FEB. 10, 2012, Securing funding for a large-scale classic adventure game is not an easy endeavor, which drove its studio to solicit funds from game consumers themselves. Although the initial goal was a modest $400,000, within its first 24 hours seeking funds, Double Fine raised more than $1 million. By Feb. 20, nearly 60,000 people had contributed to boost the total to $2 million. Those who donated $15 get access to the PC game set to release on the Steam service this fall. A $20,000 donation category, however, adds in a night of dinner and bowling with studio founder Tim Schafer and the development team. A $50,000 pledge will insure the donator becomes a character in the game. The first person to give $150,000 would walk away with one of Schafer’s last four remaining triangle-boxed Day of the Tentacles in original shrink-wrap.

Impact: Kickstarter is basically a way the online community can fund all kinds of art projects: fi lms, theater, art, photography, music, restaurants and all kinds of off-beat projects. Among its categories it seems games are probably the most popular.By mid-March Double Fine had raised a whopping $3.3 million. The second best product was funding for reprint of a comic book that raised $1.2 million. However,amateur developers should not view this as some magical new funding source. For one, Tim Schafer is a well known developer with an impressive track record. The second most funded game on Kickstarter raised $170,000 and that was a board game.