Only recently have I pledged money to something on Kickstarter. Its a project that is very close to my heart and from that image above you can probably guess what it is. Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey. Now for those of you who don't know, Chapters is the next game in the Longest Journey saga. After the previous game failed to sell to a mass audience, it was unlikely that a conclusion to the biggest cliffhanger in gaming would ever see the light of day. However, thanks to the crowd funding platform Kickstarter, Chapters secured funding. As someone who has pledged money for the creation of the game, I'm extremely excited for this. Perhaps to excited...
Now here's the problem. The game needs to be made. Even with my bare-bones knowledge of video game development, I know it's not exactly easy to make a game. It takes a great amount of skill and time to craft a really great game. Now that I'm backing the project I fear that I'm going to watch this game till the very moment the game releases and be ultimately disappointed. Not because of the game itself, but because I'm so invested in it that I want to see as much of the game content as I can before it's released. You could possibly spoil most of the game before you've even played it. One of the things about Kickstarter is that developers can put out regular updates, detailing what they have been working on. Obviously this could spoil certain things about the game, especially if it is a story based adventure game.
At the same time I think this is great, for this and many other projects (Kickstarter isn't just for games you know). The video game industry is usually pretty closed, not revealing much about the way they work. People can now directly support the games they want and see how such games are made. This cuts out publisher who don't fund games that they think will be good, but fund the ones they think will be the most profitable. Developers can communicate with backers to find out what they want from the game. Kickstarter has allowed many niche games and projects to see the light of day. Games that wont sell millions of copies, but have the most faithful and loyal fan-bases who can get the games they want.
It's going to be a long time before Chapters is released. But I'm more then willing to wait for it. While there are good and bad things about the exposure on Kickstarter, I know one thing for sure. The feeling of funding the sequel to one of my favorite games is amazing. I know I'm not exactly making the game or doing any of the heavy lifting but...
Sometimes taking a risk and getting excited for something pays off. Its the best feeling in the world. So who knows? Let's just see what happens.
"Sometimes we just have to trust that things will be okay."
I think it's time to wake up Zoë.
