Update: If you missed it, you can watch the final 12 minutes here. (Thanks to Jones Jr for sharing the link.)
The final total raised (including money from premium backers) was: 3,446,371! Woo!
Source: Ustream
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In a final (final) update, DoubleFine invites fans and backers to watch the last minutes together:
It's less than 24 hours until the end of our Kickstarter campaign, and we're rapidly approaching $3,000,000. This is cause for celebration! Please join us tomorrow as we count down the final minutes until we embark on this crazy adventure. It all begins at 3:00 pm PST right here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/double-fine-adventure
They also ask that you don't keep refreshing the Kickstarter page in the final two hours, so the site doesn't go down again.
Finally, Tim has posted one last video. This time on how to donate if you're not American or don't have a credit card:
Source: Kickstarter.com
It's hard to believe that it's been 33 days since the news of Double Fine's Kickstarter Campaign eclipsed news of notch possibly funding Psychonauts 2... but here we are! A mere day away from production officially starting on the first Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert adventure game in over a decade!
With only 24 hours to go, the funding total stands tantalizingly close to the $3 million mark ($2,874,158 million at the time of writing), and you can't help but wonder: Will they hit $3 million?
Time will tell, but one thing's for sure: This is your last chance to Tweet, Blog, Facebook about the campaign, or to increase your funding to the most you can afford!
So get to it! : http://www.tinyurl.com/DoubleKick
Whatever happens, it's been a fun ride so far, and it's only the beginning!
Update: Tim Schafer has posted details on how to become a backer if you don't have a Credit Card. His instructions can be found here! Hurry!
Source: Kickstarter.com
The technology news website VentureBeat has unearthed shocking photos of what Tim Schafer is really doing with the unexpected extra Kickstarter money...
Eagle-eyed readers will the whiteboard in the background, displaying Schafer's plans to cut costs on the project: "Hire orphans = cheaper".
And that's just the tip of the iceberg... See the rest of the photos at VentureBeat's article.
Reminder: Only 50 hours left to go if you still wish to support Double Fine Adventure!
Source: VentureBeat.com
In an interview with Eurogamer, Tim made an interesting comment about how he intends to balance nostalgia and freshness with the Double Fine Adventure Project:
It's not going to be an adventure game that apologises for being an adventure game. It's not going to be trying to be something else and have a bunch of action elements or something like that.
But it's not a museum piece or just a nostalgia piece. It's going to be fresh and feel modern and feel like what the next game would have been if I'd made one straight after Grim Fandango.
Here's why I find this interesting: I have a hard time believing that, had Tim followed up Grim Fandango immediately with an adventure game, it would have been a 2D point 'n clicker as Double Fine Adventure has been described from day one. If you look at Tim's projects up to Grim Fandango, you can see a relatively natural progression to the interface-free, direct control scheme of that game that Tim was never slow to defend. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Tim from 1998 would have told you that the idea of making his next adventure game in 2D and point 'n click would have represented taking a step backwards. Certainly, the Double Fine Adventure is a cede to tradition in some pretty specific ways, not just in the fact that it's a graphic adventure.
Which is no problem with me. The idea of Tim revisiting this sort of game is irresistible, welcome (to no fewer than 73,856 and counting!), and I'm sure something he genuinely came around to being passionate about during the fifteen years it's been since he's played in his original sandbox. Nonetheless, it'll be very interesting to see how much the team looks back as they craft an experience that is "fresh and modern."
Source: Eurogamer
In what's likely to be the final update before the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter Campaign ends on Tuesday 13 March, Tim Schafer has announced several additional rewards for backers of the game.
$100 pledges will now get the following additional rewards:
Both of which are exclusive to Kickstarter backers. Plus the existing rewards: Your name in the game's credits, a "Double Fine Adventure" poster (suitable for framing), and a DVD/Bluray of the finished documentary... all of which are also exclusive to the Kickstarter Campaign (well, not the documentary).
And, of course, $100 backers also get all the previous reward tiers, too:
In short: It seems Double Fine would like you to consider $100 to be the coolest amount to donate...
