Double Fine Entertainment co-founder Tim Schafer released a video to backers of his company’s Kickstarter campaign to fund its next product earlier this week, confirming that the old-school adventure game will be making its way to iOS and Android as well as PC.
Schafer is something of an indie celebrity in the video game world. He and Double Fine started a campaign on the crowd funding website Kickstarter earlier this month, hoping to bypass the traditional video game funding system that requires a developer to sell an idea to investors or a publisher in order to get the money to make it. Within eight hours of starting its Kickstarter page, the project, called Double Fine Adventure, had already surpassed its funding goal of $400,000. Within 24 hours, it had set a Kickstarter record for most backers. After that, it set a record for the site for most money raised for a single project: currently, it sits at $1,842,978, with 27 days to go before funding is closed.
From the start of the campaign, Double Fine said that gathering more funding than the $400,000 goal it set would mean more possibilities for the game. Concurrent to the development of Double Fine Adventure is a documentary that will capture the actual creation of the game and allow audiences to see into the game development process like they never have before. According to the Kickstarter campaign, extra funds beyond the benchmark would go toward improving the documentary and adding things like translations, voice acting and, possibly, other platforms for Double Fine Adventure. At the time of the page’s creation, mobile platforms including iOS and Android were mentioned as possibilities.
But in a video updating the status of the campaign and Double Fine Adventure sent out Wednesday, Schafer confirmed that the classic point-and-click adventure title would make its way to Apple’s devices, as well as at least some of those running Google’s Android platform. We should be able to expect to see Double Fine Adventure hit the iPhone and iPad sometime much later this year; the Kickstarter campaign estimates the game will be completed in about eight months, around October 2012.
The reason Double Fine Adventure has gained so much attention and money is because of the profiles of Double Fine, Tim Schafer and co-developer Ron Gilbert. Schafer and Gilbert gained a lot of fans when they worked for LucasArts back in the 1990s, working on classic adventure titles for the PC such as Full Throttle and The Secret of Monkey Island. Games such as those ones, with their excellent design and wry humor, helped solidify both devs as fan favorites. The crux of the Double Fine Kickstarter campaign was that Schafer and Gilbert would team to create the kind of game that many of their fans grew up with and adored. Apparently, that idea has resonated with more than 53,000 people who were willing to pledge money (and receive rewards, like a pre-order of the game) before it had even been started.
The success of Double Fine and Kickstarter is a big deal for game developers trying to find ways of making the games they want outside of the classic publisher structure, and seeing Double Fine Adventure come to iOS should be huge for video game fans who use the platform. A whole lot of gamers have trusted Schafer and Gilbert with their money; I think it’s safe to say we can expect the results to be worth the risk, especially now that they’re coming to the iPhone and iPad as well as PC screens.
