Tex Murphy is not on Kickstarter yet, but he should be. I thought the money that Cognition raised was impressive (over $34,000), but the Double Fine Adventure… over 1 million in less than 24 hours! That is AWESOME! It’s at $ 1,516,519 as I write this, and is climbing every minute. It looks like we’re going to be getting an excellent Double Fine game!
This has got me thinking… for those of you that are Tex Murphy fans, and are willing to donate money to Aaron Connors, Chris Jones, and the rest of Big Finish Games, how much would you donate?
Please only vote in the poll if you are serious about actually donating money to a new Tex Murphy game / Secret Project Fedora, and please only choose a value you think you would realistically donate. I donated $101 to the Double Fine Adventure fund. With that in mind, I would immediately donate $750 for a new Tex Murphy game. I’ve been waiting for one ever since I saw those famous “To be continued…” words while playing Tex Murphy: Overseer in 1998. I have this set up as a poll so you can quickly and easily vote, and also keep your amount anonymous if you wish.
In a recent GOG interview, Aaron Connors explained what he’d like to do with the Tex Murphy franchise with a full budget. It’s very interesting, and quite an innovative solution to the “puzzles vs. story” debate! He also mentions that he would like to use FMV and 3D graphics, which is what about 99% of Tex Murphy fans want, ideally. His quote:
“With a full budget, I would make a game like the old ones, but with state-of-the art 3D and graphics. I think we would still need to do FMV, but we could blend it better with CG characters in the environments. I would also work on the pacing, make it a bit faster, but keep control in the hands of the player as much as possible. In fact, I would explore offering multiple modes of play – not just difficulty levels, but the actual gameplay style – so different types of players would get the kind of game they want.” – Aaron Connors, from GOG.com: http://www.gog.com/en/news/your_questio ... nners_pt_i
If you wouldn’t donate to this fund, that’s fine, but please only comment if you would. The minimum donation is $1, therefore, that is the lowest choice in this poll. The results of this poll and the comments may find their way to Aaron Connors and Chris Jones eventually. I know I’m not the only one interested in pitching this idea.
Please vote for how much money you would donate to support a new Tex Murphy game. In the meantime, please donate to the Double Fine Adventure if you haven’t already!
How much money would you donate to support a new Tex Murphy game?
This has got me thinking… for those of you that are Tex Murphy fans, and are willing to donate money to Aaron Connors, Chris Jones, and the rest of Big Finish Games, how much would you donate?
Please only vote in the poll if you are serious about actually donating money to a new Tex Murphy game / Secret Project Fedora, and please only choose a value you think you would realistically donate. I donated $101 to the Double Fine Adventure fund. With that in mind, I would immediately donate $750 for a new Tex Murphy game. I’ve been waiting for one ever since I saw those famous “To be continued…” words while playing Tex Murphy: Overseer in 1998. I have this set up as a poll so you can quickly and easily vote, and also keep your amount anonymous if you wish.
In a recent GOG interview, Aaron Connors explained what he’d like to do with the Tex Murphy franchise with a full budget. It’s very interesting, and quite an innovative solution to the “puzzles vs. story” debate! He also mentions that he would like to use FMV and 3D graphics, which is what about 99% of Tex Murphy fans want, ideally. His quote:
“With a full budget, I would make a game like the old ones, but with state-of-the art 3D and graphics. I think we would still need to do FMV, but we could blend it better with CG characters in the environments. I would also work on the pacing, make it a bit faster, but keep control in the hands of the player as much as possible. In fact, I would explore offering multiple modes of play – not just difficulty levels, but the actual gameplay style – so different types of players would get the kind of game they want.” – Aaron Connors, from GOG.com: http://www.gog.com/en/news/your_questio ... nners_pt_i
If you wouldn’t donate to this fund, that’s fine, but please only comment if you would. The minimum donation is $1, therefore, that is the lowest choice in this poll. The results of this poll and the comments may find their way to Aaron Connors and Chris Jones eventually. I know I’m not the only one interested in pitching this idea.
Please vote for how much money you would donate to support a new Tex Murphy game. In the meantime, please donate to the Double Fine Adventure if you haven’t already!
How much money would you donate to support a new Tex Murphy game?
Chris Jones and Aaron Conners have been in the business a long time now... If they thought that Donations could really get a Tex game up and running I'm sure they would haven't started asking by now... But since they haven't, we can only assume that they don't think it would raise the necessary funds... I'd happily donate a few hundred if I knew for certain that a Tex game would come of it... But I don't think there are enough Tex fans to raise the kind of money needed...
AC said a few years back that a good well rounded Tex game like they would like to do would cost upwards of about 10 to 12 Million dollars... With cost of equipment and the fact that the copyrights are back in their control, you might be able to cut a couple of million off of that, but you're still looking at high 7 digits...
Double Fine will probably top out around 2 to 2 1/2 Million... That would get Big Finish started on Tex and just as they are about to get into it, boom the money would start to dry up... Now what would they do??? They can't exactly go back on Kickstarter... Most people aren't going to support a project twice...
