We will see how of this shakes out - but Shaefer and co have a history of legendary games and current competence. I haven't given them any money primarily because point-and-click adventures were not my favorites; my nostagia goes to text adventures.

There are a lot of "past greats" out there who did really well 15 or so years ago that have not shown their competence in recent years. If they were working on a smaller "indie" canvas then the story might have been different. I am sure a whole lot of folks are going to jump on this bandwagon and try it for themselves, and some are going to be a big fail. I also would be suspecting that some big pubs or some former devs with money might try this and I hope that their requests gets roundly ignored by the community.

I remember some other indie trying something similar before - but the kicker was that you were not promised the game unless you gave a much larger chunk of change (if it ever came out that is). I don 't remember the game involved or the indie company. I do remember reading the website and thinking very ugly thoughts.

An open alternative to Kickstarter?: Crowdtilt.

Weren't people down on Brutal Legend?

Yes ... but some people liked it. I despised the demo. From what I read it was a weird hybrid, but it was complete and polished. But before that he did many legendary products and after that all of the double-fine smaller games seem to have turned out rather well.

One somewhat-problematic game does not erase years of high quality classics. Doublefine's games over the past 10 years may have been hit and miss, but Tim Schaefer and Ron Gilbert are industry celebrities for a reason.

Costume Quest was awesome.

Brutal Legend is in my top five of this generation. I understand I'm in the minority, but I absolutely love that game.

I loved the demo. Sold my 360 before playing the full version. If it came out on PC I'd pick it up.

The Kickstarter Train has another passenger: Brian Fargo, creator of Wasteland, the post-apocalyptic grand-daddy of Fallout.

Brian is hoping to create a new Wasteland game with an old-school vibe. He's looking to hit the million dollar mark from fan funding.

Despite Double Fine's phenomenal success, I think Fargo is reaching a bit too high. His reputation is not as high as Schafer and Gilbert's, and he's looking to make a game which fits into an even smaller niche than an old-school graphic adventure. Plus he doesn't have the novelty value that DF did for being the first big game company to try Kickstarter.

I wish them luck, but I think we'll already see the first big company to fail to meet their funding goal.

You know, I'm surprised Lorne Lanning hasn't been on here.

How about we make this a general Kickstarter thread, for any projects we see that look interesting and worthy of support?

In that vein, RockPaperShotgun clued me in to the intriguing sci-fi ship-simulator rogue-like game FTL. Here's the summary from Kickstarter:

What it boils down to is taking your beat-up ship and it's small crew and making random jumps across the galaxy as you flee an enemy fleet. At each stop you encounter a text-based event, make decisions, and potentially engage in fights where you manage your ship systems to keep the old girl from falling apart long enough for you to win or run.

The project is already fully funded, but you can still contribute $10 or more to lock yourself in for a DRM-free copy of the game at release. There's a demo available, but you have to become a free member of OnLive to play it.

You can add another classic adventure game to the Kickstarter bandwagon: Leisure Suit Larry! The original raunchy graphic adventure is being remade with full voice and new visuals.

And just so you aren't turned off by the recent LSL games:

They're looking for $500,000 to get this project finished. $15 gets you a digital copy of the game when it's released.

This needs to go in the "I remember..." thread!

This remake NEEDS to have the trivia questions that only adults know the answers to to be able to play gimmick!

The original questions or ones updated for adults in 2012?

There is a tier that gets you into the alpha/beta, along with being able to make suggestions. Also, if they get a lot more money than what they're looking for, there could be additional gameplay as well.

According to their page, the plan is to remake LSL 1-7 eventually.

It HAS to be the old questions! The thing is, I don't know if LSL is worth a full fledged, 1-7 remake. Judges?

I didn't play the entire series, but the ones I played I enjoyed. Sexy stuff aside, they were funny, and I think it'd be great to have them all with full voice and a consistent graphical style.

My first instinct was a "Best of Leisure Suit Larry." Throw a time travel framing sequence around it, or even better yet, a "E! True Hollywood Story" framing device around the best sequences. But why do that when you can milk the same cow seven times?

I'll be funding my new game's publication through Kickstarter, I just need to lock some things down first so I can make sure people get something no matter what happens.

I've never played the LSL games, but I'd be interested in a new one that's done right. Not interested enough to donate, but still interested nonetheless.

I wish that Doublefine's new adventure game was set in the Grim Fandango universe. Kind of.

I fucking hate the back button on my mouse. It's so easy to fuck up what you've type. -_-

I stated off with something like I'm going to pretend this is the official Kickstarter thread. Then I went on about this project.

Class of Heroes 2 Deluxe for the PSP® system, stupidest one yet. $60 to even get a copy of the game. Who gives a shit about UMD let alone the stupid trinkets they want to bundle it up with. ONE BOX. Sell toys and soundtracks on your own time.

They only need localize the game as it's apparently already out in Japan. Target $500k.

So if you want to just download it, give us $20 and we'll say thank you in hopes you also shell out another $30-40.

I don't seem them hitting their $500,000 in 16 days at all.

