Warning: This episode may contain language unsuitable for young children or your workplace.
Or we could do the black thing, and we could--, and we could be like--
There is that black--yeah. -Yeah, the black thing.
I'm just--I need to get accustomed to money being around.
That's the thing, I just--this is part of the physical therapy of getting me used to actually not being afraid of money.
Richard Branson went through the same thing.
You guys, what is this stuff, it's all over me.
-Beautiful. -I can't apply money to myself.
-Oh, my God, there's a lot. -I can't self-terminate.
-Here, help me apply money. -I can't self-monetize.
2 Player Productions Presents
So this is a more recent point-and-click adventure game.
I have to show you someone else's 'cause I haven't made one in a long time...
...I used to make them back in the '90s.
This is Machinarium.
You play this little robot and you click around.
In these kind of games you walk the character around by clicking on the ground somewhere.
You can pull on this handle here and I can make this mine cart come through the room.
-I'm sorry, what's that? -I pulled on this handle.
Oh, that's right, this doesn't work until I do this.
That's what a lot of adventure game playing is like, you're like, "Oh this doesn't--why doesn't this work?"
"Oh, I need this gear first, I need to get the gear on the sprocket."
And so they move at a slower pace.
And some people really like that but it also means they're not exactly as attention-getting and as visceral...
...and maybe as a big blockbuster action game.
And that led us to this point now where it's really hard to get one of these games made these days...
...or at least get funding for it from a publisher.
But before getting into all that, what put you on the map, like just describe the game...
...that got you into game famous?
Game famous.
You know, each game we made in the '90s, we got a little more recognition for it...
...and we were always pretty savvy about getting our names on the box, sort of like "Hey--"
You know, you had to kind of act like you're famous before you're famous.
That sounds funny, I learned that from an interview with David Lee Roth about Van Halen.
They're like, "We always acted like we were hot shit," and so people treated us that way.
Ladies and gentlemen, founder of Double Fine Productions, and our good friend, Tim Schafer.
I think, like many of you, I've known what I wanted to do since I was a very young child.
I remember the day I turned to my mother and I said, "Mom, I want to win awards."
And she said, "Son, sports trophies mean a lot of running around and the Nobel Peace Prize,
you have to support world peace and even, like, Best Actor at the Oscars...
...means a rudimentary attendance to your physical appearance."
I said, "Mom, isn't there an award I can win while leading a sedentary lifestyle...
...and glorifying violence and letting my personal appearance go to hell?"
She said, "Yes, my son, there is," and that's why we are here tonight.
We had a big hit, Full Throttle, it was called Full Throttle and it sold a million copies...
...and that was really big for those PC graphic adventures.
And then I made a game called Grim Fandango and that won Game of the Year with GameSpot,
that was the big thing that helped a lot.
Grim Fandango is set in the land of the dead, yeah, so.
And it sold about half a million units and it was seen as not being commercially successful...
...and it was one of the reasons that adventure games died.
And I heard a friend of mine, who worked in another game company saying,
"We tried to get an adventure game made," and they said, "Well look, Grim Fandango...
...didn't do that well, so obviously, and it was a good game and it won Game of the Year...
...and if Game of the Year can't sell as many copies as it needs to then maybe that genre is dead."
So I feel some responsibility.
To make a good game and make it do well.
He's been excited about it, I mean he's wanted to return to adventure games for a while...
...and it's just been a matter of not knowing how to make that happen.
Fans are always saying they want one, but a publisher would say, "We can't make money doing those."
So, something like Kickstarter shows up, which is this crowd sourcing website where everybody can...
...back a project--you pitch your project and you get backers and then if you meet your goals...
...you get the money and you build your project.
Doing an adventure game is interesting 'cause it's the only way you could do that:
letting the fans like, kind of put their money where their mouth is.
Is that--did I get the backwards, yeah.
No, you're right, yeah, some loudmouth fan, "I don't want to buy Trenched, but what about an adventure game?"
Exactly.
So explain your Kickstarter campaign, what have you just done?
Yeah, what have we done?
Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there.