I admit, and I'm sorry for doing so, that I first mentioned the whole idea of Kickstarter, but I did so without having looked into it first... I saw Brian Williams do a news report on it and the praise he gave it made it seem like a good idea... But I have to agree with Cyberpunk for the most part, I see mostly scams and con artists using something like Kickstarter to swindle people out of their money... Or maybe low end budget things costing only a few grand... But nothing in the amounts needed for a Tex Murphy game...
But who is to say, maybe they'll change their mind... If that were to happen, as I said I'd happily donate no matter which why they choose to as for the money, be it a Paypal button, Kickstarter, or some other way... As long as I know for certain that it is them, then I'll pitch in...
AC said a few years back that a good well rounded Tex game like they would like to do would cost upwards of about 10 to 12 Million dollars... With cost of equipment and the fact that the copyrights are back in their control, you might be able to cut a couple of million off of that, but you're still looking at high 7 digits...
Double Fine will probably top out around 2 to 2 1/2 Million... That would get Big Finish started on Tex and just as they are about to get into it, boom the money would start to dry up... Now what would they do??? They can't exactly go back on Kickstarter... Most people aren't going to support a project twice...
I admit, and I'm sorry for doing so, that I first mentioned the whole idea of Kickstarter, but I did so without having looked into it first... I saw Brian Williams do a news report on it and the praise he gave it made it seem like a good idea... But I have to agree with Cyberpunk for the most part, I see mostly scams and con artists using something like Kickstarter to swindle people out of their money... Or maybe low end budget things costing only a few grand... But nothing in the amounts needed for a Tex Murphy game...
But who is to say, maybe they'll change their mind... If that were to happen, as I said I'd happily donate no matter which why they choose to as for the money, be it a Paypal button, Kickstarter, or some other way... As long as I know for certain that it is them, then I'll pitch in...
Aaron Conners browses this message board more than he posts on it, so I'm sure he'll read through this thread sooner than you might think... But I think you know that... Your screen name might be new, but I don't think you are...The minimum donation is $1, therefore, that is the lowest choice in this poll. The results of this poll and the comments may find their way to Aaron Connors and Chris Jones eventually.
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...
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*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Baf makes a really good point about the costs. I think its far greater than Tim's game, and for that matter when you compare to the recent indie success of films like Iron Sky (which used a combination of Crowd Sourcing and Studio Investment) even they only managed to hit $7.5 million, but the film does look so forking amazing and I can't wait to see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py_IndUbcxc
As I said, Aaron's best bet would be to contact CD Projekt, out of anyone they'd be most likely to finance and publish another Tex Murphy Title, its one of the highest selling game series on GOG.com (which CD Projekt owns). If anyone is going to be interested in publishing the game, it'd be them because they've got hard evidence to prove how successful it could be.
I do hope Aaron approaches them just to see what they have to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py_IndUbcxc
As I said, Aaron's best bet would be to contact CD Projekt, out of anyone they'd be most likely to finance and publish another Tex Murphy Title, its one of the highest selling game series on GOG.com (which CD Projekt owns). If anyone is going to be interested in publishing the game, it'd be them because they've got hard evidence to prove how successful it could be.
I do hope Aaron approaches them just to see what they have to say.
http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/498 ... pens-next/
Found an interesting article on Tim Schafer's game. Mentions that "not every classic game developer from the 90s can do this".
Found an interesting article on Tim Schafer's game. Mentions that "not every classic game developer from the 90s can do this".
http://au.gamespot.com/features/the-sec ... s-6350137/
Here's another interesting one
Pretty much proves my point that the bigger guys are moreso interested than you'd have believe. Gamespot seems to suggest Blizzard using it for something like Warcraft 4. Rest assured I would be appalled and upset if the AAA devs resorted to this, they don't need any more capital, their games are already over priced as is. The reason why Indies are resorting to community funding is it provides an opportunity for projects that normally wouldn't be funded under a publisher the chance to actually be funded by the community that wants it. But more importantly its not to be used for repeat business. This is strictly a tactic to be used only for startups. Once you're successful, you no longer need people's help raising capital.
The thing I'm most worried about is people using their industry cred to upstage the littler indies. This was supposed to be for small guys who were unknown and had no way of getting publishers to contact them, not for people who already have established contacts and could quite easily get a publisher to look at them. Tim is an exception, he's tainted goods in the eyes of the publisher, once you've had three or so major commercial flops its likely no one is going to fund you. That one exception is a grey area for me. You could argue Tim is a fallen developer booted from the publisher's eye.
The video however is a massive joke. Todd Howards comments especially made me laugh "Its only good for mobile", plus I get the feeling he doesn't even know who Tim Schafer is.
Bioware typically are just saying "how awesome the community is", this is a common thing they say, probably also the reason for all the fan service in Mass Effect 3.
Here's another interesting one
Pretty much proves my point that the bigger guys are moreso interested than you'd have believe. Gamespot seems to suggest Blizzard using it for something like Warcraft 4. Rest assured I would be appalled and upset if the AAA devs resorted to this, they don't need any more capital, their games are already over priced as is. The reason why Indies are resorting to community funding is it provides an opportunity for projects that normally wouldn't be funded under a publisher the chance to actually be funded by the community that wants it. But more importantly its not to be used for repeat business. This is strictly a tactic to be used only for startups. Once you're successful, you no longer need people's help raising capital.
