Last month one of my favorite bands, Five Iron Frenzy, came back from the grave using Kick Starter. Now Double Fine has done something similar, but with different implications. While Five Iron was able to call on old fans to revive a band broken up for 8 years, which is amazing, Tim Schafer did something a bit more important. Now this isn't an article about how great Kick Starter is, we all know it's awesome. No, this is how Kick Starter could change the way games are made.
More than anything Double Fine's success is a wake up call (or warning) to publishers. Middle men might not always be necessary. Just because Tim managed to make a million dollars in a day doesn't mean that now every game will have easy funding. The fact of the matter is there are already tons of game projects on kickstarter, and most haven't even broken $1000.
What Tim Schafer and Double Fine are proving right now is that fan funding can work, and incredibly well at that. Granted Tim has a lot of goodwill behind his name with gamers (just look at his resume), so not every game/developer will get a million dollars in under 24 hours. The important thing here is that he did. The best outcome is that publishers start to act with a bit of humility when handling someone else's property, knowing in the back of their minds the power fans now have.
Games have been waiting for something like this. Every medium of artistic expression eventually finds it's way to the masses, and in doing so, becomes easier to execute on a higher level. Film just recently went through this transition, literature did a long time ago. Now, games are becoming easier to make, and have a new way to be funded. This is good, very good.
I'll leave you with this delightful tidbit. Fox news once said that a fan funded project was out of the question at the moment (the moment being several years ago). The show in question: Firefly.
