DoubleFine is a gaming industry led by the witty Tim Schafer, the company produced the Psychonauts game for the PC, Mac, Xbox and Playstation. The company was in a what would seem like an odd position: their products had high demand and a large base of fans that were eager for more products, especially Psychonauts 2, but… their revenues were poor and the publishers did not want to create them because the type of games DoubleFine produce were not usually profitable and would take a couple million to make.

Fans want Psychonatus 2, what shall Tim do!?

Fear not, Tim has kept up with the changes and knew just what to do: Kickstarter! Kickstarter.com is a website where you can put up your project in the hopes that the common people will support you by putting in their money.

Simply said, it helps you crowdsource funds.

“It occurred to me: Kickstarter,” Schafer said. “We could use Kickstarter to make a fan-funded old school adventure game. It’s perfect. We have the perfect team at Double Fine to make it, [and] we have the inventor of the genre here to make it, Ron Gilbert.”

Did Kickstarter work?

Oooh hell yeah! It did! In fact, it exceeded the goal of $400,000 in only a bit over 8 hours and still growing… Guess how much they have now… Guess… Go ahead…

$1,961,618!

People can keep investing in DoubleFine through Kickstarter until Tuesday March 13, 8:00pm EDT, so the actual amount of fund won’t determined until then.

Tim is not going to buy himself some big house or massive computer with the extra money, it seems… He responded to the massive investments, saying that it will help the company develop further and that the extra money has given him the chance to make additional plans for the game and documentary in order to give back to people.

Making the games more accessible

Tim: Proud to announce we’re going to be developing for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android!  In addition to Steam codes, we will also be offering DRM free versions.  And for all our lovely friends overseas, we’ll be localizing the text in French, Italian, German, and Spanish.  Thanks for the support!

Documenting the whole production, the good and bad bits

Tim: All money raised will go to make the game and documentary better. Additional money means it can appear on more platforms, be translated into more languages, have more music and voice, and an original soundtrack for the documentary, and more!  We’re still working to figure out exactly what we can offer, but we’ll post more information as soon as possible.

Rewards for investor (interested?)

Pledge $15 or more: The finished game in all of its awesome glory DRM free on PC, Mac, and Linux, or via Steam for PC and Mac, exclusive access to the Beta on Steam, access to the video series, and access the private discussion community.

Pledge $30 or more: HD download of the documentary series with extras, Digital game soundtrack, and all previous reward tiers.

Pledge $100 or more: Original “Double Fine Adventure” poster (suitable for framing) exclusive to the campaign, special thanks in the game’s credits, and all previous reward tiers. (Posters will be shipped for free in the US. Please add an additional $10 to your pledge for international shipping)

Pledge $250 or more: “Double Fine Adventure” Poster autographed by Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and the rest of the design team, and all previous reward tiers.

Pledge $1,000 or more: Mini portrait of YOU, painted by the game’s artist, and all previous reward tiers.

Pledge $10,000 or more: Lunch with Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert, a tour of the Double Fine offices, and all previous reward tiers. THERE ARE MORE REWARDS but we can’t post them here because they’re too big! For premium rewards past a $10,000 pledge, see www.doublefine.com

Their Kickstarter page is here.