The game costs a candle

The world of video games is in many ways the territory of vain expectations and unfulfilled hopes. An office worker and a venerable family man are waiting for a continuation of his youth’s beloved game, a fan of a detective novel dreams of visiting the image of his hero, a young man hopes for a quest output on a rare series, a bored Esthet is trying to find a pearl in a stream of commercial games, the developers want to release something really original and successful at the same time. In a collision with the brutal reality of the market, all of them, as a rule, expects disappointment. Large corporations prefer to make a stable choice, and the main share of their products is that for which there is a rough designation Yoba on the Internet, that is, games with a wretched plot and primitive control, but boasting of graphics and special effects. An independent “indie developers” rarely manage to release a really good product due to a lack of funds (and sometimes lack of experience). Fans trying to remake original commercial games in various modifications are also limited in time and means. And then game crowdfunding enters the stage: creating games with financial support for the project with ordinary Internet users instead of investors.

In general terms, the collection of funds for the games takes place on crowdfunding platforms according to the similar principle - the required amount is indicated, the video is recorded with the appeal of the creators of the project (ideally, the trailer for the future game, which shows the existing achievements), create various lots (from the usual access to the game to different bonuses and souvenirs) and the campaign begins, during which you need to pick up The declared amount until a certain date. Although most successful gaming projects are released on the Kickstarter platform, there were no specialization, and special resources for game crowdfunding appeared - for example, Gamesplanet Lab or Dutch Gambitiius . Actually, the rise of game crowdfunding began not so long ago - its first serious achievements were in 2012. Of course, before that there were game projects that developed with crowdfunding, but not one of them had such success as the game “Broken Age” (or “ Double Fine Adventure” ). With the declared amount of $ 400,000, she raised over $ 3 million on Kickstarter .

The return of the demiurge

Of considerable importance for the success of " Broken Age" was the name of its creator. Tim Shaifer, who worked at Lucas Arts until 2000, and then created his own Double Fine Productions , is known among other things as the author of the Grim Fandango comedy nuar. The main character of this story was the death, or rather, a tourist agent of the Death Department, working in the afterlife, and the action took place during the Mexican Day of the Dead. The game in the adventure genre in addition to an excellent plot and the new 3D graphics, which was published in 1998, was distinguished by a beautiful soundtrack . By the way, the first game from Double Fine Productions , Psychonauts received a BAFTA Award for the best script in 2006. That is, the shaifter, by the time of launching a campaign to raise funds for a new project, was a real veteran of the gaming industry, although he did not create games in the adventure genre since Grim Fandango .

If you believe the shater itself, for him “Broken Age” was a kind of return to the origins. “Returning to this genre was like finding an old jacket in the garage that you did not wear for 20 years. But when you shake off dust and put on it, you understand that this is a wonderful jacket and he still suits you. You just need to patch holes in your pockets, and then it will easily take a place among your favorite jackets. Oh, and in one of the pockets there were three and a half million dollars, ”the Shaifer notes not without coquetry.

The release of " Broken Age" was scheduled for January 28, 2014. The game crowdfunding owes a lot to this project, since his success shake the skepticism of observers and proved that to collect impressive means for the game through Kickstarter is not a task from fantasy. Another thing is that without the name and reputation of the Shaifer , Broken Age would hardly have raised $ 3 million. So this is precisely the case of the master’s return to the favorite genre with the support of thousands of fans of his past work. As a result, the Shaifer could safely work on the game for two years and make it hand -drawn by a good animation and worthy (as always) soundtrack, and Elijah Wood and Will Whiton were among the actors who voiced the characters. Another well -known developer, Chris Roberts, almost caught up with the Shaifer in 2012. Roberts, who had been simultaneously at flight simulators on wars of spacecraft, announced the development of the new game “Star Citizen ” (it should also be released in 2014) and gained more than $ 2.1 million instead of the declared $ 500,000 on Kickstarter , and then through the game’s website brought up to more than three million dollars.

It’s good to be bad

This is how the slogan of the cult simulators “ Dungeon Keeper” (1997) and “ Dungeon Keeper 2” (1999), “ It's Good to be bad” sounds; There was another - “Evil is good” or “Evil is good”, “ Evil is good” . In the game, the “evil” guardian of the dungeon, despite the love of torture and nourishing the dungeons of traps, really looked prettier than his “good” opponents - cowardly, greedy and narcissistic paladins and magicians. Despite the popularity of the series, in 2000 the project was frozen by Electronic Arts . Meanwhile, the influence of “ Dungeon Keeper” on other games is quite large (just recall another simulator of a fabulous villain, “ Overlord” ). In 2013, the French from Cyanide Studios released the Impire game , which claimed the role of Dungeon Keeper , - alas, she was far from the laurels of the “Guardian of the Dungeon”.

