How Double Fine gave gamers a voice

February 10, 2012 Double Fine blog blogs gaming

This week developer Double Fine did something incredible, and no I’m not strictly speaking of raising over a million dollars in 2 days, although that’s pretty incredible on its own.

I’m talking about something gamers old and new have been wanting for years now - a voice. Let’s face it, most of today’s game development is funded by committees of suits behind closed doors, nervously gathered around folders and folders of colored graph charts and videos of focus tests that all lead them to believe that for them to have success they need to make another blockbuster shooter with 7 new MP modes and eye-blistering graphics. While those games do indeed have a place in the game industry, for far too long its been the only sure bet that gamers are going to see each year.

What happened to platformers; adventure games and RPGs so lovingly crafted and full of story and mechanics that it took a 200 page manual to really get into? There was a time when publishers allowed their developers to take more risks and gamers loved them for it. For years Sega fans have been asking for a new entry in the much loved Shenmue series. Sega, has time and time again denied pleasing their fans with a new title. Instead choosing to green light travesties like Golden Axe: Beast Rider, because you know… tits and blood are big sellers.

Publishers believe that gamers don’t want another Shenmue, Baldur’s Gate, Nights into Dreams or Full Throttle like adventure. But in 24 hours Double Fine in their hare-brained scheme to bring back adventure gaming proved that the gaming audience do want these gems again, and more importantly they’re willing to pay for it.

With the monumental success of Double Fine’s experiment in crowd sourcing, they’ve opened the door to publishers and developers finally listening to fans and maybe for once getting the projects they want to play given life.

Thanks to gamers, the adventure genre doesn’t have to stay locked away only in our nostalgic ramblings.

Already Obsidian Games Chris Avellone has said he’s more than down to get a Kickstarter started for fans that want to see an old school isometric RPG get done. Fans have been begging publishers for a deep tactical isometric RPG for years, but publishers have viewed it as a risky investment. Now for the first game ever, gamers can get that game they desperately want made and skip the middle man. As Captian Planet says, The power is yours!

Now clearly, this isn’t a solution that’s going to work with every dream project under the sun. I’m pretty damn sure that even if I ran up a banner to bring back Jazz Jackrabbit in front of Cliffy B’s place promising to give Epic my 30 bucks that it’s going to happen. But when gamers come together and developers are more than willing to hear what they want and see that the audience is financially invested, it can go a long way in bringing to life some of the most sought after dream titles that gamers have clamored for. Money talks and gamers now have another route to let their green do the talking.