You caught me indulging in one of my many impressive hobbies.
I'm Tim Schafer.
And so we put a pitch video up where we said we want to make a game and the idea was what if we made...
...one of these adventure games that most publishers don't want to fund these days?
One of my favorite types of games to make is adventure games.
But these days it seems like adventure games are almost a bit of a lost art form.
They exist in our dreams and our memories and in Germany.
Maybe that would get people excited about getting a chance to do something...
...that couldn't be funded any other way.
It's perfect, we got the perfect team here at Double Fine to make it.
We got the inventor of the genre here, Ron Gilbert-- oh look, there he is right now!
Maybe he'll help us.
He'll help us.
We've always talked about wanting to do, you know, more classic adventure stuff.
And so doing the Kickstarter thing, it's like, yeah I mean that sounds really like an interesting idea.
I think we were both very skeptical about the amount of money.
So, we're asking for this much to make the game and this much to film it.
And that may seem like a lot of money, but it's really not that much...
...for a game budget these days, it's pretty small actually.
And I just never thought you could get the kind of money that would actually pay for a whole game budget.
Hello, potential backers!
I'm gonna do all three options, thank you for donating well over the amount we asked for, that's so great!
We have too much money now.
Damn you, why haven't anyone given us any money? I'm so sad.
That doesn't seem believable.
-We don't need that one anyway. -Yeah, we're not gonna use that one.
Or just moderately--hello, thank you for dedicating the appropriate amount of...
'Cause the previous projects in Kickstarter had only been--I don't know what the max was before then...
...but it looked like they were like 40 grand, I mean, we were used to making projects that were like...
...Brütal, like $20 million, and these smaller games were like $2 million.
It's like, no way you can get $2 million from Kickstarter, could you?
First 8 Hours of the Kickstarter Campaign
They've got these groups that are scattered across the country and the world of people...
...who want a certain thing and what publishers wouldn't put that on paper, like "How many of them are there?
Okay, if we make a game for x-million dollars, can we make x--30 times that?"
No, because there's only these few people.
I hope this works out because it is kind of--that if enough people got together they could actually make a game...
...like this happen, and game that we haven't really been able to make happen...
...for business reasons for like many, many years.
Because of current market-- what was the phrase I was using?
Market conditions?
Current market realities, when they cancelled adventure games.
Or we'll just prove all those publishers right.
Or we'll just prove them all right.
Since founding Double Fine Productions in 2000, Tim Schafer has enjoyed critical acclaims for his games...
...but only modest commercial success.
His conflicts with publishers over games such as Psychonauts and Brütal Legend are well known...
...within the videogames industry.
Hi.
No, I mean nothing I had done before prepared me for what it's like to work for publishers.
When you're working with a publisher, a lot of times they get involved with design decisions...
...and you have to make compromises.
You have publishers out there, from the outside kind of poking in and making you do things.
You know, that's where, I think, things can kind of come off the rails.
And the way it felt, I don't know if this makes any sense, but in my head,
like the creative process of making a game...
...was like, you're looking at this field of floating multicolored dots that are drifting slowly to the ground.
And eventually when they hit the ground, they're going to make like a painting on the floor...
...but you've gotta kind of like move them around, get them in the right and see...
...and then as they fall, you start to see where you need more color and you move them around...
...and slowly they settle and you just, ah they settle and then you're done.
So you'll be like, "Tim, what are you doing with that green dot?"
It's like, "I can't tell you."
You'll be like, "Okay, that dot, can we just nail that down, can we just say where that's gonna be?"
And I'm like, "No."
"So let's just say where all the red dots are gonna be, okay, can you just nail all the red dots down?"
I'm like, "No!"
"How about if we just start on this edge and we just take all the dots, like this and just nail those dots?"
Like, "No!"
Yeah, the games industry as a whole, I think, is in a really weird spot...
...where it's like we're like the film industry used to be way back in the day...
...where the publishers are running mostly everything-- is kind of how it was for a long time...
...and it's only now that people are starting to like, seek out the creators of the games that--
People who are making the game and try to actually support those people and lift them up a bit.