The creator of Dungeon Keeper would not refuse to continue the series, but, according to him , the rights to it belonged to the publisher, Electronic Arts , who did not show the desire to reanimate the hit of the 90s. The British Molnieo, standing at the origins of the game genre of the “God of God,” is the personality itself is legendary. Like the Shaifer, in 2012 he turned to the help of Kickstarter to finance the next project , in which the player is invited to feel like a deity. The game " Godus" successfully collected £ 526 563 with the required £ 450,000 and should be released in 2014. However, it is more reminiscent of the classic “God's simulator” “Populous” than “ Dungeon Keeper” . Fans of a series of games about the custodian of the dungeons did not wait for Molinjo to decide to continue it, and they themselves launched the fundraising campaign at the end of 2012. True, Molinjo in every possible way supported the enthusiasts from the Subterranean Games and even recorded the video in their support - but even without this, the project would probably gain the necessary amount.

By January 3, 2013 , the War For The Overworld project had £ 211,371 with the required £ 150,000. After the completion of the Kickstarter campaign, the developers continued to raise funds through PayPal directly on the game website . To imagine how the creators of War for the Overworld are passionate about the original Dungeon Keeper , one detail is enough - among the additional purposes of collecting funds there was a voice adviser Richard Raidings. This British actor owns the same velvet voice of the adviser from Dungeon Keeper , who not only kept the player in the course of what was happening in the dungeons, but also let go of ulcer about his actions (for example, he could send a too played guardian to sleep). As a result, by January 6, 2013, new contributions through PayPal brought the collected amount to £ 225,000 and provided the presence of Raidings's canonical voice in War for the Overworld . The game should be released in 2014 (the alpha version is available for testing since last spring) and, judging by the careful attitude of the developers to Dungeon Keeper , will not disappoint fans. Among other cases of continuing the cult games, one can be called “Wasteland 2” (instead of the initial target of $ 1 million, more than $ 2.9 million was collected), the sequel of the role -playing game “Wasteland” , released back in 1988, or the fifth game from the Broken Sword series ($ 771,000 instead of the required $ 400,000).

Change of roles

The case is not limited to the continuation of your favorite game or a return to the genre popular in the past - you can, for example, transfer a table game to the screen. Especially if she has many fans, and the project itself is started by the creator of the original board game. This is exactly what happened in the case of the Shadowrun Returns project, combining the features of Cyberpan and urban fantasy. Jordan Weissman, who founded his first FASA Corporation in 1980, created a more than successful role -playing universe “Shadowrun” , which continued to live its life after the closure of Fasa Corporation in 2001 and the transfer of rights to another publisher. The gloomy world of the future, in which magic is adjacent to high technologies, the dwarf can be a hacker, and the elf - “street samurai”, were already devoted to a collection card game, a pair of board wargers and several video games. But Weissman wanted to create his own computer game through the Shadowrun universe, really “authentic”. He decided to use crowdfunding for this and did not lose.

The project launched in March 2012 raised the required $ 400,000 in just 28 hours. When the meter reached $ 1 million, Weisman, inspired by unexpected success, promised to include a special mission in the game for those who supported the development if the amount of the amount reached $ 1.5 million. By April 29, 2012, the campaign ended with an impressive result of $ 1.89 million (at the same time, participants in the crowdfunding campaign asked to make an excellent mission of accessible For all players). Shadowrun Returns was released in July 2013 and was generally favorably accepted by critics and players, despite the short plot quest and uncomfortable conservation system, the game had a good set of tools to create their own stories.

On their own

If the project is not related to the famous series of games and among its creators there are no such famous representatives of the world of game construction as Shaifer or Weissman, he still has a chance of success. For example, it was a multi-user role-playing online game “Ever, Jane” by Jane Ostin’s novels, which collected $ 109,563 with the required $ 100,000. In the end, it is not necessary to launch the campaign for Kickstarter for crowdfunding-you can simply raise funds on the developers' website, as the creators of the Wayward game “ Wayward. Manor ” (however, using the name of Neil Gaiman , who came up with a story about an inhospitable ghost in an old mansion). The large -scale and completely crazy game “DWARF FORTRES” , over which since 2002, the American programmer Tarn Adams has been corrupted, was first created exclusively with developers. First, there were enough donations from fans of the game to pay for hosting, but gradually the amounts that came through PayPal increased and reached several thousand dollars a month.

Thus, if you wish, you can do without large crowdfunding platforms (however, be prepared to turn into a real fanatic and devote all your life to one game if the venerable writer or famous artist does not participate in your project). It is worth noting that international crowdfunding resources usually accept projects only from the inhabitants of the United States and Great Britain. On the Russian Craudfunding platforms, the “Games” section does not yet inspire special optimism - but for them in the future the situation can change for the better. In general, if you look at the game crowdfunding without unnecessary idealism, there is a more chance of success at the project, associated with a popular plot having an army of fans, and capable of attracting someone else's famous name. Nevertheless, simultaneously with projects of the scale of “ Broken Age”, not so loud, but quite successful projects appear, and it is possible that in the future there will only be more. In the meantime, you can reap the fruits of the unexpected success of game crowdfunding - in 2014 several remarkable games are released at once, which appeared thanks to the campaigns on Kickstarter .