Watching Shark Tank would lead me to call these people bozos. Smart idea, but I think the better money is to shoot for launching titles they localize as downloadable games. Also, cheaper buying for the actual game. Wish there was one for VC 3 out there.

Shit ... I thought you were making this up as a parody then I found this.

I had actually never visited the kickstarter site before so incredibly stupid things can be useful.

Hahaha, I had to laugh at the $5 gets you a nice email, $10 gets you a nice letter!

I'm actually saddened that they got as much as they have already.

I like Kickstarter as an idea, but I expected some useless ones to come through the pipeline. I'm sure they won't suceed, but I wonder if you get your money back if it doesn't go ahead?

I saw that one for CoH2 and the moment I saw that if the Kickstarter fails they're going to do a DDL version anyway, I just decided to wait. They're not going to get their money.

Oh, and they're a bunch of ex Working Designs people, who were some of the worst localizers I know, because of their need to fill games with contemporary humor and refs. Basically, they want your money to make the localization one of their usual hack jobs.

No thank you. Give me the game playable in English, and save all your nonsense.

Kickstarter pledges don't even charge until the project's fully funded. It basically works like an Amazon preorder.

That Class of Heroes Kickstarter is hilarious. 10 people actually pledged $500, and 7 pledged at least $1000! Who did this?

Plenty of Kickstarters have big spenders who feel strongly about whatever the project is. I don't find that, in and of itself, amusing.

It is a flawed Kickstarter in my mind, though, since it's essentially just for the physical deluxe edition, and not for the game itself. They have next to nothing to draw in people who just want to play the game, since those gamers will get to do that whether or not the Kickstarter succeeds. For other games, like the Double-Fine Adventure that started the recent upswing, a failed Kickstarter means no game for anyone.

Yeah, they're just doing a kickstarter to fund the development of a physical edition, because they've already commited to a digital download.

Seriously? Like the Dreamworks Animated Movies of games? :confused:

Play Alundra...for the time it was RIFE with what was popular then and little quips, etc. Awesome game, but yeah.

And I want the game, bad...but 100 bucks to get a download copy? No thanks. Like jpiblic said...I'll wait for the DDL to happen.

EDIT: Oh bloody hell....I'm throwing 100 at this. I forgot they did the LUNAR Collector's packs, and those were some of the best things I've ever owned (sadly had to sell them years ago).

:p

I know it's been mentioned, but give these guys money: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...rry-come-again

Leisure Suit Larry is awesome!

If you give these people $100 I'll taze you. >_<

Seriously, what was so good about the Lunar packs that could excuse the hack they made of the game?

I never really minded the Working Designs translations. I guess I'm not an obsessive enough nerd to demand that all my crappy JRPGs be dry direct translations of awful prose.

I dunno. When I first played Lunar it didn't bother me, but now when I try to go back to WD titles I just get irritated. It just screams 'trying too hard' and 'trying to be cool'.

The same goes for any humor that relies on pop culture though. It's hardly a trait unique to their games, and at least, in the moment, the Working Designs translations still felt more lively and relevant than what passes for dialogue in most RPGs, which seem to be written by technical writers struggling to emulate human behavior by algorithm.

Plus, a lot of the really obvious jokes in Lunar when I played were all from minor NPCs you never even really needed to talk to.

Ahhhh. Gotcha. For some reason I thought the money went right away.

As I understand it you can actually change your pledge amounts; so I do wonder if they are being trolled.

So Ryan Paytons (MGS4, Halo 4) new game, Republique for iOS is up on kickstarter.

It's still very early, but the hype and support doesn't seem to be there. Maybe the first high profile one to fail? Is it a lack of support for iOS, maybe the feeling this is a person who could get it funded normally, or just lack of interest in the game itself (seems cool to me...)? maybe just the goal to high? Do you think it'll get there?

I think the fact that it's limited to iPhone4 and above, or the iPad, is the largest impediment. If it were going to be a PC game that's also on iOS I'd have donated, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Now we have IndieGoGo. This one seems worth it.


http://www.indiegogo.com/calyx

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57...y-first-always

Now that is something I can get behind 100%.

He looks like a man beaten down by the system. I like his idea, I just do not know if the general public cares enough about their privacy. I want to believe they do, but I don't have that much faith in the general public.

I would sign up for Calyx in a heartbeat.

Most of CoG would in a heart beat, but we represent a small portion of society. Would your landlord? Would your neighbor down the street?

They would if you sold it to them right.

Look at how the SOPA thing went down.

People can still be made to care about privacy and spying and freedom of speech, if you present it in a way they understand.

You are right, but selling them on something they would need to spend money on, is a lot different then them clicking a few buttons on a webpage and maybe typing in their email address.

Let not dismiss it's affordability if he can keep prices at the $20 I seen mentioned.

For me, that is a big 'IF'.

$20 is ridiculously low. I mean even at $40 for what he is offering might not be so bad. People would probably be taking a hit a speed in most cases.

Speed for most people is arbitrary. They think they need it but really don't, at least from my experience. Joe Schmo checks his email and to the Facebook, he does not need 10MB down. Gamers though, want the speed.

I like the idea, but can he actually fulfill his promise?