[dropcap size=big]2[/dropcap]012 was a massive year for Kickstarter and gaming. It was the year that both Double Fine Adventure and Ouya campaigns appeared. Everyone in the game development scene was trying to bring their product to the masses via the site, and that included many industry icons. Jane Jensen was one of these people. Best known for her work on the Gabriel Knight series, she pitched a campaign to bring forth a new development studio known as Pinkerton Road. Not only that, but she would be creating a new game similar in tone to the classic Gabriel Knight games.

As a huge fan of that series and Jensen’s work this was a campaign I simply couldn’t say no to. After browsing through all the pledge tiers I settled on $100. It just seemed right as a collector of boxed games. Here is the description:

“ “CSG SILVER MEMBER”: Limited edition CSG member annual T-shirt, Music CD “Best of the year” game music, Packaged DVD versions of all our studio releases for this CSG cycle, pdf of our Pinkerton Road 2012 Creative Review book. All previous reward tiers’ goodies”

However, during the course of the campaign they actually added a bit more to this tier. The biggest change was an offer for a retro big box version of Moebius. Sweet! After a successful campaign end in May the wait began. In early 2014 Moebius, the main game for which Pinkerton Road Studio was formed, finally launched. But it still wasn’t time for those backer goodies to ship. After all, by this time the surprise Mystery Game X had been revealed as Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition – and I hoped to heck it would be included in my rewards.

Jane Jensen ran a very successful Kickstarter for her game development company, Pinkerton road. Lets look at some of the backer rewards.

That Gabriel Knight remake launched in October. Still, my rewards were still in limbo! It was only early in December when Phoenix Online Studios started posting Instagram photos of backer rewards in boxes did I get excited. Was it finally time? Why weren’t there updates about this news on the actual Kickstarter page? In any case, on December 16th my collection of goodies finally arrived. Of course, those digital rewards I’d been promised had been delivered online no issue but my attention was focused most on the tangible stuff.

Upon opening the package I was greeted with a classic PC game sized cardboard box with Moebius inside. The black cover is surprisingly stunning even though my box got dented a little bit. Inside is both a color manual and clear DVD case with a disc copy of the game. It’s a little weird that the inside case has no art on it, but it’s not like anyone will be examining it much. After all, the Steam code for Moebius was emailed at launch so the boxed copy is mostly for display purposes.

2014-12-21 08.58.54It’s a shame that Gabriel Knight is not in a big box as well, but it is actually an exclusive release! On the DVD cover it states that this version was printed for members of the Pinkerton Road CSG (aka Kickstarter backers). Again, this isn’t something to open as I’ve previously redeemed my Steam key no issue. In comparison to the packaging of the games, the Best of Pinkerton Road music CD is certainly cheaper. It’s in one of those simple cardboard sleeves but this was never the highlight of the pledge anyhow.

Finally there is the Pinkerton Road CSG member t-shirt. Mine was one of two designs available and, in my opinion, the better of them. It features a logo for Pinkerton Road Studio on the front and lovely farm-themed artwork on the back. All in all, I was very happy with my backer rewards because it gave me access to two games (more if you count Lola and Lucy) in digital and physical forms. They’ve also given me more of Jane Jensen’s creations to sit on my shelf. I’ll certainly be wearing my Pinkerton Road CGS member shirt with pride!

About the Author

Marcus Estrada

Marcus is a fellow with a love for video games, horror, and Japanese food. When he’s not writing about games for a multitude of sites, he’s usually still playing one. Writing about video games is something he hopes to continue doing for many years to come.

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