidays but I havent played it much yet, it's hilarious already though.

 

[Xman490]

I would pay for this "Adventure", but I don't know what the point-and-click adventure would be like. Are Schafer and that other adventure game pioneer going to take it above and beyond "take items, try them, solve puzzle, read funny text, repeat", or will I probably end up stuck and give up on a puzzle?

I agree with the big publishers in that I, for one, might not like it. I have hardly ever played a point-and-click adventure game. Anyone have any particular reason for me to expect enjoyment from such a game?

 

[sb666]

Publishers aren't evil? I think there records speak for themselves. Sure they financially protect themselves, but they can't leave well enough alone. Ever.

My guess is he said that so publishers would still fund his future products.

 

[Smertnik]

How can he not have expected the success? Schafer is one of the few big names in the video game industry, of course there're going to be a lot of people supporting him.
The amount of money the project got in such little time is still amazing, though.

 

[lordlillen]

lol, I guess a lot of people REALLY hate RTS elements.
Now hurry up and give us the Psychonauts sequel.

i thought mojang was working on getting schafer money for that.

 

[Battleaxx90]

40K to patch a game on the XBLA, huh?

You know what that means... cue the obvious jokes!

You're welcome.

 

[AgentNein]

I would pay for this "Adventure", but I don't know what the point-and-click adventure would be like. Are Schafer and that other adventure game pioneer going to take it above and beyond "take items, try them, solve puzzle, read funny text, repeat", or will I probably end up stuck and give up on a puzzle?

I agree with the big publishers in that I, for one, might not like it. I have hardly ever played a point-and-click adventure game. Anyone have any particular reason for me to expect enjoyment from such a game?

You are not the target audience for this game if you have never enjoyed/played a point-and-click adventure game before. Maybe you are too young, I do not know. I myself were a mere child when I did, but if you experienced the point and click games of old when they were "new", this game will excit you to the core.

Atm you should have no expectations at all except for the part that it is Double Fine production so you know the humour will be fantastic.

To be fair, one can be an adventure game fan, be the target audience for this game and still feel that adventure games of yore have some really frustrating elements that they need to grow out of (some modern adventure games have done better jobs with this).

The whole point where EVERYBODY (yes, EVERYBODY) gets stuck and has to resort to using every freaking weird item in their inventory on every object (because sometimes item/object combos are stupidly obtuse) comes to mind.

But I do have faith that Schaeffer is forward thinking enough to understand what issues the adventure games of yore had and work on some new ideas for them.

 

[mental_looney]

I threw some money in I like double fine games so it should be something I like. Really hope the documentary is objective though and gives a clear insight into the development process.

Hopefully it will also alert people to more indie game projects looking for funding through kickstarter so we can see what some new developers have to offer.

 

[ice1985]

I think there's a pretty clear message to be seen from this Kickstarter page.

People love playing video games and they are STARVING for a better business model.

 

[ArchAngelKira]

With all that money make another original game concept. "phyconauts" "brutal legend" add one more to the list

 

[surg3n]

Yes, I'm sure this is a complete surprise, I'm sure Tim is totally shocked... either that or this was the plan from the start...

Ohh, look at Notch, becomming rich on a game before it's even released. If people will pay for a game that isn't finished yet, I wonder if they'd pay for a game that isn't even started yet. Even better, I wonder if they'd pay for the idea of a game that isn't started yet. Hell, if people will pay for a toothbrush with a tongue scraper, then they'll pay for anything. Tim owns you now, owns you all!.

I didn't like the Kickstarter idea when the Mojang documentary came up, and I don't like it now. It's not some glorious savior for indi developers, it's a way to get you to pay for something that doesn't exist, for something that might not ever exist. Tim Shafers company is not indipendant, Mojang is not indipendant, the major factor here is the massive amount of funding they have, whether it's kickstarter, a legally binding promise, or grandma's jewelry.

I'm all for supporting someone making a game because people want it, rather than because it might make a profit - I'm completely against the idea that it's simply not enough to buy the bloody game when it's finished, we have to sponsor and mollycoddle developers these days to finish the job they started. It's getting pathetic, and it's not even a good genre for a kickstarter project. Contributers are supposed to get access to alphas, developer forum etc etc etc, all of which would just ruin the game - it's an adventure game, how much of it will be spoiled because the back doors have to be left open. I'd be happier contributing to an adventure game where absolutely nothing was divulged. Instead, your expected to pay for an adventure game before it's finished, so you can debug it and QA it, get sick of the damn game before it's even finished, and then have a warm glow at the end of it. You'd get more from Double Fine if you just ignored it totally and bought the game like a normal consumer buying from a normal developer.

Sorry Tim, sorry Fantims, sorry kickstarter, but snap the fuck out of it - wipe away the dollar signs and consider the can of worms someone just opened. Is this kickstarter horseshit going to happen with more games? - are we really expected to pay for a game to perhaps be made! - WTF? - that's not a new and inventive market strategy, that's downright consumer rape.

 

[elpresidente]

What about Psychonauts 2? Lets kickstart that!