Schafer reasserts dedication to crowdfunding: ‘It should be more than a stunt’

Double Fine’s Tim Schafer has said that the successful crowdfunding campaigns for Broken Age and Psychonauts 2 are more than just one-off ‘novelties’.

The studio raised almost $3.5 million for Broken Age back in 2012, with the point-and-click revival arguably establishing platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo as a real alterative to traditional finance options.

Double Fine returned to the world of crowdfunding for the long-awaited sequel to Psychonauts, which saw more than $3.3 million pledged by investors and fans via Fig, the equity share crowdfunding platform that Schafer helped co-found.

Following the two successful campaigns, Schafer reasserted his dedication to the financing method and insisted that there would be more to come from the studio.

"There was this sense that when we did the Broken Age one, there was some novelty to it,” he recalled to Gamasutra.

“Nowadays a lot of people don’t even notice [crowdfunding campaigns]. I want it to be a big part of how we make games in the future. I want it to be repeatable; I guess that’s the word. Before, it felt like a stunt; I want it not to be a stunt."

Schafer also commented on the effect that crowdfunding had had on the creation of games, praising it as a way of proving the viability of promising titles.

"Publishers like it, because it takes a lot of the risk away, and they like that you have some skin in the game,” he suggested. “They like the crowdfunding part, because it proves public interest. It works for them and it works for us, and I think it’s a good way to do it."

As for the future of crowdfunding, Schafer predicts a games funding structure more akin to that of film production firms.

"Movies are made from money from all different places,” he explained. “They piece together those budgets from everywhere.

“We’re moving away from that record company model where one company does everything. When you see a movie and it’s got like five title cards before it, each one of those people put some money into this thing."