Unless of course you've got $500, in which case they'd like to let you know that Tim is personally signing all copies of the Hardcover version of the book.
With only 60 hours left to donate, now is the time to help make history!
Source: Kickstarter.com
Reddit's "Ask Tim Schafer Anything" event has come and gone, but the answers to the questions are still there to read.
Double Fine has also posted up 10 videos where Tim responds to the questions, which cover both his LucasArts games and his Double Fine games, as well as those games at Double Fine which were led by others.
Find out what adventure games inspired Tim Schafer's career, what Tim Schafer's favorite puzzles are in his games, how Tim felt about the sales of his LucasArts games, what didn't end up in the games he made, how he felt about Sierra, and much more.
See the answers for yourself in video form right here and even more answers in text form here.
The Double Fine Kickstarter (now at over $2.3 million and counting) page has been updated again, this time by 2 Player Productions, the team who's making the documentary about the project.
They said the documentary will be like their Penny Arcade series. Each month they will release a 10-20 minute or more video that sums up that month's development progress. They also will be making more specific videos that will focus on the "nuts and bolts of the development progress".
The documentary will have original music by Terrence Lee, who composed the music for the indie game Dust Force.
Also, there will be an "Ask Tim Schafer Anything" event on Reddit on Sunday, March 4th, from 1pm to 3pm PST where you can Ask Tim Schafer questions and he will answer them.
The Double Fine Adventure documentary is in it's beginning stages now, and the first video will be out before the end of the month.
But for the meantime, they have released a blooper reel of Tim Schafer's pitch video to give their update that Tim Schafer flavor.
Double Fine registered a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office called "The Cave" for "computer game software and video game software."
GameSpot confirmed with Double Fine that it has nothing to do with the Double Fine Adventure:
"While we can't comment on unannounced projects, we can say that Double Fine's Kickstarter-funded adventure game has not been started, designed, or even imagined yet. No trademarks have been filed on its behalf."
There's been some suggestions that it might be the game Ron Gilbert is working on with Double Fine, but really, it's anyone's guess what The Cave really is. Hopefully it has a better fate than LucasArts' Handsome Halibut.
Source: GameSpot
If you want your fill of Double Fine goodness with a classic gaming feel, but don't feel like waiting until Double Fine Adventure begins production, then this album (released last August) is for you!
The Double Fine Action Arcade Soundtrack is a collection of the music by Bert Chang and Razmig Mavlian from Double Fine's flash games Epic Saga: Extreme Fighting, My Game About Me: Olympic Challenge, Tasha's Game, and Host Master and the Conquest of Humor. But wait, there's more! It also contains several whole bonus tracks, including Bert Chang's rendition of Peter McConnell's Meat Circus theme from Psychonauts in 1990's soundcard style!
It's available from iTunes for the low, low price of USD$0.99 a track or for a mere USD$9.99 for the whole album! It's also available at eMusic for half the price of iTunes for those of you with eMusic subscriptions. Don't wait! Buy now!
Double Fine's Psychonauts was one of the first games in Microsoft's short lived Xbox Originals line for the Xbox 360. But while the other games in the line are still available to purchase through the Xbox Live Marketplace, Psychonauts was removed last August without notice.
Tim Schafer explained that the reason it was removed was due to the rights to Psychonauts transferring from Majesco to Double Fine. Microsoft policy is that games without licensed publishers aren't allowed on the Xbox 360 (outside of the Indie Games), so it was removed.
Double Fine is working on getting the game back up, but as of this month they've still been having problems since Double Fine doesn't technically meet the requirements to be an Xbox 360 publisher (most notably due to a lack of disposable cash). So even though the game was one of Microsoft's flagship products in the Xbox Originals line, it's no longer available (and likely won't be available again any time soon) due to bureaucracy and red tape.
Update: Psychonauts is back on Xbox Live Marketplace, now published by Microsoft (bringing the game full circle). I also checked on my Xbox 360 to be double sure, and it is indeed back.
Update 2: It seems the game is only available on the Xbox Live Marketplace in North America (thanks Pedgey). Double Fine is aware of this and is working on getting Microsoft to re-add the game in other territories as well.