Because Tim Schafer has consistently put out quality games.
Games that have very large and dedicated followings.
People would probably pay him just to spit on their screen.
And we do appreciate that, we show our appreciation by doing what we've done...
...by giving them the funding for this game in eight hours.
The whole, like past month has been a complete blur, it's gone so quick.
But yeah, we were in Vegas for D.I.C.E. the day that we launched.
And we had had a hard month, because we'd had a game cancelled.
The whole team were trying to figure out...
...whether we could swing having this team stay on...
...or do we have to let go of 12 people to keep the company afloat.
We've never laid off anyone for money before,
so we were, um, and even besides the financial concerns,
it's just such a--it doesn't feel like you're winning when you have a game cancelled.
You feel like a big--you know, you've lost.
I'm about to launch our first Kickstarter project.
It kind of just all came together right when we were out there,
and we had a bit of time before a meeting,
and we were like, "We could launch this today."
And I did have to like decide when we launched our Kickstarter that for time,
we were like, "I guess $200,000, we can make something for $200,000,"
and I had to accept that I might only get $200,000, right?
And then I was nervous about it so I upped it to three, right?
And so it was like, yeah, we can make something for $300,000,
'cause we could, 'cause that's what--you know, we've been talking about iPhone games recently,
and that's like, three people for six months or something like that.
Yeah, we can make something with three people for six months.
It would look like a flash game or it would look like an iPhone game,
but it would technically be a game...
by all scientific definitions.
Ah, nervous!
Launch.
Review, I have to review it.
Oh man, that was...such a letdown.
Okay.
No, that's just a bunch of fine print.
Just a--I never read these things anyway.
-Should I do it? -Yeah, do it.
It couldn't hurt, right?
It could, but we're not gonna let it.
And I remember like, as soon as we hit it up and we refreshed, it was like at $30.
We were like, "Holy crap, there's already $30."
You think I'm gonna look at how much, uh-- I don't care about money, I'm not gonna look.
Let me look for just one second.
What are we at?
Okay so we posted this, what, two hours ago, right?
Two hours ago--we launched our Kickstarter project two hours ago.
Hundred and six thousand dollars and fifty-six--
hundred and six.
I can't even count, it's so high.
It's such a high number, that's crazy.
It's too much money.
Yeah, so when we hit a million, that was definitely like...
...that was a day after, one day after we launched, right?
What are we at?
I want to just say I love you guys and not for the money.
Nine, nine, nine, seventy-three--
Three!
Oh my God, they're counting down to a refresh.
F5!
Two!
-It's exciting, isn't it? -Oh my God, it's so exciting!
What's the number?
Refresh!
Internet has crashed.
No!
Internet has crashed.
-What? -No!
Where's my phone?
The internet's crashed.
-I think they all died. -They're dying!
Are you guys okay?
What happened?
Oh, they're being crushed, it's horrible.
Oh no!
No!
What happened?
-It's a million dollars. -Is it?
That's what a million dollars sounds like.
What do you mean it crashed?
It crashed.
Kickstarter crashed.
Kickstarter crashed, yeah!
No!
Yeah!
Wait, wait.
Yeah, that was definitely one of the high points where it was like, "Holy crap, this is a huge thing."
A million in 24 hours!
Tim Schafer, you just made a million dollars in 24 hours, what are you doing?
I gotta make a game.
Over the last few days, Tim Schafer from Double Fine took to crowd funding site Kickstarter...
...to fund his next game.
It feels like a happening, you know what I mean?
Like, it feels like an event.
They're raising money at a clip of a thousand dollars per minute.
It's incredible.
One question that is on everybody's mind: you get the million dollars.
Did you immediately withdraw it all, put it into a vault,
and then dive into it like Scrooge McDuck style?
Then during Kickstarter, really like it made it an-- I don't know what it was,
but it made everyone just take that big basket of money...
...and shake it out over our heads.
It really was like the end of "It's a Wonderful Life."
Okay.
So excited!
Thumbs up!
Thumbs up, yes.
That was pretty amazing.
It was amazing.
I told you adventure games are not dead!
