The archive · Consumer Apps · Financial decision · 2012
Double Fine's Kickstarter bet: fans would fund a Schafer adventure, no publisher
Double Fine crowdfunded a point-and-click adventure: $400K goal passed in 8 hours, closing at $3.34M from 87,142 backers on 2012-03-14.
Double Fine Productions
What the business is
Double Fine Productions, founded in 2000 by Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend), makes games; in 2012 it asked Kickstarter backers to fund a new point-and-click adventure developed publicly with a documentary series.
Starting capital：No publisher or outside capital: a $400,000 Kickstarter goal, with 87,142 backers pledging $3,336,371 by close on 2012-03-14.
How it started
Double Fine Productions, founded in 2000 by adventure-game veteran Tim Schafer, had spent a decade making critically praised titles like Psychonauts, Brutal Legend and Costume Quest. Its campaign page argued that even a simple Xbox LIVE Arcade title can cost $2-3 million, and that publisher or lender money comes with strings that can pull a game off course or cancel it. So in 2012 Double Fine proposed becoming the first major studio to fully finance its next game through Kickstarter: a downloadable point-and-click adventure made under public scrutiny and documented by 2 Player Productions with monthly video updates for backers.
What happened
The campaign opened on 2012-02-09 with a $400,000 goal and hit 100% in just over eight hours; the Hacker News thread that day reported over $1M in under 24 hours and drew 229 points and 63 comments. Stretch money expanded the plan — PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android; Steam codes and DRM-free versions; French, Italian, German and Spanish localization; a documentary soundtrack; and new rewards including boxed special editions and original art. When pledges closed on 2012-03-14, 87,142 backers had pledged $3,336,371.
How it ended up
The bet cleared its bar by a wide margin: $3,336,371 from 87,142 backers — 8.3 times the $400,000 goal — over the 33-day funding period, with game tiers estimated for October 2012 delivery and the campaign page pointing backers to Double Fine's site for production progress.
Background
Double Fine Productions, founded in 2000 by Tim Schafer, argued that even a modest Xbox LIVE Arcade game costs $2-3 million and that publisher money pulls games off course. Its 2012 answer was to become the first major studio to fully finance its next game through Kickstarter — a downloadable point-and-click adventure, developed in the open and documented by 2 Player Productions with monthly backer videos.
The campaign launched 2012-02-09 with a $400,000 goal and reached 100% in just over eight hours. The Hacker News thread reported over $1M pledged in under 24 hours and drew 229 points and 63 comments. Stretch money added PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, Steam and DRM-free versions, four localizations, a documentary soundtrack, and rewards from $15 game copies to original art and lunch with Schafer.
Pledges closed on 2012-03-14 at $3,336,371 from 87,142 backers — 8.3 times the goal — with game tiers estimated for October 2012 delivery. The record stops at the funded-production stage: what the finished game became is outside this batch.
What has to be true
- Schafer's catalog made the ask credible: a backer already trusted Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango and Psychonauts, so the money followed the reputation.
- The model removed the middleman's veto: crowdfunding paid for the game without creative strings, which is exactly the freedom the pitch promised.
- Participation was the upgrade path: monthly documentary episodes, a private community, occasional backer votes and beta access kept pledges climbing past the goal.
- The numbers made their own news: 100% funding in eight hours and $1M in a day fed the HN thread and press cycle that carried the campaign for its remaining 33 days.
What can be applied
Give the audience a stake in the making, not just the product: documentary updates, backer voting and participation turned a $400K ask into $3.34M.
Aftermath
As of 2012-03-14 the campaign had closed at $3,336,371 from 87,142 backers — 8.3 times its $400,000 goal — and the project page described production as underway, pointing backers to Double Fine's site for progress updates and listing October 2012 as the estimated delivery for game tiers. Nothing in this batch documents what happened after that date.
Sources
- Double Fine Adventure — An adventure game from Tim Schafer, Double Fine, and YOU!
- Double Fine raises $1m in less than 24hrs on Kickstarter
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