Jesus Christ, now look what the BigDog guys have made. 
Might still be president yet, cincinnati. 
Thought it was some kind of elaborate joke but this is actually coming out in a couple of months.
Oh I understand that indies have been aware it for a long time, I was more referring to the regular guys out there who've probably never even heard of the concept before. I imagine that in future indie developers will find it easier to attract such funding once Double Fine has gotten their project out the door, as they'll have warmed to the idea of backing something they'd love to see made. Of course indie developers will always struggle to get that first project funded without some kind of credentials to back themselves up (ie: having some well-known guys on the team, a really awesome idea that you want the moment you hear it described, etc) — I guess that's where investors or grants would come in, or just struggle doing it for free of course.
Haha, yeah that's true. The movie soundtrack world always seems to be following him nowadays.
It’s impossible not to observe that on a day when gamers give a million dollars for a game that doesn’t yet exist, Ubisoft’s customers couldn’t play games they’d paid for and received. The contrast is important to notice.Rock, Paper, Shotgun »
Also, lol:
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I suppose something for indie developers to take home from this (other than jealousy) is that this whole thing has drawn a lot of attention to the idea of crowdsourcing game development, and that actually it's a pretty cool concept regular people should perhaps get involved with more often. :derp:
Well I think the video acknowledges that they're still made (the Germany line alluded to the fact most of them do come from there), but as someone who has played quite a few modern adventure games including the new Monkey Island and Sam & Max series, I'd say they're mostly great apart from the fact that financing generally just isn't there and so they end up quite low-budget and lacking production quality.
I think Telltale's games (Monkey Island, Sam & Max) suffer most from this because they simply haven't had the money to put together a truly good engine, so even their latest games look fairly dated and throughout the new Monkey Island series I was constantly distracted by obvious reskinning of the same models over and over, etc — and the lighting/texturing lacked what you'd expect from a modern game.
Double Fine is in quite a unique position because not only do they have a pretty awesome in-house engine (for their kind of style anyway), but they know it inside-out having developed an AAA game and a load of indie-style games on it. So for once we'll get a modern adventure game that isn't dragged back by all the technical issues most others are, and presumably most of the budget will go on pure production. Also the guys behind this are serious adventure game heavyweights which is another thing miscellaneous European start-up #10 doesn't have.
Actually not sure what trend you guys are on about. 
Yeah, really looking forward to seeing it all unfold. Also, you all watched the video? Fucking lol'd. 
Yeah, that's a fair point. I guess the more they get the better as that'll offset those costs, and then extra can go into further production. :derp:
I think the main problem with third-party packs is they do change the style to suit their own intentions, whereas obviously the official pack will completely match the original art direction. I don't like the idea of playing through the game and the pack creators not realising a certain texture they modified extensively looks stupid in certain places where it's used.
I'll laugh if someone like Notch does come along and just drop a million in the fund for shits and giggles.
And I agree, crowdsourcing like this is an absolutely wonderful way of raising funds for truly original development. I guess it shows just how much reputation matters when it comes to getting the amount you'd like, and the fact people are getting something back for investing in addition to the game itself is a great incentive.
Yeah that's awesome. Even if you've not been interested in Double Fine's games, check out the adventure game project (or at least the video):
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/667 ... -adventure
An adventure game by Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert (bear in mind these guys made the original Monkey Islands and Grim Fandango) with Double Fine's tech and production values is definitely something that turns me on in many ways. Pledged my $15 as any excess goes into polishing the game even more. 
Now, anyone bought
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I think the way you've done the trees and such is fine, but the walls have an almost eerie brightness to them that makes them almost look like they're glowing in your internal shots. If you look at the walls in the painting they get much darker as they get towards the forest, which is what you'd expect to happen in real life. The way your walls contrast so brightly with the trees right now looks wrong to my eyes.
I've attached a really basic Photoshop mock-up of the kind of effect I mean, which I produced by literally just throwing a gradient onto the walls. I hope this shows what I'm thinking with regards to how the lighting of the walls should look. CryEngine 3 has HDR so having it look this dark from the outside shouldn't mean it's too dark to see once inside the forest if you configure it correctly. 
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lol that Giger...
Splendid. I assume the lighting is going to be subject to further work, but one striking difference between the painting and your rendition is that the centre of the picture (ie: the heart of the island) is very dark, almost black. It'd be great if you could recreate this.
It's crazy. I'll admit that I've played the MGS games a good three times each so I guess replays just embed it further. I can literally go through the entirety of those games in my head — kind of mad. Might have to do one for the site.
Or when the new forums go up with articles (fyi) we can steal the idea and make it a series of our own. L!OL!OL!LOL!!!!!!
It does seem extreme, but I bet you I could put together something just as detailed for something like Metal Gear Solid. Amazing how it can imprint on your mind.