The thing that I noticed was that it was just such a morale booster,
the whole team, and I think it just felt like a lot of good will and love...
...coming towards the company, and everyone got super excited about it,
and 'cause it was like this feeling of like, we knew those people were out there,
we knew they were, but--'cause sometimes they don't show up when you make a game.
You make a game, you release it, and you're like...
...thought it was gonna sell a lot and it didn't,
you're like, "Where are all those people that it feels like there's all this good will out there?"
If it hits two million--
-One of us has to shave. -Jeff's shaving.
Lee has to shave my scrotum if it gets to two million.
Only if Jeff agrees to do it on camera.
-Congratulations. -You went there.
It had been a long time since we'd had an experience where we felt like we were the winners.
We were at D.I.C.E. and I was walking through D.I.C.E. feeling like a winner,
which is really kind of like-- not that I feel like a loser,
but usually you feel like the, um...
...alternative to money.
Tim's First Day Back at the Office
I hear them, I hear them.
Still here, still here.
I mean, I'm proud of all of our games and I wouldn't switch 'em...
...with anyone else's games, but usually walking at a convention like that,
you're talking to the people who made Uncharted, and they're really nice,
and you're like, "Congratulations on that game, did really well for you."
And like, you don't often feel like-- you feel like they're the family member...
...who's like still living at home, like, yeah,
and they're all really nice to us, but, you know, we haven't--
it's different when you make a bunch of money.
And we raised $1.7 million on Kickstarter.
-That auto-refresh thing? -Yes.
We were in the hotel room and I was listening on Skype on the iPad,
Just hear this room like:
Then all of a sudden:
Distortion sound as everyone lost their shit.
And right now, we're almost $2.5 million, and we have six more days to go.
Everything moved really quickly, and I actually didn't really have a chance...
...to like let everything sit in until yesterday, when it finished, and I was like...
...finally, it like hit me, and I was like, "Holy crap, we did something really crazy here."
Two minutes!
Nine thousand viewers.
So like we cleared in advance, I'm gonna shake this up...
...and I'm gonna spray it all over your head.
Why is that...
Ron--my God, that's terrible for your teeth!
Two minutes!
Two minutes.
Oh, jeez.
That was premature!
Premature!
There's still a part of my skeptical, pessimistic brain that says,
"Well, you could never do this again,"
that this was really kind of this one-time perfect storm thing.
But I don't know, I mean, maybe not.
Done!
Yeah!
I've been so happy about that, ever since Kickstarter started,
just thinking about how I still have to answer to people,
like people who funded the game, you know,
but they're exactly the people I want to answer to.
Those are the people I'm makin' the dots for, right, and all those things, like--
and so, it's like...
it's just a really liberating and freeing thing to just think that I'm just gonna have to worry...
...about how good the game is and almost nothing else.
Love you guys.
It has been an amazing experience.
So much love.
We know that it's not all about us and Double Fine,
but about you, the fans, and what you guys want to say and do with your money...
...and choose to do and make things happen for yourself.
I mean, I don't want to make a huge speech here, 'cause I'll get all choked up.
Too late.
But I just--I don't want to say this is the end of the, you know,
the old games industry as we know it.
It's not, it's not.
And it's not--and it's not like a total replacement of all publishers and publishing games.
There's still gonna be--there still might be a few games made by publishers after today.
Just a couple games.
But it does mean if you've ever been told that you're part of a niche market,
if you've ever, like, when you were a kid and you had your favorite TV show cancelled,
or you hear about your favorite band being dropped by their label for not selling enough,
and you've just been like, "Why does a big company get to choose...
...what music I listen to, or what movies I watch, or what TV shows I watch,
or what game I get to play," now you know that they can't do that anymore.
You can choose.
So thanks everybody, very much.
Thank you to the team, everybody!
Thanks my parents for backing the project, and everyone else's parents who backed the project.
Does anyone else want to thank anybody?
Thank you!
Thank you.
Thanks everyone, and now we dance.
Everyone!
Ron's dancing!
Special thanks to our backers.
We couldn't have done it without you!