The thing I'm most worried about is people using their industry cred to upstage the littler indies. This was supposed to be for small guys who were unknown and had no way of getting publishers to contact them, not for people who already have established contacts and could quite easily get a publisher to look at them. Tim is an exception, he's tainted goods in the eyes of the publisher, once you've had three or so major commercial flops its likely no one is going to fund you. That one exception is a grey area for me. You could argue Tim is a fallen developer booted from the publisher's eye.
The video however is a massive joke. Todd Howards comments especially made me laugh "Its only good for mobile", plus I get the feeling he doesn't even know who Tim Schafer is.
Bioware typically are just saying "how awesome the community is", this is a common thing they say, probably also the reason for all the fan service in Mass Effect 3.
I think the most effecient way to use such a system, or just a paypal button, would be as a mean to raise a down payment and test the waters, instead of counting on it to fund a project entirely.
You take Tim, for instance. I'm sure he enever expected this sort of response, and planned on making, I assume, a relatively small project. But he's raised over 1,5 millions in 72 hours. This kind of capital, as well as fan responses, should be enough as is to turn around and convince a bigger player to step in and finance, through the usual channels, a full-fledge project.
This place is, after all, called kickstarter. And that is precisely what he received, a major kickstart.
Then again, this would mean community input, as suggested by Shafer, would be reduced, and it would probably mean further constrains from your investors. Although this time Shafer made the demonstration, from the start, that his game would sell on his name alone, and thus would be able to convince investors to let him work his magic. Just like a chef always owns the kitchen, no matter who funds the restaurant.
You take Tim, for instance. I'm sure he enever expected this sort of response, and planned on making, I assume, a relatively small project. But he's raised over 1,5 millions in 72 hours. This kind of capital, as well as fan responses, should be enough as is to turn around and convince a bigger player to step in and finance, through the usual channels, a full-fledge project.
This place is, after all, called kickstarter. And that is precisely what he received, a major kickstart.
Then again, this would mean community input, as suggested by Shafer, would be reduced, and it would probably mean further constrains from your investors. Although this time Shafer made the demonstration, from the start, that his game would sell on his name alone, and thus would be able to convince investors to let him work his magic. Just like a chef always owns the kitchen, no matter who funds the restaurant.
Part-Time Nomad
I disagree with the negative comments. Negativity only holds people back. Here's my reply.
http://www.unofficialtexmurphy.com/mess ... f=1&t=3658
Even if they only got 10% of the funds needed to make another full on Tex. Progress is progress.
Edit: I've also looked at how they're raising the stakes on premium pledges.
"Pledge $15,000 or more:
Dinner with Tim Schafer and key members of the dev team.
Pledge $20,000 or more:
Dinner and BOWLING with Tim Schafer and key members of the dev team.
Pledge $30,000 or more:
Picture of Ron Gilbert smiling.
Pledge $35,000 or more:
Undoctored picture of Ron Gilbert smiling.
Pledge $50,000 or more:
Become an actual character in the game.
Pledge $150,000 or more:
Tim Schafer (that’s me) will give up ONE of his last four remaining Triangle-Boxed Day of the Tentacles, in original shrink-wrap.” (Limit of 1) (Holy crap, what am I thinking? I only have four of those!)"
This could be a another Day of the Tentacle.
http://www.unofficialtexmurphy.com/mess ... f=1&t=3658
Even if they only got 10% of the funds needed to make another full on Tex. Progress is progress.
Edit: I've also looked at how they're raising the stakes on premium pledges.
"Pledge $15,000 or more:
Dinner with Tim Schafer and key members of the dev team.
Pledge $20,000 or more:
Dinner and BOWLING with Tim Schafer and key members of the dev team.
Pledge $30,000 or more:
Picture of Ron Gilbert smiling.
Pledge $35,000 or more:
Undoctored picture of Ron Gilbert smiling.
Pledge $50,000 or more:
Become an actual character in the game.
Pledge $150,000 or more:
Tim Schafer (that’s me) will give up ONE of his last four remaining Triangle-Boxed Day of the Tentacles, in original shrink-wrap.” (Limit of 1) (Holy crap, what am I thinking? I only have four of those!)"
This could be a another Day of the Tentacle.
I agree with this, but you'd have to convince Aaron to lower the quality down to UAKM standards, truth is that once Pandora came out though, I'd argue there was no going back, the improvements in story telling, the use of actual props ect, really added to the game. Its hard to say what the right course of action is.Even if they only got 10% of the funds needed to make another full on Tex. Progress is progress.
I want to be perfectly clear that I'm not being overly negative for the sake of being a negative asshole.. rather I'm negative because someone has to say what could potentially get in the way of it.. we have to acknowledge potential problems and do what we can to prevent them.
Rest assured I want this to happen just as the rest of you do, but if it does get done, I want it done perfect the first time. Its a case of, you can only really do this once.