Double Fine's Kickstarter has kinda sorta stalled just shy of $2.1 million, although "stall" might be a bit of a negative spin when you take the amount into consideration. So how does one entice more backers? By adding more rewards!
This is how Double Fine is planning to reel in the last few doubters:
- $30: Gets you a digital soundtrack of the documentary!
- $60: Gets you a digital download of a book featuring concept art and other cool stuff from the game! Make it $500 and you'll get a hardcover edition.
- $100: And holy crap, you can get a boxed version of the game and the documentary.
You're probably legally in a coma if that doesn't excite you.
Now watch this conversation between Tim and Ron, recorded in January, just to get the excitement level up even further.
Let's break out into a happy jig because Jennifer has written a review of Double Fine's Kinect title Double Fine Happy Action Theater.
Go read it!
Double Fine Adventure continues to break records. Today the upcoming adventure game sauntered past $2 million mark without breaking a sweat.
It seems the update posted by Double Fine announcing platforms (PC, Mac, Linux - all DRM free) and languages (English Voice Overs, with French, Italian, German, and Spanish subtitles) did a great job reigniting the previously slowing donations.
Many people had begun speculating if it was possible for the $2 million mark within the time limit, but it now seems that it's anyone's guess what the final figure will be. With 22 days to go, who can tell?
What's YOUR guess?
Source: Kickstarter.com
A year after Jake and Spaff made the trip to Double Fine, Telarium and DJG went to check up on their mysterious new game named Psychonauts.
Will they get to play it? Will Tim be successful in his attempts to score some smack? Read the feature to find out!
Nowadays, not a month goes by without a new downloadable game being excreted by the twin babies of Double Fine. However, back in 2001, the company was just starting up and hiding behind a poop coloured door somewhere in San Francisco. It was to this place that former staffers Spaff and Jake decided to make a trip on a warm July day. Their account of this adventure has been rescued from the Mojo archive and can again be perused over here.
Or here.
In our new poll we ask how much you donated to the worthy case of the Double Fine Adventure. Was it a single dollar or did you see triangles in the distance and pledged a 150 grand? Go vote! (it's all anonymous, but feel free to spill the beans in the comments)
Our previous poll shows that most people own several consoles, if not all of them. Many of you also own at least one current generation console as well as no consoles. People with only old consoles do not exist among Mojo's readers:
| What consoles do you own? | ||
|---|---|---|
| All of them! (Well, several current gen. consoles) | 13 | |
| One current generation console (e.g. PS3, Xbox 360, DS, etc) | 12 | |
| No consoles. Just my trusty PC/Mac | 10 | |
| Only an older console (eg. PS2, Xbox, Atari 2600, etc.) | 0 | |
| Total votes | 35 | |
It's easy to forget amidst the Double Fine Adventure madness that Tim Schafer and Minecraft creator Markus 'Notch' Persson are quietly chitchatting about Psychonauts 2 funding possibilities. On this front, there is a particularly amazing quote to be found in this Kotaku post that chronicles the Twitter-based drama that brought all this into the public eye.
Tim Schafer, whose Double Fine Productions made the first beloved Psychonauts game told Notch he'd be into it, but it was going to be expensive.
"I was like, 'I don't think you can make [it] for a million dollars.' The original game was, I think, $13 million, I think you have to match the original game."
"As soon as I mentioned the amount of money he said, 'Yeah, I can do that.'"Wow. Psychonauts had an unusually large budget for the type of game it was due to its super-sized and calamity-laden development cycle. A few of us have been speculating about how an episodic sequel might work given the assumption of humbler parameters, but if Notch is prepared to give this game the whole-hog budget, who am I to argue?
Man, what a terrible last two weeks this has been for people who hate themselves. I'm waiting for the Earth to be consumed by lava to even out the happy. Oh wait, that's just children playing Happy Action Theater. There is no sunset for this marathon of mirth, I'm afraid.
Source: Kotaku
As I'm writing this, the Double Fine Kickstarter has raised $1,815,940 and 2 Player Productions, the people behind the documentary about the making of the upcoming adventure game, has posted the first video update:
Source: 2PlayerProductions