The Triumph of Internet Democracy

I had planned to use this blog to talk to you all about something really big being seen more and more often in the writing industry, namely that of “Mixed Media Storytelling” however this will need to wait until next time due to some really interesting news filtering through at the moment which has the potential to challenge the current Publisher / Writer (or studio) relationship.

Last night something rather big happened, the team behind the Monkey Island series managed to raise $400,000 in just 12 hours, without the input of a publisher.

A little background; Double Fine, the company owned by Tim Schafer, a well known game designer has been going round, cap in hand to many of the big publishers in order to get an advance, to create a new point and click adventure game. Now, considering these are the guys who made Monkey Island, probably the most famous title within that genre (if not in the gaming industry as a whole), this should have been an easy task. Unfortunately for them the publishers did not see a large enough return on investment in this dying breed of game so refused them.

Now, game designers being the passionate, stubborn people that they are, who have a burning desire to create something when an idea flashes through their minds, wouldn’t take “no” for an answer and so turned to alternative investment sources; in this instance a website dedicated to raising funds from the general public in order to start an entrepreneurial enterprise. This website is called Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter offers companies a way to create a project and advertise the need for funding to the internet, with one major stipulation; investment may not be for capital return. Rather the investors will receive producer credits when the project is done, or are entitled to other rewards depending on the level of their financial commitment. In this case, rewards went from a signed poster, to a personalised poster of the investor, to a picture of the other designer smiling (a rare occurrence I guess... clearly a man after my own heart. Photos are for looking angry in, not smiling), with each reward requiring a pledge ranging from $15 to $150,000.

Double fine asked for $400,000, with Kickstarter having the stipulation that if this minimum is not reached, then no funds are handed over. Double Fine broke all previous records for commitments, and level of funding within 24 hours, and some other stuff, having reached, and exceeded their minimum in just 12 hours. They had a month in which to raise this money. At the time of writing this article, their fund was well over $900,000.

So just what does this mean? Well, for a start the publishers are once again lagging behind public demand, a continuing trend where they just seem to be entirely out of touch with the consumer. Kickstarter is a pure, unrefined form of democracy, and the public are voting with their wallets for what they want created, not leaving it up to big men in suits. Is this case the norm? Certainly not, as we really are talking game-development superstars here; however this does have the potential to turn things around within an industry terrified by piracy (and punishing legitimate users as a result) and generally scared to take risks. Now companies can cash in on their reputation for greatness, using a long history of good, well polished products to raise capital for their next project.

So, coming back to earth for a moment; I am not a development superstar, and Zatobo is not a well loved company with a proven track record of quality, so just how will this affect us? Well, when we founded the group, we made the commitment to quality over quantity, with the intention to release a series of smaller, well polished games to raise some funds in order to expand. This technique will go hand in hand with this emerging funding model, where we can capitalise on a good name and the goodwill of our followers to provide a capital injection on future projects which will make it both more likely that we can continue doing what we love, but also free us from some of the financial burden and allow us to take risks; and it is only though risk-taking that innovation can flourish.

Of course, to actually do this we have to deliver on our promise of high quality, enjoyable games and we are working exceptionally hard on meeting this commitment. Not only is personal pride at stake here, but now we also have a financial incentive to make good material that people want to play and if this motivation is affecting us, then it will have a similar grasp on other companies and quite frankly, this can only be a good thing, both for the consumers and the industry as a whole.

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