Tim Schafer writes candidly about his game 'Broken Age' running out of money, but this is just the nature of the beast.
Once upon a time, there was a website designed to crowdfund small, creative projects---a garage band's new self-recorded album; a short film; a dance video. That website was called Kickstarter.
Then, along came Tim Schafer and Double Fine Adventure, the video game now known as Broken Age, which transformed the site into an indie video game crowdfunding platform overnight. Kickstarter termed it the "Blockbuster Effect."
Well, not just a video game funding platform, but these days many of the biggest projects---from the Ouya to Star Citizen to Torment: Tides of Numenera---are video games or video game accessories. And these projects all have, at least in part, Schafer and his game to thank. Broken Age was the catalyst, the trailblazer, the portent of things to come.
And now, despite the $3.3 million the game raised on Kickstarter (and the additional $1.2 million Double Fine raised for its second Kickstarter game, Massive Chalice) Broken Age is out of money.
Turns out, even games not developed the traditional publishing route over-budget and over-promise.
"Even though we received much more money from our Kickstarter than we, or anybody anticipated, that didn't stop me from getting excited and designing a game so big that it would need even more money," Schafer writes in a letter to backers posted at Gamasutra.
"Asking a publisher for the money was out of the question because it would violate the spirit of the Kickstarter, and also, publishers," writes Schafer. "Going back to Kickstarter for it seemed wrong. Clearly, any overages were going to have to be paid by Double Fine, with our own money from the sales of our other games. That actually makes a lot of sense and we feel good about it. We have been making more money since we began self-publishing our games, but unfortunately it still would not be enough."
So they've struck upon a "strange idea:" Release the first half of the game in January and charge for it as a Steam Early Access product to raise funds to finish the second half of the game the following summer. The second half would come as a free update to anyone who purchased the first half and, of course, to all of the initial backers of the game.
This way, Double Fine can avoid asking for more money from backers or a publisher and doesn't have to cut content.
"I want to point out that Broken Age's schedule changes have nothing to do with the team working slowly," Schafer assures us. "They have been kicking ass and the game looks, plays, and sounds amazing. It's just taking a while because I designed too much game, as I pretty much always do. But we're pulling it in, and the good news is that the game's design is now 100% done, so most of the unknowns are now gone and it’s not going to get any bigger."
So, a few thoughts on all this.
First, that the "world of video game design is a mysterious one. What really happens behind the closed doors of a development studio is often unknown, unappreciated or misunderstood." That's from the Double Fine Adventure pitch way back in 2012.
Second, Kickstarter is a risk. People are upset with Schafer and Double Fine right now, but if you've been paying even the slightest bit of attention the past year and a half you'll know that Kickstarter doesn't guarantee any of the projects funded at the site. There is no contractual obligation for any of these companies to give you anything that they promised.
Third, if you want to fund an idea, be prepared to fund an idea.
If Tim Schafer designs "too much game" and sails over-budget, well that's something that you probably should have counted on funding a game by Tim Schafer. Video games go over-budget with publishers, too, and publishers either can the projects, rush them out the door, or provide more funding.
Why should Kickstarter be any different?
People want to have their cake and eat it, too, of course. They want to fund a risky project but suffer no consequences of that risk; they want to skirt the publisher model but don't enjoy the position that puts them in as de facto "publishers" of a game.
The fact is, Kickstarter doesn't magically make every problem with game development go away. Just because it circumvents EA or Activision doesn't also mean that every Kickstarter game will release without a hitch.
There's no magic fix to all the industry's problems, and Double Fine's game is quite literally one of the very first projects to use crowdfunding---this early into the game we're bound to hit some snags. Experimentation involves degrees of failure.
For my part, I see the Kickstarter video game revolution as a decidedly mixed bag.
On the one hand, we're (hopefully) getting games like Project Eternity and Wasteland 2. On the other hand, people are way too optimistic about an industry without publishers. Not every game you want to play can be funded this way; and the games funded this way won't always be a success. Nothing about a good idea ensures a good execution of that idea.
When it all comes down, the budget issues with Broken Age are just business as usual. If you're upset with that, you should probably avoid funding risky business ventures with no guarantee of success.
As developer American McGee put it in his defense of Schafer, you can't have it both ways.
"You can't complain about big publishers and their bad business models - highlighting all the times they've pushed overpriced, buggy, unfinished product onto the shelves in hopes of a quick buck. Then when an indie developer lays bare their business model and struggles, crucify them for taking risks and being honest."
Even programs like Sony's Pub Fund, which opens the gates for self-publishing on Sony devices, have an experienced team working to vet each project before being accepted into the program. With Kickstarter, all we have is our faith in the developers and the quality of the pitch.
McGee continues:
"The games you play cost huge amounts of money to develop and market. Productions are insanely complex, which means there are many places where they can breakdown or fail. Outcomes aren't predictable, so that money to fund these things is nearly impossible to come by. Simply put, this sh** is hard.
"Things are going to go sideways and sometimes horribly wrong. Instead of wanting to murder someone when they level with you about these facts, embrace them. The choice is yours - support transparency, honesty and constructive involvement... or don't complain when the industry shrugs and shifts back to a model dominated by monolithic, uncaring publishers."
McGee, fresh off the heels of Akaneiro Demon Hunters, is attempting to fund both an Oz themed zombie game (OZombie) and the film rights to his Alice game series. And yes, he's using Kickstarter.
On a side note, I don't think McGee is necessarily right that criticism is unhelpful, though I do agree that hyperbole is the worst and least helpful form of criticism.
(This, in response to McGee's graph on all the things gamers rage over and then this:
"Developers aren’t your enemies. They’re just people, like you, trying to make a living doing what they love. Publishers aren’t the spawn of Satan. They’re just corporations trying to compete with other corporations for your wallet, soul and first born. Accept these things and the world around you. Not everything should be answered with criticism, negativity and buckshot to the face."
Again, I would point out that there is a vast divide between criticism and negativity that McGee is glossing over, and that many gamers also don't understand when they show up in the combox of a critical video game review....)
The reason I've been a skeptic of Kickstarter is precisely the sort of unreasonable expectations that people have surrounding crowdfunding and this "new" business model for video games. These high expectations can transform quickly from hype to hyperbole; from sky-high optimism to crushing, bitter disappointment.
Kickstarter represents a great deal of promise for indie game development, but we need to have reasonable expectations about outcomes and risk. When the crowd funds something, they're taking on the risk publishers and investors would normally take---but with fewer legal protections.
So far as I can tell, designing a bigger, better game than originally planned is far from the worst offense imaginable.
Allowing more people to be part of the funding via Steam Early Access is a reasonable idea, especially considering many other projects like Star Citizen continue to keep their crowdfunding doors open to this day.
In the end, only one thing will matter: Broken Age will either be a good game, or it won't. We'll know (sort of) when the first half of the game releases.
