The vast and unyielding demon of
procrastination that is The Internet has always proven itself to be an almighty
leveller. In an instant; the well respected and admired can be dragged down
into disrepute through YouTube just as some loser, 12-year old Canadian with a
dorky haircut gets catapulted into stardom on the next link over. Twitter has
helped topple dictators and derailed legislation. The internet community has
turned ruthless, unforgiving and does not take previous history into
consideration.
And so, The Internet has made itself a
remarkable example for meritocracy. For every person that is ostracised for a
reprehensible act, there is an untapped talent drawing in a very devoted
audience. The world of comics, for example, has changed dramatically with the
works of Jerry Holkins, Mike Krahulik, Scott Kurtz, et al creating a huge
online school of independent cartoonists with a huge following that has begun
to rival the devotion to the physical side of comics, dominated by the Marvel
and DC Universes. Holkins and Krahulik’s joint creation, Penny Arcade, has
evolved into a powerful member of the industry as a whole, with their own
convention, PAX, becoming comparable in popularity to the more prolific comic
conventions like SDCC. Additionally, the internet has provided a platform for
physical comics by independent creators to gain a higher platform through both
cheaper and wider advertising mediums and pure word of mouth. By providing a
window into every other part of the world, the internet has totally changed the
playing field, let alone the goalposts, in terms of media distribution.
The improved influence of the internet has
led to the advent of a potentially world-changing concept; crowd funding, the
most prominent of these projects being Kickstarter. Since its birth in 2008,
the Kickstarter project has been making headlines by showing just how far the
rules have been altered. The delightfully reaffirming concept is this: Creators
sign up to present a concept through Kickstarter in the hopes of raising money
to fund the creation of their project, offering certain perks for various
levels of donation. The general public can then peruse these projects and
donate to the ones that seem most appealing/deserving. It has garnered
overwhelming success. Up to April this year, the site had collectively raised
over $170 million with over 20,000 successful projects. One project in
particular really started to make people take notice, reaching some incredible
landmarks along the way. It reached its set target in just nine hours, managed
to raise over $1 million dollars in one day before eventually raising over $3 million
by the end of its run. Of course, it may have had a helping hand from the fact
that the man asking for the money was this guy called Tim Schafer.
Now, I have an awareness of Tim Schafer. I
don’t have the extensive knowledge of his portfolio of work that those who
generously donated would likely have but I’m slowly schooling myself to catch
up with respected society. However, I have enough experience of his work to
know the man is to be admired, having grown up on the Monkey Island games and
then finally uncovering Psychonauts after seeing it for cheap on Steam (a common
trait with Schafer’s games that has probably been the cause of his turning to
Kickstarter). He started out as part of a highly prolific LucasArts games
division until they gave up creativity to milk the Star Wars franchise for all
it was worth, after which he went on to found Double Fine Productions,
following Schafer’s tradition of creating unique concepts and ladling on heaps
of absolutely surreal humour. A fantastic combination for enjoyable games,
sadly it isn’t so much in terms of marketability. Double Fine’s most notable gaming
offerings; Psychonauts and Brütal Legend, both failed to make much of an impact
in terms of sales figures, leading to support for Schafer’s future projects
becoming difficult to come by. The games have, however, gained a significant
cult following. Smaller games have been produced since including the highly
regarded Costume Quest and Stacking but these obviously were able to be
produced with a much lower budget and were handled pretty much independently.
With this new project, Double Fine
Adventure, Schafer is going back to his game-making roots with a
point-and-click adventure game. By using Kickstarter, Schafer can raise the
investment required without the ‘significant strings attached that can pull the
game in the wrong directions or even cancel its production altogether,’ whilst
letting the general public into some of the secrets of game production. A more
democratic approach to games creation. The original target was a somewhat
modest $400,000, at least in terms of the type of funding games usually require.
The subsequent and overwhelming success of this fundraising, gaining over
85,000 backers to amass his highly impressive total, suggests he wields a
significant audience that thinks Schafer is on to something good.
This presents an interesting question. What
is the limit of Kickstarter fundraising? Another project, the E Paper Watch
from Pebble, has recently broken the $10 million mark, 100 times more than the
original goal set. Granted, the base price for the product and the various reward
levels for Pebble were much higher than Double Fine’s and, thus, the average
pledge was also much higher; $148 for Pebble, $38 for Double Fine. But this
just means that if a good idea is presented attractively enough, people will
put forward money for it to be made real. This isn’t too odd a concept, really.
People always offer money for goods. Only, in this case, the money is paid
first.
The only possibly surprising thing is the
extent to which people have chosen to buy into the rewards above simply
receiving the basic product, which require much higher contributions.
Obviously, the lure of the additional perks plays a part in this but it is not
a given; especially in current economic conditions. But, there is a precedent
for this kind of generosity. When Radiohead released In Rainbows and gave buyers
the option to name their price, including paying nothing, people still paid
money, averaging roughly £4 per copy and taking more money than their previous
album without including sales of the physical CD when it was released. If you
give people the option to take something for free and nearly half still offer
to pay money, it shows that there is clearly a strong belief in effort being
rewarded.
So, what is to say we couldn’t see a major
project, say a Hollywood quality film, finding at least the majority of its
funding through a project like Kickstarter? Admittedly, a lot of hugely
commercial projects, although that is certainly not the case for all (28 Days
Later, for instance), require much, much more than the highest Kickstarter
project so far but if the quantities raised continues to increase it would be
interesting to see how much the level of project increases as well. Could the
possibility of total creative freedom in their projects be an attractive enough
prospect for someone like Terry Gilliam to take a punt and put their project on
Kickstarter? And would it be successful? Online fundraising projects could,
potentially, spark a new renaissance, unhindered by perceived marketability. In
fact, it would be direct evidence of the true marketability of a project. If you
can get people to pay for it before it’s even made, there is clearly demand for
it. If they come anyway, then you should probably build it.
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